Be a host family for exchange students
Since the children are in high school, we have been a host family several times. And people often ask what that's like. Is it nice to be a host family? I'd be lying if I said it was only positive experiences. But less fun experiences can also be instructive.
The first exchange student came here because my eldest daughter participated in an exchange project with a school from Rome. She had a really nice week in Rome so we were looking forward to her match from Rome. Her match, a girl, arrived here a little sick and she was very tired. She was not friendly but the rest of the week bar did not come out. Now it turned out that this was the first time she had gone anywhere without a family and that she was a little homesick. She ate only moderately and I found that difficult because you still want your guest to be fed well. During the day she participated in a programme, but then she was “home”. The Dutch children organized everything for the Italian guests but she had little desire to participate in anything which I thought was a shame. If she did go, she'd have fun. It wasn't so pleasant for my daughter because of this. I must confess that after a week I was happy that she was going home because me and we didn't really know what else to do with her. We had to pull it very much. I think she thought a week was long enough, too. Sweet girl, but the homesick obviously got in her way.
The second time we were a host family for 2 young ladies from Mongolia. They were supposed to stay for a few days but due to an adjustment in the program they were only here one night. But they were so much fun. I can't say anything negative about this. They were very interested, loved our big family, chat our ears, wanted to know everything about us and the Netherlands, ate - although we had picked them up in a restaurant where they had just eaten - with us and they plundered the fruit bowl empty ( Fruits in Mongolia are scarce and expensive). We really learned a lot from them, laughed with them (spicy ladies with a huge sense of humor) and even have contact with them via Facebook. This year my eldest daughter is going to Mongolia and I find it a real reassurance that there are 2 good English speaking very nice Mongolian ladies who keep an eye on them. When they left, we and they were really sorry.
Hij was wel echt super netjes en beleefd dus het was toch een redelijk weekje maar alleen nadat we gingen mededelen in plaats van vragen !
het is wel voor jongeren een mooie ervaring , over twee jaar zijn we weer aan de beurt met jongste zoon !