Most students like to use their summer as a break from the dreaded beast known as high school, as time to relax and hang with friends.  Although all this sounded nice to him, senior Chris Cattron took a different approach.  Cattron spent five weeks abroad in Quebec City, Quebec to help broaden his knowledge of the french culture and language.

“I wanted to improve on my French which I couldn’t do here in St. Louis and I wanted to go on an adventure for my last summer”, Cattron said.

Bright and early on the morning of June 30, Chris left St. Louis on an airplane headed for Quebec.  Once in Quebec, Chris spent 5 days a week, 3 hours a day in class at the Université Laval studying various aspects of the french language.

“The classes were very rigorous and were taught by only french-speaking professors”, Cattron said.

Beyond the time in the classroom, Cattron also participated in activities set up by the university.  He was given a lot of free time to use as he pleased, to enjoy a nice cup of coffee at the local cafe or to visit one of the many museums in Quebec.

“It was very independent; we were aloud to hangout on campus or go downtown by ourselves”,  Cattron said.

But not too long after he first arrived in quebec, or so it seemed, he was back on the airplane on the way home.  He arrived in St. Louis on August 2, with an endless amount of memories of the past five weeks.

“The experience was great, being immersed in French everywhere you went with minimal English improved my french greatly”, Cattron said.

Chris hopes to take what he learned and use it to do missionary work in Haiti, where the primary language is French.