Charlotte Miquel

2007-08 Inbound from France

Hometown: Millau, France

Sponsor: Millau Saint Affrique Rotary Club, District 1740, France

Host: West Jacksonville Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Paxon School of Advanced Studies

Charlotte's Bio

Hi !! My name is Charlotte. I am 17 years old. I come from the south of France in Millau, a small town of 25,000 inhabitants. I have one great sister Pauline and wonderful parents Christine and Dominique.

Now I am in Florida, (I can't believe it!!!) in the west of Jacksonville since 3 weeks ago. My host family is wonderful too, they are very nice. Here, I have 2 brothers, Madison and Andrew, and one sister, Emily, who is the same high school as me. My first weeks here were so great - I met a lots of people, very nice.

I decided to become an exchange student because I wanted to discover another country, another culture, meet a lots of different people who come of the whole world, it's very interesting and of course to improve my English.

I finish by thanking my parents and the Rotary club of Millau-Saint Affrique for giving me this chance to realize my dream....

October 15 Journal

Hello everybody !!!

Now it's two months I'm in my new town Jacksonville, with my new family and my new friends... I have lots of things to tell you, what I have done and how wonderful it is to be here!

I arrived in Jacksonville the 10th august 2007 from Millau, I met for the first time my first family, my first meal in the USA was Chick-Fil-A (the best fast-food). My first week in Jacksonville was CRAZY!! We always had something to do. It was the end of the summer. I went tubing on the St. Johns River, It was fun. We went to the beach, the water is hot! And I spent a long time with my new family.

School at Paxon is so much fun! It's a very big high-school. All you have seen in the movies or the TV is right. Every Junior and Senior have a car, it's so cool! On the wall inside and outside of school there are posters of any color to make announcements, to vote and for the news. The lockers are the same as the movies (my first difficulty was how to open my locker!! That took me a long time to understand!!). Each American Football game day, players and cheerleaders wear their uniforms and wave flags too. It's so amazing, I like it, it's so different from France. There is too the pep-rally before games, it's amazing all the students are in the gym and they scream their year of graduation, to win you have to be loudest!! And of course the big difference is the American Flag in each classroom and the pledge of allegiance. We say it every morning before school starts.

I went to my first theater, to see the movie "Sydney White" with a friend of my French class, she is very nice. It was so cool, I ate popcorn and drank a soda like in the films!! It was so great.

I have met all the exchange students in my district at Camp Montgomery. It was very interesting, and funny and strange to meet all these cultures in the world. On this weekend, we played games together, we were next to a lake, in the woods, it was so pretty and we had a real good time together. I have met Kwang who is at Paxon too, she is very nice and she taught me Thai!!

I want to know who told me, it's always sunshine In Florida! WRONG ! It's always raining! And stormy by the way. The temperature is very hot, more than France but it rains more too!!

I can tell you about America's food, It's wonderful. There is all the food you want and all the food you have never tried!! There is lots of fast-food here that is not in France which is very good!!!

There are lots of big malls, with lots of clothes, lots of staff, big streets with lots of cars, long trains into the city, big people too!! Here everything is BIG!!

I have really enjoyed my first two months in the USA. I have met lots of good friends, very funny and very nice!

I love my new Family, Lilly, John, Madison (the big LOSER), Emily and Andrew are great, nice, they are all amazing people who are helping me discover the USA. They are wonderful, maybe a little bit .... CRAZY....!!!

See you,
Charlotte.

February 11 Journal

Hey everyone!!

It’s now six months that I have an American life. I really like to be here, it’s so much fun and I don’t feel like six months have already been done. I changed host family two months ago, first I was a little bit afraid but after I learned to know them and now I am teaching French to my host mom!!

I have done lots of things, thanks to the Rotary and my host family, during this winter, which by the way was not really cold, even sometimes hot!! I am sure it might be different in France at this time!!

I participated with other exchange students, at the outbound interviews in the district 6970. We spent a good time together but we also had the chance to speak with the future exchange students for the year 2008/2009. And remembered how we felt during our selection.

Next, with my host family, we went in St. Augustine, where we ate in a French restaurant. Then, we visited the light house of the town. And we went on the beach which is the only beach in Florida with huge rocks.

With the Rotary, at the end of December, we spent four days in Disney World, Orlando. It was great!! There was our district plus another one from Miami, It was cool because we had the chance to meet other peoples from all over the world. Every day, we went in a new attraction park (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom…). There was a swimming pool, we swam in the middle of December, This is it Florida!! We had so much fun, it was a great time.

During Christmas break, I spent a lot of time with my host family. We went shopping lots of time in the huge malls, with all those peoples, it was crowded every day!! I saw some games of Paxon High School like : Football, Soccer and Basketball. We went to the zoo. And I went to a Debutante Ball, where the young ladies are presented to the society, with my host sister Katherine and a friend Hilary. On Christmas Eve, I went to my first host family’s house in the evening and we open our presents. Then I went with my new family to church. During the night Santa Clause came and left us lots of presents!! For lunch, the entire family was at our house, it was pretty cool to meet them all. The food was almost the same as the one we had on Thanksgiving. We went to watch the “Nutcracker Ballet” in a theater in downtown Jacksonville. For New Year’s Eve, all the exchange students participated in a parade in Jacksonville, the parade was on TV!! Some of us carried flags of their country and the others were giving candy to the crowd. Then after this, we were invited to spend a night at a Rotarian’s house, His house was close to the river so we were able to watch the firework from there, it was great. We spent all night long outside around a fire in the garden. This day too, we had a wonderful time together.

I spent a week end in Daytona Beach with my host family. We climbed all the way up to the tallest lighthouse of the state of Florida and the second tallest of the U.S.A. We drove on the beach with the car it was allowed, this was so exciting and scary to be stuck in the sand!!!

The last trip we did with the Rotary was at Seacamp in the Key West. This trip will be unforgettable, it was like a dream!!! The Keys are all of the small islands at the end of Florida in the south. On the way to get there, we stopped in Miami to take with us the exchange students from there. Then we were almost in the Keys when we stopped at a place with Dolphins. Once we arrived at Seacamp, we sat around the fire, ate s’mores and did some crazy dance!!! The first day we took a boat and went snorkeling in not deep water. The day after, we went in deepest water and we saw and observed much fish and coral. Every group had to do research about the environment and the nature; mine was about the Marine Biodiversity. This night every group had to do a speech. The goal of this trip was to learn more about the respect of the nature. The last day, we went on the last island of Florida “Mile 0”. The ocean was see-through blue; we could see the fish swimming. It was really like a dream!

With my friends and my host sister, I watched lots of movies at the theater. The theater in USA is so great, Popcorn, Icy, Drinks, Hotdogs!!! School is still great, I changed some subjects and there are still lots of games. I like Paxon!!

I LOOOVE FLORIDA!!!

Charlotte.

May 22 Journal

Awesome Rotary Eastern Trip 2008:

First, I took the plane from Jacksonville to Columbus, Ohio, with Kwang, Isa, and Anne. We were so excited to go on this trip. When we landed there, two chaperones were waiting for us. They drove us to our first hotel, and we started to meet tons of exchange students coming from all over the USA and Canada. There were so many people to meet, and it was hard to remember their names and their nationalities; it was crazy!! At the end of the day we had a pizza party!! When we went back to our room for the night I was like oh my god this trip is going to be crazy!! I was so excited!!

The day after, we left our first hotel very early to go to Washington DC. After a long drive we got there. We walked around lots of monuments like: the Lincoln Memorial, World War II, Vietnam and Korean Memorials. It was getting late; we went to a mall and bought some food for dinner. We went to our second hotel late so we didn’t have much free time that night.

The third day was a freezing day: wind, cold and rain all day!!! For the first part of the day we went to see the White House. It was great! We took lots of pictures with umbrellas and hoodies!!! It is awesome to think that we were there, we just saw the White House. Next, we went to the Capitol and there, we did the same thing. We walked to the top of the steps in front of the monument and took pictures. For the second part of the day, we went into a navy museum. At first we went outside on a ship, and after we switched with the other group and we went inside the museum. This day, we had lunch in a train station and we had a small amount of free time to go shopping too. For the third part of the day, we went to a park with tons of museums. We went into one museum where the Declaration of Independence was, and another one was the air and space museum. We left this park and they showed us the Statue of Soldiers and we saw a cemetery too.

The Fourth day we went to another airplane museum and we came back to the park with all these Museums. First we went in the American Indian museum, but Anne, Isa, Kwang and me left that museum pretty quickly with another group. We decided all together to take the subway to do to china town!! It was so exciting!! I had never took the metro in the US since I am here. It took us a long time to find out our way to get there. We were a large group so everybody had an idea but none had the same one so it was pretty funny!! Of course we got lost!! But we finally got out of this metro station!! In china town we met lots of exchange students, we were looking for stores with cheap clothes or some thing like this but no there were no shopping to do!! So Kwang, Isa, Antonia the girl from Austria and me went in Starbucks until the end of the day. It was interesting to listen to Kwang’s life in Thailand. It’s so different from us here in the US and from me in France.

We went to our meeting point with the other part of the group and we had no problem with the metro this time!! Now we are professionals!! Back to the Museums Park we had still some free time, we used it to joke around and talk with our friends!!

The fifth day, we left the hotel very early this morning because a pretty awesome day was waiting for us!! NEW YORK!! lol!! I couldn’t wait for this day anymore!! First, we took a boat from New Jersey to Ellis Island, we almost froze but it was alright we were going to see the Statue of Liberty for real!!! SOOO EXCITING!!! On Ellis Island there was a Museum of immigration, then we took another boat and we finally got there. It was awesome to see it, it was ten billions times better to see The Statue of the liberty for real than watch it on the TV or on postcards!!! Of course we took thousands pictures with our coat and scarf and gloves!!! But the day wasn’t quite done yet, the best was coming!! NEW YORK CITY!! It took us a very long time to get into Manhattan with the traffic on the road but we were so excited!! When we got there Oh My God!! Everybody was crazy in the bus it was just unbelievable to be here! While we were there I felt like I was so small surrounded by all these huge buildings, one higher than the others!! Everything was huge, and the streets seemed so narrow with these tall buildings! They finally dropped us off at the meeting point where we had to come back two hour later. During this free time, we walked to Times Square; we just took so many pictures of buildings walls with their huge screens! It was very crowded and everybody was in a hurry to go somewhere, the crowd was moving from everywhere. And there were so many cars and taxi honking for no reasons!! We walked around and ate in a pizza restaurant. It was time to go back to the bus so we left. It was AWESOME and our mind was full of good souvenirs. It didn’t took us long to go to the hotel.

The sixth day, this day was the second more exciting day of this trip!! An entire day in NEW YORK CITY!! So we started the day with a drive tour around Manhattan. We saw: Ground Zero, Broadway, The Grand Central train station, the library (where they filmed “the day after tomorrow”), 5th Avenue, Central Park, and we drove in Harlem area, Times Square, Greenwich Village, SOHO, NOHO and China Town. They dropped us off in China town and then we had to find a taxi to meet them at the same meeting point than the day before, it was pretty far. We shopped a lot in China Town, I was with Isa, Anne, and Kwang. Then, it was time to find a taxi to go on Fifth Avenue. We waited a very long time under the rain and it was very cold, but whatever we were in NYC!! The taxi dropped us off in front of the Empire State Building, it was so high and the weather was so foggy we couldn’t see the top of the building. After we walked around and went to the Rockefeller center building. This day was really tiring we walked so much but it was really worth it. We didn’t really hang out this night we just went to sleep. And I am sure every body dreamed about this crazy day!!

The seventh day was in Boston. The lunch was Bill’s surprise in a warship on the river!! It was pretty cool and cold!! Then we arrived in Boston downtown. We had free time all the afternoon so we followed a trail in the town and of as girls we went shopping!! It was really cold outside. Boston is the most European city in the U.S. We got back to the hotel and had lots of free time to hang out with our friends.

The eighth day, we went to a witch town, called Salem city. This day was freezing cold!! So we drank a really good hot chocolate!!! And we walked around the town but almost every store was closed. The afternoon, they took us back in Boston. They dropped us off in a park and then we had free time. I really like this town, there were lots of small shop every where and I met lots of people who spoke French! Later we went to Harvard University by taxi, it was pretty cool to go there and see where the most intelligent students go!! So we walked around and we saw some of our friends who came there by metro so they gave us the itinerary for the way back and we didn’t get lost! But we had to run if not we were going to be late!!

The ninth day, we went to Cooperstown in a museum the baseball hall of fame. I didn’t really like it, I don’t really know anything about baseball so we went outside, it was still very cold!! And we had lunch. Then we drove all afternoon, we had a pizza party and a talent show this night. And it was the night to trade pins to put on the blazer and cards.

The tenth day, we went to the Niagara Falls, we stayed in the US side, we couldn’t go to the Canadian side with our passport. It was pretty cool, all this water, this snow and this huge hole in the ground. I really liked it. And it was so pretty outside everything was cover with snow. After we drove back to Columbus, Ohio and all our friends from there left that night so there were like 20 people to sleep at the hotel that night it was really nice to be a small group for once every body got along together.

This trip was amazing, freezing, great fun, unforgettable, awesome... I met really nice people and I can’t wait to see them again on the western trip in June!!!

Charlotte