Leland Henry

2010-11 Outbound to France

Hometown: Winter Springs, Florida

School: Winter Springs High School

Sponsor: Winter Springs Rotary Club, District 6980, Florida

Host: Bourges Rotary Club, District 1720, France

Bio

Leland's Bio

Hi, my name is Leland Henry. I live in Winter Springs, Florida with my mom, dad, brother, sister, and two dogs. I am currently a junior at Winter Springs High School and I am hoping to finish up my credits this summer to graduate on time.

I really enjoy theater in both the acting and technical aspects. I love being on stage and acting but I also like moving sets and doing all of the backstage work for shows. I'm co-president of Thespian Honor Society and have been a member of troupe 5777 for three years now. In my spare time I like to bake, listen to show tunes, and spend time with friends.

Ever since I took a trip to northern France in 2007, I have always wanted to go back and explore the country further. I am extremely excited for the opportunity to spend an entire school year in France to broaden my horizons, experience a new culture, and hopefully become fluent in French.

I feel very fortunate to have the chance to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime experience and cannot thank the people of the Rotary Youth Exchange program enough for that.

August 28

It is the morning of my third day in France and it has been a very interesting three days.

Me and other exchange students in Paris

Day 1: We arrived in Paris at 7am and I hadn’t slept in 24 hours. Monsieur Pellerin and Madame Deligat met those of us in district 1720 at the airport. Because Monsieur Pellerin is the YEO, he has to greet all of the exchange students at the airport, and so did we. We walked around the airport and rode the tram 6 six times before leaving at 12:30pm! I was exhausted. We (me and 3 other exchangers) then travelled into the heart of Paris for some sightseeing and lunch at the Pellerins’ flat. I have never walked so much in my life! We were supposed to meet the other exchange students in our district but they were late so we ate dinner and headed to Bourges around 8pm. I slept in the car for about an hour, my first time sleeping in over 36 hours. When we arrived at the Pellerins’ house in Bourges, my first famille d’accueil (host family) came to pick me up and take me to their house in St. Doulchard. I was tired and my French was not very good so it wasn’t the best first impression. I took a much-needed shower and went to bed.

My host family, minus my host dad because he was working

Day 2: I woke up around 9:30 and had breakfast and talked with my host mom. She is very kind and actually said my French is good!  Breakfast consisted of bread with butter and orange juice and I’ve come to find that this is what they eat every day and either put jam or butter on the bread. I unpacked my things and got all settled in and lunch came so quickly! Mealtime in this family is adorable. They all sit down at a big table together and have a three-course meal. The first course was cucumbers in a delicious sauce and bread, of course. Once everyone has completely cleaned his or her plate down to every last crumb, the second course comes out. It was rice and chicken, which was very good. Lastly, for dessert, there were three different types of cheese to put on bread and some mixed fruit in a sweet sauce. They also eat plain yogurt with sugar poured on top.  They all clear the table and do the dishes as a family, which is very different for me.

Around 3pm, my host sister Juliette took me to the city, Bourges, and we met up with two of her friends. The kissing on the cheek thing is not a stereotype, they ALL do it every time they greet each other. Juliette and her friends are teenagers, so they talk very fast and I could only recognize a couple words here and there. I got to see my school and Juliette’s school, and most of the city, which is BEAUTIFUL. It is about 70-75 degrees with a constant breeze, MUCH better than hot and humid Florida. They were in shock when I told them that the weather now is much like the winter in Florida. We discuss the differences between the US and France a lot. There is a lot of “oui” and “d’accord” which translate to “yes” and “ok” or “I understand/agree.” I’m used to being surrounded by conversations I can’t understand. For dinner it was once again a three-course meal with homemade guacamole and chips (Mexican? Definitely not what I was expecting), pizza, and a plum tart.  They eat dinner around 8pm but surprisingly I wasn’t extremely hungry. For describing food, they use the French to English dictionary and love learning new words like zucchini and plum.

My eldest host sister and my other host sister's boyfriend playing Pictionary

Juliette and her older sister, Mathilde, then went to pick up Juliette’s boyfriend, Quentin, while I skyped two of my friends in college and my mom and brother back home. We played Pictionary, which was the most fun I’d had since arriving. My host brother, Jérémie, was in charge of translation with the help of a dictionary so that the game was fairly played. They are very much like Americans when it comes to playing games, very competitive.

This afternoon Juliette is taking me shopping. I’ve realized that they don’t really start their day until around noon or later. Before then, we just hang out at the house and don’t really do much. I can see my French improving a little as I continually speak it all day. It was actually weird not having to explain things and use a lot of hand motions when speaking to my friends and family back home. Tonight, my host mom’s brother and his wife are stopping by to visit as they are on their way to the south of France. My school starts on Thursday and I am pretty nervous about that. Luckily, there is another exchange student who will be going to Lycée Sainte Marie too. I feel a little homesick at times because being at home, where we all speak the same language, is much easier but I know I just need to give it time. France is an amazing place and I am so lucky to be here.

A couple of weeks ago I started writing down things I wanted to include in my journal and it’s a lot. Let’s start with the language….

One of the funniest instances was when my host family was trying to tell me that it was cow cheese because they know I don’t like goat cheese. But they pronounce it “co” and when I didn’t understand, they looked at me like I was crazy because they were saying an English word. I love teaching them how to say things in English because they sound almost as ridiculous as I do when I learn new French words. The word “reunion” which means “meeting” in French is impossible to say.

I’m also learning Chinese…in French. Needless to say, it’s very interesting. I thoroughly enjoy writing the characters like I actually know what I’m writing. Everyone in my class has taken it for 2 or 3 years, which makes me and the other exchange student at my school, Wei Li, look even dumber than we already look.

English class can get annoying when the teacher says “jenny” instead of “genie” or “Japin” instead of “Japan” but here, it is impolite to correct people so I just sit there and let them learn “English.”

People at the bus stop like to talk to me, a lot. Not knowing I’m foreign, many people ask me questions like “what time is it?” or “has the 11 bus passed by yet?” and I’m proud to say, I understand what they say and I am able to respond. One lady immediately noticed my accent and started talking about Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger because she thought he was from Florida. A lot of people like to talk about the oil spill, which they claim was IN Louisiana, not in the water.

One of my greatest moments was when I WAS THINKING IN FRENCH. I was on the bus on my way home from school one day and I caught myself thinking about how much I disliked the bus, but in French! It was a great feeling. 

French life….

I went to église (church) for the first time in my life and it was quite eventful. The whole time they were singing, I was trying to remember what it reminded me of and finally realized…it sounded EXACTLY like who’s from Whoville singing because for me, it wasn’t words, just sounds. I cannot wait to experience it again at church tomorrow. I also met a real life Effie Trinket that made me laugh. I witnessed some drama that I don’t think anyone else did. There was a lady with a bright pink matching scarf and purse that was noticeably upset because another lady with bright red lipstick and unnecessarily large earrings outdid her. The tension between them was intense.

I’ve experienced so many things I never would have in the United States. French cheese, zucchini, plums, prunes, tuna, and duck are just a few of the new foods I’ve tried. I had lunch with people from the Netherlands (who lived in the middle of nowhere) one day in a house that was surrounded by every type of vegetable, fruit, and flower you could imagine. The fresh-picked raspberries were to die for. The French countryside looks like something straight out of a movie.

I’m happy to report that I have also shared my culture with French people. My mom sent me a care package with bags of candy corn in it and now my entire little private school has had the opportunity to taste them. Some refused because they thought, since candy corn is American, it was either toxic or going to make them fat. My host family also decided to have an “American dinner” one night and we ate pizza in front of the TV...because everyone in America does that, every night.

One of the highlights of the past couple of weeks was the Rotary dinner. It was a wine tasting and most people tasted a little too much wine. Wei Li and I were only allowed two glasses. BUT, our table won because we guessed the most correctly and thus my family got three bottles of wine to take home. By the end of the night, men were calling Wei Li their “petit fleur de printemps” which is “little flower of spring.” It was quite amusing.

However, the most fun I’ve had was the weekend in Paris with the other exchange students. We went to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees, and Montmartre. We got to meet a bunch of other exchange students from Australia, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and other parts of the USA. We’re having another meeting with them, and exchange students from the West of France, in two weeks at Mont-Saint-Michel which I’m REALLY excited for.

I also saw a lady with a ferret, on a leash, in her lap, while she was sipping coffee at a café. Probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.

I’ve definitely had my moments of being homesick after the “honeymoon” ended but it’s getting better as I have things to look forward to. You don’t know what homesick really is until you’re 4,500 miles away from everything you’ve known for 17 years and know you’re not going back for 10 months. You can’t recommend foreign exchange like you can recommend a book. It’s life changing. I don’t know what type of person it takes to have a successful year abroad but…you have to be a little crazy to be ok with the idea of not seeing any familiar faces or places for a year of your life. I think that’s what bonds us exchange students together, we’re all a little crazy.

Some very interesting French food	Me and another exchange student from Michigan at the Rotary dinner	Australians and I at a McDonald's on the Champs-Élysées in Paris	Me and another exchange student from Arkansas in front of the Seine River in Paris

That’s something that exchange student should know beforehand. There are going to be days when you are bored. Your host family can only entertain you so much as they have work and things to do. This is probably what incites the homesickness, because you think about what you could be doing if you were home with the freedom of having a car.

November:
Well, November is almost over and I've come to realize it’s little things like going to a concert with my host sister or a party that make it fun. We are also having a Thanksgiving dinner at my high school with the freshmen English class that I help teach which should be fun, not anything like back home, but there isn’t any time for having a big feast with my host family. I am also going to go to my host sister’s high school (she is a senior) for a day to check it out. December is coming so soon and Christmas marks the point at which I am supposed to be able to speak French with ease, or at least that’s what EVERYONE has been telling me. I’m still not quite sure that is a realistic assumption. I know I’ve improved and the simple phrases of every day life roll of my tongue as easy as English does, but as far as being fluent goes...I’ve still got a lot of learning to do.

So, I just got back from the doctor who said I have asthma onset by the cold weather. That’s how people know I’m not from around here, when I’m shocked that it’s not warm in November. It supposed to snow tomorrow and this weekend, I’m SO excited! Snow on Thanksgiving would be so perfect!

Lily, Tyler, and I representing RYE Florida in front of Mont-Saint-Michel!	This is the amazing fair in Rouen at night.	Halloween - Cherry (from Peru) is a geisha with a birthday girl crown, Wei Li (from Michigan) is a crazy 80's person, and I'm Hermione!

1. The order of your sentences generally doesn’t matter…you can say things like “where are you going?” “you are going where?” “where are going you?” and they all are acceptable.

2. Random English words with a French twist such as “week end”, “t-shirt”, “over-booké” (overbooked), “planning”, “timing”.

3. In order to make something into slang, you say it backwards…for example the word “fou” means crazy but in slang it is said “ouf”.

4. Their noise they make when they are thinking, or just when they feel like it (like our “umm”) is “bahhh” which sounds just like a sheep…and I find myself saying it all the time.

5. They like to shorten things, the sentence “je ne sais pas” (meaning “I do not know) has become “j’ai pas” or simply the raspberry mouth noise is made with a slight shake of the head.

6. My FAVORITE…you can tell someone is angry if they elongated the end of a word… “arrêtes” (meaning stop) becomes “ah-reh-tuhhhhhh!” which can be heard from high school girls everywhere.

When my real sister came to visit last week, she said I was even talking in French IN MY SLEEP! I guess you can stay I’ve immersed myself in the language. In writing this journal I find it extremely difficult to remember how to express myself in English, not to mention my spelling. There is another exchange student at my school from America and we catch ourselves speaking in this Franglish that no one but us would understand. The other day we had family friends come over and they said that if they didn’t know any different, they would say I was a French girl because of my speaking abilities. Oh, family friends. I’ve realized that I’ve been answering the same exact questions since August. What my name is (which they NEVER get right on the first try), where I’m from, my favorite hobbies, the differences in weather (yes, it’s MUCH colder in France), how many brothers and sisters I have, etc. I can pretty much predict the conversations now each time I meet someone new.
Now to my life in France and some highlights from the past couple of months.

Starting in January. We had a rotary weekend at the end of the month during which we got to meet our district’s two new Aussies, one Argentinean, and one Canadian. It was really great to see everyone again as we hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas and there was a dance and all.

February. I shadowed my host sister at her high school for a day, I got accepted into the University of Florida, and over the spring break I went to SPAIN! I don’t know where to begin when it comes to Spain. When we arrived in Barcelona, I instantly fell in love. Not only is it a big city but it’s on the beach too. It was sunny and nice out, the architecture was amazing, and people were extremely nice. The palms tree were a nice reminder of home as well. I was with people from Colombia, Mexico, and Ecuador the whole time and thus has to get used to the fact that that week was spent almost entirely in Spanish. Our hotel was really nice and even had a nightclub in it! I had a great time and am now determined to learn Spanish so that I can go back one day and not have to rely so heavily on other people to get around.

Four days after arriving back in France, my real sister came to visit. We spent a day in Paris and the rest of the week in Bourges. I was exhausted from the Spain trip so we did little things like shopping, movies, theater, and she came to school with me for a day. It didn’t make me any more or less homesick, I am happy where I am now and when June comes around I’ll be ready to go home.

What I have done so far in March…My district’s exchange students sold 1,200 Euros (around 1,600 dollars) worth of little treats from our home countries which paid for one shelter box (boxes filled with all essential supplies to help countries in need like Japan) and one operation for a child with a cleft palate. It was an all-daylong event and once again a good time to catch up with other exchangers while working towards a good cause. Yesterday I spent the afternoon and evening with 12 Greeks in France with a program involving my host sister’s school. It was very interesting to learn about their culture (they said My Big Fat Greek Wedding is all true) and I am definitely planning on visiting Greece one day. I also learned a couple words in Greek, like “pama” which means “let’s go.”

Well it is already the 21st and I will be changing host families this coming weekend, which will also be my 7 month mark in France! I am not really nervous since I have met them a few times and they are friends with my current host family. I have to say time has never passed so fast before in my life. I feel like I was boarding the plane just the other day, not 7 months ago. I think that’s what everyone says. We work so hard trying to immerse ourselves in the culture and learn the language as fast as possible that we don’t see the time passing us by. With the constant questions like, “are you fluent yet?” from home, this is understandable, but I would suggest to future exchange students to not forget how short 10 months really is in the whole scheme of life. You can achieve a lot in 10 months, but set your expectations at 0 and then you can never disappoint yourself.
“Expect nothing and life will be velvet.” – Lisa Gardiner

Me and other exchange students ice skating in Le Tour Eiffel	This is on valentine's day by the cathedral in my city	Before going to Spain, we spent a few days in Paris	Seeing the beach for the first time in 6 months!
Amazing cathedral in Barcelona and delicious ice cream, perfect!