In downtown Winchester next to the town hall, you may have spotted a sign depicting the French and American flags, proclaiming Saint-Germain-en-Laye as our sister city since 1990. What does that even mean? Every other year, a couple dozen students from both WHS and the suburb of Paris partake in an exchange trip. This year, this exchange is with Institut Notre Dame. Upperclassmen enrolled in Winchester’s French curriculum have the opportunity to host an exchange student in the fall and travel to France and be their guest in the winter. On October 21, twenty-four exchange students and two teachers will be landing in Boston. The anticipation is thrilling!
After months of diligent planning, since sign-ups were organized this past spring, Madame Foley was able to announce exchange assignments to juniors and seniors in mid-September. Likewise, students at IND were quick to get in touch with their hosts through WhatsApp around the same time. According to Madame Foley, the incoming students have been studying English for years in a program called “section anglophone” or were raised in a bilingual household, so their excitement is well-articulated over the phone. The “American high school experience” seems to captivate the Europeans-- both the French this year and the Spanish last year-- with the liveliness of Friday night football games and Halloween in particular. While some children do trick-or-treat in France, it is not as maximalist as here in the United States.