Every other year, a couple of lucky students from Ames High School have the opportunity to travel to France for two weeks. During the time they are there, they visit famous landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe, stay with a family that lives right outside of Paris, and even have dinner in the Eiffel Tower.

Junior John Topf was one of the students who very much enjoyed his stay. While enjoying every aspect of the trip, a couple stood out to him.

“When I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time my heart literally skipped a beat and I peed my pants,” Topf said, “It was an emotional experience.”

But besides the landmarks, one aspect of the trip can’t be forgotten: the food. France, being known for it’s incredible cuisine, is the perfect place to eat, eat, and eat.

“My favorite meal was the one we had the second day. For an appetizer we had raw smoked salmon, for the main course we had a delicious omelette and fries and for the dessert we had a butterscotch ice cream with bittersweet chocolate,” said Topf.

This trip, like all foreign language trips at the high school, emphasize the importance of taking charge of experience to travel abroad in high school. Students can’t experience first hand the culture of the language they are learning unless they actually travel. It’s a trip that is worth the extra fundraising and jet lag.

“[A foreign language trip] is the rawest way to learn the language of study. You can learn so much about a culture and language by actually immersing yourself in it as opposed to studying it from a classroom,” said Topf, “It’s a once in a lifetime experience to say the least.”