Summer France Trip

This summer, six students, Corinne Fales (’16) , Ashleigh Manby (’16), Emma Kumer (’16), Rachel Illgen (’16),Cooper McMorris (’16), Jordan McMorris (’14), and I are traveling to France though the ISE program. I have never left the country, so this will be a frightning, yet eye-opening experience. I asked the students who went on the previous trip, what the most interesting parts of the trip were. Most of them brought up the event where a student was left behind. Madame said it was “One of the worst moments of her life,” Ginger Walbrun (’14) said,“There was so much! I don’t know what to say, caused me to become even more excited about the experiences I will encounter  in France.” We will be leaving for Paris from Chicago on June 18. The flight will be 8 hours, and naps are not recomened due to jet lag. The class will spend time in Paris for 4 days and during that time we will for sure visit  the Louvre Museum, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles and Notre Dame. In addition, we will have a free day where we can see a monument of our choice. After Paris, we will take a train down to Aix-en-Provence to meet up with our host families.Students stay with their host families for 5 days. Everyone has been assigned a family with a student that is same age and gender. During the stay, we will experience the lives of a modern french family, and engage in activities that we suggested in our first letter to them. I have been talking to my correspondent over facebook, she seems nice and much more outgoing than I am. I think that is fantastic because I am terrible at holding up a conversation. My host family feels like it will be a comfortable situation for me. Once the family stay is finished we will regroup and take a motorcoach to Nimes. Form there, we will go to Monaco and hopefully the beach! Then after our farewell dinner, we will be returning to the states on July 2nd. When  I  found out I was able to go I was ecstatic. I am ready to experience the culture, eat the foods, and see the monuments. I will say that when I first found out, it really sink in until I received my passport in the mail. At point I realized, “Wow I can finally see the world!’’ I think that France is the best place to start my journey.