Hi! I’m Grace and I’ve been living in Chaumont, France for two months now. It has been AMAZING!!! I’ve had so many new and incredible experiences so far and I’m not even a quarter of the way through!
I arrived in France on the 20th of January this year and was welcomed with open arms by my first host family. They have four children – one 16 year old son (who is currently in the United States on exchange) and three daughters: Florine (15), Bérénice (12), and Josephine (7).
When I arrived, I spoke hardly any French. I knew a couple of words and ‘survival phrases’ but I didn’t speak anywhere near enough to hold or even start a conversation. Two months in, I have spoken at my Rotary meeting twice and am able to make conversation in reasonably good French. Immersion is absolutely amazing for language skills!
I’ve been on some pretty incredible trips too. My host family took me alpine skiing in Les Saisies (in the French Alps) during the winter holidays and I LOVED IT!!!!! Skiing in the alps is a phenomenal experience. I have also taken a couple of day trips and weekend trips. I have visited Nancy, Langres, Colmar, Stasbourg, Forbach and Reims. Everywhere in France is stunning.
I really like school too. It’s incredibly different to Australia! I spend a different amount of time at school every day of the week, I don’t have to wear a uniform, I eat in the cafeteria every day and it’s all in another langauge (obviously)! I have made a few good friends that I enjoy hanging out with too.
I do karate 6 hours a week here too. I also do an hour of yoga per week and play my French Horn in the local band. I’ve found that getting involved in local activities like sports is really good when you are on exchange – you are introduced to many people who can share amazing stories with you and you make more connections in general.
I have set myself a few goals for the year ahead – just a couple of things I would like to improve about myself that I think exchange will really help with. I would like to: mature, learn fluent French (or almost fluent), be able to understand body language better, improve my listening skills, become more relaxed, make positive connections with people and make many new friends. I think that for various reasons, exchange is the best way to improve on these things. I have also started doing a little challenge Mum set me before I left – at the end of each week, write down three positives and one negative that happened throughout the week. They can be big or small and you can add more than three positives if you have more you can think of. I started it in my first week of exchange and so far have done it every week. It has really helped me keep things in perspective on the days that I’m not feeling so great, or missing home.
I absolutely love exchange so far and I’m so so so so so excited for the year ahead.
Grace <3
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