My name is Delphine and I went to Ireland for two weeks in 10th grade (Seconde) with a super family that I was able to meet and get in touch with thanks to Dana. I therefore went to Shankill (which I really appreciated because it is a super nice, very pretty and rather calm town) during the All Saints' holidays to discover life there by sharing the daily life of the family, speaking English as much as possible because it is a language that... I like a lot, and taking care of the three children of this family. The first week I was able to acclimatize to the environment because the children went to school and the second I took care of them during the day, which allowed me to share super moments with them.
I really have great memories of this trip! I was able to meet beautiful people in this family who were really very welcoming and caring with me. I noticed differences in daily life, whether in food (although it is not so different, the food rhythm was not quite the same in my family and I discovered with pleasure some dishes that I did not know) or even in the schooling of children for example (they did their homework online or learned the typical language).
One of the moments that marked me the most was the Halloween party. It is a much more popular and democratized festival than in France, so we had prepared it in advance and I took a lot of pleasure in it, whether carving the children's pumpkins, choosing and installing all the decorations with the whole family or making up the children. The evening itself was very nice because everyone meets with friends so that the children can go get candy and then we meet at a family's house for a dinner and a really very friendly shared evening.
Thus, I really keep very good memories of this trip, whether humanly or culturally, especially since it allowed me to have an English linguistic bath, which really made things easier for me in this language and allowed me to acquire language automatisms and comprehension facilities that I did not think I could acquire in two weeks. I really hope to be able to return there to find this atmosphere that I liked a lot and to be able to discover new things and meet new beautiful people!