Our flight from Nashville
was slightly delayed because of rain. As a result, we arrived in New York only
a little before our flight was scheduled to take off to France. We had to
literally sprint through the airport in order to make it. We arrived at the
gate just as they were closing it. When we arrived it turned out our baggage
didn’t have time to transfer flights. We wouldn’t get our clothes until
two weeks later.
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| Owen and I both bought clothes from H&M to make up for our lost baggage |
On the flight, I was
sitting next to a family from France who had been in New York for vacation and
we discussed the different schools and regions in France.
I rode back with my family
from the airport to their house near Bordeaux. I met the parents, and the two
little sisters of my host, Aurelian. The first meal I ate was a sign of things
to come. There were different types of sausage, cheese, and bread, all of which
tasted amazing.
It was disorienting and
awkward at first to meet all the new people and not have any of my bags, but it
helped me to learn to just go along with new experiences and people. A lot of
the trip included new things I had never done before, and I think the most
important skill was not my increased understanding of French Culture or
Language, but the open minded nature the trip fostered. The repeated new food,
words, and people showed me to never discount something or someone till you
tried it.
The first week of school
started with an early wake-up and taking the Tram to Bordeaux then a bus to La
Saque. Once we arrived, we met the director of the school and immediately began
going to classes.
The first class I went to
was an English class where the students were having a debate on whether street
art was vandalism or not. This was my first moment of many on the trip where I
would hear French students speaking English. It was incredibly bizarre to see
the inverse of my French Class, with students trying to use an American Accent.
It was funny to see them speak English until I realized that’s what I must have
sounded like the whole time to them.
The next class was
something based around Politics and Elections. It was hard to tell exactly what
the focus was, but I understood a lot of the teachers' descriptions of elections
and democracy. The professor kept mentioning Trump and Obama to contrast their
approaches which I found very interesting to hear from a French Perspective.
The history class I went to
was also different than I was used to just because it was incredibly removed
from American History. Even when discussing world affairs in history class, we
will relate it to events that were occuring in the US at the same time. In this
class however, they were discussing French History I had never heard of. The
event that surprised me most was their discussion of the creation of the
automobile without mentioning Ford or US innovation at all. It made me realize
how US-centric our classes always are.
Similarly, the philosophy
class was very different. Unlike the US, philosophy class is a regular car
class for the French, just like Math or Science. We discussed Kant’s Critique
of Pure Reason, the appearance of objects, and the expansion of the
universe.
I could understand the most
in all of the Math and Science classes I attended. Most of the technical terms
were the same, and the straight up math or chemical drawings of molecules were
the exact same.
The most bizarre moment of
the week and perhaps the whole trip came at the end of the week when I attended
my second English Class. Since it was friday, the teacher decided to show them
an American Movie, called Bowling for Columbine. I had never heard of
the movie so I was surprised to see it was about the gun culture and school
shootings in America. The whole film shows very far right, gun loving radicals
who are painted as crazy by Michael Moore. Coming from the United States, I
knew it wasn’t completely representative of the gun culture but it dawned on me
that the radical views portrayed in the movie must seem like normal America to
the French. During the movie, I was incredibly uncomfortable to see the list of
interventions and innocent populations the US government had killed. At that
moment, being surrounded by critical French students, I had never felt more
ashamed to be American.
The common theme of all of
these classes is that it allowed me to see how other people see America and
how different other cultures could be. I had never really been able to step
outside my own bubble to critically examine the United States. It taught me a
sort of self-reflexivity to be able to question my long-held assumptions like
the greatness and superiority of the United States. Things I had taken for
granted as basic as our class content to the benignity of our military.
All of the meals were amazing.
At every meal there were bins of baguette and butter, and you could eat as much
as you wanted. For Breakfast, there was hot chocolate, coffee, and tea, all of
which tasted amazing.
At night, we would go back
to the dorms and have some time before sleeping. I roomed with two boys I
hadn’t met before, but they were very nice. Every night, we would argue about
politics in French, which improved my ability to speak fast and respond in
French quickly a lot.
One main thing I noticed
about the students was how flippant they were with the rules of the school. It
might have been that it was just the second to last week of school, but all of
the terminales (seniors in French), we were with would show up to class late.
During the class, they would talk and even sleep. Most of the professors didn’t
seem to care at all. An example of this disobedience was the senior prank the
students pulled. They spray painted the grounds with funny phrases, and moved
all the chairs and tables from the dining hall into the nice courtyard. We
weren’t even allowed to walk on the grass, but during the night they moved the
tables so that we all ate outside that morning. The male seniors even peed in
the sinks in the dorms of the female seniors.
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| Breakfast on the Grass |
First Weekend With the Family
The first weekend with my
host family was amazing. Friday night, it was just me and Aurelian and he
heated up a pizza in the oven. Somehow, it was one of the best pizzas I had
ever had even thought it was one you would buy at the store.
On saturday, we biked to a
park to meet up with some of Aurelian’s friends. It was interesting and
informative to meet other French teens. Most of the other french students I
would meet would always ask about Trump, which I thought was funny. Everyone,
especially the other children, seemed extremely fashionable. As in, everyone
was very cognizant of how they dressed and looked as if they had carefully
cultivated their outfits. Another thing I noticed was the popularity of
American Music. All of the French teens listened to artists like Drake or Lil’
Pump and would ask about slang or lyrics they didn’t understand.
The next day we went on a
short road trip around Southern France to visit different Chateaus. We packed
up food for a picnic and visited historic castles and buildings. What amazed me
was the age of the places we saw. In the US, it would be amazing to see a
building 200 years old. In France, a building 500 years old would be considered
a relic. That night I was able to try French Oysters which were amazing.
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| One of the Historic Castles We Saw |
The second week back at La
Soque went by much faster because we were doing activities each day.
The first day we went to
Arcachon which was a beautiful town that reminded me of small sea towns in the
United States like Seaside. We ate some amazing crepes too. In the afternoon,
we went to some huge dunes with amazing views. It was a hard climb, but was
worth it in the end.
The next day we went into
the wine village of Saint Emillion. We learned the history of the town and were
able to tour the Catacombs underneath the hills.
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| Countryside Views. |
The views across the
countryside were amazing as well. After the village, we were able to tour a
Wine Chateau and see how wine is made.
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| The Wine Making Machine |
On Wednesday, we went
through the classes again. I went with a student who had grown up in California
then moved to France. I learned that they do final grades out of 20, in which
18 and 19 are great, and 14 is average. The classes are grouped into different
learning paths which are Language, Science, and Economic and Social. The
learning system is incredibly intense in that if you do badly on one exam, you
might not be able to go into the category that you wanted to. It was pretty
much a major except in high school.
One of the most fun parts
of the trip was playing Rugby with Owen and some other French Students. We did
drills where they taught us the technique and skills, and then we played a full
game.
Finally, we were able to
meet with the mayor of the town near La Soque. We discussed the international
partnership we had formed. It was a sweet ceremony and all of the officials of
were very nice.
I had more free time the
second weekend as the family I was staying with was very busy. I had time to
explore the little town we were in called Bourges. I biked around some and read
in a park for most of the day.
On Sunday, we went to watch
my host’s little sister play field hockey. The sport is very popular there, and
there are whole leagues and teams for it.
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| Watching the Field Hockey Games |
During the last two days of
school, we didn’t have any classes. On Monday and Tuesday, there was just
Olympiad, which was basically a field day for the juniors and seniors. The
events were mostly the same but they also had dancing and an obstacle course. Monday
night, there was a theater skit and a comedy play.
It was sad seeing all of
the friends we made for the last time. It was great to meet them and I felt
like in the short time at the school, we all had made some very good friends. I
am still in contact with some of them.
The last week with the
family was amazing because I had time each day to do whatever I wanted.
The first day back,
Aurelian and I went into Bordeaux and had lunch with some of our friends from
La Soque. Over the next couple of days, Aurelian had an internship, so I was
able to go into Bordeaux alone. I went to a Modern Art Museum, and just
explored around the city for hours. It was amazing to see all the historic
places and amazing restaurants. On one of the last nights, there was a festival
of wine in Bordeaux. Aurelian and I went and were able to see fireworks and
different french food trucks.
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| A Historic Church in Bordeaux |
It was fitting that during
the last few days I was able to explore the city alone. I felt like all of the
French I had learned the weeks before had made me more confident in navigating
the city. Whether it was speaking with the museum curator or just ordering
food, I could tell that I had learned a lot and become more independent in
working through the language.
Thanks so much to the
Wilson family for giving me the opportunity to be able to travel
internationally. I learned so much and was able to experience things I would
have never been able to without the trip. I am so glad I was able to go and
won’t forget the time I had.
