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A Trip Around The World

June Donohue - Columnist
Posted 12/18/19

Two weeks ago I wrote about the most interesting thing I learned about my new friends, Ramon and Elena Gil. This is it! They took a trip around the world. When Ramon was 59 and Elena was teaching at …

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A Trip Around The World

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Two weeks ago I wrote about the most interesting thing I learned about my new friends, Ramon and Elena Gil. This is it! They took a trip around the world. When Ramon was 59 and Elena was teaching at a Junior High School in the South Bronx, which was in the same neighborhood where she grew up, they took the plunge.

How many of us say , “Some day I want to…” They chose to make their “some day” then. Ramon quit his job and Elena took advantage of the last travel sabbatical the New York City board of education was offering at that time. She received 3/4 of her salary for one year. In return she kept a diary of her travels on their world-wide trip for the children to learn about.

How exciting! They flew from Newark to San Francisco and then on to Hawaii. Next to New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, India, Israel, Spain, England and then home.

They spent three to four weeks at every destination, except for Spain. Since Ramon's ancestors came from Spain, they spent four months there.

I will be reading Elena's entire journal soon. When she turned it in to the school, the person accepting it just looked at how thick it was and knew she had done a thorough job.

Although she may have read it later, Elena was disappointed that she didn't even open it and at least glance through it. I will be reading the entire journal soon, not hopping from one country to the next as I have done in this column.

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