Paul picked Kaitlin up at the airport late Saturday night from her month-long student exchange in France, and yesterday morning she was here in the Bergen apartment where she belongs and we could hug her! She is sound and whole and in good cheer and all day the apartment felt like Christmas morning. In the evening, we pulled out our trip journals and shared around. This was good because one thing I have learned about Kaitlin is that she can be a tad…brief and non-committal in her emails.
This is what we learned:
First that this exchange was as good as we could hope for. The family and the community they were part of weren’t always what she was used to, but they were kind and conscientious and fed her well. Too well was the main complaint, “They don’t even HAVE a real term for ‘I’m full’ in France!” They also really tried to include Kaitlin in their world and give a wide range of experiences and they talked almost exclusively in French giving her a lot of language practice. I am very grateful to them and hope to return the favor someday.
Louise, Kaitlin, Anne and Paul in Paris.
The Bragards and their best-friend-family the Pothiers. Kaitlin spent quite a bit of time with them too.
The things I liked hearing about were not so much the travel itinerary–a week in Paris seeing the traditional sites, then a week in Amplepuis where the host family lived, then a week in Lyon attending the girl’s Catholic Law school, and finally a week in Amplepuis again where she attended a small private Catholic high school–but the little stuff done around the corners. A highlight was going to the Mom’s grade school where she teaches English to ten-year-olds and answering their questions about America. They asked about food in Austin and had never heard of tacos! So part of what Kaitlin did in France was explain the concept of a taco. A relative was having her 80th birthday and there was a family reunion to celebrate. The reunion’s meal was printed out as a menu and Kaitlin got a copy for her scrapbook. It was quite the feast with her pointing out at what point down the list of courses one couldn’t possibly eat any more. She did try everything, though. Apparently trying everything there is to eat is a stereotype of Americans in France. If she didn’t like something but still tried it they thought it was cutely American. There was a community dance one night in the home-ville of Amplepuis where she went with Louise, who introduced her to almost everyone with, “This is my second cousin…this is my aunt’s neighbor…this is a friend of my cousin…” She knew everyone. As a consequence of everyone knowing everyone, Kaitlin, as the new face on the block, was rather popular. At the college, she hung out by herself in the mornings at Louise’s apartment and attended classes with her in the afternoons. This experience has dampened Kaitlin’s enthusiasm for trying to get into the Université de Montréal. “The kids take their notes on laptops in college and the teachers all talk so fast about subjects I’d be new to learning about!” One morning after a bunch of Louise’s friends hung out in the apartment until late ending up in a sleep-over, the whole crew of girls got up early and walked to the nearest boulangerie for baguettes in their pajamas and slippers.
Louise, Kaitlin, and best friend Chloe.
The part that interested Kaitlin the most was attending the high school. I was interested to learn that she felt that the school work at the senior level was below what they do in her Austin high school freshman and sophomore year. It was a very small rural private school and she didn’t have broad enough experience to judge if the lack of academic vigor was due to the French school system’s expectations in general or the size and nature of that one school. Interesting to hear however after a lifetime of hearing about how inferior American public schools are to their European counterparts. What she felt was most lacking was a sense of boiling creativity–the classroom was much better behaved than in Austin, but no one doodled on the sides of their notes, no one made jokes, or asked provocative questions. A last note: Louise’s older brother still lived in the home though he had a job. He is the moderator of one of France’s largest Star Wars web sites. Kaitlin couldn’t sufficiently keep up with Star Wars trivia to be any good at bantering about it but did know enough of Star Trek and Tolkien to be of interest and they hit it off well.
Brother Paul is in the red shirt.
Tonight we will take a look at the 700+ pictures her host family took and put on a CD for her.
Paparazzi shot. The Dad took a lot of pictures.
Okay, that's enough pictures now...
Kaitlin: "Ohhhh Paris!" Anne: "Honey..." Louise: "Dad! Stop taking pictures!!"
Paris is MINE.
My favorite. They are in Disneyland Paris.
Another favorite. Disneyland Paris again.
