My eventful time in France

Now I’m sitting in the train back home and writing this article. I would like to give you an insight in my last 4 weeks in France. Every schoolday, I stood up at 6.00 a.m and had to take the school bus to get to school. As my exchange partner was one year older than me, I decided to change grades so that I could be in a class with students from my age group. To my suprise, we covered topics in Physic-Chemistry class that we had already done in 8th or 9th grade. That’s why it was easy for me to follow the lessons and I could fully participate. Beforehand, in my exchange partner’s class, I had more difficulties to participate, especially in French or Maths, as the A Levels in French and Maths are already taken in the penultimate school year, while the chosen specialization subjects are taken in the  final school year. The school I attended was the „Lycée Blaise-Pascal“ in Brie-Comte-Robert. In France, your first year at the „lycée“ is called „Seconde“ (this had been my year for the last two weeks), the following year is called „Première“ (the year my exchange partner attended) and the final year is called „Terminale“. On one Saturday, we went to a glass factory and visited the castle „Château du Vaux-le-Vicomte“, the following day, my host father who was a firefighter, showed me his fire station.

All in all, my time in France went by far too quickly and I had a great time there that I will never forget. I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity of taking part in that student exchange because living in a French family and attending French school was an interesting experience.

Pauline