Over the 2010-11 summer holidays, I decided to sacrifice my summer break to take a three-month exchange to France.
I pictured this experience as an extended holiday, with the added bonus of speaking fluent French afterwards.
And with four years studying French at school, I thought I'd be off to a good start.
But when I stepped off the plane to be greeted by my host mum - a woman who could fit more words into one greeting than I thought possible - I realised I had been thrown in at the deep end.
My extended holiday would turn out to be one of the hardest things I have ever done.
At the beginning, I couldn't imagine ever understanding what my host family were saying to me, let alone forming a comprehensive response.
Overwhelmed didn't even begin to cover it.
I am eternally grateful to my host family, who were patient and spoke to me slowly for my entire first month while I found my footing.
They were determined that I got the most out of my exchange, not only improving my French, but experiencing the whole French culture.
I tried lots of delicacies - snails included - and travelled all over Europe, including Switzerland, as we lived right on the Swiss-French border.
It wasn't all travelling, though.
School was part of my exchange, and while most French schools are co-ed and uniformless, they are in no way more relaxed.
School started at 8.30 in the morning and finished at 5.30 at night.
Throwing in that my school was in another village and took a half-hour bus trip to get there, they were long days.
Despite the early mornings in freezing weather, school was a definite highlight for me.
It was interesting to see how differently things were done and fun meeting new people my own age.
When you do a foreign exchange, you are forced to learn the language and this was a really exciting part of the trip for me.
It was great as, little by little, I understood more and more, and was even able to hold conversations with complete strangers, other tourists and shopkeepers, who assumed I was a natural French speaker.
It was such a good feeling when saying oui or non wasn't just a stab in the dark and when I knew exactly what I was ordering at a restaurant - not that it mattered, everything was delicious.
Over my time spent in France, I feel like I achieved so much and am really proud of myself for doing this.
I encourage anybody contemplating doing an exchange to go for it.
Allez-y mes amis, et bon voyage!
• Frances Fulton. Year 13, St Hilda's Collegiate School
