Foreign Exchange Students

[dairyou]

We are contemplating a foreign exchange student for the fall of 2007. We've hosted students in the past but it was only for the summer. They had activities that they went to during the week days so it was fairly simple and enjoyable.

My teen boys would like to host again, but I can only find exchanges for a semester and not summer like before. My question is how hard will it be to entertain this teen for 6 months? I know they'll go to school and attend school functions like football games ect, but what about the weekends? We could go do things once a month on the weekend but I don't want to feel a burden of taking this student somewhere every weekend and keep him entertained. We also have a high school ministry at church that meets on Sunday and Wednesday nights and they do fun things.

Anyone host a foreign exchange student for a long period of time? How did it go?

TIA!

Deb

 

[BabyPiglet]

Treat him like your own. Make sure he sees a normal amount of your surroundings, neighborhood, town, but don't go overboard.

Show him/her what a normal life is like. That'd be best.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

We had a foreign exchange student who lived with us for a year when I was in high school. She became my sister, and it was one of the best experiences for our family. Each month, my mom did something to celebrate the anniversary she came to our house.

She was treated just like us. The only difference was that we did more sightseeing that year. But, there were also chores, and regular hanging out that teens do.

I'd host a foreign exchange student, but our school district isn't that great, so I feel I'd be cheating them.

Good luck on your decision.

 

[flipturngirl]

Treat them like your own. If you don't fill like treating them as your own or going out of your way to do things then I would not do it. During the school year it is a great time to do it, my neighbor did it and liked the experience.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

My family hosted an exchange student for a year when I was in high school, and it was one of the best experiences of my life! As previous posters said, she was treated like a member of the family. She became my sister, and went to high school with me. She joined a few student groups, did homework, had chores around the house, ate meals with us, and we loved having her in our family! We did more sight-seeing that year than before, but otherwise we didn't work on "entertaining" her so much as including her in our family.

We later hosted an exchange student for two months over the summer and it was a totally different experience. He rarely was home to do anything with us as a family, and was more of a guest in our home than a family member. It was still nice to get to know him and learn about his country, but it wasn't the same life changing experience of having a student with us for the whole year.

 

[SandraVB79]

I have been an exchange student. Twice. It was only during the summer, but still.
I liked that two of the host families I went to just kept doing their regular thing. One of them did quite some sightseeing with me, but I still got a feeling for their regular every day life.
While I stayed with a third host family (the first time I went to the US this way, I stayed 3 weeks in N-Ca and 3 weeks in S-CA), there were activities organised by the organisation that arranged the exchange. Every day I was there, there was a pool party, beach party, theme park visit, etc etc etc (that ws also the moment I got obsessed by Disney!) Although all those activities were fun, I would have preferred to get to know the real life in So-CA.

So, just do what you're used to do, while you also try to show them a little bit of your region (it would be rather sad to be at Washington DC and not see the Capitol, KWIM?). When at home, those young people also just hang out. That's part of life!
And it can be fun to do every day things. Going to the grocery store, the post office, the bank, ... It's all a little different from home, so it's nice to experience it!

 

[dairyou]

I went ahead and gave our number to a few websites. I think it will be great fun! During the summer we can go boating. San Francisco and Lake Tahoe are both an hour away from us. Plus we live in the capitol...small as it may be we still can go see it. There's always shopping too. If boys like to do that. So I think we're going to give it a try. I just didn't want to feel like we had to do something every weekend. Our family is home bodies and there are times we don't go anywhere on the weekends

What will be exciting is during Christmas time we will be at WDW and then a cruise afterwards. The only problem is we'll have to take a week off before school. I'm not sure if that is allowed or not. So that might be a decision maker right there.

Thanks!

Deb

 

[SandraVB79]

OP, I just noticed you're from Sacramento, that's where I went for the first time during an exchange (well, OK, it was Sutter, but I arrived at Sacramento airport).
My host family visited Sacramento with me (and I went back 2 years ago with my mom, to visit everything again, and shopping at Folsom!). For me, it was like really going back into the Wild West at Old Sacramento, and the visit if the Capitol and Governor's Mansion wa also very impressing.

We went to visit San Francisco (and Golden Gate Bridge, woow, that was such an "experience"), we also went to the mountains (Mount shasta), ...

One of these days, I would like to go back and visit the Napa Valley. And travel even more by train (I really loved the train ride from San Francisco to sacramento!!!)

Another "event" was my visit of the Sunsweet plant. So many prunes, unbelievable!!!

 

[dairyou]

OP, I just noticed you're from Sacramento, that's where I went for the first time during an exchange (well, OK, it was Sutter, but I arrived at Sacramento airport).
My host family visited Sacramento with me (and I went back 2 years ago with my mom, to visit everything again, and shopping at Folsom!). For me, it was like really going back into the Wild West at Old Sacramento, and the visit if the Capitol and Governor's Mansion wa also very impressing.

We went to visit San Francisco (and Golden Gate Bridge, woow, that was such an "experience"), we also went to the mountains (Mount shasta), ...

One of these days, I would like to go back and visit the Napa Valley. And travel even more by train (I really loved the train ride from San Francisco to sacramento!!!)

Another "event" was my visit of the Sunsweet plant. So many prunes, unbelievable!!!

Oh good! What a relief We think Sacramento is so boring...It's good to hear you had a great time here. The Outlet Mall in Folsom is very popular here. Did you enjoy your time in Sutter? It's nice and peaceful up there.

Thank you so much for posting!

Deb