Caen Farmington exchange

with Gabriel, Camille, Bérengère, Julien, Marin, Marie, Léonie, Mélissa, Martin, Quentin, Henri, Jeffrey, Stanislas,

Justine, Julia, Eva, Léa, Isaline, Clémentine, Lucie, Anne, Anaëlle, Camille, Claire,

Agathe, Pauline, Ariane, Nassima,

Guillaume, Alice, Anthony, Bastien.

And the chaperones, Alain Chotard, Anne Florin, and François Marvin.

The trip began on Friday, 27th of March at 6 a.m. in Caen. First we took the coach for about 3 or 4 hours. We arrived in Paris at Roissy and there were lots of traffic controls.

                                                Roissy airport

Next the airplane took off at 1.15 p.m. the flight tasted about 8 hours. We were in the econommic class together and we could watch films or listen to music. We could also eat lunch and a snack or we could sleep. There was some disturbance.

When we arrived at JFK Airport, there were lots of air traffics controls again like putting our fingerprints on a machine. then we took the bus again to che city centre of New York. It took about one hour.

Our American coach at JFK Airport

Camille

Lucie & Mélissa

New-York is next to New-Jersey and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.

New-York City is composed of five boroughs: Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. This city which is also a State, is very active, economically and culturally. 

             In 1524, Manhattan Island was discovered by Giovanni da Verrazano then, New Amsterdam the ancester of New-York is created in 1625. The English conquered New-Amsterdam in 1664 and called the town New-York. And finally, in 1776, because of the declaration of independance of America, New-York became one of the leading towns in America and even in the world. 

            New-York is a very mixed town, indeed, there are more than 150 different nationalities living there. Yet, people who come from a same country or who belong to a same religion tend to gather in areas like Little Italy or Chinatown. We also have the example of Harlem, South Jamaica (Queens) and Bedford-Stuyvesant where black people live; The Jews tended to settle in the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn; Puerto-Ricans and Hispanics are concentrated in the Bronx. 

In New-York City we could see many special things that we don't have in France.

Like the fact that every taxis are yellow, like fire escapes (emergency steps that they use in case of fire or other problems) which are really tipical from America and that we can see in most of American movies. 

Also, American road-signs are different and nearly all the cars are automatic, (we didn't see any small car but in the contrary very big and expensive cars). 

Streets are organised differently than in France, they are all parallel and perpendicular to avenues and both are numbered, they aren't named by people or anything except Broadway which is not perpendicular to the others avenues and which isn't numbered.

We obviously saw huge buildings like the Chrysler building or the Empire State building that we visited during our days in New-York... and went to Ground zero, the moving site where the twin towers were destroyed in 2001.We also visited special quarters like Chinatown, Little Italy or Harlem where we attended a Baptist mass.

In New-York, we could walk by Times Square by night which is a very impressive place where everything sparkles, this street is full of billboards and lights which make it beautiful. 

These are the little details that make New-York unique, really different from France and so beautiful and impressive.

When we arrived at the Youth Hostel, Barbara the Director, presented us the hostel with a video. There was first the reception desk with employees and there were two security men because the hostel is always open. 

We had a card to come into the hostel because there were automatic doors.

On the ground floor there was a game room in which we could play pool and in front of this one there was a cafeteria but we should pay if we wanted something. 

Next to the cafeteria there was the computer room. We had to pay 2 dollars to use the computer as we wanted. Finally there was a last room on the ground floor which is called «the World Room» where people could just talk, work or read.

There was a little patio where there were green, orange and red lights. For the room it was special but amazing. In each room there were 3 bunk-beds. There were about 3 floors in this hostel. The boys were on the 3rd floor and the girls were on the 1rst floor. On each floor there were only 2 Bathrooms. 

The showers weren't luxurious but it was correct for us except for the boys who didn't have always hot water to take a shower.

There was a kitchen where everybody could cook but we had to buy the food if we wanted to.

Next to the reception desk, there was a room in which we took breakfast the first morning after our arrival. Then, we took our breakfast in a big room on the first floor which might be used for something else.

For the other meals, we had to manage on our own.

For the first lunch, some of us ate in Refreshments on Liberty Island and others in a kind of fast food on Ellis Island. There was a lot of choices, and it wasn't really expensive. For diner, everybody went to eat what they wanted. Some of us ate in an Italian restaurant. We were very impressed by the size of the pizzas.

The quantity was huge. The medium size was just like our large size in France and the prices were reasonable.

The second day, we took as always our breakfast in the youth hostel, and for lunch we dispersed according to what we wanted to eat. Some ate at Mc Do, and Ariane and me ate in a kind of sandwich shop in the Fifth Avenue.

After our long day we came back in the youth Hostel and everybody had to organize  to have diner. Then, some of us went to bed whereas other spent time in the main room of the Youth hostel or in the cafeteria. 

The last day in New-York wasn't very different about the organization of how to eat.

As we had to leave the Youth Hostel we cleared out our rooms.

Ariane & Nassima

If you want to see skyscrapers in New-York you just have to put your head up. Everywhere buildings are higher and higher but beautiful too because they are different, most of them are in red brick or with glasses so the streets are not too dark and you didn’t feel oppressed.

American radiator

The higher are in Manhattan just under central park with the Empire State Building but you also can see high building in the financial district (or Wall Street). Of course, the Empire State Building is the highest one. If you go to New-York you have to see it! The best moment to see it is early in the morning (at the sun rise) or late in the evening (at the sunset). At its top when it’s a clear day you can see a very beautiful panorama of New-York. I think the people who work in big tower have are lucky because they can see that every day.

The Chrysler building is the one which has been used for the movie “King-Kong”. It’s easy to recognize it to because it’s the only one to have that kind of roof. Most of the beautiful things on some buildings are hidden on their roof like the roof of the general electric building (RCA or 570 building). If one of the buildings, is very different, it’s the American radiator building because it’s painted in black and its roof is painted with gold at every balcony. So to finish in New-York put your head up and open your eyes.

Henri & Stanislas

We woke up at 7.00 am to go to Liberty Island on saturday morning.

We took the subway to go to the south of Manhattan and we arrived at Battery Park at 8.30am to take the ferry boat. We pass through a lot of security checkpoints before getting in the boat. We leave Manhattan about 9.30am and we arrived at Liberty Island at 10.00am. We started passing through a security checkpoint, again... and we got in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty! We visited the Statue museum and then we went upstairs in it. We could see the south of Manhattan from the top of the pedestal. We spent about an hour in the statue. We went downstairs to meet Sir Chotard and to have lunch. Then we took the ferry boat to go to Ellis Island.

Bastien & Quentin

More than a hundred million Americans can claim ancestors who came from a foreign country. There were so many circumstances of the greatest migration of modern history, like religious persecution, political strife, unemployment, family connections or the lure of adventure. But most of these people actually came through Ellis Island.
    The immigration station at Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892, to replace the old immigration station located in Battery Park. Those who chose a future as Americans came by ship from everywhere, and first had to come through Ellis Island for medical and legal inspection.

Medical Inspection                               

          
Doctors scanned the moving line of
immigrants, looking for signs of illness 
The healthy were allowed to pass                        
Those who appeared ill were marked            
with chalk and sent for further medical            
examination.                        
Here you can see a sample of the different signs that were marked on their clothes.



Legal inspection


Inspectors asked immigrants a series of questions
to determine their eligibility to land.
Most passed and were admitted.
Others, whose answers aroused the inspectors'
suspicions, were detained for a hearing before
The Board of Special Inquiry.



After Ellis Island immigration station was closed permanently in 1954, it became a museum to show people how it was like to come to the Unites States as an immigrant.
The first floor is dedicated to « The peopling of America » . We could actually see many colourful diagrams representing the population of the United States trough many years.
On the second floor, we saw the great hall where doctors were examining the immigrants. As a consequence, we could see on that floor all the techniques used by the doctors.
    
The great hall during the American exodus and today       

Finally, the third floor is dedicated to the living conditions of the immigrants when they were at Ellis Island and we could see some « treasures » found after they left that they had brought from their native countries.

Manhattan Island, the commercial and business heart of New York City, is about 12 miles long by 3 miles wide. This large metropolitan area is vaguely divided into a number of different districts or communities. Each one has a different character or atmosphere. Here are brief descriptions of some major Manhattan neighborhoods.

Lower Manhattan

This is the southernmost tip of Manhattan Island. It encompasses Battery Park, the financial district including the New York Stock Exchange and the South Street Seaport. It is mostly commercial, but includes a few fine restaurants and bistros. From the docks in Lower Manhattan, you can take a ferry to Staten Island or the Statue of Liberty.

Midtown

Generally, the area between 34th Street and the Southern end of Central Park is known as Midtown. It extends across Manhattan from the East River to Times Square and the Theater District on its western edge. It is the main business, commercial and shopping center of New York City. It contains the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the United Nations, St. Patrick's Cathedral and many well-known stores.

Upper East Side

The neighborhood bordering the East Side of Central Park from 59th Street to 96th Street is known as the Upper East Side and is the home of many wealthy and socially prominent New Yorkers. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum and several other fine museums are located here. It is also known for exclusive shopping and fine restaurants.

Upper West Side

On the opposite side of Central Park, the neighborhood between Columbus Circle and 125th Street is known as the Upper West Side. It includes the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts and the American Museum of Natural History. This exclusive area is home to many musicians, performers and celebrities. John Lennon lived here until his untimely death in nearby Central Park. It is known for great shopping and dining.

Anthony & Guillaume

We left the youth hostel quite early. At about 9 a.m, We crossed Columbia university to join our destination which was Harlem. This district is well known for his black population. As soon as we got into Harlem, it was very strange to see only black people around us. This morning, it was raining so we did not thus see all the animation of this district. Nevertheless we noticed that this part of Manhattan is quite poor (state of buildings, dirt in the street, …). This walk was useful to discover other aspects of New-York.

                                                                           Harlem

Canaan Baptist Church of Christ

From the outside, we couldn't say that the building was looking like a church but as we got into, it was actually the same peacefull atmosphere. People were gathering, all dressed up as if it was a kind of important meeting. As soon as each of us had found a seat, the mass started and it suddenly became very noisy. Indeed, the speeches, which were already very lively, were accompanied by music, songs and

also dances. That brought us another perception of the Religion, it was like if people had come to celebrate being alive. Moreover, at the end, people were invited to other activities as well religious as charity. For example, there were meetings to share clothes or food, meetings to support sick people or activities for children like in a kind of community.

Clémentine & Marin.

The museum is built in six flours. The first one is a sculpture garden. You can go there only on clement weather. You can see him from bigs windows in the museum. There are also stores and a restaurant if you are hungry.

The second floor is about contemporary art and the MoMa’s collection of over 53,000 prints and illustrated books that highlight famous artists and movements like M. EL Lissitsky. You can find a media gallery about today’s visual world too. 

The third floor is devoted to the design and architecture from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

It contains drawings with all the technical possibilities like pencil, ink, and charcoal, as well as watercolors, collages and works in mixed mediums.  It includes a photography exhibition representing creative figures and its varied applications in fields such as journalism, science, and commerce.

The MoMA, museum of modern art, was founded in 1929 by Lillie Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan and Abby Aldrich Rockfeller. It’s located in the West 53 Street between the 5^th and the 6^th Avenue. It was the first museum devoted to modern Art.

On the fourth and fifth floor there are paintings and sculptures from the 1940s to the 1970s( in the fourth floor) and from the 1970s to the present(for the fifth floor) where you can find the works of famous American artists like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Louise Bourgeois.

Isaline & Marie.

The first Monday, we visited the United Nations of New York, which is the building where important decisions about politics, economy, as well as other very important subjects, are made. The main goals of the United Nations (UN) are to keep peace all around the world, to develop friendly relations between nations and to avoid wars or conflicts but also to help people to get better living conditions, to eliminate poverty and diseases and finally to encourage people to respect the laws, the rights and freedoms of everyone. 

The UN have been created after the second world war and it is composed of 192 different countries.

The visit was really interesting and the main room, where the President of the council and the main members of the UN gather and debate, is very impressive. It exists several principles that the UN have to follow like for example that all Member States must obey the Charter.

The UN logo represents the globe seen from the North pole with a olive wood around, symbolizing peace which is the most important goal of UN : to maintain Peace in the world.

Alice & Pauline.  

The idea of creating a big park dates from 1850. It was a poet's idea (William Cullen Bryant), and the idea was supported by two other writers Washington Irving and George Bancroft. Central park has been officially opened in 1873, during the economic crisis, the homeless squatted in it. It became an enormous shantytown.

It is a big rectangle 4kms long and 800 meters wide.

            It was built by 3 000 unemployed men, mostly Irish, requiring a lot of drainage, landscaping and the construction of roads and bridges. It's the biggest park in the world, which has a beautiful vegetation.

an overview from the Empire State Building

            At its creation, it was a fashionable place for walking or horse riding. In the 1930s it was transformed into a refuge for the victims of the Great Depression and the reservoir was emptied to be used as a shanty town, sometimes called Hooverville, Hoover was the president. And, in 1965, it became a place where all the hippies could meet each other. During the 70's, all the gangsters, the drug addicts and the prostitutes used this place to deal.
            

            In the 80's, The Conservatory of Central Park decided to take care of the park, it has been made look more beautiful.
Nowadays it has become a very pleasant place for people who live in New-York. It is now used for outdoor activities: jogging, horse riding, tennis, rowing and even ice-skating in winter. There's also a zoo. In the daytime, it's quite safe. But I wouldn't recommend wandering in the more isolated areas or going at night.

Anne & Eva.

Léonie & Anaëlle

                   During this wonderful trip to the United States of America, we were lucky to live the American High School life among 1350 Farmington High School students. We saw some awesome aspects which are different from French schools, those which we had never imagined to see, and those which are similar to famous series such as “One tree hill”.

                First we will deal with the American school system, like classes and subjects studied… Then we will talk about the Administration and the adults’ work in this High School.

                Classes in Farmington High School start earlier that the ones in Dumont D’Urville. Indeed, in this American school, pupils get their first period at 7.32 am, whereas it’s at 8.05 am in Dumont D’Urville. On top of that, they don’t have any break time, except for lunch between 9.51 and 12.51, it depends on their schedule. Moreover they have 4 minutes between each period, each period lasts 40 minutes.  Considering these aspects we could think that we are luckier than American students. However, despite of all these facts and of the nine periods they have every day, they are the luckiest students compared to the French ones. Indeed they end school at 2.23 pm each day, which is rare for us in French High Schools.

                Whilst we were at High School, at lunchtime, we were able to see a crowded cafeteria. Precisely this place is the one where students gather to share some free time and meals together. Some of the students had their own sandwiches or salads that were homemade, some others took their meals at one of the three counters where they could choose and buy sandwiches, tacos, salads, French fries or hamburgers. This struck us a lot, because we noticed that it was always the same “menu” everyday: hamburgers, French fries, salads, sandwiches and tacos. That wasn’t so healthy, however we were in the Hamburger country, weren’t we? So actually it wasn’t so surprising!

                As for classes, students are not stuck with the same people every single period every day; it is not the same as in France. According to what we saw, we can genuinely admit that classes are made of about 20 pupils maximum, who come from different grades, it goes from freshmen (the equivalent of 3eme in France) to seniors (the equivalent of Terminale in France). Before being in such or such class, students choose their subjects and the level they want. In Farmington High School, they propose plenty of different subjects like: Web Design, Studio, Business, Education, Career Exploration, Culinary Art, Music (band and choral), Physical Education and Heath (Personal Wellness), Reading and Social Studies (Psychology and World History). Then, classes are made and this favors a mix between the different grades. So each pupil has more or less a different schedule from the other, and it is almost the same everyday.

                On top of the multitude of subjects suggested, students can join a club that the school offers. They can be part of the School Newspaper, a photography club and a debating club. They also can be part of a sports group, like baseball, softball, swimming and cheerleading. And yet, contrary to the non-sportive clubs, they have to defend the school colors during matches. This year, the cheerleaders won the state championship! All those activities take place after school, so from 2.23 pm until about 5.00 pm.

                In this High School there is a section reserved for handicapped people. Teachers and sometimes students come to see and chat, play with one another when they have free time. To our mind this is very good for people to be in touch with handicapped people, it makes them be more aware of disabled people; and allows them to show open-mindedness.  It teaches them to be more respectful and tolerant with people who are different from them.

                To our mind, we find on the whole, that this system is better that the French one. Indeed, we could see that even if school is important, it doesn’t take our adolescent’s life away. Actually, while we were over there, it was the first time we got the impression to have a real life.

Moreover, thanks to finishing school early, students can have the feeling to enjoy more time to do their homework without rushing. Besides, relationships between teachers and students caught our attention. Undoubtedly we couldn’t deny that there wasn’t this huge fence between adults and teenagers, which unfortunately exists in France.

                Another difference with French schools is that, there are television sets switched on in every classroom, in the cafeteria, in corridors, well everywhere actually, to tell the time, the period, and some news concerning the school.

                Beyond all these previous aspects concerning the students’ life at Farmington High School, it seems obvious to deal with the adults working there. The first aspect we will consider is the organization of the hierarchy and then we will focus on the rules of the school with the consequences that pupils get when they break them.

                Like every school in the world, there is a Principal in Farmington High School who is Mr. Breslin. He gets help from the Dean of Students Mrs. Ruzek, whose work is to be a principal adviser of Education and an assistant principal. When we met this woman, there were two boys in her office to talk with her, and fix some problems. Moreover, in the United States, there is a Guidance. This person is useful to get some information about the pupils’ orientation and when there are some troubles between the teachers and the students. The Guidance is like a mediator between pupils and adults. Moreover, we noticed that there isn’t any huge fence between adults and teenagers, their relationships are warmer that the ones we have to deal with in France. Is it due to the pronouns “you” and “tu-vous”?

                Although, those close relationships don’t solve all the problems at school. Indeed, there are also detentions in the United States. Over there, a detention can be given because of vandalism, smoking, unexcused absence, leaving school without permission, theft, rude behavior… any student who doesn’t respect the school rules in fact. Those rules are always on hand. They are widely written in their “Student Handbook and Planner”. This leaflet is an important document because there are about forty pages about rules, staff, teaching members and time schedules. The students must have it every day, because it’s also their school diary.

                In this High School, some pupils have a car and drive to school but they aren’t allowed to go to their car during the school day or leave without being allowed to. Otherwise they get a detention.

               Farmington High School gave us a wonderful insight of the American school system. For our first immersion, it was GREAT. High Schools seem to be good at educating young people and to be very carefull as far as personal well-being is concerned. Nevertheless they seem not very good at educating on healthy food… We enjoyed their “junk food”, just because it was for a change. Anyway, we had a marvellous trip and that’s thanks to our French teachers from Dumont D’Urville.

     Hartford is the main city of Connecticut and also the largest after New Haven and Bridgeport. Hartford represents 120 000 people. New Haven was the capital of Connecticut before.

Every state in USA is represented by a flower, a tree, a bird and an animal :

    Mountain-laurel

                     The white oak   

    The American robin 

                     The sperm whale   

          In the state of Connecticut there is a famous phrase: "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite". During the war, mothers said that to their babies to wish a good night without any problems with bugs because during the war, these places weren't comfortable.

         Prudence Crandall is the heroine of the state. She opened a private school in 1832 but it was boycotted when she was admitted in an old African-American female student. It was the first integrated classroom in the US. Then families of white students removed their daughters. After that her school was closed for a time but after recruiting, Prudence re-opened the school and girls came from New York, Boston, Providence and environs. It was a real success.   

          In the Capitol there is a place where powerfull people have meetings to propose new laws and rules for the state of Connecticut. There is a lot of committees about different topics.

          We saw a big statue, it was a woman who was a kind of angel. In the past it was hung at the top of the capitol but one day a big storm happened and it was too dangerous to let the statue because it was moving too much. So finally they brought the statue inside.

Camille & Bérengère.

This museum relates the story of the Pequot tribe. During the visit, we had a guide who explained us the way of life and the customs of Indians.

First, we saw a globe representing the evolution of the ice on earth through time.

Then, we were told about animals which lived at this period, like mastodon, caribou and beaver skull. We could notice that these animals were very different from how they look now.

Pequots were nomadic, they always had to move to find new resources like animals or plants. They had a lot of  tools because they had to hunt  to survive. Their tools were very close to our current tools. The likeness was striking, the only difference was the materials.

After that, we saw two reconstructions of villages, one before the whites came and the other one after. We entered in the chief’s hut which was bigger than the others.

The Europeans landing caused confrontations and the Europeans diseases killed a lot of Pequots. They were also influenced by some Europeans customs. We saw the example of the house. But the main step that the English took was to make the Pequot Indians settle in a reservation in which they still live now.

There were many different languages and we heard some words as « hello » or « thank you » in Indian dialects.

There is a casino that we can see from the tower of the museum. Pequots can have one because their government is cut off from the Connecticut one (since they are in a reservation).

Agathe & Léa.

             Farmington is a city in Connecticut, one of the richest state of U.S.A., at the west of Hartford, the capital of the State.

            The town of Farmington was settled as “the plantation of Tunxis” in 1640 by men from Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield who wanted more farm land. As the town grew and prospered, the Congregational Church was organized in 1652 and a school was established in about 1685.

            The Stanley Whitman house, on  High Street 37, is one of the best existing examples of New England overhang frame architecture. The house was built circa 1720 by John Stanley, son of Captain John Stanley, one of Farmington’s founders. The frame and pendant drops are original. The building was occupied by two families in its first 200 years : Thomas Smith, a weaver, lived here with his family in 1720-1731 and Solomon Whitman, a lawyer, in 1736-1772. D. Newton Barney purchased the building in 1928, had it restored, and opened it as “The Farmington Museum” in 1935.

Jeffrey & Julien.

      Boston is in Massachusetts, in the Northeast of the USA. We had about two hours to drive.

the Old State House

First, we walked on the Freedom Trail and we could see the Old State House which has been built in  1713.The declaration of independence of United States of America was read from its balcony.

        Then, we were able to see a cemetery of persons who died during the war for independence, where Benjamin Franklin's grave was. We also saw Paul Rever’s house, which is the oldest of Boston. Moreover, we could see  the first church built in 1630. 

      We had lunch in the Faneuil hall marketplace, which has played an integral role in the life of  Boston's residents for over 250 years. This site is one of the most famous shopping and dining experiences in America. It's an important meeting place. After that, we had freetime to do shopping around the market.

  Faneuil hall

Julia & Justine.

           We took the bus at Farmington High School at 3 p.m after having said good bye to our hosts. We went to JFK airport in New York. It took about 3 hours by bus.     

New-York at sunset seen from just before we arrived at the airport

           When we arrived there were some air traffics controls and then the plane took off at 9.15p.m. This time there hadn't any film to watch but we could listen to music, but many of us decided to sleep. The return flight lasted one hour less than the one from Paris to New-York. The plane arrived in Paris at 10.45 a.m and we had a few controls. We had a problem with Mrs Florin's luggage so we had to stay one extra hour in the airport. Next we took the bus to Caen but there was a problem of petrol leak with the bus so we had to wait for about 2 hours for another bus or for our bus to be repaired.

   The problem of petrol leak with the bus

             Finally we kept our bus to come back to our High School. We arrived in Caen at the end of the afternoon and we finally came back home. It was the end of our trip to America...

Claire