Best 2 weeks of my life!!!

Traveling abroad with Greenheart Travel was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The two weeks abroad in France were both incredible and I had a blast completely immersing myself in a different language and culture. I feel like I changed so much mentally and physically (definitely more buff from all the walking) from my time in France. It’s such a rewarding feeling- taking the skills we learn in textbooks and utilizing them in the real world. It feels surreal. From purchasing a train ticket à la gare de La Hume to asking about the oldest church in La Teste, my French skills came to life and gave all those verb conjugations and French vocabulary cards meaning. I was fortunate enough to live with a wonderful host mom who is one of the most kind people I’ve ever met. In the morning she would always ask if I slept well, wanted to know about my day when we came back from school, she drove my host brother and I to get ice cream and to watch the sun set (which was my favorite memory from this trip). I am still in contact with her and email her regularly. The school was challenging, as I was placed in the most advanced group (I had 3 years of high school French prior to this), but was equally as rewarding. The camp was a ton of fun most days, but a couple times our afternoon activity would be badminton in the park or volleyball at the beach, which was fun for a few hours, but could get boring. Luckily, I was surrounded by other teenagers my age from around the world. I didn’t expect to become such close companions with kids halfway across the globe from the United States, but I am so grateful and happy to have met them. We became inseparable; we shared food with each other, lent each other bathroom money practically daily, and compared our cultural differences. I was able to use the “tu” (informal) form with them and practice lots of French, as well as learn words and phrases in Swiss-German, German, Italian, and Chinese. I taught them the word “hella” which they found hilarious, but is actually a very commonly used, colloquial word in California. This trip actually helped me solidify my choice on declaring my major as French in college! I'm currently in the process of applying for colleges, and I am considering studying abroad in college because of my amazing experiences I had in France this summer. I would highly recommend this program.