Foreign exchange student Julie Godart experiences teenage life in Pontiac

Most high school seniors want to get through that final year and move on to the next chapter in their life. That chapter might include travel and experiencing a little bit of life somewhere else. This may include the military or college or simply just travel.

For Julie Godart, experiencing life in a new place took place in her senior year.

Godart (pronounced go-duh) was a foreign exchange student from France this past school year, completing her one year of study abroad in Pontiac. Along with her transfer of credits, she was able to accomplish enough credits her American senior year to formally graduate from PTHS.

Godart said that she was really excited about going through the graduation ceremony, which took place on May 21, because graduation in France isn't that big a deal.

She was also elated to have her family here to share the moment. The Godart family arrived on May 19 to share in this final experience of high school in the United States.

The culmination in Julie's foreign exchange student experience is a vacation with her natural family, which include her parents, an older sister and a younger brother, and her host family, the Fuhr family of Pontiac.

Kyle and Shannon Fuhr (pronounced fore) were accepted as a host family after inquiring about the program in early 2022.

“So Shannon messaged me and said that, 'Hey, what do you think about hosting a foreign exchange student?'” Kyle Fuhr said. “I know when Shannon messages something like that, that we're (considering) a foreign exchange student …”

“Like, you don't have a choice,” Julie interjected.

“So, my question was when, for how long?” Kyle said with a chuckle. This was in February of 2022.

Shannon pointed out that she saw a post for the International Cultural Exchange Services (ICES) program and that her sister-in-law has hosted students before and the family really seemed to enjoy the experiences.

“I just liked the post about hosting a foreign exchange student,” Shannon said. She said contact was made by an ICES representative, who sent some information.

“When we read Julie's letter, we really felt she encompassed our family, our values,” Shannon said. “It was just another person (but) in France, who was just like us. She has fit in from Day 1 and it has been amazing.”

Across the Atlantic Ocean, there was this 16-year-old girl in southwestern France eager to also be a part of the program.

“I wanted to be an exchange student when I was 16, two years ago,” Julie said. “I was like, if I want to do it, it's like now.”

Julie learned about the program from a friend who had already experienced it.

“I was really excited about being an exchange student,” Julie said. “I asked my parents, they surprised and thought, 'great, we're going to do this.' Then I said it was for one year and they were like, 'wait, we're going to think about it.'”

The thought of making their middle child happy must have appealed to them because Julie was allowed to move forward in this endeavor.

Julie needed to also meet requirements in order to be considered. For one thing, she had to be proficient enough in English, which she proved to be.

There were also other factors, including a house visit to the Fuhr home, paper work, exchange of information and, most importantly, the approval from Pontiac Township High School to accept a foreign exchange student.

The process took eight weeks before contact with Julie was made.

“I knew you were going to be my host family in March '22 and we started talking in April,” Julie said.

When she learned she was going to be in Illinois, Julie said she wasn't sure where it was and looked up information. One thing that stood out was the weather. She wasn't too fond of cold and that what she was in store for. She has since gotten used to it.

They had numerous Zoom meetings, including one on Easter when the Fuhrs were at Shannon's parents' home.

Julie arrive in New York with other student from France, and after a few days headed to Illinois to meet her host family and prepare for the school year. She said she still speaks to some of the other students, including a group of students who were placed in Illinois.

Three of them, Julie said, are hoping to meet up after getting back home. Of course, there is a logistic hurdle in that because one student is from Germany and the other is from Italy.

The Fuhrs and Julie got to be better acquainted wit the help of Google Translate, a program that allowed for easier communication.

“The beginning was really hard, I was speaking English just a little bit,” Julie said. “I would look at people and I would say, 'yes, yes' but I was not understanding.”

“We had to learn to slow down,” Kyle added.

“It's really tiring because I was focused all the time to understand English, to speak English, to make a sentence. I was surprised by how tired I was going to be,” Julie said.

Some of that tiredness might have been helped by her decision to participate in cross country.

“Being on a team was the best stuff I could do,” she said. “I was not talking with a lot of people because I wasn't speaking a lot of English and not understanding what they were saying. I was feeling real sorry about that, like 'I'm sorry, could you repeat again?'

“Cross country really helped me because I was making friends and be with people. I was running, not focusing on English; I was doing something with my brain off. That was my break of the day. That was fun.”

Learning not only a new language and being at a new school, Julie was also having to deal with new people.

“There's like three type of reactions when I say I'm French,” Julie said. “The first one is like, 'Oh, that's awesome. Can you say something in French?'

Another reaction was, 'I really don't like French people, I don't really care about that.' And the last one was just like, 'you're French, that's good, but you're just a student. Let's be friends because you're a student not because you're French.'

“I tried to find friends like that.”

Julie said that she found this last group of people in cross country and track.

Another thing Julie had to get used to was when things took place here compared to France.

“After the first day, I was like, you guys are eating really early,” Julie said. “It's 6, in France is like 8 or 9. In France, school is really long, it's like from 8 in the morning to 5-6 at night, so obviously we don't eat at the same time.”

In France, Julie said, the middle and high school years are switched. Instead of three years of middle school and four years of high school here, it's the other way around in France.

“The difference is, like for a day, it's longer,” Julie said. “It's really tiring, and to be honest, I feel like it's really stressful to go to high school in France because grades are really important.”

She noted that learning languages seems to be more important in France than here. This makes sense given the closeness of the European countries to each other.

“For my high school in France, this year doesn't count, so I'm going to do another senior year in France and then I will be a graduate in France, too,” she added.

Julie said she would like to be a dietician and plans to study in France.

Adapting to this new life became easier as time moved on.

“I remember one day, I just woke up, it was a Saturday and I was just running and I said to Shannon, 'I dreamed in English!' Julie said. “That first time I was really happy about it and it got easier because I my brain started to think in English.

“Sometimes I was also confused because I was sometimes thinking in English and I would start talking in English to my family and friends. They were like, 'stop, I don't understand.'”

“It's been fun seeing you grow like that,” Kyle told her.

“The beginning of the year, I was feeling like, because I wasn't speaking English enough, I was not able to make friends,” Julie said. She noted that she felt she irritated people because she would continually ask them to repeat things.

There is one person Julie felt really close to practically from the beginning. That is Caitlin Fuhr, the Fuhrs' eighth-grade daughter. Julie calls Caitlin her best friend. Not far behind is Lanie, another daughter who is in junior high. The relationship was typical of a group of teenage girls getting together to talk about the day's events that parents weren't going to be privy to hearing.

“She was my best friend for the year,” Julie said of Caitlin. “We just talked about everything. During the football games at the beginning, I didn't know a lot of people, so we went together. It was fun.

“I really enjoy the relationship I have with my host family. I feel like it's my family now,: Julie said. “I also feel like being on a team. I felt it was the best I could do, it was awesome.”

Among the other things Julie experienced was the cuisine more associated with here as opposed to that in France.

“Her mom said she was super picky when I asked what were some of her favorites because I was going to try to have a bunch of her favorite food here when she came to live with us,” Shannon said.

Kyle said that Julie was a trooper when it came to trying new items, though. There was pizza, Italian beef sandwiches and other favorites of the region.

“I don't remember the name of the food, it's just like 'this is really good, you should just try it.' OK, I tried it and it was good,” Julie said.

“It's complicated to say 'I like this.' It's easier to say 'I don't like this, I don't like this.' I try everything. There was some stuff that I don't like in France but here it was the same but it was made differently.”

One thing was cinnamon. Cinnamon isn't big in France, Julie said, but here it was rather tasty, especially as it was made into cinnamon rolls.

There were other things, including a special family recipe that will now be heading to France.

“My mom makes homemade spaghetti sauce so I made that for Julie, now Julie wants that recipe for when she goes home,” Shannon said. “Some of our things that we like to cook for dinner she wants to take back to France. She's definitely broadened her horizons when it comes to food.”

Julie and her family are scheduled to return to France in the middle of June after taking a trip to California.

“We will miss her a lot. She has been a huge part of our family,” Kyle said.

“I'm going to miss you guys, I'm going to miss you so much,” Julie responded. “You are my family now.”

“This opportunity has been better than we ever anticipated it to be, just the relationships, experiences our girls have had getting to know Julie,” Shannon added. “They're life memories.”

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Exchange student Julie Godart experiences teenage life in Pontiac