Local girl returns from France

Katie Bieber

Bonjour à tous! Wow! It’s difficult to believe that 10 1/2 months have just flown by.

It seems like yesterday I was packing my bags and getting ready to leave for my Rotary youth exchange in La Rochelle, France.

At the end of April, my parents came to visit me for my two week spring vacation. It was so nice to see them after eight months!

We visited La Rochelle and Surgères, being wined and dined by each of my host families, visiting the two islands, the Ile de Ré and the Ile d’Oléron that are near La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Saint Emilion, a historic town near Bordeaux.

I was proud to be the “tour guide” showing them my life in France and taking them to places that I had visited, especially La Rochelle and Surgères, where I spent the majority of my time during my exchange.

We also drove down and spent six days in Spain in the Basque Country. It’s like a mini country but it’s in the very northwest part of Spain and the southwest part of France. The people speak Basque, a language that has words that use so many letters, it was impossible for me to decipher.

We visited the Guggenheim Modern Art Museum in Bilbao, the Vizcaya Bridge, which is an UNESCO Historic Site, and we went on a funicular in San Sebastian.

We joined the lunch crowd at many Tapas bars, enjoying the local delicacies, and we walked and walked and walked. When it was time for them to leave, it wasn’t as hard because I knew that I would see them again in only 2 1/2 months.

In May I was invited by my host Rotary club in France to go to Falmouth in Cornwall, England for an annual get together with its twin Rotary club. Falmouth Rotary Club showed us some sights in Cornwall, including Buckland Abbey (the house of Francis Drake, the first Englishman to go around the world), an old mine, a historic house, and we took a little train on “The Bodmin and Wenford Railway.”

I tried “Cornish Cream Tea,” which is basically normal black tea with scones with jam and clotted cream. Cornwall is famous for this clotted cream and I must say that it is delicious! I stayed with a really nice English host family and I had a great time getting to know the Falmouth Rotary Club.

I attended my Rotary District’s “Fête de Student” (Student Party) in Bordeaux. It was our last day together as a group.

We spent the day together planning a show for the evening. Everyone had to assemble by country and prepare something for the show. My fellow Canadians and I teamed up with the Finnish girl and we made a dance using Canadian/northern countries’ stereotypes, such as hockey, scraping windows, curling, and shovelling snow.

At the end of the evening, when we all had to say goodbye, it was really hard as it was the last time that most of us would see each other.

The end of May and early June passed by quickly as the end of every school year normally does.

On June 16 I left for Paris where I met up with 45 other Rotary exchange students to go on our Eurotour bus trip.

We spent 12 days visiting Paris and Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany), Prague (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria) where I celebrated my 19th birthday, Venice and Milan (Italy), Chamonix (France), and Geneva (Switzerland).

I had an amazing time on this trip visiting wonderful places while making lifelong friends.

After the bus trip I had one week to say goodbye to all of my families and friends in La Rochelle/ Surgères before I came home.

I would just like to thank my home club, the Clearwater Rotary Club as well as my host club, le Rotary Club La Rochelle Aunis, for my wonderful exchange!

I am very proud and thankful that I was chosen to represent Clearwater and Canada in La Rochelle, France. It was a once in a lifetime experience!

This fall, Clearwater Rotary Club will be interviewing interested students for the 2015/2016 Rotary youth exchange, departure in August, 2015. If anyone is interested and would like to hear more about my experiences and my perspective on this incredible program, feel free to contact me.