Sisters students take in the world

It was an experience of a lifetime for Sisters students who traveled to Italy, Greece and Turkey over spring break.

In a whirlwind tour that lasted from March 20 to April 1, the students toured Rome, the island of Capri, visited the remains of Pompeii, spent one night near the Oracle at Delphi and two in Athens where they visited the Acropolis and were able to run in the Olympic (new) stadium, and visited Turkey.

Guides who were fluent in three languages and shopkeepers who could bargain in any one of five currencies had a powerful effect on the students.

"The kids said `Gee, Ms. Quiros, we really need to be fluent in Spanish," said Sisters Spanish instructor Janice Quiros, who organized the tour.

Spanish was more useful in communicating in Italy than English.

Quiros said 30 Sisters Middle/High School students were on the trip, accompanied by five chaperones and one other youth. Seven other adults also took the tour.

Quiros said preservation of Pompeii was incredible, with walls and tiles still preserved and bones restored in the village buried by a volcanic eruption more than 2,000 years ago.

The kindness of the people of Rhodes and the white houses with blue doors on Mikanos were sights indelibly etched in the memories of the travelers.

There was one bit of rough water on the ferry ride between Italy and Greece when 14 students broke a contract with the school district and drank alcoholic beverages.

When the tour returned home, those students who admitted involvement were sentenced to 15 days suspension by an independent hearings officer.

Five of those days will be spent at half-day Saturday school, three days will be deducted for community service with the Forest Service and the remainder will be spent out of school, according to Principal Dennis Dempsey.

The students will also undergo a drug and alcohol assessment and miss 10 days or participation in three cocurricular events.

But that was minor event in what was otherwise a terrific experience for the 43-member tour group.

It took nearly 29 hours for the tour group to fly home from Athens to JFK to Portland to Redmond.

Which only proved again that there is a lot of world outside of Sisters, Oregon.