In December I got to go ski the Alps with my host family in the resort town of Megève. It was breathtaking. I felt like I was living in a scene from a postcard. I'm also very fortunate to have an amazing host family. I have one little host sister and we've become extremely close which is very surprising for me because I grew up with two older brothers and no younger siblings or sisters. This experience has taught me so much. You learn so much more than a language. You learn to listen and that sometimes it takes you understanding absolutely nothing to finally realize everything.
Most people ask me what I like about France. For me it's really simple things that make my day. I like that every dinner and lunch I eat with my family. I like that no one has a car and that you walk everywhere. In Texas I drove EVERYWHERE and I never really got to slow down and just enjoy Dallas. I love that when I go to sleep I can hear the ocean. I love my friends because they know me so well, and they've pushed me to become so good in French. In the first weeks that I was in France, whenever I met them and didn't understand something I would lie and say I did. Slowly, after awhile they picked up on it and started stopping me, telling me they knew that I was lying and then explained it to me in a way I could understand, ha ha.
School is very good and finally making sense. While starting early in the morning and ending late in the day isn't ideal for a teenager who has already finished high school, I've really been learning a lot from school.
I can't thank the Rotary enough, without you NONE of this would be possible. You have given me the best year of my life. After I finish my exchange year here I will go to Ghana where I will spend three weeks helping orphans learn English and where I will also build houses.
Thank you, Rotary, for changing my life and for giving me this opportunity. I heard this quote and through my exchange year have found it to be more and more true: "Nothing in this world worth having comes easy" As ever,
Hallie Warnock
Saint Nazaire, France
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