We believe this experience is an unparalleled way for a cyber school to extend beyond our Pennsylvania borders; to learn to speak the French language and understand the French Canadian culture. With a full tank of gas and some eager students and teachers we did indeed learn a whole lot of French, history, and met warm welcoming “Quebecers” who will be friends for life! This confirms our belief that extended field trips provide a unique blend of interpersonal, social and educational interactions which are transformative for our cyber population.

Please continue to follow this blog for more exciting news on future PALCS adventures. We are currently planning an October trip to China for one month, Panama Spanish immersion in February and possibly several weeks in Germany to learn German. Stay tuned!

Click Here Photostory of our last day in Quebec

On Thursday we went to visit a famous Catholic church. French Canada is still Catholic and their history is intertwined with their faith…their Catholicism. The famous church we visited is called St. Ann De Beaupre. This church is remarkable because of the amount of people, even in recent times who have been healed. The walls of the church have crutches displayed. People would abandon the crutches they no longer needed, once they had been healed.

After the church visit, we went to see the Chutes Montmorency, which are specatcualr waterfalls, 30 meters higher than Niagra Falls. This has to be one of the seven wonders of North America! Wow! You can understand why Quebec sells hydro power to the United States!

Last, we visited a “sugar shack” where we dance the traditional dances we had learned two nights before. We ate a typical Quebecoise meal….meat pie, beets, potatoes, sausages, ham, split pea soup, maple beans, and for dessert….crepes with fresh maple syrup! Then we watched a demonstration of a man teaching us how to take maple syrup from the tree. He explained this in French, and spoke very rapidly, but still we learned. Then we sampled another treat….maple syrup poured over ice, and then rolled quickly on a popsicle stick. Very good! This was on the Ile d’Orleans….an island 35 kilometers long that sits in the Saint Lawrence seaway. You can imagine the incredible views, spectacular.

We have happy PALCS students!! We will be home on Sunday!! We miss you all!!

Click here to hear Elise!

Click here to hear Sarah in English and here to hear Sarah en Francais!

Yesterday we visited the Chateau Frontenac. (L’histoire ici, from the CF website) We had a guided tour, with a young lady in period costume. She described the Chateau as if it were still 1900! We visited some rooms, and saw a picture gallery with all of the dignitaries who have visited in the past 100 years or so. Here is a picture of our guide.

We also had more time to stroll down some quaint streets and stop in a cafe for some conversation with our guide, Estelle. Estelle is also the home stay mom for Autumn, Chloe and Bailey. Last year, Estelle was the home stay mom for Sarah and Claire, so there has been a lot of continuity and community.

Click here for brief video of our guide at the Chateau Frontenac!

Click here for a Photostory of this day.

A couple of days ago I had a chance to speak with Mike about his French experience. Listen to him here!

Click here to see the newest Photo story from our awesome trip to Quebec!! This Photostory highlights our day in old Quebec City.

Click here for video clip

Here’s Eli the Great! We are just about to climb “les escaliers casse-cou.” We have had a lovely day exploring old Quebec. We went to the Musee de la Civilization, and we saw an exhibit about the history of gold, history of Quebec. Sarah and Elise won the rally prize for finding trivia inside the museum. We went to a cafe and experienced some Quebecoise treats.

Click here to see our photostory

We arrived safely to Quebec on Sunday night. We stopped for lunch at Lake George and at Fort William Henry. The season was still pretty much pre-summer and everything there was closed. We noticed there were still many trees with no leaves, and this is just a 5 hours north of our latitude line in Pennsylvania.

We had to wait for an hour at the border to get into Canada. When it was finally our turn, they pulled us over to check we had appropriate identification and documentation. We stopped briefly to change money into the Canadian “looney.”

Interesting to note: miles turned into kilometers. Farenheit turned into celcius on all of the road signs. A good occasion for a math lesson. Click here for conversions.

Then we were on our way again and still had daylight when we arrived.

Our families picked us up promptly. I had tears of joy to see my home stay family again.

We have just enjoyed dinner, ziti, chicken, ham, salad and browinies and are getting ready to go to sleep. We have a 12 hour drive tomorrow to Quebec where our French speaking families are waiting for us!

So nice to visit with the Chloe`s and Elise`s family and Autumn’s mom, Lisa!

We will keep you updated on our adventures! Bon Soir!

Here are several reasons to learn another language:

1. When you study another language for some reason….your SAT scores improve!! And the longer you study the language the better your scores are!! Perhaps it is the fact that you are applying yourself intellectually to “crack a code” almost like you do when you practice math problems. Read more about this.

2. Communication: It is said that if you can communicate with someone you can enter their world. You will be able to build a direct relationship with someone if you understand their language. If you know their language and then listen, you can directly understand their point of view. If you do decide to study abroad, your experience will be enriched by your ability to talk to the native speakers around you.

3. The world is changing. Less than 10% of the world speaks English as a first language. In several years more Americans, as they enter the Global economy, will need to speak more languages than English. Click here: (National Geographic) to read about what languages to crack…apres francais!

4. If we stay in the English bubble we will miss why we are travelling in the first place. Ten years ago it was possible to rely on English and still feel the challenge and excitement of a cross cultural experience. Now, since others are learning English as a second language, we are hidden from the magic of their culture! Their language is the secret door to understanding their culture.