Learning about the rest of the world is captivating. In our world there are places we have heard of but never seen or explored. Places that have so much culture, are, at times, unknown. The world is so great and worth the time to travel and experience.

This past summer, senior Catie Painter traveled to Panama for seven weeks with an organization called Amigos. Throughout her journey, she realized how different the culture was. “Where I lived was very primitive and there was a lot of poverty but it also varied from community to community,” said Painter. There wasn’t much money to buy food where she lived. Feeding one mouth was hard but feeding a whole family was even more of a struggle.

Unlike the United States (where there are many job opportunities), there are not many in Panama. Everyone pretty much has the same job. “My host dad was a farmer but he was the only one in my host family that worked. My host cousins, they were also farmers. [They] mostly tend to horses, plow crop, that sort of thing,” said Catie.

In Panama, seeing white people is a rarity. “Everyone in my community wanted to know the gringas,” said Catie. It was easy for her and others to make friends because people were so excited to see someone of another race. “A lot of times, especially where I lived, in the more primitive or rural communities I should say, it’s the first time they’ve ever seen a different race, they’ve ever seen someone white,” she said.

On the other hand, sophomore Lauren Ferraro had a different experience than Catie. Over the summer, Lauren traveled to myriad places in Europe including Oslo, Norway. Traveling to Norway was special because of her ancestry there.

Oslo, with around 634,000 people, is a modern and similar place to the United States. “The people were all very nice. They all spoke english which was very cool,” said Lauren. As for food, “they have a lot smaller proportions on their meals and everything is a lot different. They use a lot of like goat stuff, so like goat milk, goat cheese, stuff like that. It’s kind of weird.”

Lauren described the atmosphere as sophisticated, “Everyone there was driving fancy cars, there was a lot of like higher talking, just very sophisticated,” she said. “They have a lot more background. Norway has been around for like a long time so they have a lot more culture  and everything such as your family is like a big deal there.”

Lauren described the smell in Norway as “Fresh.”  “Oslo is right on the coast. You can take a fairy place to place, you smell the water and the grass and so it’s really nice,” Lauren said.

Generally speaking, each country has its own personality, its own culture and its own unique differences. Yes, they have their similarities but the truth is no country nor place is the same. We live in a world where we speak different languages, eat interesting and exciting new foods, and are of different race. If the world were the exact same no one would travel or explore. Being different is what makes us unique and divides us apart from one another making this world great.