The first classes of the year are nearly always the same: hellos, material review, new lockers, and “How was your summer?” Some students spent the summer in Chicago, others went to sleepaway camp, a few scattered  around the globe on exotic vacations to see the sights and taste the cuisines. But students are not the only ones who had exciting summers.

While Upper School history teacher Jeanne Barr was not at sleepaway camp, she did have an exotic vacation. Thanks to the FWP Enrichment Fund, she was in South Africa from June 20 to July 2 hopping from Cape Town to Johannesburg, going on safari in Kruger National Park, visiting people in the Kayamandi township, and learning about apartheid from different perspectives all the while.

“I gained a more nuanced and particular grasp of the narrative arc of South African history since the 19th century, with a way deeper appreciation for the many, many, many people and organizations who resisted apartheid,” Barr said. “There’s so much more to the story than Mandela and de Klerk. Yet in the West, we tend to focus mostly on them.”

Barr has been interested in South Africa for a while. Her four years at Northwestern in the 1980s allowed her to participate in student protests that pushed the university to sell off its endowment’s investments in South African companies. “It was a whole scene that always stuck with me,” Barr said. “The protests were successful, and Northwestern responded by divesting its stocks, as did lots and lots of organizations worldwide. South Africa was economically isolated to the point where the ruling party opened up negotiations to share political power with black Africans for the first time ever, eventually leading to free elections.”

From then on, the chain of connection from Evanston to Pretoria, South Africa felt significant and real to Barr. Soon after Mandela and the African National Congress came into power, she traveled there with students in 1996. She said, “It reinforced for me a sense that this was a fascinating place of deep contrasts and contradictions.”

Barr intends to bring her new insights to the Modern World History classroom. “I wanted to develop curriculum on the globalization of international human rights law, and South African history leapt to mind as terrific territory for a case study. I’ve been seeking an opportunity for this trip for several years because I knew that I didn’t have the depth to do the topic justice in the classroom. History class works best when your teacher is both knowledgeable and enthused. One of those alone doesn’t cut it.”

For Middle and Upper School Director of Studies Sven Carlsson and his wife Sue, summer was about trying new foods and tasting different cuisines — something they are enthusiastic about. “Sue and I have a mutual love of food that began because we come from different cultures,” Carlsson said. “I introduced her to falafel. She introduced me to dduk bok gi. We have always enjoyed having food experiences together…on a deep level, sharing a meal is a relationship-deepening ritual, and, on a less deep level, good food is fun to eat.”

Carlsson spent his summer break hitting up Ribfests and Food Truck festivals around the city. “Chicago has a really great food festival scene,” he said, “and we use that as an excuse to see the different neighborhoods and people groups in this city…and to eat tasty things.”

By July 4, Carlsson and his wife had completed ‘BBQcation’, an invention of their own making that landed them in Kansas City, MO for a week to eat BBQ every night–with one night off for empanadas. “Since then, we trekked down to Toyota Park for Porky’s Ribfest, which was bomb, thanks to the potato salad from Jewel we snuck into the events,” Carlsson said. “We’ve also gorged at Fremont for brunch and Girl and the Goat for dinner.”

While Carlsson and his wife tasted their way through the Mid-West, Upper School history teacher Kevin Conlon made his way to Arizona where he spent ten days of his summer on a road trip to the Grand Canyon with his family and friends. “We came up with the idea around winter break when a friend was turning 60, and we thought of something we could do to celebrate,” Conlon said, “and I said, ‘Let’s go to the Grand Canyon!’”

So on July 16, Conlon, his family, and some of his friends–making a group of eight–loaded into their cars and started to drive. They drove ten hours to Conlon’s sister-in-law in Tulsa, Oklahoma and stayed overnight, followed by another ten hour drive to Santa Fe. “There are times when you’re driving, and you have one more hour, and it feels like you can’t do it,” Conlon said. “But this was different.”

They were in Flagstaff, Arizona when they started their day trip to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon.

“We stopped at the first viewing point at the East entrance to the Grand Canyon, and it really blew us away,” Conlon said. “One of our friends teared up. He was so overtaken by the intense view. Maybe it’s because we live in flat Illinois that we are so wowed by the Grand Canyon. But I think even if you saw it every day you would be amazed at its silent grandeur.”

As Conlon and his group hiked their way through the Grand Canyon, they were repeatedly blown away. “To be up close to the massive cliffs and rocks was amazing,” Conlon said. “They changed in color as you went down into the Canyon, and it got warmer.”

It’s not every day that people get to take a road trip with their family and friends to the Grand Canyon, nor is a 13 day trip to South Africa or embarking on a ‘BBQcation’ and attending multiple food festivals a typical summer routine, so whether Parker students spent their summers at sleepaway camp or exotic family vacations, they are not the only ones with stories to tell.