inbound Rotary Youth Exchange Student Arrives!

 

From left to right:  Aminta Clinton, Mailys Ooghe, RYE, 

JP Clinton and George Clinton.  

The Clintons are the parents of Outbound RYE Ashley. 

They are hosting Mailys for her year here in Miami.

 Hello Rotarians,

My name is Mailys Ooghe.  I am 16 years old and I live in France in a small town in Northern Brittany called Trebeurden.

I live with my father (my mother died in 2008), my little sister Coralline who is twelve and my 20 year old brother Thebault.

My two other brothers no longe live at home, Romain the elder is 22 and studying nutrition in Paris.  Joris, 20 years old, is a Folk and Country Musician.  Although they do not live at home I see them over the holidays or whenever I spend the weekend in Paris.

I am currently in my second year of high school, studying Economics and Social Sciences.  My high school is 13 km from my home so I take a bus every morning at ten past seven which gets me to school at twenty to eight. I arrive home at six in the evening.  Classes begin at eight and end at half past five.  We have an hour and a half for lunch.

I have five hours of classes in economics and social sciences a week. It is one of my favorite subjects along with English and history. I really like languages and have been learning English and German since my first year in middle school.  I have been on two school trips to Germany between ages twelve and fourteen. Homework takes up a lot of my time especially this year because I dedicate four and a half hours of every Saturday to handball.  That is why I have to spend a lot of time in my room doing homework.

I live in Trebeurden, a seaside resort in the northwestern Cotes-d’ Armor (the pink granite coast).  Trebeurden is situated a distance of 10 km from Lannion.  It is a town of about 4,000 inhabitants, many of whom work in Lannion where the industrial section and main schools are to be found.

My house is situated in a quiet neighborhood, 1 km from the seaside.  My father, my brother, sister and I each have our own rooms. Our house has a guest room because we enjoy having visitors.  We like to spend time in the garden, weather permitting.

My brothers and I share a passion for sports and music.  Furthermore two of my brothers are musicians.  I regularly go to concerts and I like alternative rock and pop music.  This year I went to see All Time Low and Thirty Seconds to Mars, two American groups.

I have been playing Hardball since I was ten years old.  I go sailing occasionally and as my father is the Director of the Trebeurden Sailing Club we like to go sailing together from time to time.  This summer I started surfing.

Sport is very important to me as an opportunity to meet people with a shared passion.  My passion for sport came from my brothers, the eldest, Romain plays in the best French American football team.  My father, who makes a living from his passion for sailing, undoubtedly had an influence.

I also love animals, especially my two cats.  However I have rodent phobia.

Liking languages and foreign cultures, I discovered linguistic exchanges in middle school.  My school, in Pleumeur-Bodou, College Paul le Flem, had an exchange with a German School, Comenius-Gymnasium in Datteln.  During one week, I had the chance of getting to know the language better and of discovering and sharing a new culture with my host family and the other students.  I returned for a second visit two years later.

I also went three times to London with my father and my sister for Christmas when Romain and Joris were living there. We like the city a lot so every winter we go back there for three or four days.

I am energetic and open, impulsive and frank, and sometimes shy. I like to have fun and make people laugh.  I seem shy at first-sight but once you get to know me I am very open and communicative.

I like cooking and hope to share some French culinary specialties with my host family.  Once I have my high school diploma in Economics and Social Sciences, my dream is to study at at Community College in California.  If however, this is not possible, I intend to go to a French university and study Law or International Trade.

I see this exchange as a wonderful opportunity in my life, as much on a personal as well as a future, professional level.  I am also very curious and studious; I get deeply involved in all that I undertake.  I feel ready to live this adventure, even if I know that there will be difficult moments.  This adventure will be an opportunity for personal development, as well as a fantastic opportunity to discover a new culture and new people.

By the end of this experience I think I will be more open minded owing to the contact with another culture and having the chance to improve my language skills would certainly be a bonus for future studies.  

I am looking forward to visiting your club soon.

 Mailys Ooghe.