Imagine. It is 17th century Europe and the French King is allotting monetary rewards to all hunters – their target: wolves. With their lives at risk, the hunters slowly decimate the wolf population and ultimately appease the whims of the King. In return, their family gains nobility, possession, and wealth. This is the history of North Penn French exchange student Paul de Bellefon… and his last name.
One of the greatest honors in France was the significance of one’s name. With a ‘de’ prefix, literally meaning ‘from,’ one’s name originated from the title of a certain city or castle which the individual owned.
“de Bellefon. It means, well ‘belle’ is beautiful, and ‘fon’ … eh, ‘bottom,” explains de Bellefon, “‘Bellefon’ is a name, I don’t know where it came from, but it’s my family name.”
Paul resides in the South of France with his parents and four other siblings in an apartment in the center of France’s third largest city: Toulouse. They travel a lot, as Paul explained.
“I have one apartment in Toulouse, and one at the beach. My grandfather has a ‘chalet’ (cabin), but it’s really old. We go to my grandparents’ house really often.”
His family name used to own three castles – something nonexistent in America – however, as the generations proceeded and grew, family wealth was dispersed and inheritance slowly lost.
“I mean, royalty was good, in like the 18th century. Today, no one knows of my name. It doesn’t mean anything,” Paul states.
His noble blood is on both sides of the family tree as de Bellefon shared that, “the most famous people, from my mother’s side, are missionaries. They created the African missionaries which founded many schools to teach Christianity.”
However, present day, Paul’s family is not hunting wolves or forging missions in Africa. “My mom stays home with the kids,” Paul said, “but she has a job. When kids have a difficulty writing and stuff, she is the one to help them. She teaches them. She works a lot with dyslexic people. And my dad is a lawyer.”
He admits to missing his family during his time here, as he was close to his two younger sisters, Agathe and Flore, and his younger brother, Mathieu.
“My brother is 7, so I am like 10 years older than him; I’m the big brother who looks out for him.”
When Skyping his family, his brother is always present, firing questions about Pokemon, and seeking Paul’s advice to get to the next level, as his sisters are not as adept in the game; they too are always eager to talk to Paul, and it is obvious the family relationship is strong.
“Just like parents don’t have a favorite, I don’t have a favorite between my siblings,” stated Paul. “I’m the oldest. I’m not the protective brother though… well it depends, I’m not the one to say ‘no, you can’t go to this party,’ but if my sister has a problem at school, I’d be the first to go into her school and break everyone who bugs her. It’s my family.”
It’s amazing what a single Skype call can do. Seeing enhances the call, and gives the strange virtual illusion of actually being among family; as if there weren’t thousands of miles in between. However, time differences, their absence, and ultimately living in a foreign country and tackling the language brings Paul back to reality.
Before his exchange, Paul admits, “I didn’t have an idea of going abroad until about March or April [of last year]. The mother of Hadrien Guichard [last year’s French exchange student] called my mom wondering if I wanted to spend a year abroad like Hadrien. My mom asked me ‘Hey, Paul, do you want to go into America next year?’ My mom was just joking at first and I responded ‘yea sure.’ I didn’t think much of it, yet a call was made, I got the plane ticket, and there I go.”
Paul now finds himself in the hallways of North Penn rather than those of his own school, Lycée de Pierre Fermat, back in Toulouse. He traded his own parents and siblings in for an American family of four, and this year is under the identity of Loper rather than de Bellefon.
“I don’t know why I came to America,” Paul openly replies, “It was very last minute. I guess it just seemed cool, and I wanted to improve on my English. Plus, who else can claim they spent a year in America?”
Just like most North Penn students, Paul is currently bugged with the idea of what the future will bring: what will he do in life? What job will he pursue?
“I love chemistry and history, but there’s no work for that,” he says, “I can’t be a chemist-historian. It doesn’t exist; it’s just something I made up.”
Hopefully his year here will help him in forming his identity and aspirations. There’s no doubt, however, that it will definitely enhance his English, and ultimately aid him in his ambitions to be multi-lingual.
“I want to speak Spanish, English, and French, and I would like to learn Italian too, or German,” he conveyed. “German seems hard, but useful. If Germany falls, Europe falls. They support Europe.”
So far, with French as his native language, he can fluently speak three; the other two being English and Spanish. He is currently studying Spanish 4 at North Penn, and assuredly admits that he feels more adept in Spanish than in English. That makes sense though, as his family’s beach house is only several minutes from the border of Spain – day trips into Spain are anything but uncommon. Plus at his school in France, he is in a high level Spanish class.
Just like all the other exchange students Paul’s natural reaction to North Penn is “it’s really big.” The French and American school systems greatly differ, and Paul finds North Penn shocking him daily. There is a more distance in student-teacher relationships in France; while here, for Paul’s birthday, his Global Business teacher surprised him with an in class party and movie passes. “That would never happen in France,” Paul exclaimed.
In France, Paul has a differing schedule than here at North Penn.
“Usually, I wake up at 7am, and go to school at 8am. Well school beings at 8am, so I leave at ten of. I have four or so hours at school, and then after that I have a two hour lunch, and then another four or so hours of class. I come back home, and do my homework. Then we have dinner. My mom always cooks and it’s dinner with the family, sometimes though without my father because he’s always working, but it’s still a family dinner.”
In his free time Paul likes to listen to music or hang out with his friends. He is a huge fan of rugby, and his most prominent childhood memory was the first rugby tournament he won when he was six. Fortunately for him, North Penn has a rugby team, and he participates in the practices; however, he has to be careful not to reinjure his shoulder which he dislocated last February during – you guessed it – Rugby.