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Published: June 24th 2009
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Last time with Marissa, Oana, and Marc Henry all together at the last rotary night. And here I am at my fourth and last host families house already! this year sure does fly by so quickly!!! The day my parents left from France was the day I switched host families and what a great idea because I think its harder to say goodbye to parents the second time! and so I'm living with two parents who work in the catholic church, 3 host sisters, two who work outside of town and only come a few times per week, and one 17 year old sister, who is awesome! Also I have a host brother who goes to school in another town and one who was in Venezuela for a few years who just came back. So it has been such a change from all my host families and i'm so happy to end this year with such a great family. They understand my needs to go traveling and it is just wonderful! I do a lot of things that I really want to do and I get to spend a lot of time wit my exchange student and French friends because guess what... IT'S SUMMER I officially am DONE with French school!!! I know, I know I
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amusment park, last time with Rotary! probably have never said a "school is super great" ever in my entire year here, but hey I did get to know my classmates. On the last day of school I wrote all my teachers thank you notes and one teacher even cried! It was nice to get my report card, of course with hardly any scores but filled with "she has improved so much" "Great work!" and things of that sort. Its just nice to know that it was worth all the endless hours in French school haha. So yeah it's summer and heres how I started it off,
for you who know Linda Klein you should know that she comes to visit her French friends just about ever year or two and so Linda came to the south of France (Châtellerault) to visit her. And it just happened to be Linda who frantically tried to teach me a few words in French before I left and now its great because I understand her when she speaks French, and she can understands my French and it just proved to me how much I have learned. And Linda also before I left introduced me to a boy from France who
was staying a little while in the U.S and Linda and I just happened to stay at his house and their neighbors houses for a few days and it was so funny because the last time when I met Cyprien it was when he didn't understand my English totally and I didn't understand a word of my French and now we can actually communicate haha. So I met the nicest people when I went with Linda, honestly the families we stayed with were so welcoming and I really did have a wonderful time and will never forget it!!!! They has cherry trees all over the place, and guess what!? I was in the SOUTH so it finally was really hot outside!!! The great thing about seeing Linda was seeing a part of my life in the U.S coming to France! and we had a lot of the same thoughts about France and it was just so much fun to share them. I hope to put pictures of that up soon!!
And so also the first week of my summer I got to go to Paris for about a week. I visited everything I could possibly think of and I
actually walked from the Eiffel tower until the louvre! it actually takes a lot longer than I would imagine but was so worth it seeing all the little streets in Paris. I really love that place! I got to go to the airport a few times to say goodbye to everyone and it was so hard knowing that I would have to say goodbye.. but Paris was amazing as always and I ended up staying with a few exchange students and my host cousin and I even went to a French school in Paris, which was almost exactly like an American school, really sweet. It was the strangest feeling ever in Paris because at one moment I looked around me and I remembered there right where I was standing was exactly where I was standing 9 and a half months ago when i arrived in France, and now here I am again at the same place, but with learned so many new things, it's like I was there when i was a little American girl who could not speak any French months and months ago but now i'm standing there nowing eveything everyone is saying around me, and thinking to
myself, this is my home. It is the strangest feeling having to leave and here is what I bring it down to...
The only way to explain this year is Camping, yes camping. Think back to the first time you went camping, you had no idea how to pitch a tent, how to build a fire, and did someone just say there's no toilet?! You freak out thinking "what have I got myself into?, I'm going to freeze, have no place to sleep, be so hungry, and never do this again!" and just as you think that, it starts to pour down rain. You decide whether you are capable or not you best try as fast as you can to pitch a tent, and after a few failed minutes you start to figure it out...next thing you know you started a fire and are roasting S'mores in no time. The rain starts to clear up and you see a beautiful view all around, and then you start to think "maybe this is where I am meant to me." Then you meet other campers who have gone through all the same struggles you just went through and you give advice
and laugh about what may happen the next time. After a while you feel like you made a new home, a new life, you made it! And then there is comes a day where you must stop camping it's time to go home already...You think back on all those memories and how much you have accomplished and you must prepare the goodbyes and get all packed and go away, again. You give one last look at your campsite not knowing if you will ever be back again, but knowing the history you have left. So being and exchange student is like being a camper, but we have been camping for a year, imagine leaving that camp fire!
Please don't get me wrong there are so many things I am totally excited to see when I get home my family, my friends, go to my home town, jump in the lake, laugh outside as loud as I want under and sky full of stars, eat ice cream with my best friend who I have not seen for almost a year, and just everything my life back home!!! but at the same time it is so very hard to say goodbye
to people because I never know if I will be able to see them again and it's just hard not knowing I will see them again. So I guess this is an exchange students life, like someone just told me "it's as if we hit stop and rewind." the history is written and what a great year it has been, now it's time to move on and bring everything I have learned to all those people who have been here my whole life back home! So everyone, see you soon!!!!!!
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cindy
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OMg kaitlynn it almost made me cry ! the camper comparison is so true ! well done. its a very gd explanation. i c