By Kit Humbarger, Features Editor and Lucy Hansen, Assistant Features Editor
Mira Costa French teacher Laurie Resnikoff put together an exchange student program from Feb. 2-12. Twenty-seven Costa students hosted French teens from Perpignan for just over a week, during which they were able to experience everyday life in America.
While the French students had scheduled outings every day, their hosts were also tasked with thinking of fun-filled and American-inspired activities. Because the exchange students attend a private Catholic school in the south of France, their day-to-day routine at Costa offered a significantly different experience from their lives at home.
Some of the activities included biking at Venice beach, touring Hollywood, visiting Universal Studios, and coming to MCHS for a day. Many of the hosts took the students to places like Disneyland, Winter formal, and a UCLA basketball game.
For many of the French exchange students, everything they experienced in Southern California was a culture shock. According to the students, in comparison to life in France, life in the South Bay was an exciting new experience.
“My favorite part of the trip is hard to choose, but I really liked the bike day when we visited Venice Beach and Santa Monica. I think everything is very big like the cars, the houses and the streets. I of course loved everything.”
Victorine Montels, Exchange Student
“My student’s English is not phenomenal, so sometimes communication takes a while, but we’re both learning from each other quite a bit.”
Miles Hardin, Junior
“I love talking with American teenagers my age, even though we are the same age our culture changes a lot of things.”
Lucie Rolland, Exchange Student
“I hope to build tolerance and understanding [in my students] that even though we have so many differences, there are so many things that we have in common. It was really easy for families, even with the language barrier, to build strong connections with each other.”
Laurie Resnikoff, French Teacher
“The French exchange program seemed like such a fun oppor-
tunity to get better at French and meet some amazing people.
Overall it’s been really fun and I’ll definitely keep in touch with [my exchange student] when she goes back to France!”
Alexis Hara, Junior
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