Gallery • 5 Photos

Used with permission from Maddie Cook

The students and teachers visited the Eiffel Tower during their stay in Paris, France. Along with seeing the tower in the daytime, they got to up at night during the light show when it was blinking.

This past summer, 10 students said “c’est la vie” and hopped on board a plane for two weeks of language immersion and cultural experiences in Belgium and France.

French teachers Julie Conrad and Kyle Sweeney accompanied the students on the trip from June 24 to July 7. According to Conrad, the group of 10 students, which included one who will be going to college this fall, were able to see two countries and three cities on this trip.

Conrad said the group went to Brussels first, and stayed there for three-and-a-half days before going to Paris. After staying in Paris for three-and-a-half days, it went to Tours in the Loire Valley for a week, where the students stayed with their French families. The group ended the trip by spending the last night back in Paris before flying home.

Senior Connor Williams said he thought the experience was going to be a lot more frankophonic, and Brussels especially almost felt American.

“In Brussels in particular, I could have gotten by with zero French whatsoever, and Paris was more French, and then Tours was very French,” Williams said. “But it was just surprising, like you turned on the radio, and almost all of the songs were in English.”

Conrad said she likes traveling abroad with students because she hopes they will do it again in the future.

“I just love seeing them assimilate to the culture, and start to change how they’re behaving so they fit in better,” Conrad said. “But my main reason is I really am hoping they travel abroad later, and if they don’t, I want them to have the memories of going to Paris, Brussels and Tours.”

Williams said one of his favorite parts of the trip was his host family.

“The host family that I was with actually lived in a very rural farm area, and the house that they lived in they had actually restored themselves from a pre-World War I ruin, and so there were just castles and farms everywhere,” Williams said.

Students who spoke French throughout the whole trip really developed their language skills, according to Conrad.

“Everybody learned how to handle themselves in a different culture,” Conrad said. “It’s kind of opening themselves up and realizing that not everybody lives the way that they do.”

Williams said the trip improved his language because he learned to speak more French.

“With host families, a lot of us spoke almost exclusively French, so it was a big change that really helps you learn the language better when you’re completely immersed in it,” Williams said. “After a few days of just being surrounded in the French, I started noticing thinking in French instead of in English.”

Junior Maddie Cook said even though she felt very unprepared for the trip at first, she learned to have more confidence in herself.

“I had only done two years of French. I felt like I was going to be super overwhelmed,” Cook said. “When I stopped worrying about how I was pronouncing everything, I did much better with the host family and friends and stuff.”  

Williams said the language barrier was probably the hardest part of the family stay.

“Some stuff that we would say would be misinterpreted or misunderstood,” Williams said.

Williams said he recounts one mishap in particular where the language barrier was evident.

“At the first dinner, my host family asked which kind of meat I wanted,” Williams said. “I don’t remember what I was intending to respond, but apparently what I said read along the lines of a rude version of ‘I don’t give a damn.’ That was really awkward. My host family started laughing at me.”

According to Cook, she was not as worried about the awkwardness of the family stay before the trip because she and her host sister had been messaging on Facebook.

“I still felt kind of awkward for the whole five days, but the last few days I felt more at home and less uncomfortable,” Cook said.

Williams said he would definitely recommend traveling abroad and staying with a host family.

“It’s just a great way to gain a new perspective on culture,” Williams said.