October Report from Rotary Exchange Student Sarah Ash

Greetings from France

Gina wanted to assure everyone that in light of Friday's events in Paris, that she has been in touch with both our exchange students in France and they are both fine. Neither of their host families were directly affected by the attacks but everyone in France is of course affected to some degree. Neither Sarah nor Anthony are letting this dampen their experience of France.

Highlights from Sarah's Report:

I got over the cold I mentioned last time quickly.

My host family took me to the Pont d’arc which is a replica of a cave that contains the oldest drawing in the world and I absolutely loved it. I also got to see a black and white movie with the orchestra playing in the background and it had been a Charlie Chaplin “The Kid” so the writing was in the English.

This month I did go to one Rotary meeting. At the meeting I talked (in French) a little bit about school and how I am liking France. My club said that since their meetings go until around 11:00pm at night on a school night that they will only ask me to come when I am on holidays. When I go to my next meeting I am going to make the club butter tarts as I will be bringing that dessert to our exchange student international meal later this month.

My French is getting much better now I understand so much more (as long as the person doesn’t speak super fast” I think I still need another couple of months to really be speaking it well but my host family and Rotary both said that it has improved so much. I did miss Halloween a bit since i didn’t get to do anything. I’m not homesick though. Overall France is really amazing and I still can’t believe I’m here for a year. It still feels like a dream.

You can read Sarah's full report in the longer story.

Student Info.

Student name: Sarah Ash

Email address: sarahash00@shaw.ca

Sponsor Club: Prince George Nechako

Host Club: Montpellier Méditerranée

Host Club Counsellor: Fabrice LeGallo

Host Family Info.

Name: Sophie and Christophe Murador

Phone Number: 04 67 47 58 37

Address: 1 ter route de lattes 34470 PEROLS, France

Health

My health is perfectly fine I got over the cold I mentioned last time quickly.

School Activities

In my last report I mentioned that I did have some difficulty with my physics teacher. Very recently after sending that report we had a test in the class. I was completely alright with at least attempting at the test even though I had no idea what we had been learning. However my class did not feel like it was right for me to write it so they started arguing with the teacher and I had tried to say it was alright and I will try to write it but no one could hear me. The part though that caused the most annoyance in the class was when my teacher responded that since she pays $10,000 in taxes for each student to go to school she said that I must take it. Everyone was really confused and angry that that was what she said. Afterwards she continued to dislike me and would often get frustrated and mad at me for not knowing how to use the machines in class. My class brought this to the attention of my History teacher, who is also our class principal and controls our schedules, so she asked me if I would like to be in another French class and no more Physics. So she was able to find me another French class and I am no longer in Physics. The French class is in the Spanish section of the school and there is one exchange student in my class. Many people ask me why I am not in the European sections since they learn English more. My school called me to come talk to them though yesterday because they were confused and seemed a bit concerned about the people who are on my information at school as usually I would write my host family number when were asked things from the teacher. Everything is fine and I explained that they are responsible for me in France. We had a 2 week break from school and we just began again so nothing else has happened currently.

Attendance At Rotary Functions

Activities Outside of Rotary

In the first week of holidays my host brothers friend from the U.S came for 5 days so I got to spend time with her and I even showed her around a bit. It had been fun spending time with someone that I could completely communicate with as I haven’t been able to do that since I met up with the exchange students in the beginning of September. Most of the second week I didn’t have anything to do but the exchange student that I met in my new French class and I did hang out one day together and it had been a lot of fun. On another day the other Canadian exchange student came with her family to Montpellier and so I was able to spend the day with her. My host family took me to the Pont d’arc which is a replica of a cave that contains the oldest drawing in the world and I absolutely loved it. I also got to see a black and white movie with the orchestra playing in the background and it had been a Charlie Chaplin “The Kid” so the writing was in the English.

Comments and Requests

My French is getting much better now I understand so much more (as long as the person doesn’t speak super fast” I think I still need another couple of months to really be speaking it well but my host family and Rotary both said that it has improved so much. After coming back after the break so far it seems like people are talking to me less so there has been days where I wouldn’t get to talk to anyone. I did miss Halloween a bit since i didn’t get to do anything. I’m not homesick though. I am having fun here even with the lack of friends at the moment. I am wondering if people will talk to me more once I speak French or if it will be too late for them to want to. Overall France is really amazing and I still can’t believe I’m here for a year. It still feels like a dream.