Foreign language students go on an annual field trip

On September 28th, the Spanish and French students took an annual foreign language field trip for the whole day. The field trip for the foreign language students happens annually, and always has various cultural events and language-learning opportunities. The majority of the students were excited about the field trip.

During the trip, Spanish students went to the gym and had a traditional dance class taught by two professional dancers from Mexico. The dancers discussed with the students about their traditional clothing, and then performed their dance in front of the students and teachers who came to see them. Many students in the gym were fascinated by the clothes and the dances the teachers presented.

After the dancing lesson, students boarded the bus and visited the Spanish Economic and Commercial Office of Shanghai. There, the students toured the building and appreciated the drawings and paintings that hung in the Spanish Art Exhibition. Afterwards, the students went to the second floor of the office and spent time in the Spanish Library reading Spanish books and articles. Then, they listened to a lecture about several different tourist attractions in Hispanic countries. A junior who is currently studying Spanish, Jenny Seo (11A), remarked that “what I loved the most in this field trip was the fact that we had the chance to go to a library with so many books in Spanish, although I was able to understand very few of the them.” She also included that she would like to go to the Spanish Library again.

Towards the end of the Spanish field trip, students dined in a familiar Spanish restaurant named Pistolera. Since it was almost a fixed place for the past few Spanish field trips, the students talked about the past field trips and ate delicious Spanish foods. Malo Chen (11A) claimed that “I enjoyed watching the dance and tasting the Spanish food. I would love to go again if we don’t have the lecture activity again next time.” Students other than Malo and Jenny also expressed their satisfaction with the field trip.

While the Spanish class students went to the dancing class, visited the Spanish library, and ate their lunch at Pistolera, the French class students visited the Pearl Art Museum where artists from all around the world visited different places, and used their distinct style of art to depict and represent their experience in that country. According to the French students, there were numerous art projects that were displayed in the museum. Inside, the French students searched for the answers from the booklet to win prize from Mr. Cedric. Katherine Liu (11A) said, “we saw many different styles of art, and the messages that each piece of art conveyed. It was very interesting even though there was only one hour to look around the museum. There was also an astonishing library in the museum where the ceiling was the night sky full of stars. I liked that the most.” 

After leaving the museum, the French students went to eat chocolate at Café de Stagilares. The menu that the café provided for lunch was diverse. It included: pizza, croque-monsieur, vegetable salad, lava cake and crème brûlée. A lot of the students agreed that the food was delicious, and that they would like to visit the café again next time.

Overall, the field trip was a great experience for both the Spanish and French students, and the anticipation for next year’s trip grows. 

Featured Image – One of the Paintings in the exhibition Photo Courtesy of Amy Kang

By Amy Kang