Exchange to Reunion Island

From hiking an active volcano to making lifelong friendships, Year 9 student Leonardo had the adventure of a lifetime during his recent French exchange to Reunion Island.

As part of the WALRSE French Exchange Program, Leonardo spent a month immersed in French language and culture, staying with a host family, attending school and embracing every opportunity to step outside his comfort zone. The experience not only strengthened his language skills but also built his confidence and created memories he'll never forget.

Read on as Leonardo shares highlights from his incredible overseas adventure.

Three weeks ago, I returned from a one-month French exchange program from WALRSE to l’Ile de La Reunion (Reunion Island). Through the trip I not only improved my French speaking skills but also had some great experiences and improved my overall confidence.

I stayed with an incredible host family with my correspondent and his brother. They were extremely nice and helped me through everything from getting used to the time difference to learning French. Though the main purpose of the trip was to speak and practice French, it took a lot of work to be able to get used to, as I wasn’t very great at French when starting the trip and struggled to understand. However, as the trip went on, I could see my French heavily improving and felt very proud of myself. Everyone in Reunion Island is very nice and acts as if they’re your friend so starting conversations on a day to day with anyone is extremely easy.

During this trip, I didn’t only practice my French, I also went to some incredible places and ate some awesome food. I went to a beach with black volcanic sand, did a 5 hour hike up an active volcano, saw the sunrise above the clouds in the mountains and did canyoning down a giant waterfall. I also tried all the local foods from the places such as “Pain (bread) Americain” which is a sandwich larger than three of my hands, “salade De Palmiste” which is a salad made from palm trees, and drank, a bit too many Oranginas!

Through the entire trip, I was also able to make friends with my correspondent’s friends and with my fellow WA students from other WA schools, with whom I’m still in contact with today. Getting to see different perspectives and cultures was so fun and gave me a whole new perspective of the world.

Overall, I loved the exchange, it was an amazing experience. I am so lucky to have been able to do such a trip, and I strongly recommend anyone who is wanting to improve their French to do it as well, not only to better your French, but also for the adventure to try something new overseas. I’ll never forget the friends I made, the culture I discovered and the sights I saw, and perhaps the only French soft drink: Orangina!