Laura

2005-06 Inbound from France

Date of Birth: September 17, 1988

Hometown: Lanuejouls, France

Sponsor: Villefranche de Rouergue Rotary Club, District 1740, France

Host: Gainesville Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA

School: Gainesville High School

Bio

Laura's Bio

Hey! I m Laura! I am 17. I have a sister, Nadia, she is 21. I come from the south of France, my city is Lanuejouls but now I live in Gainesville for one year in a wonderful family. I have a new sister, Shannon she is 8.

So, I came here because I want to improve my English for my future work in the tourism, for a new life and meet new people. I am fond of soccer, basketball and all the other sports and I am also going to play it in the USA. I just hope that this new experience will be wonderful, I think it will be!!!

September 13 Journal & Pictures

Hey everybody!

I have left France 7 weeks ago already! The time has passed very quickly! I have a lot of things to tell you! I’m so glad to live in Gainesville for one year because this city is beautiful and attractive thanks to the University of Florida (Go GATORS)!!!

My adventure started the 25 July. At my arrival at the airport in Gainesville, my host family (Terri, Larry and Shannon) and John Gregory greeted me. I was so excited to meet them. It was a great time! The first week I was so tired - difference in time and the plane trip. So the first week my principal occupation was to sleep. I stayed with my host family and we went shopping, and swimming. I think the first days were the most difficult for me. I didn’t understand the language, and it was all new for me.

The next week we went to the Marathon Key, it was so fun. I had a good time. We were in a superb house on the seaside. I visited Key West, we saw the escape artist, I tried snorkeling at Sombrero Key. It was very very HOT!

School started three weeks ago! I’m at GHS (Gainesville High School). It is HUGE (3000 students). I love this school. The first morning I chose my subjects, I have French, American History, Volleyball, Humanities and two classes of ESOL (this class is just for the international students). The American school system is very different than mine. The difference is that in France we stay in the same classroom all year with the same students. Here I move all the time, changing teachers, classrooms and students. I prefer this system because we have the choice for the subjects but I think it’s more difficult to have friends because we change continuously. After school I practice Soccer. It’s very hard and intense (2 hours everyday). After it I can’t move! No, seriously, thanks to Soccer I meet a lot of people and the best is that I can lose some weight that I gained! It’s so funny because when I’m in France, sometimes I watch an American movie with the cheerleaders at the football games and now it’s the reality.

With my host family we go three times a week to the church. It is very huge. I had never seen that before in my life. We are so many. Since the celebration we have got more freedom than in France. It’ s very different. Sometimes my church has activities during the weekend like the Turkey Bowl (It’s so funny, the game is to play football in the mud) or to go to the Universal Studios at Orlando to see Rock the Universe. This church is active and friendly.

Really, I like this country, this culture. The life here is more relaxed. I adapted myself! Sometimes a little too much with the food for example! I like it! It’s so incredible like the Americans go often to the fast food (Chicken Wings, the “famous hamburger”, hot dog………..etc)

I think my bigger problem is the conditioned air. We are in Florida and we must wear jackets! Outside sometimes the temperature is 100°F and inside the conditioned air is at the maximum, I’m freezing. It’s crazy!

I don't always believe that I'm in Florida - just my weight tells me this! I laugh! Every day I make a new discovery, it’s so exciting! In summary, this first month in Gainesville, the words that best describe my time are CRAZY and WONDERFUL!!! I love this experience and I would like to thank the Rotary of my city and the Rotary here for the opportunity!

See you soon, Bye

LAURA

Julie, Ondrej, & me in the stadium	Karen and me at the springs	Kuba, Ondrej, Julie. & me at the football game	Maggie and me at Camp Montgomery
Me at the golf course	My host sister and me	The French girls

January 11 Journal

I haven't written in a while. I'm sorry! A lot of things have happened to me since September.

First of all I want to wish you a happy new year 2006 !

Well, I don't know where I should start this journal! I left my first host family at the beginning of November, I was so sad to leave my host family but we decided to continue to see each other every Sunday because I am going to church with them! Every time I see them it makes me happy. My new host family: the Edwards family is great, I have two host brothers: Dan ( 21) and Matt (15) and one host sister. Her name is Katie (17), she was in France last year with the Rotary, her French is very good, I hope I will speak English as well as she speaks French. I love my family, I feel like I am a real member of the family. I have three sweet dogs also (Stella, Scully and Nickie).

I spent my Christmas with them, it was my best one. Very traditional, I loved it. I have to explain a story. Before Christmas when we prepared all the decoration inside the house my family wanted to find the perfect Christmas tree, to do it we needed to go in Ocala in the forest. We searched together during 4 hours, it was crazy but we found it (17 feet) big and massive: SUPERB! We put on it a lot lot lot of decorations. On Christmas day I woke up at 7 and during all the day long we opened our the presents! We had a big meal, we were maybe 15 people! It was absolutely awesome and wonderful.

After that came the New Year's Eve - I stayed with my host family and also with some friends, we had a meal again and again and then I went downtown. It was very cool too. I'm sorry that I didn't come to the parade in Jacksonville but since a long time ago my family had planned something! I hope you had fun guys.

My soccer season is almost over, I am kind of sad because I loved this team. I made so many friends and we were very close to each other. We weren't bad, we did pretty well, just lost 3 games. I hope we will hang out even if soccer is over!

I had my final exams this week, I think I did fine, it was just three long days. Also, I changed my schedule, I can't wait, I am so excited because it's like a new school beginning. I took LMS, I hope I will like it.

Since September I went to some Gator basketball games with John Gregory, my counselor, I adored it. I played basketball when I was in France for ten years.

I forgot to tell you my trip to Disney, it was awesome too, we had a great time, I like to see all of you guys! I can't wait Seacamp, I am sure it would be amazing!

I am really having a good time here, I love my school, my new friends and host families. Everything is going pretty well. And hopefully my English improved a lot the last couple of months, I am so glad to be here, it's incredible, a wonderful experience.

Thank you again to the Rotary to give us these opportunities

See you certainly at Seacamp

Love you all

Laura

February 21 Journal

Hey,

This last month was awesome.

First of all I want to talk about Seacamp. We made many new friendships, learned about water, and snorkeled. The last night we had to create a poster about the topic we were assigned about the water conservation and that night we explained our topic to the other groups. It was really fun to see everybody involved in their owns projects. I also met a group of students from Michigan, they were very cool and funny. I remembered the kind of show the first night with the bear and all this staff… It was fun.

After Seacamp there was the Super Bowl. I went to one of my friend’s house, we were around 15. I don’t really like American football. It’s maybe because I don’t understand the rules and because it’s not my culture and so I didn’t used to watch it. But we had a lot of fun. We ate in front of the TV, screamed when there was a touchdown (that’s the only thing I understood about the rules J). But anyway I really had a good time.

Last week my parents and my sister from France came in Gainesville to visit me. We traveled a lot during all the week. We drove about 300 miles per day. I was tired of being in the car almost 6 hours per day. But I saw so many beautiful city as St Augustine, St Petersburg, Cape Canaveral. I went to Kennedy Space Center, it was very interesting (I learned a lot of stuff about space, the rockets). I saw two movies in 3D made by NASA. It was incredible, I felt like being an astronaut.

I went also to Universal Studios. There is some cool rides but I still prefer Walt Disney, it’s more like “the” magic world. We saw an NBA basketball game. It was like a dream for my sister and me to watch it. And I still can’t realize I’ve been in this stadium. Well, we saw the Orlando Magic against the Miami Heat. It was awesome, nothing to compare with the college game. The show is like crazy (cheerleaders, and the presentation of the players exactly as I thought). Anyway I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.

Just by the way something funny happened, my mother slept during the game because Universal Studios made her tired and she couldn't stay awake, but it’s ok, she saw the beginning of the game so she has an idea what is The NBA.

I showed my parents my school, some of my favorite teachers. It was very strange being in school with my parents. I was very proud to show them how my life is here and I’m sure they are proud of me too. I loved this week and I enjoyed it a lot particularly when I was with my home and host parents. We had a dinner together. It was funny to see the way how we communicated. Because both of them talked with their own languages and tried to understand each other, it’s kind of hard but everything was perfect, it was like if we spoke only one language. INCREDIBLE !!!

Monday was the Presidents day. So Sunday night I went to the concert with Aleksis, a friend. It was a rap concert. Usually I don’t like this sort of music but for the first time in my entire life I enjoyed listening the rap. I was so so so surprised of myself because I also danced on this rap music. Before this concert I believed it was impossible to dance, and just the stupid guys can listen this kind of music, thought. So I went to this concert to make sure I didn’t like it and just to see the show. If I have the opportunity to do it , I will say “yeah of course with the big smile” J.

So I don’t have any pictures yet of what I did but I’ll send them as soon as possible

Love yallll …

SEE YOU

Bisous a tous !!! Au fait julie, jolie et coupe de cheveux, tous les kemé vont craké LOL !!!

LAURA

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