My Exchange Experience in France By Ane Rojo

Well, I know I have to talk about my trip to France, but first I’m going to add an introduction

about how my friends and I decided to sign up for an Erasmus program, and also talk about

what it was like to have a girl I didn’t know come to my house and have my routines change

from one day to the next. It all started last school year when they told us that there was the

possibility of doing an exchange with another school in France, in Bordeaux. Honestly, it all felt

unreal, and before we even realized it, Lilie, Zoé, Samy and Zoé, our French exchange

students, were already here. I have to say that at the beginning we were a bit overwhelmed

after all, what were we going to do for 12 days with complete strangers? Well, despite all the

possible disasters that could have happened, those were 12 fantastic days, and when we

realized it, we were already at the station crying because we didn’t want to say goodbye.

Now comes the part about when we went to France. I have to admit that it wasn’t all sunshine

and rainbows. We had several issues with teachers who disrespected us or simply didn’t

understand that we were only there to do our own work, and I’m still not sure they understood

that we barely spoke French. We were also very stressed with exams and assignments we had

to turn in, but that doesn’t mean our trip was bad. On the contrary, it was fantastic, but I felt

obligated to talk about both the good and the bad. There were some days when we didn’t do as

many things as we would have liked because their school wasn’t as understanding as ours had

been when they came to Spain. But almost every day they tried to do things with us, and on the

best days, when everyone was available, their parents took us shopping, bowling, playing laser

tag, or to some of the busiest and most typical streets of Bordeaux.

In conclusion, the experience and the trip were unforgettable, not only because of everything we

bought or saw, but because of all those memories, the laughter, and the funny French words.

Every now and then we still watch the videos we recorded there, and all those fun moments