Henry Hylbert Spain 2018

MAD

After a sleepless flight, I flowed out of the boarding dock and into the Madrid airport. I felt the warmth of the Spanish air outside after grabbing our bags and waiting for the bus. I observed the countryside through a haze until we finally arrived at Salamanca, the host city. Jack, Henry, and I met our host families and went to unpack. Upon arriving at the apartment, which lies 50 feet from the school, we each fell onto a bed, all three packed in an office-sized room. “Mama Maria” had cooked some tortilla which gave the same warmth and energy as the sun did outside beating at us on the bus. The different flavors and customs enthralled me to try more, and I knew that my three weeks there would be packed with learning experiences.

Salamanca at dusk 

Iberico Classico at a Cafe in La Plaza Mayor

Salamanca

Waking up at 8:45 to eat a breakfast of Special K chocolate or Cocoa Moons with Madelenas is a custom I have taken home with me. Before school started at 9AM, we knew we had to put away at least 90 secs in order to get to school on time, so everyday the breakfast was pushed back and back by the loyalty to sleep until 8:57 came around and we’d be pouring the cereal down and heading out the door. I believe I enjoyed every experience that much more because our days were packed, especially in the mornings until the siesta, blanketing the city in sleep at 2 o’clock, released the tension and refueled us to attack the night and evening activities.

My favorite mural ever - Salamanca

Mi familia

La Siesta

This “nap time” was the period in the day when I grew in my understanding of Spanish Culture. Jack and I would play guitar and chat with our host mother and her children, asking questions in our Spanish that became natural by the end of the trip. The three hour pause in the work day comes just after lunch, the largest meal of the day, so that everyone has a break to rest and augment their work schedule with activities of their choice. You can take the dog for a walk, read a book, swim in the river, work out, or simply rest.

Jack playing guitar during the siesta

Escuela

During my time in the classrooms at Estudio Sampere, I learned the vocab, customs, and grammar that I would use throughout the rest of the day. Having excellent teachers such as Alvaro and Pedro, the schooling was actually something I looked forward to each week day. At the beginning of each week a number of new students would join our class, reinvigorating the atmosphere among us. I met a student, Tibor, who lives in Florida but comes from Croatia. Watching the World Cup and cheering on Croatia, the dark horses, with him was awesome. I also met Marius who resides in Hungary but has an Italian mother and a Japanese father. He and I became good friends and I hope to visit him sometime in the future. He also inspired me to learn Italian.

My favorite teacher, Alvaro

Actividades

Every night around 5 o'clock our entire school group of about 20 would meet up fully rested from the siesta and participate in various activities with our teachers. We would study Spain's history, watch movies in the language, cook local recipes, and paint Picasso influenced portraits. We also visited a few museums which told the history of the growth of the town into a vibrant university city. The Universidad de Salamanca, founded in 1218, is one of Europe's oldest universities and we spent time attempting to spot the frog on "La Puerta de Salamanca".

Left: Went to a record shop and was photographed for being a great customer           Right: Some interesting art at Alba de Tormes

 

Above: Gave away this signed ball when I left...Heartbreaking       Above: The futsal pitch

Excursiones

To conclude each week we would travel to another city on an excursion, exposing us to other cultures and areas of Castilla y Leon. On Saturdays we traveled to Alba de Tormes, a small religious town on the Tormes river, to Segovia, a very interesting town know for its aqueducts, and to Zamora, a walled in city with awesome views and history. The excursions gave me more perspective on the layout, beauty, and history of Spanish and European cities.

Group of friends at Segovia

Castilla in Alba de Tormes and a walk through Zamora

Muchisimas Gracias!

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, I want to thank you for providing me the opportunity to study and travel to Spain this summer, but also for allowing me to find my academic passion in studying foreign languages and cultures. I'm so grateful for the chance to study French and Spanish at Montgomery Bell Academy and your grants have truly influenced my life for the best. In Spain I became comfortable speaking, listening, reading and writing, but I also matured as a person. From the freedom we had in the city to traveling alone on the way home, (my flight delayed and I missed my connector so I spent the night in JFK airport) I learned key life skills which I will cherish forever. I appreciate your concern in our language education and without it, I would be a completely different person.

Thank you so much,

Henry Hylbert

Viva España!

Clark Kaminsky Germany

Arrival

As the MBA group arrived from the long flight into Frankfurt, each tired person was welcomed by their host families. My host siblings, the twins Moritz and Gioia, and their father walked me from the baggage claim back to the parking garage, displaying just how big the Frankfurt Flughafen was. We got to know each other a bit more by chit-chatting on the walk over, and then met my host mother on the phone in the car. After the 35 minute drive home, she gave me a more proper introduction as she gave me a tour of the house, showing me where I could find everything I would need and leading me to my third floor room. But, before I could catch up on sleep as I was still jet-lagged, the host family brought me to a soccer game between the older legends of Germany against those of Turkey.

The old boys of Germany take on Turkey

Introduction to the city of Wiesbaden

The next day, I was driven to school, the Humbolt Schule, with Moritz and Gioia, and I spent the first half of the school day working with Moritz on his technical club, in which he and his friends set up the electrical workings of school plays and other events. Afterwards, the MBA and Harpeth Hall group were taken on a tour of Wiesbaden. We saw all of the antique buildings intermixed with modern construction, unlike anything one would find anywhere across America.

The church in the center of Wiesbaden called the Marktkirche

The ornate train station entrance

Mainz Day Trip

After two days of class, all of the Nashville students were brought by bus to Mainz, where we were guided on a tour by Frau Lotz, a teacher of the Humbolt Schule. As we stepped off the bus, we immediately saw the wide, amazing Rhine River, and turning the other direction, we could see the the ancient buildings in the skyline in front of 21st century architecture. After a short walk around the city, we went into the Gutenberg Museum, where we saw many original, hundreds of years old prints.

Mainz Cathedral in background

Original print in the Gutenberg Museum

The Weekend

After a few more days of regular school, the weekend was upon us. The semi-annual street fest was open this weekend, which all of the students were excited for. It closes down the largest street in Wiesbaden to fill with food stands and interesting activities, in addition to filling the adjacent park with carnival rides. Moritz and I went both Friday and Saturday and met up with many of his friends from school. On Sunday, while Moritz was at his rowing training, his father took me to a nearby town called Rudesheim, where his family's wine company was founded.

Wilhelmstrassefest carnival ride

Street performers

Day trips 

The next weeks, between full days of school, we were taken on three more day trips, to Rudesheim, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt respectively. We took a ferry across the Rhine River to get to Rudesheim, and then, after walking through the city, we took a lift up to a monument overlooking the city. In the next day, we went to Heidelberg, where we walked through a huge, dilapidated castle. Afterwards, we visited Heidelberg University, which was founded in 1386. In Frankfurt, we entered a governmental building filled with regional flags, and climbed up a church overlooking the entire city.

Camden and I in Rudesheim

Heidelberg Castle

The city of Frankfurt from atop the Frankfurt Cathedral

The next week

The next week, I went with my host family to their friends' house, which was in the beautiful countryside. Also, I went with my German class to a local winery, where we saw every step of the production. Finally, the group of MBA boys was reunited with Herr Dougherty, following a melancholy goodbye shared with host families.

Inside the winery in Wiesbaden

Munich

For the first three days with Herr Dougherty, we explored the city of Munich. While we were there, we used the amazing church at the Marienplatz as a meeting place. We ate Haxenfleisch, a very German meat, the first night at a busy, touristy restaurant. In the following days, we watched the World Cup game of Germany against Sweden, in which the locals were greatly invested, and saw BMW world, the Bayern-Munich soccer stadium, and the Olympiapark, where many extreme sports were going on.

The Marienplatz Church

Bayern-Munich soccer stadium

Vienna

After our three days in Munich, we took a three hour train through the Alps to Vienna, Austria. When we got there, after climbing up the top of a huge church with a view over the city, we ate at a famous schnitzel restaurant, where their delicious schnitzels were so large that they went over the edge of the plate. The next day, we went to the Schonbrunn Palace, from which many generations of Austro-Hungarian emperors ruled. Afterwards, we explored the streets of the different regions of Vienna, such as the Karlsplatz and the Stephansplatz. After we watched Germany get unfortunately knocked out of the World Cup, the weather became rainy to match how we felt. But, we still visited Belvedere castle, which was remade as an art museum, filled with works by Klimt, Monet, and more famous artists. The last day, we walked to the Hundertwasser village, a city block created strangely by an artist. To celebrate our stay, we later went to an amusement park, where a huge Ferris wheel took us above the city.

Schonbrunn Palace

Belvedere Castle

Hundertwasser Village

Danke

I appreciate the opportunity which the Wilson family has given to us, allowing me to not only better my German speaking ability, but also furthering my cultural awareness. I am thankful for having been able to have the trip of a lifetime, exploring such a different landscape filled with a new people and culture.

Peter Minkoff China 2018

Introduction

When we arrived in Beijing after a long day of traveling 7,000 miles, Kiran Peterson, Will Farner, and I were absolutely exhausted. As the kind staff of Beijing No. 8 welcomed us to their school on a very dark evening, China immediately seemed different. The Chinese teachers, nevertheless were ecstatic to show us our room. In the same manner, throughout the trip, the staff of Beijing No. 8 were eager to take us to tourist sites and invite us into classes on multiple different campuses. Throughout our stay at Beijing we had the help of multiple students and teachers always making sure we were comfortable and informed.

The gate of Beijing No. 8 

Beijing 

During our time at the school, we met many students and got to know their views on political topics such as economics, preservation of natural resources, and employment. I took multiple economics classes and was fascinated by the current status of trade with the United States. While Beijing 8 is one of the most prestigious high schools in China, we only attended classes at 3 of the 7 campuses. We found all of the students could speak English proficiently and excited to see us in class. Classes were much bigger, rowdier, and unorganized than MBA, but the system seemed to work for the students.

This sign was on the door when we arrived at our dorm 

Outside of class, the three of us also found an affinity for the cook at the school, having many conversations with him during breakfasts and dinners. The meals both inside and outside of the school were both extremely flavorful and radically different from meals in America. One of the major differences we found in the cuisine was the idea that food should be served to the group and not directly to a single person. This type of food creates more focus on taste and less focus on sustenance such as protein. Also, as the population of China is much larger than the United States, the amount of natural resources limits the amount of meat and protein available for meals in general. In conclusion, the food was very tasty and bountiful, but less fulfilling than American cuisine.

Sites 

During our time at Beijing No. 8, we visited the Great Wall of China, the Summer Palace, the 2008 Olympic Stadium and Park known as the Birds Nest. At the end of our time at Beijing 8, we were picked up from the campus where we stayed by a woman named Sherry. She took us to the Ibis hotel where we would stay in downtown Beijing for the next week. Our time that week would consist of touring the rest of the sites Beijing had to offer as well as understanding history, religion, and culture with our tour guide, Frank. The tour sites consisted of the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Capital Museum, Mao Zedong’s body, Temple of Heaven, Temple of Earth, and many more. Frank was very knowledgeable about every site we visited and the culture of the city. At night, Frank would return us to the hotel to one of the three people who worked for WLSA. These people would stay with us and make sure we were safe in the hotel and had no problems.

The three of us at the Great Wall 

On our last day in Beijing, we packed our bags and met Mrs. Zhang, our teacher who had flown in the day before. We took a van to the train station where we would take a bullet train to Shanghai. Once in Shanghai, my host family took me home from the train station. The family consisted of my buddy named Spike, his parents, and his grandfather. Spike was very kind and his parents ensured my comfort and safety. The family immediately took me as one of their own: taking me to dinner, including me in conversations, and taking me to their family friends’ house for an afternoon of Mahjong.

In Shanghai, I immediately found the differences in the two cities. Although both cities are remarkably large, Beijing seemed to have a more strictly Chinese facade, while Shanghai seemed more cosmopolitan and western. The food, sites, and culture in Beijing seemed more traditional. One of the best days of the trip was the day our group went to a small school in Jiading, which is about an hour northwest of Shanghai. We went to teach young boys and girls to speak English. Other than the three of us, many privileged high school students around the area come to the school on weekends to play with the kids, and teach them English. We spent the day in hot classrooms teaching the kids about America and especially Nashville. We introduced them to the Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Predators. We taught them games such as Duck-duck goose while providing water, shoes, and backpacks for about 75 kids. Finally, we were interviewed, and our day was broadcasted on Chinese television.

Playing basketball with some students 

My time in China was extraordinary and I hope to go back as soon as I can. I would like to thank the Wilson family for all of the grants that they give this institution. The grants provide worth to the students lives and the work they do right here in Nashville. Our experiences are used to find connections with others and ensure MBA students are well-rounded. I would also like to thank Mrs. Zhang for all she has taught me, which was definitely put to work. I would also like to thank the entire language department for the organization of the trip as well as the administrators of the trip. Finally, I would like to thank the school for all the opportunities they provide the students.

Kiran Peterson - China 2018

Arrival
Will Farner, Peter Minkoff, and I arrived at the airport at 6 a.m. to meet with Zhang Laoshi, our teacher, before flying to Detroit. We checked our bags and got ready for the long haul, the grueling 13-hour flight from Detroit to Beijing for 3 people over 6 feet tall in the airplane. Of course I, with my monstrous legs, had the fortune of getting the middle seat, but it was an enjoyable flight with the boys nonetheless. Arriving in a foreign country on minimal sleep was a little unnerving, but being together with Will and Peter and going through the same new experiences together made it much easier to overcome the fear of being 3 inexperienced Americans in a country with a culture drastically different compared to which we were accustomed.

Beijing No. 8 High School
The first of the three weeks in China we were set to be staying at Beijing No. 8 High School, one of the more prestigious of the numbered schools, as my dad compared it as “the Harvard of Chinese high schools.” We were exhausted after our flight, and we were picked up by one of the teachers at Beijing No. 8 and driven an hour through the Beijing afternoon traffic towards one of the multiple No. 8 school campuses located all over Beijing. Most of this hour was spent sleeping, but in my time awake I admired the massive city that was the complete opposite of the landscape in suburban Nashville. We arrived at the branch of the school that was supposedly the more international branch, as most of the students attending prestigious schools China aim to go to college in America. The teachers spoke a bit of English, but they encouraged us to speak to them in Chinese even if they were communicating to us in English. It was challenging to get things that come naturally in English across to people who had much less experience speaking to Americans. We were shown to our room, which was a standard dorm room for students, with three bed/desk combinations, where the bed was on top with a desk underneath to complete work and keep various things. Still trying to adjust to the completely flipped timezone, we were whisked off to a famous Beijing Sichuan restaurant, a region in China known for its cultural cuisine. It took a few days for us to get adjusted to the new time, sleeping as early as 7 p.m. and waking up at 4 a.m. During this week, we toured with students at the school at some famous historical sites, such as the Summer Palace, where we were able to get a boat powered by pedaling on the famous lake. We also visited the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where the massive stadium called the Bird’s Nest was located. A couple of the days we went to other Beijing No. 8 campuses, including the main campus, where we got an experience in a normal Chinese school day, attending classes with an assigned student and shadowing them for the entirety of the day. Besides the classical Chinese class that was equivalent to our English classes in America and were impossible to understand, it was very interesting to watch how the style of teaching and studying differs there. Surprisingly, even though students carried on their own conversations during class, they were able to keep up with what was being taught and the teacher was able to keep control of the class even though it was rather noisy. I had to continually ask my students during certain classes like Math and Classical Chinese what was going on, but I learned a lot about the teaching method if not the actual content of the class. We learned a lot about the interests of the average Chinese high school student as well, playing basketball with the boys after lunch and getting to know them through sports. I played one-on-one with the self-proclaimed best basketball player in the grade, and I introduced the American dominance in basketball to the rest of the students.

Painting eggs with the students during the Dragonboat Festival 

We also visited the campus dedicated to the arts, where we took a class learning the traditional Chinese tea setup, and also a calligraphy class where we learned the sophisticated method of ancient writing. However, the experience that stood out to me the most that week was the trip to the Great Wall. The sheer size and beauty of the structure had me awestruck, and climbing up the Great Wall in the mountains may be the coolest thing I have ever done. It was packed with people, but it didn’t take away from the incredible view overlooking the misty Chinese mountains.

The Great Wall and its fantastic view 

Touring with Frank


After saying a sad goodbye to our friends and teachers at Beijing No. 8, we traveled to a hotel in a different part of Beijing with an office worker from WLSA, where we were introduced to one of the more unusual friends on the trip, Frank. Frank was a 30-year-old tour guide that was assigned to the three of us, and we spent 5 days with him touring famous historical sites in Beijing. He was extremely knowledgeable about everywhere we went, easily able to answer our questions and giving us useful historical excerpts to have a better understanding of how the culture developed into what it is today. His English was also very good, and we had no trouble communicating with him. He took us to Tiananmen Square, where we were able to see the highly guarded body of Mao Zedong and the Forbidden City, a massive palace with over 8,000 rooms. During this week we were treated to many of the famous Beijing foods, including Peking duck, which is the iconic meal in the city. The other days we were taken to museums and art galleries by the WLSA employees.

Peter, Will, and I in a Buddhist temple we toured with Frank

Shanghai

At the end of the second week we met up with Zhang Laoshi and her daughter, and we then took a high-speed bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai. The train was one of the coolest parts of the entire trip, as it allowed us to see many parts of both rural China and the landscapes of the different cities as we stopped in many stations. As we arrived at the train station in Shanghai, we were separated for the first time when we divided up to go with our respective host families. My host student was a 16-year-old girl named Tina, and she had gone to Maryland previously for her own exchange program. Her English was better than my Chinese, but I was still able to talk about her life with her family in the Shanghai suburb with her in her native language. On the days that Tina didn’t have school, we would tour different aspects of Shanghai, whether it be the WLSA International School, famous temples, or a regular department store in downtown Shanghai. One of the most memorable experiences was the day that we traveled with Zhang Laoshi to an elementary school in Jiading, where we sat in on one of the English classes, introduced parts of American culture and Nashville to the kids, and taught them duck-duck-goose, which we played for half an hour. We even got interviewed by the local Chinese news. The thing that stuck out to me most about Shanghai was the vastness of the city. Home to 25 million people, different parts of the city had completely different cultures, and that aspect of a large city compared to Nashville was a bit of a culture shock for me in both Shanghai and Beijing. At the end of the trip, I said a sad goodbye to my gracious host family, who had given me my own air-conditioned room and bathroom in their extremely hospitable home, and headed to the Shanghai airport from which we departed.

Farner getting interviewed by the Chinese news at a Jiading elementary school

Thank You I want to say thank you to the Wilson family for making this experience possible, and also to my teacher and WLSA, who collaborated to make our trip as fun and educational as possible. Without all of them working together to further my knowledge of the language and culture of China, I wouldn’t have been able to have this incredible experience with my friends. Most of all the Wilson family, who not only sent me to immersion camp to better my Chinese but also for sending me to a foreign country in an incredible experience.

Will Farner China 2018

Arrival

After an exhausting fourteen hour flight from Detroit, Peter, Kiran, and I finally landed in Beijing Capital International Airport. The first thing I noticed was that every sign in the airport had not only Chinese but also the English translation below it. As this was my first trip outside of the western world, I was not expecting eastern culture to be so tolerant. The customs and passport control were uneventful except that everyone entering the country, citizens and foreigners alike, were required to have their fingerprints scanned into a database. Once through customs, a WLSA spokesman picked us up and took us to where we were residing for the next week or so, Beijing No. 8 High School. When we arrived at the school, we got ourselves situated in our three-person dormitory and then headed out to dinner at a local restaurant with some of the school’s staff. They made sure to order us a variety of dishes and were extremely hospitable. When we arrived back at the dormitories, which were empty of all other students except us because it was the weekend, we immediately crashed because of the thirteen hour time difference.

Our dorm door

First Week in School

We spent the first of three weeks going to three of Beijing No. 8 High School’s seven campuses across the city and seeing the Great Wall and Summer Palace. The day after our arrival, we visited the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall of China and the Bird’s Nest, a former Olympic stadium. During our day trip, nine different groups of people greeted us and asked for pictures because they thought we were white American internet celebrities. Typically they were from rural parts of China also sight-seeing in Beijing. The rest of the week was spent attending school on other campuses. The campus we were residing was the international campus, meant for students who intend to go to university in America. We also visited the main campus, which is the biggest campus by number of students, and the Arts campus which focused on music, calligraphy, culture, and painting. On the Friday of the first week, the Dragon Boat Festival began. The Dragon Boat Festival is a national holiday in which all schools and businesses close for a three day weekend. At school, we celebrated by making zong zi, sticky rice with dates wrapped in seaweed, painting eggs, and making decorative paper zong zi. At the end of the week, it was time to say our goodbyes to the school staff and start our next week in a hotel in central Beijing.

Leaving campus for hotel

Visiting the Great Wall

Making paper zong zi at Dragon Boat festival celebration

Second Week in Hotel

The second week was spent with WLSA and a tour guide seeing sights that are in Beijing proper like Tiananmen Square, Temples of Heaven and Earth, Capital Museum, Beijing Zoo, and Natural Sciences Museum. In Tiananmen Square, we were able to see former chairman Mao Ze Dong’s body and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is a huge plaza in the middle of Beijing which receives around 80,000 visitors on a normal workday. Our third party tour guide for the week named Frank performed his job excellently and intelligently. He seemed to know more than a textbook or Wikipedia even. He told us about all the ancient Chinese lore in the Temples of Heaven and Earth and a Buddhist Temple we visited. Every morning for that week we were escorted by a WLSA staff member to a local restaurant for breakfast and Frank would take us to lunch and to dinner. After each day, we would usually go to the 7/11 by our hotel to buy snacks and then watch the World Cup in our hotel room. One of the cultural differences between China and America is the reliance in washing machines. In our hotel, it was 20 Yuan (about $3) per article of clothing. So instead of paying around $100, we opted to buy detergent and wash them in the sink ourselves. Overall, my favorite week was the second week because it was the most culturally immersive and Frank became our close friend.

Me and our tour guide Frank at McDonalds

Largest wooden Buddha Statue in the world (28 ft)

Third Week in ShanghaiAt the end of the second week, we met up with Zhang Laoshi and her daughter and traveled on a high speed train to Shanghai. On a normal train, the trip is around ten hours but on our train it was a mere five. At the train station, we were greeted by our host families. My host’s name was Terry. I stayed with him, his mother, their nanny, and their dog Chocolate. The mom was the CEO of her own startup tech company. Terry and his mother are some of the smartest people I have ever conversed with. During our dinner time conversations we would discuss varying topics such as the dynamics of Chinese politics, the validity of religion, feminism in China, and the lack of freedom of speech in China. These conversations really let me see inside the mind of a Chinese citizen and vastly improved my language skills. Shanghai was much more modern than Beijing was. We went on top of Shanghai tower, took a river cruise, went inside the Gucci store, but unable to purchase anything, and even saw Incredibles 2 in theaters. During our time, we explored the downtown area, and visited a school in the suburb of Jiading. Jiading School is where the immigrant farmers’ children go to school because they do not have an expensive special license that allows them to send their kids to Shanghai metro schools. We taught the kids how to play duck-duck-goose and I even got interviewed by a Chinese news station.

Writing our Chinese names at the Summer Palace

From the top of Shanghai Tower

Recreating The Titanic scene on a river cruise in Shanghai

ThanksI would like to thank the Wilson family for funding my language grant and allowing me to more fully understand the Chinese language and culture. I am very grateful for this opportunity and without the Wilson family’s help it would not have been possible. I would also like to thank WLSA and Zhang Laoshi coordinating the wonderful trip of a lifetime.

Nantes Trip 2018

On June 30th, I arrived at the Boston International Airport to meet up with my group as we began our month-long journey to Nantes. After getting to know several of the other students, we took an eight hour plane flight to Paris, from where we took a four hour bus ride to the city of Nantes and the boarding school where we would be staying, Blanche de Castille.

"Le Chantier" just outside the buildings at BDC

When we arrived at BDC, we did not know what to expect. However, we were soon welcomed by the animateurs (interns) and shown to our dorm rooms. The next day, we got into our typical schedule: Breakfast, morning classes, lunch, culture classes, time in the centre-ville, and finally, evening activities.

The morning class was the most typical, here, we worked on grammar and speaking skills for thee hours with ten minute breaks in between. My teacher, Virginie, was a Nantes native and was very helpful in growing my abilities in French. The culture classes were very interesting as well. I took three of them during my time in France: Cinema, Photography and Regional Culture. These classes were very interesting and gave me a background in certain aspects of French life that I never would have discovered without these classes.

One of my favorite times in the day was taking a daily excursion to the centre-ville, essentially the tourism district/downtown of Nantes. Here, we were given a wide variety of things to do, sometimes we would have several free hours to explore the city with our friends, or we would go to a museum as a group. 

The St. Pierre Cathedral in the centre-ville     

The centre-ville was like nothing I have ever experienced before. It was filled with small shops and restaurants, with very few tall buildings. It was very cool to explore and discover new places each time we went, and it was also very satisfying to eventually know the city well enough to walk around without using a map.

To get to the centre-ville (and most places in Nantes), we would take either the public bus or the Tram. Nantes has an amazing public transportation system and taking it everyday was a wonderful chance to interact with the inhabitants of Nantes. Having lived in Nashville my whole life, regularly experiencing well-run and clean public transportation was very a interesting and convenient way to get around. 

A typical road in the centre-ville

Another exciting aspect of the trip was the weekend. Each weekend, our group would drive out of the city and visit a different part of France. For the first weekend, we visited the Moneky Forest, a ropes course just an hour away from Nantes. After the monkey forest, we went to a creperie in the countryside, where we ate delicious ham and cheese crepes with our group. 

Eating crepes at the creperie

The second weekend was perhaps the most exciting, as we visited Puy du Fou, a historical themepark in middle of France. At Puy du Fou we roamed around and went to different spectacles, things like bird shows or viking reenactments.

The Puy du Fou entrance

A bird show at Puy du Fou

 

After the day at Puy du Fou, almost 10,000 visitors went into a large theater, where we watched France win the World Cup Final, one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had.

Allez Mbappe!

For the third and final weekend, we went to Mont Saint Michel, a famous monastery in Normandy on the ocean. It was very beautiful and very fun to explore the Monastery, which seemingly overlooked all of France. There were also several shops and restaurants below the monastery, and we spent hours exploring as much of it as we could.

The incredible view from atop the Mont St. Michel monastery

My time in Nantes had a great mix of learning and having fun. The people I met, both Americans and French were all incredible and helped me have a wonderful experience. Being in a French-only environment for almost a month was very different and helped my proficiency in so many ways. Thanks to the classes and complete immersion, I improved my grammar, writing, speaking and listening comprehension skills more than I ever could have imagined. I also was able to grasp a better understanding for French culture and their way of life.

Merci

I would like to the Wilson family for their incredible generosity by giving me this wonderful opportunity to study in Nantes for a month. Without the Wilson Grant program, I would have never been able to improve my French so much or been able to experience French culture firsthand. I would also like to thank Mr. Trotter, my French teacher for the past two years, for telling me of this opportunity and for making me into the French student that I am today. I am very excited to take AP French next year and I know that this grant will help me succeed in that class more than I ever could have. Finally I would like to thank Mr. Paolicchi for coordinating the Travel Grants and making all of this possible.

 

James Vest, Germany, 2018

The Arrival
Ever since I have started German I always wanted to go Germany. I kept telling myself it would be fun and that I'd fit in immediately. Then I got off the plane. Nothing could've prepared me for what was to come. I had been awake for some time due to jack lag because I was to stubborn to sleep on the plane. My exchange partner and I met when he was in America just a year or two previous, so we knew each other and hit it off immediately. Deep down I wanted nothing more then to sleep, but he and I both had a lot of catching up to do. I was anxious to speak German so I started with him as soon as I could, but every time I attempted to converse in German, he replied in English while his friends would stick to German. I eventually couldn't take it anymore and I asked him why he chose not to. He told me that he was here so I could learn German and I was there so he could learn English. So from that point forward I would speak in German to my German, and he would speak in English to his American.


Food
The food in Germany was pretty simple. Sausage, Schnitzel, bread, and many more than I cannot hope to put into writing. The first German food I had was Currywurst. I don't know if it was the jet lag, or if it was the first meal since I left America but that was by far the best meal I have ever had.


From the picture it may not seem as appealing as I described but it was definitely the best food in Germany.






Rudesheim
Towards the end of my days in Germany all of my friends had been to the vineyard called Rudesheim except me. My German was busy with school so he asked a friend to take me who was going with her exchange student. She said she was glad for me to come.
The only way to Rudesheim was by train which I had been on once before with my exchange student. When the conductor came for the tickets I gave him my bus ticket that explained I was an exchange student. When the conductor was about to kick me off, my Exchange partner convinced him it was a legitimate ticket. Sadly, he wasn't there this time.
We got there in one piece, but on the way back there was another ticket check. So there I was, the foreigner trying to convince the conductor (who wasn't a nice person) that my exchange bus ticket was okay for the train. I explained in German how it should be fine, but as confident as I was, I was removed from the train. We were an hour car ride away from my house with cellular connection, even for the native German and my exchange partner expected me back in time for dinner. Luckily, we managed to hitch a ride and get back to the next train station so I could buy another ticket for a train that may or may not come. Not my brightest moment, but possibly my brightest story.


The Rudesheim Vineyards from the top of the Gondola.










Farewell
The day finally came for the Americans to leave. I didn't of myself as an "attached" person, but that was one of the hardest goodbyes of my life. It wasn't just because we lived together, but our connection. Language is a means of communication, the better the communication, the better the relationship. Well we had two methods of communication; German and English. There was nothing we misunderstood about each other, no points that were unclear in our conversation. We were basically brothers.
Throughout my time in Germany I was asked a few times what I though of Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, and their recent arguments. I never had an answer to that question. In trying to find an answer I learned something that most men spend a life time trying to learn. In a world surrounded my hatred between countries, it is hard to simply forget the politics and get along. I learned that nationality doesn't matter, the only thing that does matter is the kind of person someone is. That may sound extremely dark, but in my opinion its the truth we need to embrace, not bury.

Munich
After our farewells, we took the train to Munich. Munich was where I was experienced to a new kind of Germany, the old Germany. Munich was located in south Eastern Germany. Similar to how the American south has different traditions than the north, Munich has different traditions than where we stayed in Wiesbaden. In Munich, the famous Leder Hosen were very common, along with a thicker dialect of German. We ate different foods which were no less hearty than they were in Wiesbaden.


Vienna
As we moved further and further away from our small town Wiesbaden, the food became more traditional, and the accents became thicker. We took another train from Munich to Vienna, passing through the Alps and towns like Salzburg. Vienna was different from Germany in many ways. Vienna was the center of an Empire and its remains still exist in Vienna. we visited many art museums and the old palace of Franz Joseph, the emperor of the old Empire. My favorite food in Vienna was Schnitzel and cheese sausage. We also did a lot of walking. On our last day we walked over fourteen miles around the entire city of Vienna, which is in the shape of a circle. On our last day in Vienna, we went to an old amusement park that never closed. Some of the rides had been bombed during WWII. We went to a museum of sorts dedicated solely to the Ferris wheel. The wheel had existed for hundreds of years (I'm sure with renovations) and stood around most of Vienna's important historical moments.


Vienna Amusement park Ferris wheel on the last night in Austria.

Final Departure

Not that homesickness defined my experience what so ever, but it's almost impossible to not think of home at least once when your away. I always imagined my departure not being to difficult, but by the end of my exchange, I did not want to leave. It felt as if I was leaving a second life behind me or waking up from a good dream only to realize you have five minutes to get to school. We made our trip to the airport my train, and I was sure to get an actual ticket this time. We somehow made it from Vienna to Frankfurt to Toronto to Nashville without any delays or cancellations. I returned home a changed man with a deeper understanding of how the world works and how others see the world.

Thank you
I can not even begin to explain how thankful I am for the opportunity the Wilson family has given me. Although you will read many of these, please know that my appreciation for your gift runs deep and will not be forgotten.