Exchange student grateful for warm welcome to Opeongo

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Douglas – A young student from France is returning home with many fond memories after her four-month experience in Renfrew County as part of an international exchange program.

Julia Ruders of Saint-Malo, France, arrived in Canada on August 31 and was greeted by representatives of Yes Canada, the organization co-ordinating the exchange. The 14-year-old arrived in the Valley on September 3 and met her host family, Sarah MacPhee and Zaha Iberahim, and their two children, Aliah and Dania, who live in the Lake Dore area. She was a Grade 9 student at Opeongo High School and the Leader caught up with her last Thursday as she prepared to spend her last day with friends at school on Friday before flying home on Sunday.

“Everybody was so nice with me,” she said of her first few days at the school. “Everybody came to talk to me because I was shy to go with other people.

“I came here with really bad English because I wanted to learn,” she added. “Now, I can speak and understand it okay.”

At first, she found it difficult in her classes but it all got better.

Julia was born and raised in SaintMalo where she lives with her mother, Sophie, an Operating Room nurse, her step-father, Yves, an orthopedic surgeon, and brothers, Karl, 16, and Roman, 10.

“Saint-Malo is in northwest France, four hours from Paris,” she said. “It’s right on the ocean. It’s not a big city, about the size of Pembroke.” She learned of the exchange program through a friend who had participated in an exchange, but she was in Florida for three months.

“I talked with her and I liked the idea to come here to learn English and meet new people and see Canada. I have never come here before.

“I wanted to try it. I felt it would be good for me,” she added. “And my mom and step-dad were very happy and encouraging.”

In Saint-Malo, the education system works differently. At the school she attends, Grade 9 would be the senior level and she would move to a different school for Grades 10 to 12. She has eight subjects each day back home while at Opeongo, students have two subjects a day and two different subjects a day on rotating weeks. And for the last week, they returned to a regular semester system with four classes per day, which they hope to carry on in the new year.

“With two classes, it’s long for one day. But now I like it.”

Although she has only had four days with the four classes, she enjoyed that schedule too.

“I have science, music, tech and geography now. They’re good.”

She hopes to pursue career as a veterinarian or a doctor.

Although she had never played the sport before, she tried out for and was selected as a member of the junior girls’ basketball team.

“I did the games and practices,” she said. “I really liked it. I never played before. “I want to play back home in France.”

She also went deer hunting for the first time with Aliah and Mr. Iberahim and enjoyed the experience. She also enjoyed walks in the forest with the family dog. She liked the snowfall and she went ice skating at the Eganville Community Centre with friends. She is an avid horsewoman and has two horses she competes with in equestrian competitions.

“I ride for pleasure and in competitions. I’ve been riding for about eight years.”

Her older brother, her mom and step-dad all ride too. She said the horses are stabled about 15 minutes from her home and she rides every weekend. The competitions are held on Sundays.

She attended a concert at the Rankin Community Centre featuring Eganville’s Jon Pilatzke and his wife, Cara Butler, performing some traditional

Ottawa Valley step-dancing and fiddling routines.

“I had never heard that music before and I liked it,” she said. “It was good.”

New Sites, New Foods

Julia said the Iberahims took her on lots of sightseeing and shopping trips and introduced her to some new foods she had never tried before.

“I tried some new foods because I don’t eat the same things in France. When they’d try something, I’d try it too.

“I tried poutine in Ottawa and Montreal and I liked it,” she added.

Mr. Iberahim is Malaysian, so she also tried some of the foods native to that country, including chicken and venison curry, which she also enjoyed.

She visited Ottawa and the Parliament Buildings and had trips to Montreal and Kingston where she enjoyed sight-seeing and shopping.

“In September, we went to Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto and it was so good,” she noted. “It’s very big but I really liked it.”

She said it was nice to be in an area where there is lots of space as it is congested in the city where she resides.

Really Homesick At First

Julia admitted she found the first few weeks away from her family very difficult. “When I came here it was very, very hard. But by October, it was good.”

At first, she was making two calls home per week but only chatted with her family on a weekly basis after that.

She said the Iberahim family was very supportive when she was feeling homesick.

She said she had a friend from SaintMalo who was on another exchange here who left a few weeks ago and she spoke to her frequently too.

Julia will definitely recommend the exchange program to her friends and fellow students back home.

“I have other friends who want to come here,” she said Tough Week

Last week was very hard on her, knowing she would have to say goodbye to her new friends.

“I feel very sad because it was amazing,” she said of the experience. “Everybody shared with me to have to leave with just one more day at school is hard.

“I will have so many good memories,” she added. But thanks to technology she will be able to stay in contact with her new friends through text messaging, emails and Facetime. While she cannot take part in another school exchange, she said her family is anxious to visit Canada too. She thanked the Iberahim family for being great hosts, saying they were welcoming and supportive during her stay.

“All the people were very nice and I was scared about that. When I came here, I didn’t know people and everybody was so nice to me.”

Host Family Enjoyed Experience

Ms. MacPhee, who is the principal at Beachburg Public School, first saw something about the Yes Program exchange program on Facebook.

“I inquired and was provided with a few different ages and knew what countries they were from and then got to read a little profile on the students,” she explained. “I knew right away that Julia would be a wonderful fit for our family.”

Ms. MacPhee said she learned how difficult it was for Julia to be away from home and what qualities make an exchange successful.

“She’s extremely independent, she’s positive, she’s resilient, she has a very good work ethic and she is just open and wonderful to interact with and integrate with.”

Knowing how homesick she was the first few days, Ms. MacPhee was able to converse with Julia in her native French language, which really seemed to comfort and support her.

“When the loneliness kind of kicked in, I did have some good conversations with her in French where she could kind of vent to me a little bit and I could explain to her that everything was normal.”

Ms. MacPhee said she certainly understood Julia’s feelings as she was an exchange student herself once. She said Julia was adventurous when trying new foods and seemed to really enjoy her deer hunting experience with Aliah and Mr. Iberahim.

“I don’t know if they were the quietest hunting companions, but they were certainly dressed to the nines for hunting and they were in the blind. It was a great experience.”

As her departure date drew close, she admitted it has been tough on their family.

“It’s been hard thinking about her leaving and thinking about one less person that’s a member of the household not being there. But I think that there’s a relationship and a connection there that’s going to be there for life with us.

“I’m hoping to welcome a visit back anytime and that we can visit them in France too.”

Ms. MacPhee said she would recommend being a host family.

“I think it was wonderful, especially for my children to be exposed to a different culture, a different language, and to open their eyes up to the world so much.”

OHS Will Miss Julia In New Year Angela McGregor-Stewart, principal at OHS, said Julia has been a wonderful addition to the school.

“She has participated in every event and extracurricular activity possible over the past four months and developed strong friendships that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. Staff and students have enjoyed having Julia with us as a Wildcat, and we know she is going home with many great memories and leaving us with great memories as well.

“Julia worked hard here to improve her English skills, and the improvement in her speaking abilities and confidence in the language is extremely evident,” she added. “It has been an absolute pleasure having Julia at Opeongo and she will be dearly missed.”