After five years, the French exchange is back! Students from the École Alsacienne in Paris stayed with Latin students from October 13-26 and got to know Chicago, completing the first part of the exchange. Over Project Week in March, Latin students will travel to Paris to live with their French hosts for two weeks, getting the chance to explore a new culture, city, and community.
These students are taking part in the oldest exchange program at Latin. The French exchange ran for the first time in 1989, taking place every other year until 2020, when it took a hiatus due to COVID. Latin’s partnership with the École Alsacienne allows students from both countries to learn about new cultures and make friendships across the Atlantic. During their time in Chicago, the French exchange students visited classic landmarks and neighborhoods with their school group, including the Art Institute, the Chicago History Museum, and Chinatown. With their host families, they traveled to Navy Pier, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and downtown Chicago.

“I’m making this exchange because I really like to travel,” exchange student Anna Rafalovich said. “This was an occasion to go away from France and see a new world, and also to discover a new family and a new way of living. And I just love that.”
Fourteen students are set to travel to France for the exchange, including Jackson Darke, a senior at Latin. “I’ve been taking French since fifth grade, and I’ve always wanted to become more fluent,” Jackson said. “I also want to learn about the culture of Europe because I know that it’s different, but I’ve only ever read about it.”
Visiting from Paris, Anna found a notable difference in the in-school freedoms enjoyed by Latin students. For example, the ability to eat and drink in class. But the contrast between Chicago and Paris that stood out to her most was Chicago’s layout.
“It’s very geometric [in Chicago], but in Paris, there are little streets everywhere,” Anna said. “Here you have very big buildings everywhere and all those different neighborhoods, but in Paris, it’s more like a big, big neighborhood with different districts in it. Sometimes you can’t even see the difference between one and another.”

As Anna reflected on the striking differences between Chicago’s structured streets and Paris’s winding alleys, Jackson’s thoughts drifted to the culinary. Recalling a past trip abroad, he expressed a concern among young travelers—finding enough to eat in unfamiliar places.
During Jackson’s Project Week trip to Germany with Latin’s band last year, “One of the kids, or multiple kids, just didn’t get enough food. So I’m a little bit worried that I won’t have enough to eat,” he said.
Sophomore Sofy Munive’s exchange student, Gabrielie, experienced the opposite when Sofie took him to Crumbl Cookie. “He said he’s never seen a cookie that big before,” Sofie said.
Despite the trials that come with living in a foreign country and speaking a foreign language, students remain excited, optimistic, and closer to each other after this first half of the exchange. Anna left Chicago feeling connected with Latin students as well as people from her own school who went on the exchange. “We created friendships that we didn’t have before,” she said. “Lucia’s family is so great, and I really had a good time with her and with all the other exchange students.”