7^th &8^th Monthly Report

 Hello everybody in cyberspace its your favorite exchange student, the one and only Jorge Toro. Over the last three months, I have sent in reports and opinions of how I feel about certain things. People may be lead to believe that I’m not having a good time.

 Yes, its true the last three months I have been suffering from a disease that is common among some exchange students. The disease that I had over the last three months was called ”Crappy Host Family Disease” or CHFD for short. This disease develops when an exchange student and his host family don’t really get along for some reason. This disease has three stages that can worsen the disease its self. Stage one of the disease is called” I didn’t know” in this stage of the disease your host parents tell you absolutely no rules or guidelines to follow and when a rule or guideline is broken they become really pissed of at you. Stage two of the disease is called” Immature host brother or sister” in this stage of the disease your host brother or sister that is younger then you tries to boss you around and tries to get the best of you.  When you tell them shut their traps or to leave you the hell alone they run to their mummy and daddy like immature babies. The final stage of the disease is the worse stage and its called” Wine and Wine”. In this stage of the disease your host mom or host dad, most likely your host mom because in general all host dads are cool will, wine and complain all day when you have done nothing to them. They will wine about your so called bad attitude, your ways of doing things, the reasons you became an exchange student and more boring that you honestly don’t want to hear. My host family and I went to the local Rotary doctor the other day to explain the disease that I had contracted. The doctor did his analysis of the situation and he said the only cure for CHFD is to change host parents and that exactly what was done. After three months of CHFD, I changed host families one final time before I go home. My new host family is the family of Pierre Dubail, the exchange student that took my place back home in the states. My new host family explained all the rules and guidelines that are required to survive with them. With me knowing all the rules and guidelines I know what I have to do and that’s cool. I know that my last three months here in France will be a time well spent with no troubles with anybody.

 Right before leaving to Spain, I attended a Rotary District meeting, which was hosted in my city here in France. Every Rotary Club in our district had a few members from their respective club attended the meeting. Since our district has only three inbounds which include myself and two other Americans the entire attention of the morning session of the conference was on us. To my luck the other two Americans that were suppose to attend didn’t because one went on the Rotary Bus trip and the other didn’t have an idea that the conference took place that day, so I was all alone with my the members of my Rotary club. Its really intimidating when you are the youngest person in a room filled with nearly three hundred Rotarians but when you have to give a speech in a foreign language that makes the situation a bit more difficult. They called up all the exchange students which was myself and two other exchange students that did the exchange last year. The district governor did a little presentation of each student and then handed me the microphone first and told me you got 5 minutes to give a brief speech. Before giving my brief speech, I was nervous as hell but as soon as that microphone was in my hand, I was so relaxed that it was soothing. For 5 minutes I explained whom I was, where I came from and other things here and there that people want to hear when they don’t really know you. At the end of my speech, I was rewarded with a loud applause from three hundred Rotarians and the representative of the president of Rotary International. All the member of my Rotary Club were extremely impressed with my speech and were really happy with the progress that I have made in French. As long as my Rotary Club is happy then I am happy. 

 I just got back from an outstanding trip to Spain. The entire trip was excellent and it felt so nice to speak Spanish again for a whole week. Where do I begin to tell you about my trip? First we had to take a charter bus for nearly twenty hours to get to where we had to get in Spain which wasn’t that cool because there is only so much music you can listen and sleep as much as you want before you start to get bored and all your body parts start to fall asleep. Well after nearly a complete day of traveling, we finally got to Valladolid. We spent the afternoon visiting the city, which was filled with beautiful buildings, many churches and a big beautiful park right in the middle of the city.  Valladolid is a beautiful city that is crammed with nearly half a dozen beautifully built churches that date back to the 17^th century. Its weird seeing a city filled with so many churches but since that churches are so beautiful I guess I don’t mind. After spending the afternoon in Valladolid, we were back on the road to reach our final destination that was Salamanca. Salamanca is much more beautiful then Valladolid. We took a tour of Salamanca the following day and I honestly really didn’t understand the tour guide because she would mix French and Spanish instantly which made it hard to understand. This woman French was so messed up that I think that my mom who doesn’t speak a lick of French would of understood her. Just in downtown Salamanca, easily, a dozen churches date back to the 15^th century. The following day we went to a city that was in the middle of nowhere at the top of this mountain we had to drive up for nearly half an hour before we reached the top. The view from the city was breathe taking and you felt like if you were at the top of the world. Its sucks that I cant send you pictures of the view that I had because my laptop has been acting weird lately and I cant transfer my photos from my digital camera into my laptop. We were so high up that there was snow that was scattered around the city. For nearly a half an hour everybody admired the breathe taking view before we had to leave to visit some other cities that weren’t that cool. The following day we to went the countryside to visit a well-known ranch across Spain. This was huge nearly 1000 hectares or 1000 soccer fields in size. We saw many bulls that have been used for bullfighting and bulls that would be killed to produce beef. In Spain, bullfighting is considered an art and is extremely dangerous even if you are a professional bullfighter. Every bull in Spain that is to be used for bullfighting must be at least 600 kilos or nearly 1200 pounds. Every student that was willing was able to do some bullfighting, which was cool and scary at the say time. No, we didn’t bullfight a 1200-pound bull only a 200-pound baby bull. Even though baby bulls are only one sixth, the weigh of a 1200 bull they can do more then enough damage to a human being if you were to get hit directly. I have honestly never be so scare before. Its hard knowing that once you are in the bullfighting area, the objective of the bull is to run into a human being that is holding a big yellow and red towel and the objective of the bullfighter is to sidestep to the left or right at the last possible moment so that you don’t get ran over. Did you know that bulls cant see colors and only in black and white. For the better part of 45 minutes, I along with 15 other brave students did some bullfighting. In between all the bullfighting, site seeing, guided tours and countless hours of being in a charter bus, I was able to do some shopping and some partying. I found a club in downtown Salamanca where for 3 Euros something as dollars you could dance and drink until two in the morning. Me and my friends went to that club for three straight nights the first two nights until midnight and the last night until two in the morning because there were 20 of my friends that were there with me and we kind of lost track of time but nobody got mad. 

 The trip to Spain was an excellent time that I enjoyed with 50 of my school friends but the Rotary Bus Trip was ten times much better. Mixing 50 exchange students from the four corners of the world on a bus for 12 days while visiting some of the most beautiful spots in France guaranties an action packed time. There were exchange students from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Taiwan, Mexico, Japan, and South Africa. With all but one exchange student that didn’t understand or speak, English it made easy for just about everybody to express what they wanted to say when they didn’t want to speak French. We visited cities such as Caen, Brive, Auxerre, Chamonix, Millau, Tours, Nimes,St Afrique, Marseille, Grenable, La Rochelle, Cassis, Geneva in Switzerland and of course Paris. There was a slight schedule flip to start of the Bus trip instead of visiting Paris on the first day we visited the most beautiful chateaux in the world, Versaille. This chateaux is so beautiful crafted and designed that it took nearly 100 years of labor and twenty-six thousand men and women to complete its construction. Then we head to Caen to visit the WW2 museum that was there. I didn’t take any pictures at Caen because some images of the war were graphic and at times rather disturbing at see. The next stop was La Rochelle a beautiful city that is located on the coast of the English Channel. Then we head to Mont St Michel for the day. Mont St Michel was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. The next couple of days were spent with visits to FutorScope( a high text amusement park), Tours, chateaux Chenonceau, and to a factory were we saw how they made foie gras which is duck liver.  Then we visited Nimes which contains an amphitheatre that was built at the end of the first century AD. Visits to an underground cave in Dargilan and an underground cavern in Padirac set the tone for the last 5 days of the bus trip. The following day we were in Marseille (France’s oldest city and second largest in terms of population) that included a visit to the “Basilica Lady of the Guard” that dates back to 1214.The basilica harbors a statue of the “ Lady of the Guard” which is about 30 feet tall and weights about 22 thousand pounds. The statue atop of the basilica represents Our Blessed Mother carrying her Son who is blessing the city and its harbor, as well as all those who come to Marseille. The following day could of not gone any better then it went. We went to Cassis to take a boat ride on the Mediterranean Sea to see the all the cliffs that make up the city. With the Mediterranean Sea breeze in your face and beautiful landscape filling your view their cant be a better way to start of your morning before you have to be a bus for a long time. Later that day after a six-hour drive from Cassis, we arrived at Chamonix, which is at the base of Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in Europe at about 14,400 feet. That night everybody was tried as usual so a nice bowl of pumpkin soup while watching the French Alps was a great way to put an end to the day. The following day was enjoyed by visiting “La mer de glace” in the Alps which means sea of ice in French. The Alps provided a stunning and overwhelming view that I have never seen before. The next day we were in Switzerland to visit the United Nations buildings in Geneva.We took a tour of the United Nations building last about an hour the tour guide lady gave a ton of information about UN building. Did you know that the UN building in Geneva holds between 8000 to 9000 conference a year and that every document or conservations during those conference most be translated in the 6 official languages of the UN which are Arabic, Russian, Chinese, English, Spanish and French. The last day of the bus trip was a guided tour of Paris that lasted around three hours. Since Paris is the biggest city in Europe its impossible to see the entire city but we saw most of the important places such the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumphant, Cathedral de Notre Dame, and the Museum of the Louvre. The bus trip was a perfect way to put this ever so smaller exchange year to a finish. Everybody on the best trip had a great time, we visited so many beautiful places, we partied a couple of time, hang out a lot with one another and barely slept for 12 days. My body is extremely tried from the bus trip but it was well worth it.                                                    

 As I continue to these monthly reports the faster, the time passes. It’s been 8 months since I have been here in France but I feel like I just got off the plane yesterday for the very first time. This experience as an exchange student has been a roller coaster experience for me. There have been great and crappy moments, exciting and boring moments, moments filled with frustration and moments filled with good old fashion laughter. When I sum everything up I have had an excellent time hear in France and I am happy with the progress that I have made with my language skills and my abilities to adapt and change to the different situations that I have faced. Till next time world stay tune to the monthly reports of Jorge Toro because you want be disappointed with what you read. 

Jorge Toro

Outbound 2003-2004