By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Night had fallen on Princeton in time for Cecile Legendre to see something on Friday that the high school student from France had never witnessed.
A football game.
“I wanted to see America,” she said on a chilly night joined by other French students who blended in with the crowd watching Princeton play West Windsor-Plainsboro South at the PHS homecoming game.
The small taste of American life, high school football played under the lights, was part of the itinerary for Ms. Legendre and her fellow students from the Lycee Bartholdi in Colmar, France, during their U.S. visit that began Oct.10 and ends Wednesday.
Colmar and Princeton have had a sister-city relationship for around 30 years. Beginning in 1989, the public high schools in those communities have been sending their students on cultural exchanges each year to explore the two countries, immerse themselves in a foreign language and experience what high school life is like in a foreign country.
“When I went over there, … a lot of the preconceptions that I had about French culture and the way people do things there were just kind of debunked,” said Princeton senior Ameya Hadap, who participated in the exchange program two years ago. “It was pretty eye-opening for me going there.”
In all, 45 French students and three teachers made the trip, with same number of Princeton students to visit France in early November, for 10 days. In both countries, families from the schools put the students up for the time they are visiting. The exchange allows Colmar students to put their English to work in America and for the Princeton students to use their French when they go to Colmar.
“Usually, the agreement is that when they’re here, they speak English. And when we’re there, we speak French,” said Princeton High School French teacher Malachi Wood, who coordinates the exchange program on the Princeton side of the Atlantic.
“For us, it’s an experience for them to live real life in a family, to have to use the language,” said Muriel Dormeyer, an English teacher at Colmar, of her students on Friday. “It’s to complete what we do in class, this is our goal.”
“And by sharing the lives of the different families that are hosting them, they discover a new culture and they learn a bit about the American civilization and history through the family they are sharing their time with,” added fellow English teacher Manuela Chibane.
“It’s kind of different,” said Marie Lozano, an 11th grader from France, of seeing America from the perspective of living with her host family. “They make me feel good.”
Princeton sophomore Kathryn Frawley has been playing host to a French student who did not have a language barrier.
“I think it was kind of an easy transition,” Ms. Frawley said. “She has her own room. She actually has nicer accommodations than I do.”
There are marked differences between high school life in the two countries, said 11th grader Lea Horrlander from Colmar. Students from Colmar said they have nothing like the after-school activities as their American peers, with the school day starting at 8 a.m. and ending later than that of the typical American high school.
“The schedules are different,” she said.
Aside from their time in Princeton, the Colmar students took day trips outside the community.
Vincent Grimm, a history and geography teacher in Colmar, said that in addition to attending classes at the high school, students from Colmar went to New York and Philadelphia to see key places representing both the history of American and also its power, including Wall Street and the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
Colmar is close to Germany, in the Alsace region. The sister city relationship between Colmar and the then-Princeton Borough bloomed in the 1980s.
