Altoona Area School District foreign language students got the opportunity of a lifetime this summer. Fifteen students who took French II, III and AP along with French teacher Veronica Skomra and chaperone Dawn Igoe traveled to France for a total of ten activity packed days.
“It’s always been about the true authentic experience for me. We are not just learning French to learn French; we can actually use what we learned when we travel. The students need to understand that there’s a world beyond Altoona,” Skomra said.
In classes, students practice French all year but the stakes are higher when using it in the real world.
“There were times when my students had to speak French, especially when placing an order somewhere. For example, if they were walking into a bakery, they had to order in French. They had to use their language skills they’ve acquired during French class,” Skomra said.
Each day had an itinerary and one of the 10 days was spent admiring the view from the second to the top floor of the Eiffel Tower.
“My favorite part of the trip was seeing the Eiffel Tower. Since I was little, I had always wanted to go to France, especially to Paris. I took French because of that and I was lucky enough to go on the trip and fulfill a dream I had,” senior Marcella Parker said.
The group was able to cross the historic bridge of Pont d’Avignon and took some photos in the lavender fields located in front of the famous bridge.
They spent a sunny day swimming in the ancient aqueduct, Pont du Gard. They then explored the city of Aix-en-Provence in the evening.
“There was a rock beach full of all rocks. It hurt to walk on unless you had beach shoes on. We also got to see caves there,” Skomra said.
They went to the Cannes (soft sunny beach). They walked along its famous seaside promenade, La Croisette.
“The hot, sunny beaches down there were amazing. The sounds were amazing, too, because you had the raging waves. It was the first time I had ever seen raging waves in the South,” Skomra said.
They traveled from Cannes to Nice and spent the night in a hotel.
“The following morning, we traveled by motorcoach to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a unique walled city full of cobbled streets and many artisan shops,” Skomra said.
The same evening they enjoyed the Fête de la Musique. (An annual celebration of music where citizens are allowed and encouraged to play music in their neighborhoods, public places and parks.)
“We started a dance circle in the town section of Nice, France. There was a DJ playing in the middle of the street, which you don’t see unless it is the La Fête de la Musique. People gathered around us while we danced to one of GIMS songs,” Skomra said.
On the last day in France, they traveled by TER train to Monaco. That afternoon, everyone enjoyed climbing the stairs to the top of the cliff in Nice to catch a picturesque view of the French Riviera.
“Since I like history, I enjoyed getting to actually see all those things I learned about in my history classes in person. My favorite parts of the trip were probably Monaco and Nice,” senior Camryn MacAlarney said. “I like F1 racing, so it was super cool to actually be in Monaco and see where the track is and everything. Nice was a really beautiful city and I loved the general feel of it,”
Skomra and the students fundraised for two and a half years to pay for the trip. They sold chocolate bars, Marianna’s hoagies, gourmet dips, etc. to fundraise. The trip cost for each student was an all-inclusive $4,600 minus the cost of lunch and souvenirs.
“I fundraised a lot, but I’m lucky that my parents were able to help me out with the rest of the cost. Fundraising definitely was a big part of paying for the trip,” senior Ava Rokosky said.
“I fundraised for about a year and a half before the trip started and fundraised about half of how much the total trip cost. My family members also chipped in to pay for the remaining amount,” Parker said.
Students were able to get real-world cultural and language experience while in France.
“The trip was incredible. The days were long, but we accomplished so much in just 10 days. The things I got to experience were amazing, and I recommend that anyone who gets the chance should try to visit,” Parker said.
“I thought it would be a really good experience to see the world. I’ve never been to another country before, so I thought that would be fun. Everyone walked places or rode a bike or a motorcycle. That’s very different from here because we don’t have a lot of sidewalks,” senior Emeline Feathers said.
