A Summer Camp in France

Going to France had been a dream of mine for years, as I was taking French in school. Fortunately, my high school is very involved with AFS and their exchange programs, and in 2016, the school was awarded a scholarship for one student to go on an AFS Global Prep program which was two weeks long. My French teacher and a local AFS advocate met and decided to award me the scholarship, so I got to go in the summer of 2016.

In July, I met up with other AFS students going on the program at JFK Airport in New York for our flight over. Once we arrived, we were amazed at how beautiful Nice was. The place we were staying at had gorgeous villas on the mountains, and it was picturesque. The downside to this beautiful place was that we were not allowed to venture out to explore, so even though we were in Nice, we did not get to experience as much of France as we had hoped. The other disappointment came in the form of the food. We were not allowed to be out of the location for our meals, and the food they served us was not exactly French, and it was barely passing as food.

Overall though, I was able to meet so many awesome people and make friends with many others from all over Europe (as many other students at this program were non-AFS, European students). I believe that the program no longer exists, and I would not recommend it to my friends, but it was an incredible experience. I still was able to learn some French, make friends, see wonderful views, and get a taste of what France has to offer. However, I would love to go back to France as a regular traveler and actually experience the culture.