Were you an exchange student? Report in!

[kendall]

If so, when, to where and through what program? And did the experience change your life?

I was an exchange student through Rotary International for an academic year in 1981-82 as a high school senior to Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico. I had an incredible year and loved it! Ended up double majoring in Music Ed and Spanish in college - and I became a Spanish teacher (which I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams).

What about other DISers?

 

[djgeffers1]

Was never an exchange student but did host 4 kids over the years, a young man from Italy and girls from Germany, Japan, and China, we enjoyed every minute of it.

 

[Wagamama]

i spent a semester abroad in london...does that count?

 

[olena]

I did a study abroad program with the University System of GA. I went to France for 2 months in the summer of '95. It certainly changed my life.

 

[kendall]

can make or break an experience. It is hard to convince American families to open their home for a year to host - but most who do so often end up hosting again....

Sure - semesters count!

Anyone else?

 

[Jeafl]

I wasn't, but my older sister was in Mexico the same time as you. She went through Rotary International as well, but she lived on a beautiful little island in the Yucatan peninsula called Ciudad del Carmen. She lived with an incredibly wealthy family who owned a fleet of shrimp boats. I visited her down there for 3 weeks and didn't want to come home! I had my own personal maid and a great room with a huge marble balcony overlooking the bay of Campeche.

She also was an exchange student in Madrid, Spain her junior year of college, then went back to get her masters at the University of Madrid after college. We all keep in contact with her host families. They are wonderful people.

We took in an exchange student from Sweden my junior year of high school. His name was John and he was incredibly selfish and spoiled. He refused to help around the house and was generally not a nice person. I can't imagine how he was picked for the program. We all survived though.

 

[SoonerKate]

I spent a semester of high school in Clermont-Ferrand, France. I loved it and didn't want to go home!

I would love to study abroad again, but I've accumulated too much stuff and I really need to just finish school. On the bright side, if I can pick up Italian or Spanish to go with my French, hopefully someday I'll be working at Disneyland Paris! (All of the jobs I want over there require 2 European languages as well as fluency in English.)

 

[amid chaos]

I exchanged thru my college....some education students from Oxford came to my school and we went to their school...they stayed in our rooms, we stayed in their rooms. great experience.