49 students, 5 adults, 1 luxury motor-coach and almost 35 hours on the road. On May 16th, these students and adults traveled from the United States towards Canada on their World Language Canada Field Trip. The trip was paid for by as much as 5 fundraisers, along with money from the students themselves. Before the trip, the teacher had someone come to the school to help the students with the exchange of money from USD to CAD (Canadian Dollar)

     The Students Traveled by luxury motor-coach through known cities such as Montréal and Québec, where they did not only improve their world language skills but also got to learn about history, eat authentic foreign foods and have a lot of fun along the way. Lessa Wright, teacher in French at FHS was one of the coordinators of the trip.  

     “Overall, no matter what language the students were studying, they were immersed in the culture and language of a part of the world where English is not the dominant language and it was an exciting educational experience for all involved,” Wright said.  

     For the world language students, it was not only learning about different languages, but also about another culture. Matthew Cole, one of the students on the field trip, noticed several differences between Canada and the United States. For example, he noticed that buying anything in Canada was more expensive than buying anything in the USA. Since Canadian money is worth less than American money, prices were a little bit more expensive in order to compensate for the value of the money. He also mentions that the people there was generally kinder and that apparently, they had learned that the crime rate there was below 1%.  

     Adriana Kelley, another world language student on the field trip, also noticed a couple of differences between the nations. She mentions that most people in Canada, or at least in Québec, were bilingual and could speak more than one language. She also pointed out that those who couldn’t speak fluent English always did their best to help them understand what they were saying, whereas people in the US accommodating of other languages.

     Of course, the students and adults on the field trip also got to have a lot of fun. When Ariana and Matthew were asked about their favorite memory from the trip their answer was the same, the Montmorency Falls.  

     “It was such a breathtaking experience to watch over the edge of the bridge with the rushing waterfall beneath,” Cole said.  

     Ariana Kelley enjoyed the waterfall too and had a similar description of the experience.

     “The best memory I have of the trip is being on top of the waterfall on the bridge with the waterfall flowing next to and under us. I was able to take pictures both of the waterfall and with my friends to better remember the amazing time spent up on the waterfall,” Kelley said.

     Mrs. Wright however, said that she had troubles picking a favorite moment. She says that she enjoyed seeing her students apply the skills they had developed in French to order food and talk to others along with seeing the students make friends with other students from around Canada as we sailed up the Saint Lawrence river on our dance cruise (with the city lit up in the background).  

     She also loved the European feels she and her students got to experience.

     “I enjoyed the history and European feel of the old city of Québec, feeling like we had traveled across the ocean, but we were still in the Americas,” Wright said.

     After their last stop the students traveled home towards the United States, and arrived on May 20th, with a lot of new learnings, and a lot of new memories.