My name is Manon Boulanger and I’ve spent the 2024-2025 school year as an exchange student at Ben Davis.
I was born and raised in Belgium, a country of 11 billion residents located between France and Germany. The three official languages spoken in Belgium are French, Dutch and German. Since I live in the southeast part of the country, my native language is French.
About two years ago, when I was at the end of my freshman year, my family and I decided that I was going to spend my junior year in the United States. We started the registration process for the exchange program through an organization in Belgium which has partners all over the world and therefore sends students to a lot of different countries around the world.
After a few interviews and lots of paperwork to fill out, my case containing all my information was sent to different host families around the United States. For an entire year, I’ve waited for the email confirming that a host family had chosen me.
Some students receive their family pretty quickly while others have to wait until the last minute, which was my case. I received my placement approximately two weeks before leaving for the U.S. Before then, I didn’t know in which state I was going to spend my exchange year, neither with whom or in which school. My host family is a single mother whose name is Karen. She is 69 years old and has a son who has three small children. I was able to call her just a few days before I left Belgium, which I remember feeling both excited and anxious about.
I flew from Brussels to New York City on July 24, 2024. I remember not having too much trouble leaving my family at the airport. I think that I hadn’t realized yet that I was going to spend 10 months away from them.
I took the plane with other exchange students from Belgium as my program included a three day trip in NYC with students from Belgium, Italy and France before flying to the state we were going to spend our exchange year in.
These three days in the Empire City were absolutely amazing. I met a lot of people with whom I was able to share great memories. We visited Central Park, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and more.
On July 27, I took the plane a second time from NYC to Indianapolis. I remember feeling sad and scared during the flight. It was actually the first time I was feeling anxious and sad about living on the other side of the world far away from my family.
During the entire flight, which was only an hour long, I was looking through the window listening to music and trying not to cry. I landed on Hoosier soil at approximately 11 a.m. It was warm and sunny outside and my adventure had just begun.
I was coming out of the plane with an exchange student from France, Albin, with whom I had spent the three days in NYC. I entered the arrival room at the airport and saw my host mother and my local coordinator who was hosting Albin holding a sign that said “Welcome Manon” in the three official languages of Belgium.
I finally met Karen and we took pictures together next to the Indy sign of the airport. We took the car and drove home… My new home… At least for the next 10 months.
The first few weeks were really hard for me. I wanted to cry all the time and would cry every time I’d call my family. I took the habit to call them every Sunday morning which has been for most of the year my favorite day of the week. As the months went on, it became less hard to be far away from them and I got used to living with Karen. I’d say that I still miss my family but not as much as back in the summertime.
My relationship with my host mother was quite difficult at first. We had two different ways of living, which would sometimes create conflicts. I took this as a test and an opportunity for me to adapt myself to a different point of view.
Over the months, our relationship has improved a lot. I think that we’ve both learned how to live with each other the best way we could, which ultimately helped our relationship. I am grateful for having spent 10 months with her and will be forever thankful for having a second family in the United States.
We’ve shared a lot of the same interests together such as hiking, going camping, watching movies, playing pickleball, eating ice cream. We went camping together twice: the first time during fall break and the second time during spring break.
It was the first time I was camping and I loved it. It was so nice to go hiking on the beautiful trails of Turkey Run and Clifty Falls State Park as well as roasting hot dogs over the campfire before going to sleep in a tent. I think that my favorite part of camping will forever be eating S’mores.
We also went to Florida together in February to visit her brother. We stayed a week and I really enjoyed discovering a new state that is so different from Indiana.
I started school a week after I arrived in Indiana. I wasn’t really nervous on the first day but I was definitely intimidated by the number of people and the size of the school.
During my first U.S. History class, Mr. McMaster asked me if I wanted to join the cross country team since he is both the head coach of the team and my history teacher.
I was a little skeptical at first because I wasn’t sure what cross country was. In Belgium, we don’t have sports or any extracurricular activities at school. Rather, sports and activities other than academics are through private clubs. I finally decided to join the team and I started practicing at the end of my second week in Indiana.
Throughout the season, I’ve improved myself a lot at running as I had never run before. I worked my way up to the varsity team and we made it to Regionals for the first time since 1998.
I kept running after cross country by doing track conditioning and then running for the track team during the spring season. I was a distance runner and ran the 800, mile and 2 mile.
Doing sports was the best decision I’ve made during my exchange year. It allowed me to meet a lot of people and to be involved in the school. Cross country helped me a lot at the beginning to feel more included and the people in the team became my friends for the rest of the year. I think that if I hadn’t joined the cross country team, my experience would have been way different.
I would say that my experience in the United States was unique and taught me a lot about myself and my relationships with others. I remember thinking that 10 months would be so long and would last forever. 10 months later I can say that it’s been the quickest 10 months I have ever lived.
My dad used to tell me that I’d be home before knowing it and I used to not believe him. Now I know that he was right. When I think about going home, my feelings are mixed between excitement and sadness. I am excited to see my family and go back to my country but I am also really sad to leave all my new friends and my host mother behind. I am grateful for all the people I’ve met and for the way I was welcomed in the United States. I learned about a new culture which is similar but also different in some ways to the Belgian culture.
Living abroad is more than beneficial and I know that it will help me and open doors for me throughout my life. I know that it will be very hard for me to leave and that I’ll miss all the people I’ve met but I plan on keeping in touch and I hope to come back one day to visit. I would like to thank all the people who have supported me throughout the months and say that I wouldn’t be as happy as I am without them.
