Ballston Spa students spend a week in the lives of their French counterparts
Twenty-one Ballston Spa High School students know what it’s like to experience a little joie de vivre in the country where the phrase originated.
They spent 10 days in Lille, France, through a cultural and educational exchange within the school’s language program where they lived with a French family, attended a French school and took day trips to cultural landmarks in France and beyond. In the spring, the French students that participated come to Ballston Spa to complete the exchange.
Students really follow the life of a French student go to classes, combine American and French students to do linguistic activities, go to museums and have lunch together. We really try to have the kids go right into being French,` said high school French teacher Patricia Halpin. `The school of there has been overwhelmingly receptive and love our students and spoil them. Deep down these kids really start friendships with these [French] students and as a French teacher, this is probably the best experience for me to see these kids go through. They use their language skills and feel great when they understand something.`
Halpin said that even though the exchange program has been going on since 2002, this year’s exchange was the best.
`It was a good chemistry between students and the activities we did worked out really well. There were really no problems that I’ve heard of,` said Halpin. `The French students and families want to practice their English too, so nobody ever feels lost because there’s always a way to be understood. The administration is supportive over there, they’re wonderful people and want to keep the exchange going.`
Ethan Beaudoin, a junior, and Emily Beaudoin, a freshman, both participated in this year’s exchange. While they each stayed with a separate family and had different experiences, the one thing they agree on is that life in France is good and the food is incredible.
`Nutella crepes are really good and the sandwiches they gave us at lunch were a full baguette with ham and butter`they were really good. And we had couscous a lot, which was really good,` said Emily. `The school lunches are a lot bigger, they give you a lot more food and are more filling.`
`My French mom was a really good cook so I had steak, some really good salmon and for snack there were these waffle things with honey butter in between that were really good,` said Ethan.
Emily did have to overcome one obstacle, though.
`They don’t drink milk over there, so I went a whole week and a half without milk, which was hard,` she said.
Ethan and Emily said that a typical French school day starts at 8 a.m. and can last until 5 p.m. Ethan said that if students are late to school in the morning, it’s bad news.
`The weird thing is that if you get to school even at 8:05 a.m., they lock you out and a gigantic gate/fence is around the school. We were never late, luckily,` he said.
According to Ethan and Emily, Ballston Spa students went to one or two periods in the morning, one of which was a Biology class that was completely in English. Students can leave for lunch or leave early for the day if they have a study hall. French students have no school on Wednesday and a half day on Saturday. Ballston Spa students also toured around, taking in cultural and historical sites like the Museum of Natural Science, the Palais des Beaux Arts and sites in Bruges, Brussels and Belgium. They learned about how the regional government works and attended a reception in their honor at Conseil GEnEral Nord Pas de Calais, the regional government administration for northern France.
There was one American student per French family, which allowed the students to form a deeper connection with their host family and experience France more intensely.
`It was a little awkward at first but then it was really nice,` said Emily. `I went and saw ‘New Moon’ on opening day. It was in total French so I couldn’t really understand it but it was a good experience.`
`Once you really got to know the family they really welcomed you as one of their own,` said Ethan. `I watched a World Cup game with about 20 French friends, played Playstation 3, laser tag, soccer and basketball.`
Both Ethan and Emily agree that French students are much better at speaking English than American students are at speaking French. They also said that the French were very friendly and accepting.
`The people over there a lot more polite and they really care about other people more than themselves,` said Ethan.
Emily said that whenever she was standing in the school courtyard with a group of her American friends, French students would always come up and start talking to them to make them feel welcome. She said her favorite part of French life was having Wednesdays off of school because she thinks it gives students a chance to rest and finish the week up. Ethan said the thing that was hard to get used to was eating dinner at 9 or 10 p.m.
Their mother, Shelly Beaudoin, said that while it was a little difficult sending her children to a foreign country without knowing what to expect, she felt it was important for them to have the experience and thinks it turned out to be well worth the worry.
`They truly got exactly the taste of what life is like there. Everyone really welcomed them,` said Shelly, who added that she found it interesting how her kids’ experiences differed. `They had two completely different experiences, as far as housing. Emily’s family was a single mother with one daughter and they shared a room and walked to school every day. Ethan’s family was professional with two children, he had his own room and had to take the metro to school every day. It was good just to see how well they could acclimate to living in a different environment and absorb some of the language.`
To complete the exchange, the French students come to Ballston Spa and stay with host families here. Shelly said she’s looking forward to showing them what normal family life is like in America and to offer the same hospitality and openness her own children were shown.
`It seems like it’s so different than their daily life because of [Lille’s] city atmosphere, so they’ll have to get used to us living in suburbia. They had their visions of what Americans were like before our kids went over there and now I think they’re attitudes have changed a bit; I think it will be good,` said Shelly.
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