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French Student Visits Bloomington-Normal

Olivia Mechin
Staff
/
WGLT
Olivia Mechin, 16, visits WGLT to talk about educations, sports, politics, and what she loves about Bloomington-Normal.

Cultures are colliding this summer in Bloomington-Normal.

Olivia Mechin is a 16-year-old girl visiting Bloomington-Normal from Paris, France. She has been living with a host family and shadowing a local doctor during her stay. Her visit allows her to compare and contrast the U.S. to Paris, and practice her English.

Mechin’s favorite thing so far has been meeting new people and going on bike rides.

“It's pretty much how I imagine it, like in the movies, we see this like, some houses, which are different, backyards ... So yeah, I imagine this, because there are not a lot of people living in this city. A lot of people know each other. I think it allows everyone to be more peaceful,” said Mechin.

She said she appreciates how friendly local residents have been, and how social Bloomington-Normal is compared to Paris. Mechin said the calm atmosphere of McLean County is a nice change from the bustling streets of Paris.

Mechin is currently shadowing Dr. Jack Capodice, an oral surgeon. She said she wanted to be a doctor since she was 8 years old. Mechin said she does not want to go into oral surgery, but still wants to specialize in surgery. She said France and the U.S. both require 11 or 12 years of studying medicine before qualifying to be a doctor or surgeon.

But she said there are still many differences between the two countries, including the politics.

“Everyone is looking at America as the biggest country in the world, and the biggest economy. So in France, nobody likes Donald Trump. Yet everyone is quite shocked that such a big country could be run by a president like this,” said Mechin.

Trump and France have a history of not being the warmest to each other, but Mechin said she thinks everyone around the world is turning to radical politics because of general discontent with the world. She said she does not think this is constructive, however, because everyone needs to make an effort to change their way of living. 

“The same politics have been elected too long, for too much time. So the people begin to be like, disappointed by them, because our society is not going very well. So they need and they want to change. They are willing to try the extremes part of the politics so that they could discover a new way of their own running of country,” said Mechin.

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WGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker has spent more than three award-winning decades in radio. He lives in Normal with his family.
Katie Seelinger is an intern in the GLT newsroom.