Exchange students, going to do it again next year

13 years ago

I wasn't sure I wanted to do it again but now that Maria and Johanna are close to leaving us, I decided to host two more students next year. I'm going to miss them.

Just waiting for the coordinator to send us profiles of the kids now. Lauren wants us to host boys this year. I am thinking of a boy and a girl, moving the twin beds out of the one room, into Lauren's and having the girl share a room with her. But, I don't know, I have to think about it.

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Comments (12)

lydia1959
13 years ago
You must have had a very good experience to be ready to host again. That's great!

I've thought about it.. just not sure I am up for it again (I hosted in 2006).
jannie
13 years ago
Good for you!
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Remember my exchange student....
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Kat, yes, in fact I talked to and played Scrabble with Maria earlier today. We have an on-going couple of games going on Facebook, just whenever we have time to take our turn. She's planning to come back to visit this summer or in the fall if she gets accepted to a college here. She still hasn't heard from them. She's still engaged to her boyfriend she met here last year. I invited him to spend yesterday with us celebrating Sola's birthday because he sent me a message Friday about the tornado warnings and said he wanted to hang out with us sometime. The last I heard from Johanna was when Luther died, she posted on my facebook page. She doesn't keep in contact with any of us, including Maria, which kind of makes me sad. And, no, not at my goal weight. I gained a few pounds over the Winter, I think from eating too many carbs that I wasn't supposed to eat. I added bread back into my diet and am cutting it back out again so I'm back down to what I was before now. I'd like to lose another 25 pounds even though everyone tells me I'm too skinny now. We did try a college student, not one that lives with us just to spend time with the family and do things with. The one we started with was a graduate student from China who was always too busy. We finally had dinner together and she barely spoke to us and when I invited her to have Thanksgiving dinner with us she said she was going to the university's dinner. So, I took that as she didn't really want to spend time with us. She was older, around 27 so that may have been part of the problem. The program called me about a month ago to see if I wanted another student so I said ok. This one is an undergraduate student, same age as Alex, from China again. Our first outing didn't happen because she got drunk with her boyfriend the night before and didn't answer my text messages or calls when we went to pick her up because she was asleep. LOL! That's kind of sad, Ellendi, that's the whole point of the exchange programs to get to know the host family and their culture. Maybe that's why they don't pay us. Maybe they think people who aren't paid will be doing it for the right reasons, not just the money.
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The thing that concerns me about your post is that deciding to take on the responsibility for someone else's child, a child who probably speaks English as a second language, etc, really shouldn't be a spur of the moment decision. It should be something you've given a great deal of thought to, and probably some months of planning--to make sure you have the appropriate space, you know about the program that they're involved with, you have touched base with their teachers to make sure everything goes smoothely for them, possibly your family would be taking some 'crash' language classes to help communicate with them. I just don't see getting involved last minute as being the way to go for the best experience for either your family or the visiting child. Make sure you've got all your bases covered and are truly ready to take in a person from another culture, who may have VERY different customs than your family does. If it is too late for this school year, why not consider getting involved with one of the programs where students come for a month or so during the summer. Dsis just had a little 14 year old Spanish girl (from Castille) for a month this past summer. If you plan on doing this next summer, you'll have time to get things in order, plan for some activities and trips, maybe learn something about your student's country and language in the meantime. I will say this, though.. Dsis told me that she really lucked out. Her student was lovely and well-behaved. But she got the best of the bunch, that most of the other families had major probles with the kids they took in (one got the surprise of a several thousand $$$ phone bill! among other things)
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Jodi_SoCal
13 years ago
We hosted a 13 year old Japanese boy back in 1981. He and his 15 year old sister came to CA to learn English at our local university. It was a summer thing.

The boy was forced to participate in the program by his mother and he wasn't the least bit interested or happy to be here. His sister on the other hand was thrilled. She was staying with another family. We asked the family if we could host the sister so that we could deal a little better with her brother. What a difference it made to have both of them. After that, we had a delightful time and even visited them in Japan a couple years later where the mother apologized repeatedly for the behavior of her son and showered us with gifts. :-)

I'd love to do it again but I work too many hours and hate to plan and cook meals anymore.

Can't wait to hear more about your new students Kathleen.

Jodi-
joyfulguy
13 years ago
Hi kathsgrdn,

I'm pleased that your experience improved as time went along and that you are pleased enough with the experience that you are considering offering to share your family again.

I feel that it is important for people from other cultures to come here and share in family life, while they find that, along with the measures of freedom, democracy and prosperity that we enjoy, we have our warts and problems, too.

And it is good for us to get an idea of how the other half (? ... more like 9/10ths) of the world lives/has been forced to live.

Thank you for making your contribution to helping build the bridges between cultures that our world needs if we are to learn the ways to live together better.

ole joyful
terilyn
13 years ago
We did it twice, the first time we were picking up a girl, went to the airport, picked her up and there was a boy whose host family didn't show up. We brought him home too. His host family never showed so we ended up with the two for the duration. It worked out ok, there were some hygiene issues with the boy at first. The second time was awful, spoiled brat. Enough said.
glenda_al
13 years ago
That's wonderful, Kathleen!

You are a special lady!
Kathsgrdn
Original Author
13 years ago
Jodi, we wanted a student from Japan but this program has none. The only issue we've had is the flooding of the toilets. That finally stopped. They are both great kids. I hope we get that lucky this coming school year.
sheesh
13 years ago
Glad you enjoyed the experience, kathsgrdn. We did it several times, too, and would do it again if we hadn't gotten too old and run out of our own teenagers. As it is, we are considering hosting next year's Japanese teacher for a semester. Most years our HS hosts a J teacher who needs a home, so maybe we'll be it!

We also hosted a boy and girl from Germany one semester; like it did for terilyn, it worked out very well for us. They did not know each other before arrival but became good friends while here. We expected a girl (we had only one dtr living at home at the time) but an emergency occurred in another host family's home and we were asked to fill in temporarily. It turned into the entire semester and we were glad of it.
nicole__
13 years ago
So tell me how does this work?

1)Do they have money for food? Utilities? Expenses?
2)Medical insurance?
3)Do they expect you to provide a car or tranport them where ever they want to go?
lydia1959
13 years ago
When we did it, the student did have medical insurance and money for clothing and food eaten out (although we always paid for her when we went out to eat). We did not get paid for food she ate at our home or utilities and we drove her where she needed to go.

We did it for an entire school year, but some programs offer just a semester or a summer stay.
Kathsgrdn
Original Author
13 years ago
Nicole, they have money for their own expenses, like eating out, movies, personal items. But, sometimes I pay for movies and dinner out. It just depends. They have their own medical insurance and pay for any co-pays. They are considered part of your family, so yes, you take them wherever they need to go. We live in a small town so there is never a problem getting rides for Johanna to all her sporting events/practices. Either I take her, pick her up, her coach does or a team mate. They aren't allowed to drive while they're here.

They don't help with household expenses like food at home and utilities. Although, both girls this year have paid for some of their own snacks, especially, when it is just them like will be eating them.
nicole__
13 years ago
Interesting....

Exchange students, going to do it again next year

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lydia1959

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