I went to Brive-la-Gaillarde for 4 weeks in March. It was a really great experience. Before I left I wasn’t really looking forward to going as I thought I would just be missing my friends and family in Ireland the entire time. But almost as soon as I arrived I realised this would be a fun experience and that I should try and enjoy every moment as I was very lucky to be here. Everyone I met from the family to friends in school couldn’t have been nicer.
I quickly made lots of friends and enjoyed my school days because of this. TY Europe did an excellent job at finding a family that was a good fit with me. I did many fun activities with them at the weekends like ice skating, playing basketball and going to a big rugby match in Brive Stadium! It was difficult at first trying to communicate in French but everyone was very kind and helpful and made sure I understood what was being said and helped me with new vocabulary. I was amazed at how quickly I started to collect new words and phrases.
By the end my French had improved hugely from day one when I had barely a word. It was also really nice that Jane and Margit of TY Europe kept in touch with me and regularly checked in to see how I was doing and if there was any way they could help me! To me four weeks sounded like an incredibly long time to be away and I was quite nervous leaving but it absolutely flew by so I needn’t have worried! Overall it was a fantastic experience, I would definitely go back and I would recommend it to anyone. It was beneficial not just for my French but in so many other ways. It was a wonderful thing to be completely away from your normal daily life, it felt very freeing which I loved!
