{"id":5183,"date":"2021-07-13T12:52:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T16:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/?p=5183"},"modified":"2021-07-13T12:52:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T16:52:01","slug":"adventure-contest-june-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/adventure-contest-june-winner","title":{"rendered":"Dream Your Next Adventure Contest: June Student Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Sharon L. for winning first place in our June <\/span><\/i>Dream Your Next Adventure Student Storytelling Contest<\/i><\/b>! Read on to see what Sharon dreams of doing in Paris as she explores the city she\u2019s wanted to visit since sixth grade.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Growing up, I\u2019ve always dreamed of travelling to different places around the world. Especially in sixth grade, [when] we read this book called <\/span>Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours <\/span><\/i>or, in English, <\/span>Around the World in Eighty Days <\/span><\/i>by Jules Verne. Set in the late 1800s, we follow a wealthy man and his valet on a journey around the world visiting different countries and seeing new things. They travelled by train, steamships, and even a gas balloon. Thus began my interest in travelling the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

France, the country of fancy cheeses and excellent tasting bread! France has been one of the many countries that I have wanted to visit for so long. I have been enrolled in a French immersion program since I was five years old and for the whole duration of elementary school. I even went on a class trip to Quebec for a week in seventh grade, which was an amazing experience and made me want to travel to France. When the world opens back up, I want to pursue my dreams of visiting France, even if just for a couple of days. I learned French primarily for eight years and continued learning French mostly throughout high school (granted, I left the French immersion program, but I was still just as passionate about the language). While I learned French the \u201cCanadian way,\u201d travelling to France would be an amazing opportunity to improve my French and learn more about its history, which is also a huge fascination to me. Along with its history, I also greatly admire the remarkable French arts, whether it is culinary, architectural, or an actual visual painting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we are finally able to travel to France with my friends and classmates, I undoubtedly want to visit all the prominent landmarks. I am also very excited to try new foods, specifically a nice authentic buttery croissant, while sitting at one of those charming outdoor patio areas on the streets of Les Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es or while walking through the Arc de Triomphe. I imagine biking the streets of Paris would be so fun. I would also love to watch the Parisian sunset from the top of the Eiffel Tower with all my friends. I\u2019d just love to explore the streets of France in general as much as I can! I\u2019ve also heard of artists on the streets drawing portraits of people, and I think it would be fun to get one done with my friends. It could be a nice souvenir of my friends and me, frozen in time in France. <\/span><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t learn much about French history in class. One thing we did learn about was the French Revolution. Furthermore, we learned about the battle of Versailles that took place at the Palace of Versailles. This leads me to one of the places I want to see most, which is the Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles (that once housed the former French monarchs), with all the extravagant rooms with beautifully painted ceilings and large crystal windows that overlook the gardens. The preservation of this palace has been kept so well. Every photo of it that I have seen just takes me to this Renaissance-Regency-era that I would imagine in the late 1700s. While this palace might seem remarkably luxurious, we must not forget its history: when the French pushed to overthrow the monarchy in France, there was social and political injustice within the middle class and peasants. The palace represents a time in French history that witnessed the tragic fall of the French monarchy. <\/span><\/p>\n

While reading a book in sixth grade sparked my interest in travelling, I can\u2019t say I would love to travel for a living. However, travelling every so often would be a nice break from reality while exploring all corners of the world. Travelling to France is a big dream of mine. I would love to experience it with my best friends, and I\u2019m so lucky to even be able to travel anywhere considering the current circumstances. If we do hopefully end up travelling to France with my friends and classmates, it will surely be an unforgettable trip that I will be endlessly telling everyone about.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Thank you to every individual who participated in our Student Storytelling Contest, and congratulations to each of our monthly winners! Stay tuned to find out which school earned a <\/span><\/i>$5,000 bursary<\/i><\/b> to be used on a future Explorica trip.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Sharon L. for winning first place in our June Dream Your Next Adventure Student Storytelling Contest! Read on to see what Sharon dreams of doing in Paris as she explores the city she\u2019s wanted to visit since sixth grade. Growing up, I\u2019ve always dreamed of travelling to different places around the world. Especially Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explorica-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5184,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions\/5184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}