Baptiste Jenard

2008-09 Inbound from France

Hometown: Rodez, France

Sponsor: Rodez-Espalion Rotary Club, District 1740, France

Host: Indian Rocks Beach Rotary Club, District 6950, Florida, USA

School: Seminole High School, Seminole, FL

Bio

Baptiste's Bio

Salut tout le monde (hi everybody), my name is Baptiste. I come from a small town from the southwest of France. It is named Rodez and it is a really beautiful place. I love my country because it has an important history and I love our food. I have two older brothers named Thomas (21 years old) and Maxime (23 years old) but also my very little sister named Louise (3 years old). I just lived with my parents and my sister because my brothers have their own flat.

I arrived in Tampa Bay's airport the seventh of August in the morning but I was supposed to arrive the sixth in the evening! Indeed, I missed my flight in Chicago so I had to spend the night in an awesome family. And I finally took a flight for Tampa (story of my quite long trip).

Florida is an amazing place for me. I am really enjoying it because I can practice my favorite sport at school everyday, and I love the beach and palm trees, it is like a postcard. Concerning school, I just can say that I love it because I met a lot new friends and I love to spend time with them. All the students are really nice with me and are interested by the Youth Exchange. I think it will be hard to tell them goodbye in 10 months. I am really enjoying my American life.

Finally, I want to tell thank you to all the people who make me get this fabulous experience.

Aurevoir et passez un bon echange (bye and have a nice exchange).

October 26 Journal

Hey everybody,

I do not know how to start with this journal, firstly because it is my first journal and secondly because I have been so busy during this period of almost three month. First, let's talk about school, where I spend most of my time! I mostly enjoy all my classes, my schedule was basketball, Spanish 3, marine biology and algebra 2. The only change is that I have American government instead of basketball now, it is really exciting because hopefully I will find out more about the elections coming really soon! Marine biology is just different, studying plankton's life is really special, but we still have fun activities like dissecting a squid (go on my facebook if you want to see it). Then, I really like the relationship between students and teachers. They do not put a real border, you can talk to them about everything. I would just say that generally school seems more casual in here.

Now I want to tell you about the amazing weekend I just had with the exchange students, our Rotex Leesa Froelich and our Chairman Laurie Froelich from the district 6950. Only Linus was missing because he had the homecoming weekend which I guess he really enjoyed as much as everybody did. First we all met at Laurie's house on Friday evening and watched a movie and talked about the exchange and everything, we were just resting after a tiring week and getting ready for both Busch Gardens and Howl-O-Scream in the same day!!! So, we stopped at International mall on our way during Saturday morning, shopping is never a bad thing, who don't like shopping in the United States? After having lunch all together, we arrived in Busch Gardens, I think we almost did all the roller coasters and haunted houses we could during the day, everybody had a lot of fun and it was a perfect day to stay together! Finally, around noon everyone went back home, with the same things I have in my mind which are thank you to Laurie and her family to have hosted us, a lot of fun souvenirs and looking forward to Disney World with everyone!

Hope you enjoyed my journal, and have fun everybody!

December 14 Journal

First of all, I really want to thank RYE Florida for this amazing weekend in Disney, it is probably the best weekend I ever had since I am here, and I am now looking forward to Seacamp with all of you guys.

I have not been writing a journal since a long time so I feel like I have a lot of things to tell you about what I have been doing!

My Hobbies

I will tell you about my routine in Florida, when I am not at school. Something that is probably typical from the Tampa Bay area is hanging out with friends at the beach, and actually I love that. My friends also made me try surfing, and try is the best word to use. I am still trying to do better than standing three seconds on the board. But this activity helped me to make a lot of friends that I like to hang out with during the weekends and with who I spend most of my time at school. Then, I also do a lot of Basketball, almost everyday. At first, I practiced at school because I tried out for the team, and it was an awesome experience, and the level here is higher this why I did not make the team but I will go back home with a really good memory. I also play everyday at the recreation center of my city: Seminole. But I needed to have the experience of a league here too, so I played at BelleAir with people from many different schools, I was really proud because even if we had problems to start, my team won the finals! All of these souvenirs will be in my mind forever!

Where did I go?

USF game

My first real football game! A member from my Rotary Club of Indian Rocks Beach took me to a football afternoon in Tampa to see the Bulls play and I actually loved it. I had been to see my school team play but college football is so intense! And I realized that people do not only come for the game but also for the ambiance. Because after the game, everybody takes out his grill, makes some hot dogs or hamburgers and have drink, we played some football with that parked next to us, it was just an awesome day! By the way, the only bad part is that USF lost! But still a big thank you to Bruce!

Busch Gardens

One of my favorite places around the Tampa Bay area, I have been there for many events. The first time was for Howl-O-Scream where my family took me and I met up with my friends from school. Then we spent the day and went to Howl-O-Scream with the inbounds from my district and more lately, I went there with Bill during the day who is a member from my Rotary club too, and every time I go there I just love the rollercoasters! And my favorite one is Montu with all the loops, but it is not the last time I go there! And to everybody that would have a chance to go, trust me you are going to have a lot of fun!

Sailing

I had the opportunity to sail for first time, with Steve, who is also a member from my host club, we did not get lucky about the weather because we got a lot of rain, but it was still a really relaxing experience, I felt like the captain of the boat actually, but sailing needs a lot of concentration and I can tell you I would never go by myself, because you have to pay attention to a lot of rules that I never heard about before, it was a really relaxing and instructive experience, I hope I will do that again.

Fort de Soto

My host mom took me in a one day trip to St. Petersburg beach, to go on this little Island named Fort de Soto, and this place is just gorgeous, these long white beaches, and I also found a lot of shells that are only in Florida, we took a long walk all around the Island, enjoyed a little boat ride, I think for both of us it was a really good time. Thank you Pam!

Chicago

First, THANK YOU THE ORICCO'S FAMILY! I just loved Thanksgiving in Chicago, I never saw that high buildings! And Chicago is probably the prettiest big town I have ever seen in this country. The two main places I have been visiting in the Downtown are Hancock (where I discovered that the first habitant of Chicago was half French) and then millennium park, but during the four days I spent there, I finally remembered what cold means, and it made me love Florida more than I already did. Then, I spent Thanksgiving with the whole family (from my second host family), we ate so much turkey! We also played some football and basketball, but it is just a moment of happiness that I spent with the members of the family that I was really glad to meet, I also hope I will be able to bring it to my French family. I really want to visit all these people again and also Chicago (during summer if possible).

SeaWorld

The day before we spent this amazing weekend in Disney, I was in Orlando to go to Seawold with my Marine Biology class, I learnt a lot about all the marine animals that live close to us, in Florida and I also saw a lot of animals that I want to meet while I will go in the ocean, like dolphins are in freshwater, I would love to see these huge manatees. It permitted me to spend a day with all my classmates having fun too!

So again, thank you to everybody that made me do all of these activities and thanks to you, I am having the best year of my life!

May 25 Journal

Before I left, the only image of Florida I had was what we can see on television back home. For example, CSI Miami showing Miami Beach with all the luxurious cars, big mansions and yachts all over the place. But I remember, at the end of April 2008, I got an email from my first host parents, the Johnsons, saying I was going to Seminole. I had no clue of where it was and what it looked like, so the first thing I did was going on Google images. As soon as I saw the pictures of the beach a big smile arrived on my face, I knew I was going to have a great exchange student year.

Since I got here I did so many activities and realized a lot of my dreams, but from all of those, three of them were the best for me: the trip to the keys with all the exchange students, going to a Orlando Magic basketball game, and finally my thanksgiving in Chicago. But also, I just had a wonderful time at school, meeting all these people I will never forget, and I cannot wait to come and visit them next summer! Everybody told us we would grow up mentally, and I know for sure that I became more mature, and more open minded on the way I see and think things.

Finally, I just want to say a big thank you to the Rotary and the District 6950 and my awesome Rotary club (the best) Indian Rocks Beach, because I experienced so many different things thanks to them, but also to the two host families I had: the Johnsons, and the Orricos, that I both consider as part of my family now. And for my last sentence, I want to keep in memory one of the first friends I made here who passed away in a car accident a month and eleven days ago with four other teenagers, thank you for your friendship, I will always keep you in my heart and mind Keith MacCollom.