Last year Poland Regional High School senior Megan Gray embarked on a journey to France. For half of the year, Megan lived a French life- going to school, eating their food, speaking only French. How was it? Here are the dirty little details you are all dying to hear.

When Megan arrived in France, it didn’t take her long to get a taste of the French culture. For dinner her first night there, her host mom, dad, 15-year old sister, and herself had spaghetti with ketchup. Yes, not sauce, people, but ketchup. She also received a shock when she went to use the bathroom, and there was no toilet seat. Megan says she was “freaked out at first,” and she was really homesick. After a while, however, she got used to it. Her host family didn’t speak English at all, so Megan was speaking a lot of French. The only English she spoke was with an American friend, and a bilingual German friend she met.

Something else that surprised Megan when she got to France was how cold it was. Before she left people told her not to bring too many warm clothes because France wasn’t cold. Boy, were they wrong!

For the most part, the people over there were friendly, and somewhat understanding of her language barrier. Some people mocked her strong American accent, but they weren’t doing it to be mean, they just thought it was funny.

School in France was “Incredibly boring!” She didn’t have to wear a uniform, but it was very strict and formal. It was much like college; you just took notes all day every day. If your teacher didn’t show up, instead of having a substitute teacher, you just didn’t have to go to class either. You had two hours to eat lunch, and most people chose to go home and eat lunch there. Megan got a lucky break near the end of the year; for two months the teachers went on strike, and she didn’t have to go school. Lucky girl, she had some time to travel!

When Megan first arrived in France, she stayed in Paris for four days with another group of exchange students from Australia. Then she proceeded to the little town in Southern France where she lived. Megan visited the coast a lot; one of her favorite places was Rafael. She also went to Germany and stayed with the parents of an exchange student from last year that some of you may remember, Theresa. Then Megan got to visit Italy twice, which was her favorite part of the trip.

Now, a girl can’t spend half a year in another country without doing a little shopping! Megan said she bought clothes, shoes, books, CD’s, magazines, and lots of coffee. In France, you go to cafés and just drink coffee and chat all of the time. “It sounds like a stereotype, but it’s a true one!” Megan said she also wound up spending a lot more money than she expected to. When she first arrived in France, one American dollar was equivalent to one Euro. Then, the value of the American dollar lessened, and by the time she left it was one Euro to 1.25 American money.

Paris fashion is a bit more sophisticated than American fashion. The women liked to wear knee high, pointed toe, stiletto heel boots, lots of fishnets, and they wore black stretch pants a lot; hardly anyone wore jeans. Surprisingly, all the writing that was on the shirts was in English.

Megan happened to be in France at the time when America went to war with Iraq. Everyone in France was completely against it. They would complain about President Bush, they thought that he was a horrible person. They believed that the only reason we were going to war was because of oil, and then when we gained control of Iraq, all we were going to do was take all of the oil. The news was very biased against America you only heard the bad, and never the good. In France, they believed that the war was only bad; they did not understand the real reason we went to war.

Megan has some advice for anyone planning on trying raw oysters, “They are the worst thing ever, if you ever get the chance to try them DON’T!” Megan did, however enjoy escargot, which is snails, Mediterranean shrimp, and muscles. She also tried coos coos, which is not a French food, but is comprised of meat and rice. Far cry from that ketchup spaghetti she first had!

Not many teenagers get the chance to live in a foreign country, but Megan was lucky enough to live a French teenager’s life, and for the most part, she enjoyed it.