Travel for Teens: France Language

This trip was by far the highlight of my summer. Traveling is always fun, but I think the experience is really built by the people you travel with. In this case, the counselors made my trip one of the best experiences of my life. They were so kind, funny, and relatable. Instead of being distant, they were willing to truly get to know the kids on the trip. My favorite memories revolve around the counselors and their hilarious stories. Whether it was hearing about one counselor's time in the Peace Corps in Cameroon or learning about another's experiences in the 26 countries she has visited, we were always entertained. I remember laughing for hours on our train ride to Nice as our counselor told us about her interesting times working at a school in Cameroon and getting to see pictures from another counselor's trip to Japan. The way she spoke about her travels made me want to keep traveling. I am now signed up for two more Travel for Teens trips for this upcoming summer, one of which is the Japan trip she spoke so passionately about.
Another thing that I really appreciated about the Travel for Teens counselors was that every night they would email all of the parents and students with a detailed description of what we did that day. My parents raved about how much they loved having this information, and they claim that they lived vicariously through me over the summer because of my counselor's emails. One of my counselors was an incredible photographer, and she was so dedicated to making sure we had pictures to remember our experience. She would update the pictures nightly, and whenever I talked to my parents they would tell me how much they loved having the pictures to look at along with the emails. They enjoyed being able to read about the places we visited (my counselor included some historical background) and see pictures of them as well.
I think that this France trip was very unique in that we got to truly understand and immerse ourselves in the culture of Paris. Having 18 days in the city allowed us to not only see the usual tourist sites, but we also got to visit smaller museums and really live like Parisians. I felt completely comfortable and safe on my trip, and I gained so much confidence as a person and as a traveler because of my Travel for Teens experience.