The Spain trip that 34 FHS students were supposed to go on over the summer has been postponed until the summer of 2023. The main factor of being postponed is that of many other things that have been postponed and even canceled, COVID.

“With the instability of international travel at this time, and the sites and different places that we might be going to in Spain, we don’t know if places are going to be open,” Spanish teacher Señora Grubinski explains.

Grubinski describes that there is such uncertainty when it comes to COVID that the trip would be constantly at risk.

“The quarantine rules are such that if someone in the group comes down with COVID, then the whole group is going to spend 10 days quarantined in a Spanish hotel,” Grubinski continues.

With restrictions in European countries regarding COVID, the unpredictability is too great to risk. She also notes that variants of the virus tend to start in European countries and the trip could potentially expose any of the group members to a new variant.

Even at the beginning of planning the Spain trip, there had always been concerns about the trip being canceled. Grubinski reveals that there is a cancellation date that, if passed, would increase the cancellation fee to half the prepaid monety. This date is February 15.

“There was a little bit of a time crunch in regards to making that decision,” Grubinski extends. “Things can be perfectly fine by June but we don’t know that and then if we have to cancel in may or postpone, then people will lose half their money.”

Financially, it was better to make the decision sooner rather than later.

A survey was posted for those who were signed up for the trip to complete regarding the postponing. The survey asked what their thought were and it resulted in a majority requesting to postpone the trip.

“When the survey was put out, I didn’t really know what to say,” junior Jess Hughes says. “It was all frightening and concerning.”

Jess was among the students planning on visiting Spain

“I have been saving up money and doing fundraisers for this trip and it is disappointing that I have to wait another year to go on this trip but I am happy that it is still supposed to happen,” Hughes explains.

Hughes as well as other students stay hopeful that the trip will happen next summer and be as enjoyable as they hope.