Bienvenue à Toulouse - A North Penn Student Moves to France

It is Friday, August 26, 2011, and I am sitting in the Philadelphia Airport at Gate A6 waiting for my flight to Paris.  My family waited until I made it through security, but here I now sit alone. 

I see many people around me, from the young college girls flying to Tampa, to the seemingly newlywed couple taking pictures, to a man dressed in a tux holding flowers, to the hysteric family running to their gate; a wide range of human nature is clearly evident at the Philadelphia airport. 

What I realize is everyone has a destination, a goal, and somewhere to be. We all have our own stories.  How did we all get here on this day?  Here is my story.

I was raised in , Pennsylvania for the majority of my life, I decided for my junior year of high school that I wanted to pursue my dream of living in another country and learning a new language.  Luckily for me, North Penn offers such a study abroad program, and thanks to the International Friendship Committee (IFC), I find myself traveling alone to Toulouse, France to live with an average French family who lives in an apartment in downtown Toulouse.  

For the next 10 months, I will have traded my dear mother, brilliant father, silly brother, and hyper dog for an amazing French family of five.  I am anxious to meet my new family which includes a little sister Collette, a younger brother Augustin, an older brother Hadrien, and my new parents Berengere and Dominique. 

I will only have a few days to get to know Hadrien as he is leaving next week to come to North Penn.

I am grateful to the IFC for this incredible opportunity.  I found out about the program this past December when exchange students came into my French class to let us know about the program. 

My mom’s initial reaction when I told her that I wanted to move to France for my junior year of high school was, “No way!”  But I persisted and applied for the program.  My parents slowly came around to embrace the idea. 

Through the IFC, North Penn sends four students to European destinations: Aalen, Germany; Salzgitter, Germany; Madrid, Spain; and Toulouse, France.  And in turn, they bring four students from these places to North Penn.

I will admit though, that leaving home is easier said than done.  I already miss my family and friends, and I can tell it’s not easy on them either.  The last few weeks of packing and saying goodbye were hard.  Home is the only thing I’ve ever known and I voluntarily left it … for something unknown.  Will it be worth it?

It is now Monday, August 29^th and France is amazing!  I have only been here two days, but it has already captured my heart.  Toulouse is called the “pink city” because many of the buildings are made from pink stone and it is beautiful. 

The stereotypes of “rude French people” have been proven wrong because everyone has been kind and welcoming.  I am suffering from a bit of culture shock as my host family served me duck liver the first day, which turns out to be delicious!  It is no wonder that French cuisine is world renowned. 

From what I have gathered, the French think and talk about food constantly, and it is fabulous.  Ironically, everyone here is thin. 

Hadrien leaves for the United States today.  I have one week to get acclimated before school starts.  My French speaking skills are not nearly adept enough to keep up with conversation, but I will learn; I have to in order to survive the next 10 months.