Hi everyone,
First of all, if you happen to be a Rotarian reading this post, thank you so much for this amazing experience, I cannot express my appreciation enough! I am the third student to be traveling abroad this year with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. I am 18 years old and this will be a gap year for me as I graduated high school this spring. Like Hope, I will be living in France but in a northern city called Bruay la Buissière. It is a little more than an hour north of Paris and is located in the Pas De Calais region. I have been doing some research and the town looks fabulous with a population of about 25,000! I have talked to all three of my host families and have skyped the first a few times, and already can tell that we are going to get along just fine. My french was a little rusty at first but talking to them beforehand has helped a lot. I am looking forward to finally meeting them in person! The current students have also been great with helping me out too, so thanks guys!
Through this exchange I hope to enhance my sense of the French culture by improving in the language and taking the time to immerse myself completely (and maybe do a little eating along the way). I feel that through this I will not only find a degree of self discovery but also improve my perception of the world outside of the United States. In the grand scheme of things, I think that everyone should take advantage of opportunities such as these to improve a sense of communication and understanding with the other cultures of the world. Having said that, I hope that through this program I can do my part to contribute to this idea. As they say travel is the only thing you can buy that will make you richer.
I will face challenges, but also I think a lot of joy...and through this blog I hope to share with you all a little piece of my experience.
Bisous et à bientôt
Mallory
PS I leave the 27th so plan to get my arrival post soon:)
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