GBHS French Students Get Clearance for Canada Trip

Continuing a decades-old tradition, Glen Burnie High School AP and honors French students got approval from the board of education to travel to Quebec City and Montreal during spring break to immerse themselves in the language and culture.

World language department chair and French teacher Charlie Day has taken students to Canada every few years since 1974.

"The trip has evolved over the years. At first we used to take every student who was taking every level of French," he said, adding that students at lower levels might struggle with the advanced atmosphere.

Day, who has taught at Glen Burnie for 29 years, said six of the school's "academic elite" French students will take a 14-hour bus trip to Quebec next April and submerge themselves in the culture. They will take a train from Quebec to Montreal.

"It's very advanced. Once the guide meets us at the border, we'll only speak French the rest of the trip," Day said.

It is required that the county board of education approve all out-of-the-country trips.  The board voted to approve the trip Nov. 17.

The trip will cost each student $995, Day said.

Day pointed out that since new immigration laws took place, the trip is in many ways similar to traveling to France.

"The students need to have passports now and they'll have to go through customs," he said.

Planned stops on the trip include the Château Frontenac in Quebec, which Day described as a "huge hotel with incredible history [that includes] World War I" and will be a central point of the trip, and Vieux Port and some Olympic sites in Montreal.

"Chateau Frontenac is really like being in France in North America," Day said.

Students will travel from April 16 to 21.