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hosting a exchange student
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 2006-08-16 10:37 AM |
molto veloce mama  9311   |  Subject: hosting a exchange studentwe are hosting a german high school student. he arrives on friday. we weren't looking to be hosts, but i'm on the local velo bella email list to get info on rides, and one of the velo bella members is also an exchange student with the same program. she was racing, and while her host family was great otherwise, they didn't get her interest in cycling and that made it harder for her to get to races. she posted about this german boy who was hoping to come over, and also raced (both road and mtb), and was hoping that a 'cycling family' could host him. i inquired, since we could probably be called a 'cycling family'...plus bill speaks some german, my brother and sil lived in germany for a year and speak fluent german, and my neice attends the local german immersion school. well, we were the ONLY family that responded...and now we're hosting! we are very excited to meet him and hope it all works out well. anyway, i am curious if anyone here has hosted before, or been hosted, and what your experience was. any tips or suggestions would be appreciated. |
| 2006-08-16 11:26 AM in reply to: #513298 |
Champion 7558   Albuquerque, New Mexico | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student Been an exchange student (Norway) and my family has hosted students (not much of an impact on me, since I was away at college then). What is the length of the stay? (couple of weeks, 2 months, 5 months, or 10 months) Be gracious (obvious, and easy for you) Include him in some of the decisions on activities. (He might enjoy doing whatever local festivals occur each weekend, but he might not. Friends of my host brother thought I ought to see EVERYTHING in Oslo my first day in town. I was shot by dinnertime, and we kept going for 5 more hours. I finally got home about midnight, and my host brother went back to finish out the festivities.) |
| 2006-08-16 11:40 AM in reply to: #513395 |
molto veloce mama 9311 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student thanks for your reply. we hosted a german student when i was in middle school, but i don't remember that much about it really, this program has students come over for the whole school year. since we've never hosted before, we signed on as a 'welcoming family'. this means 6 weeks to 3 months. we signed up for 3 months, but we may hosy longer if everything goes well. |
| 2006-08-16 12:21 PM in reply to: #513298 |
Pro 3906 St Charles, IL | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student Both hosted and been hosted! This came about through Boy Scouts, but when I was about 14'ish my family hosted a French Boy Scout for a month, including a couple weeks up at summer camp. The next summer I got to go to France to visit him. Stayed in Paris for a week, went to French Scout summer camp, then spent a week at an old house on a vineyard in the south of France. It was probably the singular coolest thing I have ever done. I experienced so much in that time, that it's hard to really top. The French camp was way more fun than the US. Supervision? Worry about liability? Hah. We went off on our own for about 5 days on a hike, wandering through the surrounding country near the camp. We had some money to buy provisions en-route, and we camped every night wherever we could. One night we stayed in someone's hayloft, another night, we stayed in someone's garage. We just knocked on their door and asked if we could stay there. Imagine that happening in the US today... Anyway, I digress. As far as tips, probably the first thing is to help him feel comfortable. I don't know how old he is, but I know that when I went to France I was feeling very nervous and a bit scared. I don't really think you'll have a problem with making him feel welcome though. Having someone around especially at first that speaks German will probably be very helpful, if he doesn't speak much English ( though I suspect he probably will ). Good luck and hope it works out great! |
| 2006-08-16 12:32 PM in reply to: #513495 |
molto veloce mama 9311 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student chris, thanks for sharing your experience. how very very cool! you are right that it wouldn't happen here. very sad that we've lost so much in our sue happy culture. malte is 17 and speaks very good english. we've spoken to him on the phone and that went really well. we'll have my brother and his wife over the day after he arrives, so he'll have people he can speak german with if he needs to. |
| 2006-08-16 12:53 PM in reply to: #513298 |
Pro 4578 Vancouver, BC | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student I completed my last year of high school on an exchange in Japan. I was there for 10 months. In return, my family (in Canada) hosted a student from Japan for the time that I was there. The school that I went to in Japan had a few other exhange students mostly from the Lower Mainland of BC and the Pacific Northwest. They had set up a pretty good program for us. I don't think that the Japanese students that came to Canada in that exchange had services set up for them quite as well as we did. For example, our school offered us special Japanese Language classes and set up study blocks where we could study some traditional Japanese things, like ikebana and tea cerimony and normally these things were only offered after school in clubs. I was pretty homesick up until Christmas, probably becasue I was only 17/18 and missed my friends, but after Christmas I felt a lot more at home. It probably helped that I understood a lot more of the language then too. I have lots of experiences and I could probably go on forever, so if you want to know anything in particular PM me. Oh yeah, I also was curious reading your post because you mentioned the Velo Bella club. I raced with them last month. There's some fast women on that team. Was the exchange student you were talking about Japanese. I know there was a Japanese woman on the team, but I'm not sure if she was an exchange student. Then again, it might not even be the same team as I thought the club was from California. Jen |
| 2006-08-16 1:03 PM in reply to: #513562 |
molto veloce mama 9311 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student yea, there's a seperate velo bella team here in minnesota. its the only all women team, which is cool. if i ever do road racing, i'll probably join the gopher wheelmen, which is the team i do training rides with, and they are sponsered through the same shop as the tri team i'm on, BUT, it think the velo bella idea is fantastic...so it would be tempting to do that. thanks for sharing your experience, especially your homesickness up until the holidays. since we've agreed to 3 months, i'm anticipating that we'll want to host him longer, since it would probably be stressful for everyone involved to have him move in with a different family around the holidays. i don't know what special services will be available for him at the school, but we have a meeting to set up his classes once he arrives. |
| 2006-08-16 1:39 PM in reply to: #513298 |
| Master 1534 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student My family hosted a Columbian girl back when my sister went to a private school. She was/is an elite junior golfer. We never did take her golfing though, as Dad and I were probably afraid of getting our a$$es handed to us. |
| 2006-08-16 1:54 PM in reply to: #513641 |
molto veloce mama 9311 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student yea, i'm a little afriad a young rider will kick my a$$, but if that's the case, we'll make him pull the kids in the burley to even things out. |
| 2006-08-16 2:37 PM in reply to: #513669 |
Giver 18427 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student I've been kicking around the idea of hosting Swedish college student, but I'm not sure Amy would like having her in the house. |
| 2006-08-16 3:50 PM in reply to: #513747 |
molto veloce mama 9311 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student Ulla Inga Hanson Benson Janson Tallen Hallen Swadon Swenson?? |
| 2006-08-16 4:00 PM in reply to: #513848 |
Giver 18427 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student autumn - 2006-08-16 4:50 PM Ulla Inga Hanson Benson Janson Tallen Hallen Swadon Swenson?? Oh baby... |
| 2006-08-16 4:06 PM in reply to: #513298 |
| Master 1391 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student I was an exchange student back in 1993-1994 (South Africa). The most important thing is to make the student feel welcome and include them in family activities. Keep them involved and encourage to be active whether it is sports, church or school activities. For me, keeping busy kept my mind off of home and I learned so much that way and made life long friends that I'm still very much in touch with. |
| 2006-08-16 8:17 PM in reply to: #513298 |
Master 1249 Lexington, Kentucky | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student My family has hosted several, and my brother and I were hosted once each. It was a positive experience for everyone I think. We usually got along quite well with our guests and had common interests. Some became very good friends that we are still in touch with. Your daughters may be a little bit too young to form a relationship with your guest, but the experience will expand their world anyway. We hosted for the first time when I was about 13. I did my student exchange when I was 18. Your daughters may be a little too young to |
 2006-08-16 8:33 PM in reply to: #513298 |
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| 2006-08-16 9:34 PM in reply to: #513298 |
| Pro 4189 Pittsburgh, my heart is in Glasgow | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student I was *NOT* hosted during my time in Ireland. Part of me wishes I had been, part of me is really glad I did the campus living thing. It was hard because the weekends were super lonely for me, I was the only one who stayed in halls. But it was also nice to be able to set my own hours and not have to worry about waking up kids or disrupting family life. keep in mind the social norms of smoke/drink, which are probably things that don't occur too often in your house. Its important to discuss these as much as possible, set boundaries and expectations, etc. The culture shock won't hit for about 3 weeks to a month...so expect the first two weeks to be pretty easy, and the 3rd or 4th to be pretty rough. There's a lot of very subtle things that are very counterintiutive to europeans (or Americans who spent a lot of time in europe!)...it takes a bit to adjust. Hell, I was born here and I'm still adjusting. OH!!! And learn how to use GoogleTalk...it will keep your phone bill down. Edited by phoenixazul 2006-08-16 9:34 PM |
| 2006-08-16 10:04 PM in reply to: #514128 |
| molto veloce mama 9311 | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student thanks for your response. the drinking thing might be an issue, but there are pretty strict rules with the exchange group he is coming over with re: drinking, curfew, gpa, etc. he'll be a high school senior...and i remember what i did when i was a high school senior! he doesn't smoke, which is good. he wants to race bikes while he is here, so we may need to set some ground rules about grades, drinking, etc. related to us getting him to races...just like if he was in a sport through school. i'm sure we'll be in tough with his parents via email about this stuff too. oh, and we're signed up with skype already!  |
| 2006-08-17 12:19 AM in reply to: #513298 |
| SF Bay Area, Mountain View | Subject: RE: hosting a exchange student i've been an exchange student with Norway, which doesn't matter, but i am German by birth and that does matter - i know my brethen. this guy doesn't smoke and wants to race, right? he'll probably speak more english than required and i'd be surprised if he doesn't turn out to be a very quick learner if he doesn't. i do think that you will have a very pleasant experience with him. |
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