International Exchanges Programme

It's been three weeks since we got back and I still wonder why we couldn't stay longer in Paris...

Paris is such a beautiful city. There's so much to do, like in any European city, but what made our trip even more extraordinary was staying with our French pen pals. They were incredibly welcoming, and their families were lovely and fun too. We got to see how they live and what their school life is like. They live in a small and charming suburb of Paris called Maisons-Laffitte. From there, they could walk or cycle to school. Maisons-Laffitte is also quite well-connected to Paris—you can take the RER or the bus, but the train was the easiest.

Each day, we visited tourist sites with our teachers and typically French places with our exchange partners. We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Orangerie Museum, the Palace of Versailles, the Gardens of Versailles, the Tuileries Gardens, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Chocolate Museum, and Montmartre—the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. And then, we took a boat trip on the Seine.

Personally, my favorite attraction was Montmartre because I'd never been there before! Also, in my opinion, it offers one of the best views of the Sacré-Cœur. There are lots of little shops where I bought souvenirs for my family and friends. They also have delicious crêpes!

My favorite aspect of this experience was the French cuisine. I enjoyed it immensely and if I could, I would eat it more often. Through the food, I also discovered the rising tide of change in the homes of our pen pals. They are reducing their meat consumption and trying to eat more organic food.

There are many things that are different between Paris and Mumbai, but Paris stole my heart!

Year 11
Aanya Shahani

The French Exchange was an exhilarating experience both culturally and socially as I got to know France in a different light from what I had read in French lessons and was able to interact and acquaint myself with peers and like-minded individuals. Through activities such as the pastry tour and being able to visit the Louvre Museum, I was able to discover a new facet of my identity and realized my passion and interest for gastronomy and art. I was also able to learn various aspects of French culture such as how adding butter to any dish makes it French and how protesting for social issues is ingrained in French culture.

All stereotypes aside, I fell in love with Paris. Having an espresso in the morning to munching on croissants to gazing at the Eiffel Tower for hours in awe of its magnificence and grandeur.

But beyond just the clichés, it was the experience of actually staying with a French family and being part of their lives for a week that excited me the most. From playing FIFA with my host for hours to making Raclette to enjoying a soccer match at a restaurant with pumped up fans, it was an episode in my life that I'll never forget.

I was also able to bond with my peers and learn different things about each of them that I hadn't known before. From starting a friendly soccer rivalry with one to cracking ridiculous jokes in queues for attractions and rollercoasters, it was all an unforgettable experience.

But, the best of all was visiting Paris yet again and still being as excited to discover and explore new things as the very first time!

Advait Deshpande

Hosting the French Exchange Students

As delightful as travelling to Paris was, hosting the French students was a far more enjoyable experience. Here, we gave them a taste of our own culture, quite literally, by exposing them to different food, clothing and most importantly weather. The French students from the Ermitage School situated in Maison-Laffite, came to live with us for a week, from the 23rd of February to the 1st of March. They spend their weekend completely with us, while on school days, school took them for tours around the city.

I had previously thought that when the French students came to live with us, it would be a learning experience only for them, not us. Over the course of their trip I realised how I was learning more about their culture, habits and etiquettes as the days went by. From their intolerance towards spice, to their excitement at buying Indian dresses; from their dislike of the perpetual heat, to their appreciation of house-help and drivers; their multitude of responses towards things that we considered for granted in our daily lives helped us understand how they lived.

We used this opportunity as well as we could, to spread our culture far and wide. This exchange experience was a milestone for both them and us; it increased cultural awareness, along with educating us beyond the world of school and textbooks. We learnt how to welcome people into our homes, make them part of our family. We learnt how to communicate, despite some lingual differences. We learnt how to adjust our lifestyles, to accommodate other people in, and to share whatever we had with them. We learnt empathy, compromise, and sacrifice. But most of all, we learnt friendship.

Ishita Bagri

Quand nous nous sommes inscris pour l’échange français, nous ne pouvions pas imaginer que ça serait une des meilleures semaines de nos vies. En voyant nos correspondants pour la première fois sur Facebook, nous nous demandions si nous pourrions devenir amis, si nous pourrions être à l’aise chez eux ou si nous pourrions trouver des plats végétariens à Paris!

Tous les soucis étaient détruits au moment où nous avons rencontré nos nouvels amis. Dans une semaine à peine, nous avons non seulement lié de vraies amitiés, mais aussi appris beaucoup de choses à propos de leur culture. C’était très intéressant de savoir ce qu’ils pensaient de l’Inde et de voir notre ville de leurs yeux. La partie de l’échange à Mumbai était très amusante, mais c’était le voyage à Paris que tout le monde attendait impatiemment. Une semaine après leur départ, nous nous trouvions à l’aéroport encore, cette fois pour aller en France nous-mêmes.

A Paris, chaque jour était une nouvelle découverte. Les chefs d’œuvres au Louvre, la croisière sur la Seine, la pièce comique ‘Comment être parisien dans une heure’, le Marché des Enfants rouges avec sa grande variété de fromages français et des plats chauds marocains, le grand palais et la chasse à trésor dans les magnifiques jardins de Versailles, l’atelier de cuisine française à l’école Ermitage, le Sacré-Cœur et les centres commerciaux à la Défense : tout cela nous a montré un aspect intéressant de la culture et de la langue. Mais pour nous, c’était les petits moments qui ont rendu le voyage inoubliable : les promenades dans les rues pittoresques de Paris, les tasses de café et les crêpes dans les célèbres cafés de Paris, les macarons délicieux de La Durée et goûter les escargots pour la première fois!

-Tanvi Hisaria
Year 11 French B SL

The students of L’Érmitage International School stayed with DAIS student-hosts for an extremely eventful and scintillating week in February. Our first day proudly boasted of wholehearted attempts to mime French rap music and teach Bollywood moves to bewildered international students who don’t understand why we “act out the song’’. The rest of the week passed by in a blur and if not for the promise of the Indian Exchange to Paris, our goodbyes would have involved more tears.

Spending the day at the mall; shopping for kurtas and turquoise rings; watching decidedly horrible horror movies with a plethora of popcorn and candy and dancing our last night together away. Over the span of a week, we befriended people from a unique culture, people who weren’t so different after all.

Despite the apparent camaraderie and rapport, we were still students from two different parts of the world, and although we were more alike than unlike, some cultural differences were hard to ignore. For example, the conversation I had with my French exchange student about the wonders of Indian food: “What’s that tiny blob of like, vegetables and jelly-ish thing that they always serve you with bread? It’s like a little glop of food, very colorful, it's fascinating.”

“….Do you mean sabzi?” 
“Yeahhhh, saabzi.”

The Spanish exchange was an extremely memorable, unforgettable experience for me. From eating traditional Spanish food to navigating the roads of Madrid while speaking Spanish, I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this trip.

From the minute we checked in to the (newly done up!) Mumbai airport, we had this excitement, I can’t begin to put down in words. We were excited for every small bit of action that awaited us in Paris; from the people we were going to meet (some again and some for the first time) to the food, to the sites, to the school, to everything! After the French exchange students, who were no longer just our correspondants, but rather our good friends, had left Mumbai to go back home, none of us could wait till we were out of Mumbai and in Paris (partly to get away from all our work and stress!).

After getting to spend the weekend with our hosts, we had a pretty jam packed week with almost no time to breathe. I guess our hectic Mumbai lifestyle followed us to France. Every day had an extremely ‘go-go-go’ feel to it that, in a way, we loved. We somehow managed to pack in everything from The Eiffel Tower, on which we were given some interesting fact files, The Louvre, a special tour at Roland Garros, to the Palais de Versailles, and even a Croisière Commentée – a boat ride on the river Seine to see Paris by night with a commentary in English, French and Spanish; while also having (the most important part) the best meals every single day. It was one overwhelming experience to visit the world famous French Open venue – Roland Garros! The tour We discovered the history of tennis and prestigious parts of the stadium – the dressing room/lockers of world champions, the autographed wall of the French Open champions such as Stefi Graf, Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupati, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal etc., as well as the press conference hall, Centre court, the museum bearing all the above champions’ sportswear, rackets, the French Open trophies and so on.

And if you ask any of us how the food was, you’ll receive a series of hungry moans, nostalgic sighs and the names of the dishes we devoured (well, probably not from the vegetarians). One of my favorite mornings (related to food, surprise surprise) was one where we casually went over to the kitchen facilities in the dorms and made crêpes and mousse au chocolat. Yes, that actually happened! It was a challenge that sounded exciting but also a bit daunting—make crepes and create the perfect chocolate mousse. None of us expected to be cooking delicious dishes, especially when most of us don’t even cook here back home. We broke up into teams and got to make sugar and lemon or strawberry crepes and chocolate mousse. This was also the day that we visited the Food Halls of the Bon Marché in Paris and went to a local marché (market) it was a day for us to see Parisians buying everything from fruits, to cheese, to huîtres (oysters), to escargots (snails), to second hand books.

Another activity we did took place at none other than the royal château, Palais de Versailles, in the Île-de-France region of France. We spent an hour exploring the palace on the hunt for clues and answers to our treasure hunt, in which, not to brag (okay, maybe a little), my partner and I came first, receiving a bag of Jeff de Bruges (a local chocolatier) chocolate which we also demolished. We also did quizzes, crosswords and riddles, for which the winning students were given prizes –Versailles and Marie Antoinette themed stationary! As museum lovers, it was no shock that so many of us thoroughly enjoyed our visit to one of the best museums in the world, The Louvre. We had the amazing opportunity to be guided by one of the TOK and History teachers of Ermitage, Ms. Sheila, who gave us a bilingual tour with a TOK perspective on Art and History. That was certainly one of the highlights of the week. Though, I can’t say the same about seeing La Joconde or The Mona Lisa, partly because all you can see of the small painting is the several hands and cameras dying to catch a glimpse of it!

On two of the days, we got to spend our mornings at the Ermitage International School and sit in on classes, and just generally see a completely different school in action. Needless to say, I didn’t understand much in the Spanish class. However, I was happily surprised to legitimately grasp much of the French A HL class (note: it was almost equivalent to my English A literature and language HL classes here). We also attended a TOK class which gave us perspectives on both CAS and TOK, as we discussed the validity of community service in general and at Ermitage and DAIS in particular, as also the most desirable form of service as a whole.

Finally, people think that you can’t form that strong a bond or relationship in the short time that we visited France or that tears when saying goodbye are not called for, but I know for a fact that every single student on the French exchange trip can prove those statements wrong. No matter how clichéd this next line is, I’m going to say it. There’s absolutely no doubt that our 10 day trip created memories and friendships that will always stay with us. And, I know I’m not speaking for just myself here when I say there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think back and wish I could relive or somehow extend that memorable trip.

Rhea Bhatia, 
Year 11

As part of the Indo-French exchange programme, 19 eleventh graders were given the opportunity to stay with host families in Paris, France for 8 days. The trip, filled with culture, art, new friends and exciting opportunities, was a once in a lifetime experience and one none of us will soon forget!

When we weren’t spending time with our respective hosts, we wereexploring the sights of Paris. As most people know, Paris is ofthe most culturally rich places in the world and we were fascinatedwith images of beautifularchitecture, unique people and worldrenowned monuments at every turn.

Of course, being in Paris meant that we went to some absolutely stunning art galleries. Finally seeing the art that is spoken about in books and TV shows was a treasured experience. However, one of the best parts about Paris was that the really beautiful art wasn’t just found in museums.

When we weren’t exploring Paris with our teachers, we were spending time with our host families. That was definitely one of the most interesting parts of the trip. Connecting with the French students was really exciting because we learned a lot about their culture and lifestyle that we wouldn’t have learned on a tourist trip. All of us have taken away incredible friendships from this exchange, that will stay with us forever. Staying with our host families meant that we were completely immersed in the French way of life. Whether in the domain of leisure, music, clothing or food, we could see a clear distinction between Indian and French cultures. Being exposed to a completely different world for a week helped us realise how unique our culture really is.

Outside Paris, where most of our hosts lived, we were able to explore a more suburban type of France than in its bustling capital. Maisons-Laffitte was absolutely beautiful, with its quaint town square and sprawling green fields. It was quite different from Paris and we all really appreciated getting the chance to see both sides of France.

Alya Lamba

The Indo- French exchange took place in the months of February and March. First, the French students came to Mumbai for a week. They spent the last 3 days living with us in our houses in order to gain a first hand experience with the Indian culture, food, clothing, etc. For the first 4 days, we visited the villages Hasachipatti and Kumbhargar. There, all of us worked as a team to help improve the lives’ of the villagers. Having only visited Kumbhargar, my experience there was unparalleled. On the first day we made mud houses by thoroughly mixing red soil, sand, gravel and water and then pressing it into the allocated areas for the walls. On the second day we worked on plastering the toilets by first actually making the cement and then learning the skill of plastering it. Finally we also gave out solar lamps to all the villagers. Overall it was a great learning experience for me and I was so touched that I could reach out to people who required the much-needed help we gave them. Further I also felt we benefitted from the collaborative teamwork that made our work faster and more efficient

This exposure taught me a lot. It made me sensitive towards a foreign culture and made me learn from its different history and culture. I also made several new friends. All in all this Indo- French Exchange was an extremely enriching experience for me and I have walked away from it as a more rounded person.

Ayushi Gupta
IBD 1