Exchange student finds 2nd home in Canton

Paul Seignarbieux, 16, has enjoyed two amazing trips since last summer. His first journey was to the United States from his native France in September to spend the school year as an exchange student at Canton High School. And last month, Michael and Maria Connor and their daughters, Sofia and Brii, who are hosting him, took Seignarbieux to see the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas during April vacation week. Now Seignarbieux is hoping to provide a trip for the Connors by encouraging people to select them as the winning family in the AFS Reel Life contest.

Paul Seignarbieux (left) poses for a photo with his host family, the Connors, on their trip out west last month.

Seignarbieux arrived in Boston on September 8 and a few days later met the Connor family, who had already read a letter of introduction that he had written. “It’s a great family,” Seignarbieux said. “I don’t know how it’s possible to find a family like that. We have the same view on life. It’s like we knew each other before. I’m the [luckiest] exchange student.”

Seignarbieux was born in Limoges, France, and has two younger brothers, Simon, 14, and Marc, 12. When he was 2 years old, his family relocated to Ile de la Reunion, close to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, for his father’s job. A few years later, they returned to France, settling in Sorges.

“It’s a very small town of 2,000 people,” he said. “It’s like a village.”

Seignarbieux attended elementary school in Sorges and middle school in Thiviers. Last year, he spent his first year of high school at a school on Ile d’Oléron, an island off the coast of France about three hours from his family home in Sorges. Seignarbieux boarded at the school and returned home for weekends.

When Seignarbieux and his brother Simon were children, they knew they wanted to travel. “It’s one of my dreams,” he said. “I love meeting new people, discovering new cultures.”

In the fall of 2015, a friend of his returned from a year she had spent as an exchange student in Dallas. “She told me it was awesome,” he said.

Within 24 hours he decided to apply to AFS to spend a year in the United States. Besides wanting to learn English and experience American life, he wanted to do something he had never done before. “I’m someone who is very curious and wants to do new things,” he said. “I want to try stuff.”

He had studied English for five years before arriving in Boston and thought he had language skills that were strong enough to handle an English-only environment, but he struggled for the first few months.

“Before I came here, I thought I was good,” he said. “Good in class and good in life, it’s not the same thing. It’s incredible how much you can learn in a one or two months.”

Seignarbieux is not enamored of French high school schedules, in which students attend classes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., have a long break for lunch, and do not have the opportunity to play school sports at the end of the day. But he is very happy at CHS.

“It’s awesome. It’s a great school,” he said. “The people are great. I made a lot of friends and it’s awesome. I go to school from 8 to 2:30 and after do sports for two hours.”

He ran cross country in the fall, competed with the swim team in the winter, and now plays lacrosse, a sport he did not know existed before coming to Canton. He plays rugby in France, but says that since he is small, playing against larger players in a contact sport can be challenging.

“There is still contact, but less,” he said of lacrosse. “And I love the team sport.”

Seignarbieux said that teachers are more available to help students at CHS than at his school in France. As an example, he mentioned that his physics class is hard for him, but his teacher, Mrs. Parker, helps him to understand the material. “I love this class. I love the teacher,” he said.

Seignarbieux will be returning to France on June 27, but doesn’t like to think about his departure from an area where he attended David Ortiz’s last game, visited colleges like UMass Amherst and Yale, and went to a Celtics game.

The best part of his time in the USA was his time with the Connor family. “The best family,” Seignarbieux said. “They do stuff for me like crazy.”

On their trip out west, they went rafting, rode donkeys, went on a helicopter ride, hiked, and saw a show in Las Vegas. It also gave everyone time to be together, something Seignarbieux appreciated. “On vacation you are always with them,” he said.

To read the essay Seignarbieux wrote about his trip and to vote for the Connor family in the AFS Reel Life contest, go to reellife.afsusa.org/entries and search for Connor.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on May 5 2017. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.