Update from PNR's first Exchange Student!

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down at my computer, stared at my travel journal, and tried to decide which story to share. It’s an interesting process, attempting to decipher my own scribbles, sketches, and anecdotes, sorting through which ones are appropriate to share with the wider audience of Facebook and beyond. So, here's a note I've been meaning to share.

 

Written on my flight back from my trip to see Clemence and her family in France:

 

Dear Pleasanton North Rotary,

 

Thank you.

 

Thank you for listening to me when I asked you to send me to abroad. 

 

Thank you for the opportunity to learn Spanish, which I keep up in small conversations with friends here and there and in my binge-watching of Spanish TV on Netflix (highly recommend ‘The Grand Hotel’ for anyone interested in a Spanish take on Downton Abbey). 

 

Thank you for the opportunity to learn to love foods like octopus salad, grilled squid and fried sardines. 

 

Thank you for introducing me to Europe, a place that I oftentimes feel more comfortable in than I do at home. 

 

Thank you for sending me to a place where I got lost (frequently) on public transportation; I now know that I will always manage find my way with a bit of creativity and by having no shame in asking locals for directions. 

 

Thank you for the opportunity to learn that it’s better to make up a word than be too shy to practice the language, a lesson which I put to use on a daily basis here in Croatia (much to many of my baristas’ amusement). 

 

Thank you, more than anything, for the family that you have created. Since you began the program in 2012, my family has added countless members. Not just my host families or the students that have come to live at the ‘Purple Door Ranch,’ but also the families of those students that my parents hosted, and the wonderful exchange students of District 5170. Two weeks ago, I sent an out-of-the-blue message to Clem, who stayed with my family a year or so ago, asking if I could come visit her in France on my spare weekend. Without hesitation, she send me an enthusiastic “OUI” and we quickly made plans for my trip. Keep in mind, I’d only spent a few afternoons with Clem because I was at school for most of the time that she spent with my family, and I’d never met her parents or little brother who had graciously invited me into their home. Also, my middle school french was more than a bit rusty, and I’d been warned that her family spoke minimal English (though I soon learned that they all spoke very well and were just shy about it!). So, off I went. And it was wonderful. A weekend full of cheese, wine, mountains, lakes, castles, and french jokes followed. Having spent weeks living alone with 20-something year olds, being with a real family again was refreshing and, simply, wonderful. So I guess what I’ve been wanting to say is: thank you. Thank you, PNR, for the family I now have around the world.

 

Love from somewhere in the sky above Europe,

 

Shonabell