From the beaches of Greece, to the streets of the Philippines, the students of Heritage indulged their sense of wanderlust over the summer of 2017.

While many students around Brentwood slept in on June 9th after a long week of finals, James Flores, a junior at Heritage, was risen early from bed to pack for “the trip of a lifetime”.

Flores sat in an airplane for nearly 17 hours, anticipating the time he would get to see the place where his parents grew up, a place he felt connected to. Flores spent two weeks in the Philippines exploring, island hopping, visiting family, and experiencing the place his parents called home for so long.

After the Philippines, Flores spent 4 days in Thailand where he got to feed monkeys and eat a lot of pad thai.4 more days were spent in Singapore just exploring the island and visiting places such as  Merlion Park;

“My aunt’s best friend from college gave us a tour around Singapore. We ate various types of cuisine such as Indian and Chinese. We went to a beautiful garden, Gardens by the Bay, and we went to Merlion park, which has a statue of a mermaid with a lion’s head. After that we just roamed the streets of Singapore” Flores said.

While Flores doesn’t miss the humidity of the air because “as soon as you stepped outside you began to sweat profusely”, he does wish he had gotten to stay longer. The time wasn’t long enough and he wishes to go back and “keep exploring”.

Two continents away, Emily Marfia(12) was making her way through Europe. Starting in Scotland, where her mom was born and raised saying “It’s very different than in America, it was really weird because the sun wouldn’t even begin to set until 11 and would never actually be dark, you’d wake up at 3 am and it would be bright out still”. Marfia then went on to visit with her family and indulged in visiting popular areas, such as Edinburgh Castle.

As Marfia moved further down Europe she stopped by to explore the London Eye, calling it, “very fast pace” because, “everyone is hurrying around trying to get somewhere”. Then, on to Paris, where she couldn’t resist climbing the Eiffel Tower and walking the Underground Tunnels.

“[Paris] is truly the city of love, there are locks on all the bridges with couples dates on them, it was really cute. Also there were a lot of couples taking wedding photos” Marfia said.

She made her way around the canals of Venice, where she was surprised at the amount of tourists,”Venice is very touristy, there are people everywhere, it was the most populated place I went to, even over london. but overall it was cool to see how many people got to experience the same things I did”. However, she enjoyed herself nonetheless.

Off to Croatia and Montenegro, and then finally, Greece. There she explored Santorini, Corfu, and Mykonos and the Greek beaches that go along with them, explaining that, “Greece was one of the best spots I went to, the ocean water was crystal clear, even really far out from shore. I saw lots of fish and met a lot of really friendly people”.

The wine corks from Venice, beads from Greece, and scarves from Paris that Marfia brought home remind her of the days passed laying on the beach or walking up around unknown city streets.

“I feel like if anyone has the chance to travel, they should take full advantage of it. Also, ask locals on what things to do and where to eat!” Marfia said.

Two different people, two different sides of the world, two different stories. Both students had the chance to travel parts of the world that was unknown to them, both students took it and had the time of their lives. Even though they’re back at Heritage, their stories are still being told and their memories will live on.