Laura Massicard - exchange student from France
Laura is our Club’s inbound exchange student from Troyes (pop 61,200), the regional capital of the Champagne-Ardenne district in the North-East of France. The area is beautifully rolling land, inundated with vineyards producing the world-famous champagne. Troyes has old architecture including Cathedral St. Pierre et St. Paul and timber-façade buildings, and sits along the river Seine 150km southeast of Paris.
Laura lives in a rural type setting in a large house with her parents and an older sister. Laura’s high school is a converted hospital from WWII ; she lives in residence and goes home on the weekends. She says she likes her family because, “They are not perfect”. Her mother was a tennis pro and national winner when Laura was younger; she now is a tennis teacher and Laura is very proud of her. Her father works for the government ; he likes tennis - and that is what brought her parents together. Her sister is into horses and participates in competitive riding. The whole family enjoys tennis.
Laura's hobbies includes playing guitar, photography, reading and writing and she would like to learn to play piano. Her friends are her second family because they live together all week, Her best quote is, “It’s very important to have friends, because they are the best things in the world”.
When Laura goes home, she will take her final year of high school and will aspire to be a lawyer (avocat) specializing in International Law.
Laura is a delightful bright young lady, with whom we have shared various Alberta adventures - one that includied getting her gloves on fire over a Coleman stove pot when warming her hands after snow-shoeing with some of our club members …. . She is enthused and “agreeable” about the love our Club has for her and visa-versa, and she is learning a lot about life here. She is now 17 years old and is excitedly looking forward to becoming 18 in March of 2013.
Enjoy your year Laura, it goes quickly……
Did you know ? On 18 April 2007, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published the results of a recent joint study by the University of Reading and University of Cagliari that showed moderate consumptions of Champagne may help the brain cope with the trauma of stroke, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease. The research noted that the high amount of the antioxidant polyphenols in sparkling wine can help prevent deterioration of brain cells due to oxidative stress.
