Brenna Larocque Loved her year in Cheb

At the Cadillac Rotary Meeting on August 20th we were treated to a very enthusiastic presentation by Brenna Larocque. She spent 11 months in the town of Cheb pronounced (Heb) in the Czech Republic. She stayed with 3 different host families, traveled to at least seven other countries (I may have missed one or two) Slovacia, Germany, France Spain Austria, Monaco and Italy.

She informed us the Czech Republic is 36,000 sq. mi. while the state of Michigan is over 90,000 sq.mi. Chem is a town of 30,000 people very close to the German boarder. She found the schools more "serious" but by her description I would term them more disciplined. There were no electives. Each student went through all the prescribed classes. She described the class as standing when instructors entered and welcomed them in unison. Didn't talk out of turn and were very mindful of  their place. There grading system although 1-5 was very similar to our A-F.

Her twobad experiences were Host Family issues with her first family and an illness that had her down for two weeks. With all that she has made contact with a Director at NYU (New York University) of Prague and thinks she would like to attend there for her Undergraduate studies. She noted it would be in English.

Brenda opened her presentation with her welcome in the native Chezch language smoothly and with confidence. She noted her third Host family had a 2 year old boy and she felt her language skills were on a par with him.

Her highlights seemed to be her travels and time with other exchange students. She had many pictures of new friends and other exchange students having a great time.

Brenda showed tremendous excitement and a very tender thankful letter to Rotary for her opportunity. She obviously proved to be a great ambassador for Cadillac. Thank you for your presentation we hope you inspire others to want to be a part of the Rotary Exchange program.

At the end she presented the Flag of the Cheb Rotary Club to President Steve.