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Shortly before I turned 19 and after my high school graduation, I left on a Rotary foreign exchange trip to Belgium for a year. Rotary operates on a volunteer basis, with some strict rules and the expectation that you will serve as an ambassador for your country and make an honest effort to learn the language of your host country. I stayed with 3 different host families, made friends from all over the world, and vastly improved my competency with French. These were the good facets.