#tbt: France & Belgium with Karen

When I was a senior in high school, I took AP French language and over the Christmas break we traveled to France and Belgium. My French teacher's name was Karen or Madame Romano, I just called her Karen. The trip started in Paris...

Just a whole bunch of girls... and Shlok

We spent a few days roaming the sights of Paris. It was heaven on Earth. Paris is exactly like what the films and pictures depict to me. It was my second visit to Paris, but I feel like I had fallen even deeper in love. In love with the people, the language and of course the food.

We visited the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, Versailles... the list goes on and on!

 

If you're American visiting Paris with all of your good friends,

pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower are a must.

 



 

  After Paris, we were sent North to live with our host families for a week in Lille. While with our host families we would attend school daily for French Language classes. I felt like an idiot for a whole week. I had only ever made the top grades in all my French classes. Here I am with a real French teacher and I was pushed way past my limits. But it was a good push. I learned so much more than I ever would have from a textbook.
One day after class, we boarded a train for Bruges, Belgium. It was only an hour or so from Lille. For a day I lived in chocolate, waffle and speculoos heaven. [If you don't know what speculoos is, look for the Biscoff cookies in Kroger. They're the same thing! Even though I'm sure that the American version has less sugar.]

This way to the chocolate!

 

Group photo before boarding to go home to Lille.

 Even though we were in Lille for school, we did more than classwork. There was lots of shopping and exploring to be done !

Longchamp bags are my guilty pleasure.

 Why go somewhere if you can't love where you're going, what you're doing and who you're with?

If they love you, they'll let you dance in public.

 

This is the last picture I took with my host parents. I roomed with my good friend Jordan. To this day she makes fun of some of the stupid stuff I did or said...I hope to visit my sweet French parents soon!

#macyprobs