Yann’s Experience

Hello,

My name is Yann, I’m a 16 years old French student in Charlie Chaplin Highschool. I live in Meyzieu, a town eastern Lyon.I live with my mother but I sometimes go to Annecy to see my father who live there. I’m fully French as I have no foreign origins but I lived a bit more than a year in England when I was really young.

When I knew I was going to host a Swedish person, I was quite excited like the rest of the class because I didn’t know many things about Sweden, and even less about Swedes.

Before my pen pal came to France, we were not talking that much on social network, so I didn’t know what to expect from her. We were a bit shy at first but after the first day we spent together, we got closer. We talked for hours in the evening, she was very friendly.

The thing that surprised me the most is that our guests are really calm. I also noticed that they eat much less bread than we do. Otherwise, they aren’t that much different from us 🙂

During the whole week, we almost only spoke in English at home. It didn’t bother my mother because she was happy to have the opportunity to do so. My sisters also sometimes talked about things they have in common with my penpal, but as they are younger, their English is not fantastic.

I had a great week all together, I discovered a culture that I didn’t know, we spent good time together and I think I improved my English.

Thanks for being so nice and see you in Sweden.

Miloe’s Experience

Hello, my name is Miloe Wilèn and I am eighteen years old. I am living in Sweden in a little city called Köping. I was very excited to meet all the French students and especially Yann. Me and Yann had not talked so much before we went to France so I was kind of nervous about how he was and what his family was like, and almost every girl got to live with another girl so I felt a little bit insecure because I didn’t know if we would get along so well but as soon as I met him at the airport I instantly felt that I was in good care and then I wasn’t so afraid anymore.

I was very curious about what his family would be like and what kind of school he went to and I did not have so high expectations about their country but I got very surprised about Lyon. It’s a very beautiful place.

Yann’s family was very kind and open and made feel welcomed. I really liked his family and I got along with his little sisters very well and I even did his little sisters’ makeup for fun. At first, I and Yann did not talk so much but after the first day we started talking more and at the end of the day we went out into his backyard and just talked for hours and that went on every evening after that, it was like our thing. It was really hard to leave them because I really liked Yann and his family and his mother was so kind and it started to feel like a second home to me.