C'est la vie (My life as a Rotary Exchange Student to France '11-'12): An Amazing week

Over this year I have had many amazing experiences but I believe that this last week and a half has topped them all so far. First, I went on a bus trip! The bus trip was with about 35 other exchange students from all over the world. The trip consisted on a 3 day trip around Paris and then the rest of the week en route and in side of Barcelona. Ever since arriving my best friends have always been other exchange students. I think that is somewhat normal for exchange students though since all exchange students are going through the same thing and at roughly the same time. So I was already very happy knowing I was going to be spending a week with 35 other exchange students!

Eiffel Tower!

During the trip we stayed in beautiful hotels, had nice leaders, and had a lot of free time to do what we wanted. For the most part we had nice guides from whom we learned a lot. My favorite parts in Paris were probably the Effile tower and our walk around Paris. My favorite parts in Barcelona were having free time to explore and also the Picasso museum. I am not a huge art fan or anything and frankly I did not know that much about Picasso other than he is a very famous painter. The museum and the guide were both very interesting. The things Picasso did at my age and even younger are absolutely extraordinary!

Castle of Versallies- we could not go in the garden because of ice

For the return to Paris we did an all-nighter in the bus. The trip ended up being quite fun though, we were all telling ghost stories and jokes until 1 am when they told us we had to try to sleep. I did try but I gave up after two hours of failed attempts. So I listened to music and talked quietly. We ate breakfast at 5 am outside of Paris, then went to the train station and said our goodbyes.

After the trip ended Sarah and I were to stay with a family for 3 more days to see more of Paris. The time there was also good other than being exhausted from the bus trip. We got to see things we did not get to see with the bus trip like Moulin Rouge, Sacré Coeur, and we got to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle which only happens for 5 minutes. The family we stayed with had a daughter who went to the USA with AFS last year so it was cool to hear about her time and learn more about AFS.

Now I am back in Dinan, I have three days left of vacation and then I return to school. I am not looking forward to going back so soon even though I have been off for almost three weeks due to illness and then the vacation also. In France the students get two weeks vacation every six weeks, which is something I think I like quite well. This also means in six weeks I will be on another amazing adventure doing close to the same thing but I will be traveling by bus for two weeks all around Europe!