{"id":4,"date":"2008-10-24T17:02:01","date_gmt":"2008-10-24T21:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=4"},"modified":"2012-10-03T15:47:04","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T19:47:04","slug":"better-know-a-program-consultant-julie-castanino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/better-know-a-program-consultant-julie-castanino","title":{"rendered":"Better Know A Program Consultant: Julie Castanino"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of our main goals with Explorations<\/strong><\/em> is to give everyone an opportunity to meet the fine folks who work at Explorica to help teachers take their students on educational tours across the globe.<\/p>\n

With that goal in mind, we\u2019ll be introducing a new Explorica Program Consultant each week.\u00a0 Watch for their posts in the following days, as they share some of their travel tips gleaned from their world wanderings, and regale us all with some of their favorite past travel experiences\u2026<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s featured Program Consultant is Julie Castanino.\u00a0 Here\u2019s some of our favorite excerpts from our recent interview with her:<\/p>\n

Where did you grow up?<\/strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you heard the song \u201cSmall Town<\/em>\u201c<\/a> by John (Cougar) Mellencamp?\u00a0 Well in high school, we would substitute the words \u201csmall town\u201d for \u201cWatertown\u201d.\u00a0 Say it with a nice Boston accent \u201cwatah-town<\/em>\u201d and you\u2019ve got the idea.\u00a0 And you know a lot about where I’m from.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where did you go to college?<\/strong><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

The University of Richmond<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

This is when I had to drop my Boston accent so that my friends could understand me.\u00a0 I fell in love with Virginia<\/a> and was more than happy to escape Boston winters.\u00a0 In Richmond, when it snows an inch, the entire city shuts down.\u00a0 Being raised in Boston, this is truly amazing to me.\u00a0 I grew up going to school in blizzards whereas in VA, one inch will get classes cancelled and no pizza deliveries due to \u201cdangerous\u201d roads.\u00a0 I still miss Virginia\u2019s weather and every Boston February<\/a> I promise myself that I will move back there next year\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Where have you traveled?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Australia, Mexico, Bonaire, Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Netherlands<\/span><\/p>\n

Which Explorica tours have you taken?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

London, Paris & Cote d\u2019Azur<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Best of Ireland<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Athens & the Aegean<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Favorite band, movie, and\/or book\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Movie: Father of the Bride<\/a> <\/em>(close second is Sound of Music)<\/span><\/p>\n

Book: No Ordinary Time<\/em><\/a> (I love FDR<\/a>!)<\/span><\/p>\n

If you could be any animal, which animal would you be?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

An elephant.\u00a0 They are smart, family oriented, and it would be awesome to have a trunk<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is white chocolate really chocolate?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Absolutely not.\u00a0 I am not even sure if milk chocolate is really chocolate.\u00a0 I go for dark chocolate or European hot chocolate which is basically a huge chocolate bar melted in a mug.\u00a0 Or churros con chocolate <\/a>\u2013 now that is some delicious chocolate. <\/span><\/p>\n

Um, I feel pretty strongly about chocolate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coke or Pepsi?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Neither.\u00a0 Milk does a body good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Truffle pigs or truffle dogs?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I did some research for this question.\u00a0 Initially I thought pigs<\/a> because it would be great to have pigs get credit for something.\u00a0 Everyone loves dogs<\/a> and they always get a lot of attention, but where\u2019s the pig love?<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately after my research, I have to go with dogs<\/a>.\u00a0 They are better at finding the truffles and do not eat them like pigs do<\/a>.\u00a0 I love truffles so I am voting truffle dogs so that there are more to eat.<\/span><\/p>\n

P.S. I am now a truffle dog expert \u2013 ask me about how they train the dogs.\u00a0 It involves a tennis ball and cheese.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of our main goals with Explorations is to give everyone an opportunity to meet the fine folks who work at Explorica to help teachers take their students on educational tours across the globe. With that goal in mind, we\u2019ll be introducing a new Explorica Program Consultant each week.\u00a0 Watch for their posts in the Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-teachers","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}