Teacher Spotlight: Danica Attanasio

Spanish teacher Danica Attanasio hikes to the top of a hill in Dalkey, Ireland. Attanasio enjoys traveling in her spare time on school trips as well as on her own or with her husband.

Danica Attanasio

Spanish teacher Danica Attanasio hikes to the top of a hill in Dalkey, Ireland. Attanasio enjoys traveling in her spare time on school trips as well as on her own or with her husband.

It might make sense to think that Spanish teacher Danica Attanasio would only like to travel to Spain for foreign travel. That, however, could not be further from the truth.

Attanasio has been traveling with JC and on her own for most of her life. She first began traveling when she spent a semester in Madrid during college. Ever since then, she has enjoyed traveling all over the world.

Attanasio has visited Ireland, the United Kingdon, France, Spain, and Italy with students. She has gone to Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and Iceland on her own time.

As a teacher at JC, Attanasio has taken an active role in planning trips for the students and herself. Often, she picks where the trip will go to. “I usually try to pick somewhere I have not been,” Attanasio said.

One of Attanasio’s favorite destinations was Iceland. “Iceland was really cool. It is a place not everyone would think to go to. There was a lot of snow and very few daylight hours,” Attanasio said. “We went to the Blue Lagoon and off-roading in vans. It was a really cool country.”

Attanasio also has done many other interesting things in her travels like biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, riding in a hot air balloon in Hungary, and hiking through the northern mountains in Spain. Attanasio has also driven from coast to coast across the United States and camped on the Pacific coast.

One of Attanasio’s most memorable trips, however,was her time in Ireland. “Our first day in Ireland was Good Friday, and everything was closed. We tried to go to a museum but that was also closed,” Attanasio said. “Instead, we took a train to a town called Dalkey. We walked up this hill and got an amazing view.”

There are many other places Attanasio would like to visit. According to Attanasio, “I really want to go to South America and visit Argentina or Peru. Also I want to see Machu Pichu. I also want to see New Zealand and visit Asia.”

Cole Alban  is a Managing Editor for the Patriot and jcpatriot.com.