NARRATIVE-BIOGRAPHY - Elena de Paz

Last year, some classmates and I did an exchange with a group of French guys from Bordeaux. At first, we were all very anxious and excited to do it, because we were going to do a trip with our friends. Then, the teachers handed out our partner’s information. In my case, my partner was called Ombeline, and she was 15 years old. She was living in Bordeaux with her parents and six siblings, but she was born in Paris, and she grew up there. She described herself as a sociable and happy person. She took singing classes and she played tennis. 

Two months later, we set off our trip to Bordeaux. I was feeling really nervous as I had never met her nor her family. As soon as we landed, I saw the group of French guys, and I could easily recognize my partner, because she was wearing glasses and was the shortest of the group. At that moment, we were all rather quiet and silent, as we didn’t use to be, due to our lack of fluency speaking French. Even though, we started talking with them and we went at our partner’s home.

When we arrived at her house, suddenly, most of her siblings appeared. I was a bit confused since I couldn’t understand them very well. After that, they presented their house and the room that was going to be for me that week. Fortunately, they seemed very kind as they had been talking slowly for me to understand them more easily. Next, we have met other French girls, because she had to present them to me, considering that, at that moment, she would be in her singing class. Finally, we went to a party and at 1 a.m., her father was supposed to pick us up.

We were waiting him in the street, and the time passed and nobody was there. We called him, and he told us that he was in the address we sent him. So, unfortunately, it turned out that the address we sent him was wrong. He was in another village. As a result, we had been waiting thirty minutes more until he arrived. I felt extremely scared because we were alone in the street and I felt lost in an unknown city. In the end, when we eventually arrived home, we started laughing and now, we remember it as a fun experience, although it was not at that moment.