The massive metal door shuts. The engine starts, the plane ascends, and it’s too late to turn back. They are off on their adventure.
On May 31, French teacher Julie Filliez and her French students set off on an over 12-hour journey to Paris, France for a 16-day French immersion trip.
The trip included seven days of touring plus six days of living with a host family. They spent time in six different French cities, Paris, Giverny, Honfleur, Saint-Malo, Brittany, Angers and Tours.
When they arrived in Paris, it was 8 a.m., and they had a full day of sightseeing ahead of them, including a visit to the home of painter Claude Monet.
“We hit the ground running,” senior Amelia Milek said. “And there was not really time to relax at all.”
After two more days of touring and sightseeing, Filliez and her students went to Tours, a charming city in the Loire Valley region of France, where they finally met their host families, but not everyone had the same experience.
Some students didn’t have the best match with their host families, while others had great ones. Some struggled to communicate and felt isolated because they didn’t fully understand their host family and others at school.
Senior Chloe Garner found it isolating and living with her host family was harder for her. Filliez went to sit in on an English class that Garner was in, and she said that she just looked upset.
“Whenever you’re with a host family, especially when you don’t speak their language clearly, it’s really isolating,” Garner said. “So I think seeing Madame, a familiar face, and the conversation, was a relief.”
Senior Greta Burchfield found the length of classes difficult for her to deal with.
“I had Science for like four hours one day,” Burchfield said. “And it was terrible.”
Some students had trouble adjusting to time differences, like how late they eat dinner or when they sleep.
Senior Genevieve Isaacson said that adjusting to the cultural differences was hard for her.
“We were having dinner at, like, 11 p.m., there were still things open, and I didn’t go to sleep until 3 in the morning,” Isaacson said. “It’s a big difference but it gets a little easier the more you do it.”
Even though this trip is something students can’t go back on at the last minute, it was clearly a rewarding experience for the students and Filliez.
“I’d say it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you should absolutely do if you have the opportunity,” senior John-Michael Polnik said.
Isaacson encourages students to think about traveling with the school on upcoming trips.
“I think it’s a really hard thing to convince yourself to do but I would totally do it,” Isaacson said. “And money will come back, it may not seem like it but it will, so you might as well do it while you have the chance.”
