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-

I've had two but not at the same time. The first was from Germany and worked out good. She was a real part of the family and we continue to keep in touch with her. She was here in 2001 at the same time as the terror attacks. I know that was a very scary time for her family in Germany. The other was from Brazil and was here in 2005. She was a nightmare and ended up going to live in another state. This was her goal all along. I found that most are from fairly wealthy homes which is why they can afford to come here in the first place. With the German girl, she told me that it cost her parents $18,000 alone for the program costs. She said that this covered her program in Germany (the one she pays to come here) and the program costs for the U.S. It also covered her airfare and her week long introduction course in New York. It did not cover her spending money. Her parents gave her $400 per month. We did not receive any money, but we knew we wouldn't. Also, we read thru many bios and picked the ones we thought would be a fit for our family. The info provided to us had written recommendations from their teachers, parents etc. We did have to do a little bio about our family but I will say that the one from Germany told me that if she would not have accepted us as her American family, then she would not have received another chance, in all likelihood. I wouldn't tell you not to do this because there are great experiences out there. I will say though that if something doesn't seem right, do not hesitate to get the kids out of your home. Also, when it didn't work out with the Brazilian girl, I demanded that they move her out of our school district. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

We ahve also had exchange student. The first couple of weeks are hard with adjustments for everyone. I expect some of what you saw was just being overtired! What program are you going through? Do they have a "counselor" type person who oversees their stay? We went through Rotary and they had a member assigned to them. They took them out to eat and talked about any issues the students were having. They would also sit down with us and go over anything we were concerned about. They did a family meeting within the first few days to go over rules and expectations. It really helped! Let me know if I can help!

Thanks Glenda. Patti, yes we're having two again this year. Liza is really sweet. She and Lauren are at Lauren's girl scout troup leader's house having a pudding-balloon fight of all things. Or at least that was the plan before the big storm came through. Not sure if they actually did it or not. Sola, is coming late, at the end of the month. Something about them messing up a bunch of their Visas. I feel bad for her because she will be starting school ten days later than everyone else.