Well, waking up at 5am in the morning was something I did genuinely have a build up of nervous energy for. (Sue me, I like to sleep in on Saturdays). But other than that, I shouldn’t have been worried about anything really. Dreading the part where I go home, asking myself whether or not I wanted to really commit to this project was plain idiotic. I have never been part of a project of such a large scale so of course I was getting cold feet about it, however by the end of the day, I realised that my only regret was that the day didn’t last any longer.

And so, all my worries quickly dissipated when I met the coolest kids in town.

I must be honest though, since I didn’t know anyone before I met everyone - yes that’s usually how it goes doesn’t it? - I did expect there to be tons of awkward silences and such, but once we got the chance to go beyond introduction speeches I'd say we all clicked rather well. Suddenly there was a vibrant and fun vibe throughout the day among the students and I. It was also really nice to meet the amazing team behind this programme; Pascale, Glenda and Morgan. Ok I’ll say this in advance now so here it goes: Thank you for helping bring together such an amazing opportunity together for the Youth of NZ! You guys rock!

Now for the nitty gritty part of the day:

One thing I took home with me was the advice from a couple of the French teachers that I had the privilege to speak to. The questions I was asked really helped me to shape the vision of my project as well as helping me gain new perspectives on the topic of World War One. I was very pleasantly surprised that there are places named after Kiwis in Le Quesnoy.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the trip to the Great War Exhibition in the Dominion Museum.  Actually the trip there was a 15 minute walk in some semi-chilly Welly weather, so it wasn’t very enjoyable but, the exhibition was immaculately stunning. I was also very impressed with myself because I was able to keep up with the tour guide and understand what he was informing us about. The tour was more like a revision for one of my level 2 NCEA history papers but that didn’t make the tour any less interesting. When Miss V pointed out that one of the soldiers looks like a past student of Massey High School, I thought that really hit close to home and so I found myself looking for others with that same connection. I’m thinking of incorporating something like that into my project ... so I’ll see how it goes.

Sadly the food I had wasn’t anything special; Sorry guys, if you want to hear about anything that has remotely got to do with food, you’ll have to wait until I’m in France.

Overall, I had a very warm welcoming in Welly, new friends were made and a sneak peak into the type of things I will find myself immersed into. I can’t wait to get started and it’s certain that most, and if not all nervous energy has vanished.