After recently finishing my second study abroad trip, I've become very nostalgic for the city I just left and already find myself crafting ideas on how to get back for a visit or two in the near future. When I told people I was going to be studying abroad in Québec, they consistently asked me, Why Québec? Couldn't you just go to Paris or something? At first, I had no specific answer rather than the cost of the program, but after doing the Français Langue Étrangère/Explore program, I find myself having a million and a half reasons why everyone should be considering Québec as their top choice for studying abroad. Here are my top 10.

1. The Culture of Québec is distinct, but not too overwhelming.

As I've said, this is my second study abroad trip. The first time I went abroad, it was to Granada, Spain. That semester was wonderful and something I still dream about, but many of my friends had such an issue adjusting to Spanish culture and it really bothered them (although shout out to siesta). Québec is different than the U.S. in a lot of ways, but it isn't something that someone has to adjust to. You have the same amount of convenience at your fingertips to buy or find anything you need, but the food, shopping, and overall daily life has a distinct poutine-flavored taste.

2. L'École de Langues at Laval is there for you.

When attending Laval, they will place you into groups based off of pre-testing that determines your French level. They are generally quite good at this, and you'll find yourself in classes that are challenging, but not going to kill you. You will have classes based off of auditory comprehension (listening), oral production (speaking), written production (writing), and reading comprehension (reading). You'll come away with a level of French much higher than before. Being someone who just completed his classes, I'm still not sure how I even thought I was good at French before. I feel so much more confident in my abilities thanks to the intense classes and nature of the Laval programs.

3. The staff is fantastic!

There will be a number of "Animateurs/Animatrices" who will be at Laval to make your program fantastic! From offering a number of led trips/ateliers to just sitting down and talking to you, they're there for you. All of them are native francophones from Québec and they understand the difficulty that is associated with language learning. They'll be there for you starting day 1. All of them are around the age group of the students (they are Laval students themselves) so unlike other programs, these are people you'd probably end up hanging out even if they weren't paid to be there. I cannot say how wonderful all of them were.

4. Food.

As many of my friends know, I'm obsessed with maple. Québec was a magic time in my life in which I am amazed I didn't gain 50 pounds. With all the poutine, maple and pâté chinois, you'll be eating well during all your time in the city. The school even offers cooking lessons about more traditional Québécois dishes, which I recommend everyone try!

5. Québec City has something for everyone!

Québec is filled with numerous museums, festivals, restaurants, and just so many things to do. If you like museums, the Musée de la Civilisation is fantastic and I highly recommend their exhibitions. If you like history, go walk the walls of Vieux Québec and visit any of the museums near the Plaines d'Abraham. If you like more recent additions, the Microbrewery trend has taken over the city and you'll find one on every block. You'll never be bored.

6. It's a nature-lover's dream.

I love hiking, climbing, and overall just exploring nature. Typically I find that it's harder for me to do that back home where you have to really go farther out away from your city to find diverse nature spots. In Québec, you can literally just take a 20-minute bus ride, and you have numerous national parks with diverse environments. During my five weeks, I climbed the side of a cliff, ziplined (more than once), did three larger hikes, hiked around a waterfall and still hadn't explored even half of what the region had to offer. Québec is a perfect mix of being able to be out in nature while being in a large city.

7. The nightlife is fantastic.

After "experiencing" the nightlife

There's a large bar/club scene in Québec which is a breath of fresh air for many of us who come from areas without clubs. I won't go to in depth about exactly what occurs, as everyone has their personal preferences for how to spend their nights, but there's a large variety of types of bars/clubs and if you enjoy going out, Québec will not disappoint. This isn't to say that your program will endorse going out, but I think it was a really cool thing to go out, meet québécois and enjoy our nights.

8. You will come out with fantastic French.

As much as I've gone on about the experiences, the real reason that many of us study abroad is the actual "studying" thing. Québec is known for it's high rate of native French Speakers (95.3 percent). Seeing as only 1.6 percent of the population here are native English speakers (there are many people who speak if after learning it later in life), you're going to have to practice your French. The École de Langues programs will do a fantastic job of teaching you both "Québécois" and "Français standard." This is a fantastic benefit as you'll come out being able to understand someone who hails from Québec or France with ease instead of just from France. (I love you my Québécois friends, but without doing my program up here this summer, I would have no idea what you're saying. Y'all have strong accents). The "québécismes" are super interesting and honestly I find I relate more easily to the usage of French here than I would to that of France. You find there are a lot of loan words from English that work just fine in French here. Watch this video for a good idea.

9. Activities

As a part of your program at Laval, they will offer a number of activities that are free for students or are very cheap. This ranges from going on runs with the "Animateurs" to going on a whale-spotting trip. Every week, I'd estimate there are 30 different activities that one could choose to attend. There's something for everyone with activities in athletics, sight-seeing, cooking, movies, and much much more. These are also very good ways to improve your French (the hidden goal behind the activities offered). Go on as many of these as you possibly can!

10. The people you'll meet are the best.

I came to Québec with a group from my university, so I already knew people coming in. I spent quite a bit of time with them, but I also got to know many many more people through my classes and/or activities. We became a really close-knit group of friends and via late night walks, suffering through assignments together, going out to eat, or just hanging, they really made the program for me. Believe it or not, it actually improved my French as well, as we spent a lot of time talking in French when around each other and between 4 people who have studied French for a long time, there is a lot of knowledge that we can use to help/correct each other. I'm sad to say goodbye to them, but I know that they will be people I'll be in contact with for a long, long time. I'm out of words to express how thankful I am for these three great people and how they really all made my summer, even if they're bad at naming the states of the U.S. (don't worry, they showed me how bad I am at Canadian geography as well). You'll meet great people through studying in Québec, and you'll have hard times saying goodbye. Not saying that this won't happen other places, but due to the magic that is Québec, we had something very special. Thank you to my Qué-fam. Additionally, the Québécois are such nice people. Most of the time that I spoke French, I felt encouraged by the people here to do so. I also had some very good Québécois friends (shout out to Jean-Gabriel in particular, don't think you'll get away from me anytime soon) I met outside of the program who really helped make my time here. I was able to explore the city through the eyes of my friends who live here and actually understand the culture from the source itself. It's these Québécois friends/Program friends who already have me itching to plan out trips to Canada/back to Québéc City in the near future, cause all of them know they can't get me out of their lives now.

Québec, you were kind, and I will be forever thankful for that.