Aero: Hannah Miller – France 2018 – Family Life

Posted by LEAF Architect on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Aero: Hannah Miller – France 2018 – Family Life

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Hannah Miller

While living with my host family I went through a lot of different emotions. I went from super nervous to really happy and then when I had to leave I was very very sad. The very first day that I was with my family I was very uncomfortable and unsure about how it was all going to go. The student that I was staying with was not at the train station to pick me up so I ended up having to ride with a different family and student to a different train station where the student would be meeting me. The family that I rode with did not speak very good English and trying to understand what the dad was asking me was making me even more nervous. I finally got to the house that I would be staying in and settled in. That night before I went to sleep I called my mom almost in tears because I just felt so uncomfortable and awkward and I did not want to feel like that the whole time that I was going to be staying with this family.

As the days went on I became more and more comfortable around the family and they became more comfortable around me and I loved spending time with them. I feel like they really did a good job matching me up with the family I stayed with because they reminded me a lot of my family in many ways.

I think I was most nervous about eating the “right” way because they do things a lot differently in France when it is meal time than we do in the United States. Every night at dinner in France we had at least three courses; main meal, cheese, dessert/yogurt/coffee. In one of our classes before we left we practiced proper table manners like how to place your knife and fork down on the plate depending on if you are finished with your meal or would like more. My family would just put their utensils on their plate in any way shape or form if they were done or if they were going to get more food. There was also no specific order in which people would get their food. It was whenever you were ready you could dig in. I know that a couple American students were saying how in their house that they were staying in the males would always eat first and then the females would eat after they were done. This was definitely not the case in my house.

Another difference that I noticed was everything ends later in France. The parents would get out of work later than my parents and Abby would get out of school much later than I usually do so meals, especially dinner, were pushed back to almost night time. I never had dinner any earlier than 8:30 p.m. This was very hard for my body to adjust to especially since I also could not have any snacks which as an American I am used to doing. My family at home usually eats around 5:00, so by that time my stomach is usually growling and making all kinds of noises.

Communication is another part of staying with a host family that I was very nervous about. The student I stayed with, Abby, spoke pretty good English so most of the time I could understand her, but her parents and little brother did not speak very good English so Google Translate often was eating dinner with us. One of the days that I was with my host family I went to Abby’s riding lesson and hung out with her friends. When she was introducing them to me she would always tell me if they were good at English or if they did not speak any English. While Abby was doing her lesson I was hanging out with all of her friends and the ones that could speak pretty good English and the ones who could not were asking me questions and really making an effort to talk with me and make me feel welcomed, which I did. We all were using Google Translate at one point or another, but I really enjoyed talking and hanging out with them. Towards the end of my stay with my host family they told me that since they have been trying to speak English know I am going to speak French. As they were telling me this they were all laughing, but I did give it my best effort. Abby would say a sentence slowly for me and I would say back to her what I thought she was saying and about half of the time I got it wrong but I did understand what she was saying the other half of the time and I was pretty proud of myself for remembering as much French as I did from high school.

When the day came where they had to bring me back to the train station and I had to take the train back to Paris to catch our plane the next day, I was very sad. I could not believe how strong of a connection that I had made with this family over such a short period of time. As I was getting onto the train I felt like I was almost abandoning them. The whole family came to the train station to say good bye and they were standing on the platform as the train was pulling away. It was like I was in a movie. They had taken me into their home and taken care of me and all of a sudden I was leaving.

I told Abby that when she comes to New York that she has to tell me so we can meet up and if I am ever back in France again I am definitely going to make sure I have time to visit. I am so glad that I was able to experience the French way of living. This experience really made me come out of my comfort zone and now I have a lifelong friend that I plan on keeping in touch with.

Hannah Miller
Study Abroad – France 2018 @ FLCC

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