So Excited for France!!

Hi, my name is Alexandra Bennett and I am participating in the St. Laurent program in France for summer 2012.  I am 16 years old, and I’m going to be a senior next year in high school in Aurora, Illinois. It is so surreal that I am able to study abroad when I am only 16. I can’t believe that I am traveling halfway around the world without anyone that I know, and staying with a family that may be completely different from my own. I have never traveled out of the country alone before, so this will definitely be a new experience. France has been on my mind since I started learning the depths of the language three years ago, as a freshman. Traveling to France has been one of my dreams for a while, and this program is really helping me see that if you put your mind to it, dreams can come true.

Finding the right program was so easy for me. One of my good friends from school is also participating on a similar program in Spain this summer, and told me about Abbey Road. After looking online and researching the St. Laurent program, I knew that this was where I wanted to go. I immediately applied for the Chris Meyer memorial Scholarship, sent in my essays and recommendation forms, and hoped for the best! After about two weeks I found out that I received the two-week scholarship, and I was headed to France. The coordinators of my trip and my student ambassador were so friendly and they made me realize that I had definitely made the right choice.

Now that I am preparing for this trip, I realize what lies ahead of me. What I am most looking forward to is to completely change my lifestyle and to see what I have to change to adapt to my family’s way of life. I have no idea how different it will be, and that is what excited me the most. I can’t wait to travel to France and have an adventure every day. New food, new people, and new places are all waiting for me to discover them.

I looked at all the electives that I could choose, and I thought that a studio art class would be the most enriching, and also it is my favorite elective that I took in school. What better place to improve my artistic ability than in France? Also, I hope that this trip will help me improve my fluency, and also my conversation skills. The best way to learn a language is to only speak it for a period of time, so here I go! I’m off to discover what this program will offer, and what I can take back from my amazing trip to France.