By Brenda Erdahl
The world got a little bigger for 16 Maple Lake High School students when they boarded a plane bound for Madrid, Spain earlier this spring.
Led by MLHS Spanish Teacher Kim Fynboh and 16 chaperones the group arrived in Madrid Spain on Thursday, March 20 for a 10-day experience that would test their Spanish as well as their self-reliance.
Although most of them were three or four-year Spanish students, none of them spoke the language fluently, and many of them had never traveled out of the country.
Besides improving their Spanish and learning first-hand about the culture, the students said they learned how to budget responsibly and “do big things” on their own without the help of their parents.
“It was like a preview to what college will be like, to be away from my parents and doing things on my own,” Carley Frost said.
Mrs. Fynboh plans this trip to Spain for her Spanish 2 and 3 students every other year and the kids spend a lot of time preparing for it. Fundraising starts their freshman year to relieve some of the financial burden. Aleigha Jensen said she paid for more than half her trip by working meat raffles, concessions at school events and selling products like butter braids and cookies.