Ben Yahnian: France

The train roared across the track. I was on the TGV from Perpignan, France to Barcelona, Spain. While silence lurked throughout each cabin on the train, we oddly started to slow down. Suddenly, a man with a large feather attached to his hair seated behind me awoke screaming AHHHHH at the top of his lungs. A huge pain struck my gut as an intense pang of laughter hurt my side while the entire cabin joined me in hysterics. Dazed and confused, he obviously did not have a ticket for his journey and was hitching a free ride. Our train finally came to a stop because of an obstacle on the track. However, this man got up, grabbed his belongings which consisted of a satchel containing only 2 fairly large bamboo sticks, and hopped off the train where he disappeared into the distant countryside of southern France.

The view of Southern France from the TGV train

Now you are probably thinking why in the world would I be telling you this story? When I came back home, I soon realized that the only way I could express my appreciation to MBA and especially the Wilson family was through the memorable experiences, amusing stories, and essential lessons that I had learned. While my stories could fill 1000 pages, I am going to share some of the most unforgettable ones. In this way, I hope you will be able to see how truly appreciative I am. 

First, I want to discuss my EIL group which consisted of an economically, racially, and geographically diverse group of people. I love each of them from the bottom of my heart and I’m sure that these 15 different relationships will endure for many years to come. However, it would be a grave mistake for me not to mention one of my two group leaders named Sabienne Brutus. This lady is unlike any other person I have ever met in my life. To call her my hero would be an understatement. Words do not describe her, she describes words. She is a headstrong leader and the kind of friend who loves you enough to tell you when you screwed up or made a mistake.

My EIL group (Sabienne is seated at the bottom)

Anyway, I do want to mention an interesting dynamic within my EIL group that I observed. From the beginning, our group split into several “cliques” based on but not limited to race and personality. I can not express how much this bothered me. However, I am pleased to say that by the end of the trip when we returned to Paris, our group became united and friendships had formed between everyone. 

My EIL Group

My trip was appropriately titled “Between the Atlantic and Mediterranean,” as we stayed in Paris for 5 days, traveled to Perpignan for a 2 week homestay with 4 days spent in Barcelona, embarked for a 4 day stay in the Pyrenees and finished with a few more days in different cities in southern France and Northern Spain before we returned to Paris. Basically, I got the wonderful opportunity to experience the Catalan (the peoples living in the border region between France and Spain) culture, dialect, and art. With my homestay family, I learned numerous songs and chants about the Catalans, and I now fully respect their amusing yet dedicated mascot: the donkey. Thinking back on my trip, I am honestly amazed at how much I did that my brain still hasn’t processed all the incredible moments on the trip. I went to the beach 11 times! The Mediterranean Sea just felt so good I just had to go back again and again. But particularly, I want to mention the beach at Collioure which was about an hour by bus away from my homestay in Perpignan. The beach there was absolutely incredible and I loved the red tiled roof architecture of all the houses. 

The Beach at Collioure 

As if I wasn’t lucky enough already just to get the opportunity to go on this trip, I was blessed with an unbelievably caring homestay family in Perpignan. I had two brothers aged 15 and 20 which was an opportunity for me to experience living with 2 brothers as I only have one sister in Nashville (I still love ya Mary). 

The cutest little homestay city of Perpignan

Anyway my dad was the coolest plumber in the world, and I respected him so much for the effort he exerted in his job daily. Also, I noticed a particularly odd occurrence that about 80% of the time my dad never wore a shirt. After I noticed that my brothers followed in their farther’s shirtless footsteps I soon picked up on the ritual and went shirtless. You should have seen the look on my real mom’s face when I came back home and tried to explain why I had disproportionately clean shirts compared to shorts. When I came to France, I predicated that I would lose 10 pounds as the French obviously ate way less than us Americans. Wrong Ben. So wrong. I have never eaten so much food in my life. My host family would say to me all the time, “oh you are american? Drink this coke.” As I was in no mood to refuse anything that they offered me, I accepted and this became a regular thing at dinner. We all drank coke and watched the news while we ate. For my first lunch, my mom bought me a baguette sandwich. However, when I came home that day having eaten the whole thing, I guess she took it as a sign that I was starving and decided to pack two huge baguettes each day for my lunch for the next 2 weeks, along with apple sauce and some fruit. (and a coke of course!) One day, my brothers called me their "vrai frere" or basically their true brother. Whenever they told me that, I may or may not have shed a little tear on the inside. My family went out of their way to include me in everything they did, and I felt like just another son in the family. I am truly grateful for the kindness given to me by my host family and I know that I will keep in touch with them for the rest of my life. 

My homestay family 

When I think about my trip, 3 key moments come to mind that I feel necessary to highlight. First, my brothers took me to this festival called a Feria. Basically, a Feria is an event in a city with bull activities during the day and at night the entire town shuts down as people line the streets for a huge party until 5 am. Oh and did I forget to mention that it happens for 3 days!? I loved listening to all the different bands on multiple stages and I danced my butt off with people of all different ages from young to even the elderly. By the third night, I was practically running on my reserve emergency energy supply. Man was I tired! 

Secondly, I struck luck again as I got the chance to turn 18 in Barcelona. This city was always and I mean always hopping. With one of the most breathtaking beaches and really cheap but incredible food, Barcelona is definitely a city I will be visiting again. My amazing EIL group leaders surprised us with a really nice restaurant dinner that night for my birthday and even gave us all a later curfew so we could explore all that Barcelona had to offer. 

18th Birthday in Barcelona!

Next, my group traveled to Yaso, Spain with a whopping total population of 7! Now what’s particularly interesting about Yaso are two things. One is that Yaso has 2 living accommodation options between a really, really rundown smelly old rusty cramped “hotel” and this brand new luxurious apartment complex. EIL through some snafu had booked half of us in the “hotel” and the others in the apartment complex. So we decided to draw straws and well my lucky streak just had to continue as I pulled a straw for the apartment. When I found out I got the apartment, I took off down the road screaming like a baboon and then I stopped and turned around and cried with joy. The other interesting thing about Yaso is the peculiar fly infestation. These things traveled in packs attacking not only our group but the whole town. However, I am pleased to report that our group formed a quasi resistance secret society waging war against these flies. After decimating their population, they called in backup and by the time it was time for us to leave Yaso we gave up our war with the flies and booked it to the charter bus. However, I need to also mention the incredible hiking in the Pyrenees mountains. We also got to go canyoning which is essentially entails putting on a wetsuit and wading down the river rapids with just your body and jumping off cliffs and waterfalls. If it sounds cool to you, then that’s because it was probably the coolest thing I did on the trip. 

There are so many more memorable experiences and moments on the trip that I wish I could tell including the Perpignan rugby game, all the stories I have from Paris, Biarritz, San Sebastien, Bilbao, Villefranche, Ceret, and many other cities and towns that we visited. I saw original artwork, climbed through medieval tunnels and castles, played pick-up soccer with these 13 year old French prodigies     (the score was like 7-2 if you were interested), attended a French barbeque, and now probably most importantly of all I feel I can confidently communicate with any French person on any topic in French. My main goal going into the trip was to increase my language proficiency and now the fear that used to lurk inside my body when I spoke to a native French speaker has all but been eradicated. 

My French Academy ID Card

I owe all my experiences, lasting memories, and loving friendships to the Wilson family. I sincerely hope you realize how much your contribution has meant to me and that this blog begins to describe my appreciation. I learned more, ate more, laughed more, and even cried more (at the end) than I ever have in my life. I know that both MBA and the Wilson family have positively impacted my life, and now I hope you both know that as well. 

Last night in Paris