From May 6th to 8th, the Grade 8 classes visited sites around Montreal. Below, students write about some of the places they travelled and experiences they shared:

Old Montreal
We visited old Montreal, where my peers and I had some time to visit local shops and get a bite to eat. The exciting component of visiting Old Montreal was the cultural presence of stores. It wasn’t just typical department stores or clothing stores but a lot of stores occupied the region that perhaps you would’ve never seen before. Many students in the two respective Grade 8 classes enjoyed the Rubber Duck store, where there were various real-life celebrities in the form of rubber ducks. – Wyatt Sharpe

Biodome 
The amazing thing about the Biodome in Montreal was that we were able to travel through different types of ecosystems that we might not be able to visit otherwise. We were able to see different species of animals, mostly exotic. Some of the animals we saw were penguins, monkeys, capybara, exotic birds and fish. We left our mark there, literally, handprints melted into the ice wall beside the penguins. There were also specific sections of the Biodome just for plants. We were able to see them grow in their natural habitats. It was an amazing experience that we will always remember fondly. – Emma Thompson and Quin Mendum

Museum
The Grade 8 students felt that the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Old Montreal was a very cool place to learn about history and archaeology. As soon as we stepped inside the museum, we were transported back to a world very different from our modern world. One of the highlights of this museum was standing in graves that are over 350 years old, which was a truly unique experience. After walking through the museum, we watched a movie about Montreal's cultural heritage. The famous Montreal Canadien, “Rocket” Richard, was one of the many subjects in the film. – Lincoln Campbell

Laser Tag & Bowling 
Our first activity on the trip was bowling, which happened after we drove on a bus for around five hours from TCS to Montreal. At bowling, we reserved five lanes and we all separated into our groups of six. Bowling was very exciting because inside the bowling alley were some arcade games we could play and drinks we could purchase. I think the overall high score in bowling was around 107 and the experience overall was very entertaining. The next day we did laser tag, where we split into three different teams: red, blue and yellow. Two teams faced off against one another at a time over three rounds. Overall, Charlie Sprayson scored the most points, as a member of the dominant “Red Team.” After the last round was finished, we packed up and went back to the bus and the hotel to sleep. – Charlie Sprayson and Victoria Wang

Planetarium
On the last day just before we left, we had our last activity and that was going to the planetarium, which was very interesting; although some people fell asleep during it most people still enjoyed it. It was a relatively short-lived experience, but the man who took us on a journey through space did a great job at compacting everything interesting in it into such a short time period. We sat in this movie theatre-styled chair pointing up towards the roof. In the middle of the room is where the reader stood and also where the 3D projector was. It projected a video of space onto the roof, almost simulating the feeling of being in space. All around it was a great experience and if you're in Montreal I would recommend going to it. – William Bingleman and Oliver Wadds

Circus School
During the second day, we took a trip down to a circus school and we were all super pumped. When we got there we split into different groups and were taught how to do many fun activities like walking on a beam, walking on a rope, balancing on a barrel, climbing rope, parkour, trampoline tricks and so much more. We found out about many secret talents that people had, like how Jack Heckbert was really good at climbing and got to the very tippy top. Overall, we had so much fun and, by the end, we were tired out and took a long nap on the bus ride back. – Elaine Lu