Date: July 24, 2024
Location: Venice
Blogger: Preston Nguyen ’28
Hometown: Carrolton, Texas
Today some of us woke up at 5:00 to watch the sun rise at the beach. We got there around 5:30 and sat on the beach and admired the beautiful scenery. After the sun rose, we waded in the water. We found five hermit crabs exchanging shells and watched them for about half an hour. It was very entertaining because it eventually got to the point where there was only one hermit crab left trying to get into a new shell, but there was a parasite in the new shell, so the hermit crab kept trying to take out the parasite for a very long time. We tried to help it, but the parasite was stuck in the shell, so we just left and went to eat breakfast at the cafe. We then went back to the beach to swim. The waves and cool water felt great, and the ships along the horizon were very beautiful.
For lunch, we hopped on a ferry over to the main island in Venice. We ate at an Italian seafood restaurant and had some very good food including seafood pizza and cod. We had a good discussion about what others perceived in us and offered some good advice to each other. We then headed over to the Doge. The Doge was extremely beautiful, especially the enormous rooms with paintings covering all of the walls and the ceilings. I particularly loved the weapons room which featured some very cool weapons from the past such as muskets and swords. Then we went back to Lido and walked around for a bit. We went to the grocery store to stock up on drinks for the night and then went to dinner.
After dinner, we went over to a roomy part of the city and listened to Mr. Wiggins talk about balance in life and the value of this trip. We then went to the beach and ran all the way to the tip of Lido. Some of us reached the light house but others went back earlier since curfew was at 9:30. The view from the coast was astounding. We then ran all the way back to the hotel and checked in for curfew. These past two weeks have truly changed all of our perspectives. We have all grown as people through the help of our peers and leaders. A new culture and location really helps to take you out of your comfort zone and reveal your areas for improvement. As we head home, I’m sure that we will take back some of the lessons and culture that we learned, but most importantly, we will take back all of the friends that we made along the way.