Aleana Kings 5th & 6th Reports from France)

Realname: Aleana King

Sponsor Club: Prince George Downtown Club

Counsellor: Gerhard Rotter

Host Club: St Nom la Breteche

Host Family Name: Hurbault

Host Family Address: 24 Chemin du Bois des Arpents
78860 St Nom la Breteche
France

Host Family Phone: 01030802063

Health Report: I was a little sad/homesick at the beginning of the month. Other than that, my health has been good. I have had a bit of a cold, but so did most everyone else at school, so it was nothing major.

My second host family, the Leger family, enjoy vegetables. In their home meat is primarily eaten at the midday meal (which was when I was at school) and suppers were always a salad and a vegetable dish. I was quite pleased to learn some new recipes and to lose some of the weight that I had gained over the Christmas holidays... I stayed with my second host family, as planned, for 6 weeks, before returning to my first host family, the Hurbaults. My return coincided with my second week of school vacation. After my return we left for Avoriaz for a week for skiing. (I had learned to ski in Canada, so I had some skills when I got on the slopes.) We arrived in Avoriaz on Sunday and skied for the whole week. I didn't have any accidents until the Friday. During my first run of the morning I was going a bit too fast for my comfort. The slope was quite steep, so I thought the best way to decrease my speed would be to stop in the snow bank to my left. I must not have been fully awake... as it happened that "snow bank" was closer to a wall of ice. I bounded off of it and flew about 5
metres backward and landed on my right arm. (My injury did not stop me from skiing for the rest of the day.) Amazingly enough, I only have a fading bruise to remind me of the incident.

School Report: I was glad to get back into the school routine after the Christmas holidays. The beginning of February meant that the TPE's were supposed to be finished. The TPE's are mandatory group projects of choice, for all of the students in grade 11. I didn't have to do a TPE, so therefore I was exempted from the biggest school pressure for this month.

In addition to that assignment, February also had the Bac Blancs. The easiest way to explain this is to say that they are midterm exams. My friends were extremely stressed with their TPE's and Bac Blancs, so I can say that some days at school were less enjoyable than others. One good thing, due to the heavy study work load, the teachers didn't give us much homework.  I didn't mind that at all! I wrote my Bac Blanc for Science and French. I was very pleased with myself. Previously, with my speed in French, I had only been able to complete portions of the exams. This time however, I was really excited to realise that I was fast enough to complete the entire exam. The French exam, which was the hardest, consisted of a "question corpus" and a commentary on a poem (we were given four texts); the exam was four hours long. I managed to do both tasks in the given time - along with the help of my French-English dictionary of course.

For my science exam, I had an average mark. However, for French, I was one of the four students who scored above the class average! The teacher had taken into account my limits (learning French as a second language) but commended me on my comprehension of the text.

For my English class, I gave a presentation on home education and on-line schooling. One of the other English teachers asked me if I would give the presentation for two of his classes as well. So the following the week I gave my presentation two more times. For a field trip, my class visited the house of Jean Monnet, the "Father of Europe". It was a really great tour; I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to go. While I was there, learning about his life, I couldn't stop thinking about the Rotary - world peace, unity in diversity, and the power of one. An inspirational day to say the least!

Rotary Attendance Report: At the beginning of January, we, the Inbounds, were present for a second outbound orientation. The next Rotary Youth Exchange Event was the Exotic Meal in a city north of Paris, Amiens. (It's famous for its cathedral.) All of the exchange students were asked to make either a dessert or main dish (traditional to their country) for 10 people. I made mashed potatoes and banana bread. It was that weekend that we met the southern
hemisphere exchange students. We now have two Australian girls and one girl from Equator in our district.

March 5th was the district conference. All of the exchange students had to sing a song together for the Rotarians. The conference's theme was water, so we sang, "Les Lionnes" by Yannick Noah. I had learned the song on guitar, so I opened with the intro of the song. After
that, we played the original music and sang along; everyone seemed to like it.

During January and February, I also went to two concerts sponsored by the Rotary - one was classical music, the other was Jazz. I also went with my club's president and two other Rotarians to the regional hospital. The Rotary, along with other donors, had given money to
create a new games room for the paediatric ward.

Other Activities Report: This report might be a bit confusing, since it spans January and February. I originally planned to have January's report about my stay with the Leger's, but since there was only one week left in February remaining when I returned to the Hurbault's home, I decided to include both months in this report. 

January 8th to February 17th: I stayed with my second host family, the Leger family.
February  19th to February 26th: Ski vacation in Avoriaz, France, with the Hurbault family
February 27th to present: Back to "normal"; I am living with the Hurbault family once again.
When I lived with Genevieve and Patrick Leger, my pace of life was quite different. Their jobs require them to work at home most of the time, so they were there when I left from school and when I came back from school. Every morning before I left for school, they would wake
up to eat breakfast with me before I left. When I came home from school we would have tea and a snack and talk about how our respective days went. [I really enjoyed that time together. It meant a lot to me to see how they made time in their schedule to get to know me.] 

After our afternoon snack, I would usually practice the guitar for an hour or do homework until supper. After supper I would go to my evening activity. While I stayed with them, I started taking ballroom dancing lessons. I can now do these dances: Cha-cha-cha, Tango, Salsa, Rock n'Rroll, Waltz, and Paso-doble. My background in classical ballet helps out alot! I returned to my first host family, only to leave a few days later with them. We travelled north to Avoriaz, France, which is in the Alps. It was so good to be back in the mountains. I think that's one of the things that I miss most about my home in Canada, the mountains. I was there with Maman (my host Mom) and Clemence (my host sister). Maman also invited her friend Jane from England, Jane's son Bill (24 yrs old) and Jane's nephew Bob (20 yrs old), to join us as well. Needless to say, English was spoken most of the time. The guys and I started on the slopes at 9:00 AM and skied until 4:30 PM every day, Sunday - Friday. I had a great time while I was there!Other places I visited or events I took in this month include:
o       Sacre Coeur and Place de Tertre
o       Château de Malmaison of Napoleon I 
o       Expositions at the Château de Versailles
o       Night of Magic (a magic show put on by a different Rotary
club)
o       La Roche Guyon
o       Le Chateau de Compiegne
o       The Catacombs of Paris
o       Le Chateau de Breteuil
o       Salon d'Agriculture (think PGX but all of France)

Comments-Requests: Hmm, closing remarks for this report of two months... First of all, I'm sorry for the delay in writing my report. I was intending to send it sooner, but between midterms, changing host families, vacationing in the Alps, and the recommencement of school... Even now when I look back into my journal, I can't believe how much I've done. I have done enough to have been here for a couple of years, not just a couple of months. However, at the same time, I still remember arriving like it was yesterday. I'm over halfway done my exchange year, and it is such a bittersweet feeling.

I really enjoyed my change of host families. I can now say that I have two homes in France, and three families that care about me. I experienced different variations of French cuisine and French life in general.  I did notice when I switched that there was some emotional
strain related to changing families. It took a concerted effort to open myself up, and to give what I could to get to know my new host family and let them get to know me. It was definitely worth it though!

I still have hard days. There are days when I wonder what I was thinking when I said that I wanted to be an exchange student - it's a huge mental and emotional effort!  Some of the difficulties have nothing to do with my host family, friends, or school. It's just the challenge of growing up outside of my native country, not being sure of myself, and not being sure of "the right way to be" in my host country. Every time I go through a "valley" like that, I look back to see how far I've come, what I've learned, and how I've grown through the experience. I'm incredibly grateful to the Rotary for this opportunity. Thank you for supporting me!