John Morphett:France

Amaury and I

Mr. Trotter was very kind to allow me to arrive in France a couple of days late because I had the state individual tennis tournament. Upon my arrival in Paris, Mr. Trotter met me in the Paris airport, and, together, we took a train direct from Paris to Bordeaux. Since I arrived on a Wednesday, I immediately went to the boarding school and not my host family’s house. I was greeted by my French brother, Amaury Hugues, when I arrived at Le Lycée de la Sauque.

Each day during the week, Monday through Friday, was very well planned out by Mr. Trotter and Madame Begley, the French teacher from St. Cecilia. Each morning the students would wake up at 7:00 a.m. and breakfast ran from 7:30 to 8:00. Then sometime between 9:00 and 10:00, the MBA students and the St. Cecilia students, plus some of the students from the French school occasionally, would leave the campus to go on some type of excursion. These trips included tours of churches and chateaux, a trip to the beach, Canoeing, and a trip to a winery (but no one tasted any wine). My favorite one of these trips was our excursion to the beach, La plage d’Arcachon. It was nice to have a day to relax on the sand and swim in the ocean. But adding to this, we also went to a ginormous dune, the Dune of Pilat, which was my favorite part of the beach trip. The hike up the dune was extremely difficult, but it was worth it once I had made it to the top. The view over the ocean was just spectacular! Also, running down the dune was extremely fun. It felt like I was flying while running down.

At the Beach

Another great day that I experienced at the school was the sports Olympic games. The first thing I noticed is that French people are awful at American sports, haha. The sports that I am referring to right now are basketball and baseball. Playing baseball was one of the funniest experiences of the trip. For some reason, the French play baseball with eight bases, a plastic bat, and a tennis ball. The sports Olympics day was great because I got to socialize with many of the French students. There were about six different teams, and each team wanted the Americans on their team. It was extremely fun to be able to contribute to a team.

Each weekend I would go to my host family’s house, and many of my favorite moments were spent there. Amaury always has a smile on his face and he is extremely nice. I didn’t get too spend much time with his father because of work, but I spent a great deal of time with Amaury’s mother. She is one of the nicest ladies I have ever met, and she loved to spend time with me as I loved to spend time with her. Amaury and I loved to play soccer together and then go swimming. When we weren’t doing this, we would be having fun out in the city of Périgueux.

Everyone at The Hugues’ House

The Hugues were nice enough to have all of the other MBA students and their host brothers as well as Mr. Trotter and Mr. Massenet, a teacher at La Sauque, over to their home for a night. It was a great bonding moment with everyone. As a group, we took a tour of the city, went swimming, played soccer, and finally ended the night with a movie and Xbox. This was a very eventful day and one of my favorite days of the whole trip.

It is very difficult for me to make any comparison between MBA and Le Lycée de la Sauque. To start off, since I arrived late, I did not get to go to any of the classes. Secondly, by the time we arrived at the school as a group, the school year was pretty much over. The student were just taking exams, or they were already done. But one similarity I did notice was the strictness of the teachers. They enforced the rules quite well.

At the top of the Eiffel Tower

This wonderful trip ended with five days in Paris. If I’m being honest, Paris is not a city that I like very much. I personally do not like to tour a lot of museums and other events like that. My personal opinion is that Paris is a kind of dirty city with too many tourists. But it wasn’t bad. We ate some great food while there, and the Eiffel Tower was spectacular.

My ability to speak the French language improved an immeasurable amount, and I learned a great deal about the history of France. Last but not least, I would like to thank the Wilson Family for giving me this great, life-changing opportunity.