The French classes taught by Madame Eden Davis had sent 26 letters back in the late fall of 2015 to a french counterpart school in Lille, France. But, it wasn’t until mid-February that letters were received back from the higher level English classes in Lille.

“I wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to be like but I was excited to write to someone so far,” senior IB French student Alexa Urrea said. ”When I received the letter it caught me completely by surprise. I actually had forgotten I had a penpal all the way in France. It was really eye opening because it was super cool to see what his interests were and a lot of the things mentioned are popular here in the US too.”

While the exchange of communication has led to a few grammatical errors on both sides, it has been received with two letters back from Lille. This has given both schools the opportunity to interact and compare how students 5,177 miles away can relate today in modern culture.

“The students were very pleased to get an actual letter from France,” Madame Davis said. “More students wrote letters, and a few students wrote several new letters in addition to the one they answered. I think it would be great to establish a lasting friendship with this French school, and for some of our students to have international friends as well. It’s how inter-cultural barriers are removed: the realization that people are more like us than they are different from us around the world.”