Last Day in Caen!

Dear families,

The kids have this entry. Here’s how Lydia Byrne, rising sixth former from Wilson, North Carolina, feels on the eve of our departure from Caen…

“Friday, June 24th, 2022: our last (full) day in Caen. We’ve done everything from visiting medieval castles to the local beaches, zip-lining to cheese tasting. In these three weeks, I can confidently say we’ve speedrun the French experience. These past weeks, we have lost dignity (ex: Peter’s newly coined term, “vitement”), experienced loss (RIP Constanza’s phone) and come close to death (source: Herath’s driving). So the impressive finale of our time in Caen–what on earth could it be?

“In a park in France [la colline aux oiseaux] around 9 hours ago (from me writing this), Adwyn, Coco, Peter, our exchanges and I sat awkwardly at some benches waiting for the arrival of The Adults™️. Now these past three weeks should have trained us well as we had experienced French culture, refined ourselves, matured… which is why we collectively bought 9 € worth of cotton candy at 10 am (barbe à papa in French, which translated is “daddy’s beard”). As The Adults™️ arrived, they ignored our incurably American purchase and began explaining the loss of our beloved vans, for which we are all actively grieving their return to the garage.

“Now that The Adults™️ and Christine, our beloved tour guide, had arrived, we began to explore the park and gardens. Our first encounter was with a waist-high hedge maze that our exchanges sprinted through, while the Americans approached the maze with a more slow and steady mindset, and I simply took some, well, some short cuts. Once all had escaped, we explored a large rose garden, humming with bees, butterflies and the sound of Titouan (Peter’s exchange) jumping into the fountain. The fountain that was labelled no bathing and had a huge X over a diving stick figure. While we were all devastated by such a reckless act in a public space, we all took several photos of the drenched lad and helped him with a photo shoot in said fountain.

“Soon others began to arrive, yet they inconsiderately brought the rain with them. We trudged back through the park and found some sheltered benches where we began eating our packed lunches. As we ate, more students arrived until the whole gang was there. We were loud, fed, and sugar-packed (shoutout to Christine for the Haribos, especially the Schtroumpfs). So, a group of us traversed the park to find the animals. We got a little lost, and I nearly lost a shoe due to a thoughtful brother of mine, yet we made it. And when we arrived, there they were, like water in a drought, the visage of the moon on a blanketed night, here it was, the crux of our trip…

“Yea, we saw some chickens. There were also pigs, goats, sheep, a cow, a peacock. It was not the Serengeti, nor the Amazon, but it was lovely. Next to the enclosures, there was an amazing view of all of Caen. I took many stunning photos, and I also got some pictures of my brother (don’t worry Mum and Dad). There, we encountered an escaped rooster who enjoyed the view and our company. Sadly, I never caught his name, but he enjoys Pocky and had very flamboyant plumage.

“We began descending to meet with everyone else who had found the “little-golf” (mini-golf). Most of the group was in a heated game already, so I watched the more intense competition occurring on the sidelines: bottle flipping. My brother had been trying to beat his high score of four consecutive flips, yet Mr. Brewer challenged him by unthinkably using a sunscreen bottle in place of a water bottle. To be honest, I don’t really know if there was a winner, but in my mind, Mr. Brewer’s sunscreen bottle flipping gave him an edge over my brother.

“As the competitions, both bottle flipping and mini-golf, came to an end, my brother and I left with our exchanges to town. After a quick break in McDo, an exquisite regional cafe for French delicacies (spoilers: it’s a McDonald’s with croissants), we ended our trip where we started: the castle. We climbed the familiar ramparts and looked out. Yet, this time, it was all different. We were no longer the pale, fragile and ignorant Americans who had first climbed these ramparts taking photos with cameras the size of our heads. No, we were now sunburnt, bruised, and self-assured (perhaps foolishly confident) students who had braved the Caen life for three weeks. I stared wistfully across the Caen skyline for the second time today, realising how signifiCaent this trip has really been. We had dodged sCaendal and Caencellations. We had tried everything from Caenelé to Haribo Caendy, had experienced things words Caennot describe. And we had sCaenned ourselves and Caencludded: We Caen do anything.

“Well, now I’ve got some packing to start, and I’m not sure if I’m ready for Paris. I mean, Caen was amazing, but it’s not Paris, right? But maybe I’m asking the wrong question: we may not be ready for Paris, but is Paris ready for us?”

We’ve had so many adventures here. Here’s what the kids enjoyed the most:

“My favorite memory walking and exploring Caen’s centre-ville. It is beautiful in an ancient way, and has one of the most beautiful bookstores I’ve ever been in and is home to some of the best croissants I’ve ever tasted.”

“My favorite memory was watching French Jurassic Park in 4D.”

“My favorite memory was going kayaking with my host sibling!”

“My favorite memory was literally electric biking into the sunset with my family at La Rochelle.”

“The first zipline on the at the luge might be my favorite memory. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to even do one and then I did like 30.”

“My favorite memory is my host family asking me about the differences between France and the US and being surprised.”

“My favorite memory was walking back from the pool with Erwan (my little host brother) and watching him dance to the music I was playing!”

“My favorite memory is having a dance party with our teacher Valérie in her classroom with everyone.”

“When I went go-cart racing with my host family. There were no seatbelts and one rule: don’t hurt yourself!”

“My favorite part of the trip has been being immersed in the French culture and learning a lot of things about the culture and language. I also really enjoyed spending time with my host sister Clara and playing with her dog together.”

“My favorite memory was biking by the beach with my host brother Maël. The view was exquisite, the biking was fun, and the weather was great.”

“My favorite memory was going to the Mont-St-Michel.”

My favorite memory was swimming in the Omaha beach with our clothes on.”

And while we’ll all have heavy hearts at the train station tomorrow, our adventure is not quite over yet!

Paris here we come!

Konrad, Alfred & Janine