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Philippine

2011-12 Inbound from France

Sponsor: Rotary Club of Lille Nord, District 1520, France

Host: Rotary Club of Tampa Interbay, District 6890, Florida

Philippine's Bio

Bonjour !
My name is Philippine, I’m seventeen and I’m an Inbound from France.
I was born in Paris, and when I was ten, I moved to Lille (one hour from Paris).

Lille is a pretty big city, (225 700 hab.), with many Universities so many students. It is a pleasant city to live.
In France, I live with my parents, my brother who is 19 years old and I also have a 13 year old sister. I like playing tennis, riding horses and going out with friends.

I’m going to spend a year in Florida, in a city called Lutz, near Tampa. I decided to be an exchange student last year, to discover another culture, somewhere else, something different from what I’m used to. I also wanted to learn another language because I thought that it will be (more than) useful for my future job as I want to work in the international business.

I just want to thank the Rotary for giving me the opportunity to realize this experience !

Journals

December 16

I’ve been in Florida for exactly 4 months today, and I so many things have happened to me!

I live in Lutz, (really close to Tampa, on the West coast of Florida). Lutz is not a city, so I have to say that it is really different than what I was used to because here, we don’t walk. But except that, I live in a really nice house, right next to a lake, with a pool and a Jacuzzi, in a nice neighborhood. But the most important thing when you are an exchange student is your host family, not the house.

My host family is great! I am fortunate to have a host sister who is 17, and a host brother, who is 14. I get along very well with my host sister, she is so nice to me, and we are having a lot of fun together. And all the rest of the family is really nice too. Since I’m here, I’ve never felt sad, and it is thanks to them.

My High school is pretty good too. I have 7 different classes (7 periods): Culinary, Math, English, Pottery, Physics, American history, and Center stage. The first day was pretty intense: instead of 500 students in France, we have more than 2500 here. The school has 4 different buildings, so you can be lost easily because you have to go to a different room at the end of each period, but now, I get it (finally)!

All the students were really nice to me, they all love France, and they all want to go to Paris.

School is very different than in France. It is easier and not as stressful as in France (but some classes are still hard). All my teachers are really nice, and pretty funny. For example, when you are a good student, and when you have good grades, you have candies, or a free cookie at the cafeteria (I told you, it is really different than in France!). They just want you to succeed, and they are ready to stay after school to help you if you need it.

They also have this spirit that we really don’t have in France, they support their school, they have many sport teams etc…

I now have really good friends at school, we all hang out together, have parties on the beach, or go out for dinner…

Another important thing here: the other exchange students. We had an orientation weekend in August where we met (almost) all the 70 exchange students Florida, from more than 30 different countries.

And last week we also had 4 days in Orlando, at Disney World. It was amazing! We are all friends together and we really had a lot of fun. This is like a big Rotarian Family! The next weekend together will be in the Keys, at the end of January, and we are all really excited to see each other again.

For the first Thanksgiving of my life, I went to New York City, and it was amazing. NYC is a really beautiful city at this time of the year, and it was nice to find a little bit of cold weather again (in Florida, it is soooooooooooooooo warm especially in the summer).

Christmas is in a week, and it’s going to be the warmest Christmas I’ve ever had (26°C right now!!)

I would like to thank the Rotary for giving me the chance to live this experience.

Being an exchange student is the best thing I've ever done.

Treasure Island's Beach

My High School

Homecoming

Some exchange students in Disney

All the exchange students in Disney

Thanksgiving in NYC

March 4, 2012

I’ve been in Florida for 7 months, and (almost) only good things have happened to me !
My host family is still great, we all get along. We went to Tallahassee because my host sister had to audition for a college. It was interesting to see how an American University is (really different than a French one).

At the end of December, I went to Jacksonville to celebrate New Year’s with other exchange students. And spending New Year’s Eve in a jacuzzi was really different than a New Year in France, where it is usually snowing.

At the beginning of January, my host family organized an early birthday party for me. It was really nice to celebrate my birthday with my friends.

But the best part of these last 3 months was definitely the end of January.
On January 26th, I left Tampa with my Rotary counselor and the three other girls in my district from Austria, Taiwan and Brazil.

First, we went to Key West, the southern island of the Keys.
The roads were really pretty. There was a succession of bridges up on the water, with the Atlantic Ocean on the left, and the Gulf of Mexico on the left.
In Key West, it was even prettier. We took pictures next to the buoy, symbol of the Southern-most point of the United States. We were only 90 miles from Cuba.
We also watched the sunset, known as one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world!
Then, we went to another island, where the Sea Camp was.

I spent four days with the same awesome 70 exchange students!
We learned things about the environment, we went snorkeling, we had a party, and some other cool things.
On Saturday, it was my birthday, and Max’s, from Germany. Celebrating my 18th birthday with them in this beautiful island was unforgettable.
This birthday was also the warmest birthday of my life : 30 C (86 F). What a weird thing to be on the beach in January !

Right after my birthday, I was supposed to go to Chicago with my host family, but at the last minute, I had to go back to France, for a funeral in my family.
It would have been really hard to deal with the pain here in Florida, all by myself, so I decided to come home for a week. Seeing my whole family, and being back in my house after 6 months in Florida was pretty weird, but I felt relieved to be with them during this hard time we had to go through.
Spending time with my friends and realizing that nothing had changed between us was great too.

At the end of the week I finally left Paris, and being in Florida again was nice. I feel like my home is here now. My American family, my friends, and all the exchange students in Florida were so supportive and nice with me during the ordeal and that’s how Americans are!

My experience here has been perfect so far. But time flies by so fast. I only have less than 5 months left here, so the only thing I have to do is have fun, keep my eyes open, realize how lucky I am to be here, and ENJOY !