With spring break around the corner, students plan out how they will spend their week off from school. For some, their plans involve sleeping in and binging new TV shows.

For others, they go abroad.

Sophomore Elena Matta plans on going to this year’s spring break abroad trip hosted by English teacher and Study Abroad Coordinator Elizabeth Chapman. She went on last year’s trip to Greece, absolutely loving the scenery and learning more about Greece’s history.

This year the group, with roughly 20 students, will go to the UK, visiting Scotland, Ireland and England on their one-week trip.

“The main point of it all is understanding the history of a place,” Matta said. “Giving me a whole new perspective of our world every time I travel.”

The trip allows Matta to learn more about the culture and history of the places she visits, adding to her knowledge of the world and its people.

“The Parthenon was an amazing experience,” Matta said. “I was able to see the historical differences between three different time periods, something I would never get in a classroom environment.”

While subjects such as geography, the towns and the culture interest Matta, her main objective is food.

“Food is definitely one of the biggest differences going abroad,” Matta said. “Here in America, everything basically tastes like plastic, making all the food abroad vastly superior.”

To Matta, food abroad has many more cultural roots and differences in taste compared to American food. Foreign food has more spices incorporated than American food, making the cuisine one of the best experiences of the trip.

Matta looks forward to her upcoming trip and plans to go on other trips abroad during the summer. She will be going to France, Spain and the Galapagos.