As many of you know, my family hosted a foreign exchange student, Julen (pronounced Yule-inn) from Spain over the month of July. This morning we dropped him back off at the bus stop in Ormond Beach, where we had picked him up earlier in the month. 

I wanted to host a foreign exchange student last year as well, but my husband was a little hesitant at the time, so we held off. It's not something I wanted to do unless everyone in the family was on board with the idea. This year, he was open to it, so we signed up to take a student.

Hosting a foreign exchange student gives your family a great opportunity to share about your culture and to learn about someone else's. Our exchange student came to the Daytona Beach area from Spain, and while we taught him a great deal about America, we also learned a lot about where he was from. It was great to see our lifestyle and America through his eyes. We witnessed him eating many new foods for the first time ever (e.g. grilled cheese, fudge, frozen yogurt), and experiencing things that we do here regularly. We spent a lot of time doing things together, such as going to the springs, the beach, camping, soccer games, doing tie dye, baking and cooking together, shopping, watching movies, having lengthy discussions, and more. We shared many laughs and he fit in well with our family. He absolutely loved making and eating fudge, and was a huge fan of Sweet Frog's. I also introduced him to the grilled cheese sandwich and taught him how to make it (and he plans to go home and make them now).

Being a host to a foreign exchange student doesn't cost anything to sign up. The only expenses that we had were to provide him with a place to sleep (my son happily gave up his room for the month) and provide him with meals. We chose to do things while he was here that did cost money for admissions and such, but we picked up the tab on that, allowing him to spend his money shopping for things to take home. Families are supposed to treat the student like one of their own, and I wouldn't make my own child pay their own way into a spring or for a shirt to do tie dye (among other things), so I wouldn't do that with him either. None of it added up to a large expense, because most of the things we did were quite affordable to begin with.

Whether or not a host family likes the experience will be influenced by the student that they get. If they don't get one that fits in well with their family then the experience won't be as good for everyone. Even so, that would be a good lesson in how to get along, having patience, and working things out. If there are problems with the student fitting in, the program organizer should be told so that a change can be made. She was great about following up with families to make sure things were going okay with the student, and letting people know to tell her if there were problems. Our student fit in great with our family. We really liked him and found him to be well mannered, respectful, and fun. He had a great positive energy and was always happy to go along with what we were doing, help out when possible, and he was easy to get along with.

The student program that he was with, STEP, always kept in good communication with us, was well organized, and provided a list of planned activities for the students (one or two events per week). I think this is great, so that those students who weren't placed in homes that are quite as active and fun as ours still have a chance to do things. Plus, it gives the students a chance to get together once a week and have fun with the group they traveled here with. They also get to go to places that I wouldn't want take the student to, broadening their experience while here. We didn't go on most of the field trips, which included to places such as Universal Studios, the Alligator Farm, and Sea World. We could have attended them for a discounted rate, but had no interest in going to those places (I don't like theme parks at all). We did attend the group events to places like DeLeon Springs and Daytona Lagoon. There were also a few locally  held "family" gatherings that the group had, that we did attend, such as a welcome meeting, a picnic, and a farewell. A few unplanned events were also organized by other host families in the group, and we did go to one of those (including a Tortuga's baseball game).

I honestly have nothing but positive things to say about hosting a foreign exchange student. We felt very comfortable having Julen in our home and with our family for a month, and he also felt comfortable in our home and with us. We had a great experience doing it and as long as we have the time available, I believe we would do it again. We opened up our hearts and home to this person from the other side of the world. We spent a month bonding, sharing, and learning. He arrived as a stranger, but leaves as a special friend, for whom we will always share a special bond with. 

As I told Julen, there are 7 billion people on the planet. Of that, 47 million live in Spain, 318 million live in America. Out of the 113 million families in America, the universe brought him to ours. That’s a miracle in itself. Our paths crossed for a reason...

- Jacqueline Bodnar

Here are some pros, cons, and considerations to think about if you are thinking about hosting a foreign exchange student:

PROS
Hosting a foreign exchange student is a great way to share your culture with someone else and to learn about another one at the same time. It makes for an interesting month, as you spend time teaching about yours and learning about theirs. It's a good experience for you and your kids to be exposed to that and able to learn about another culture and make a friend from the other side of the world. It was a fun and interesting experience for our family. If you have kids it also gives them a chance to have someone new in the house to play with for the month. Our kids played with our student, doing everything from video games and card games to outdoor soccer games and playing at the beach. It added a little fun to their summer. Another positive is that you get a chance to see your culture through someone else's eyes, introducing the person to things that are completely new and different for them. It helps make you be more aware of what you do, what you have, and helps you appreciate things more. What was old and taken for granted becomes somewhat new and interesting once again.

CONS
You will have to be open minded when bringing someone into your home. I don't know that is necessarily a con, but for some people it may be. There were a couple of minor things that our student did that I didn't care for, such as not make the bed each morning. It took me two weeks to say something and get him to start making the bed. It became a joke between us and we laughed about it. But you do have to realize that they will not know all of your rules and may violate some. You let them know some rules from the start, but you also don't want to overwhelm them with do's and don'ts. It all worked out well for us and even though I was patient about the bed making, by the time he left he was making his bed each day. I'm pretty easy going, so even though I would prefer he had made the bed (the bed making is just one of my issues, because I like the beds made each day), I wasn't willing to make a big deal out of it. But when the time presented itself to make a joke about it, I did.  

CONSIDERATIONS
It is important when picking a student out from those available to make sure that they have a few things in common with your family. You will also want to consider your ethics, so that if possible, you can make sure you get someone who will be in line with them. For example, I noticed that some of the female students dressed in a way that I would never allow my kids to do (like butt cheeks hanging out of their shorts type of thing and wearing a thong to the water park). If you are also conservative with these issues, it's something to consider and try to keep in mind when choosing a student for your home. We are also a vegetarian family, and we got lucky in that the student we had was listed as a vegetarian, so he was great when it came to eating. I don't know how well it would have worked out if our student had been a meat eater. I wouldn't have done anything different than I did with the student we had, but the student may not have enjoyed the food as much. I don't know about that, but it's an issue I will consider again next time, too, opting for a vegetarian student if there is one available. Also, think about what you will want to do with the person when they are at your home. You don't want to bring them there and just let them sit for a month doing much of nothing. That's not fun for them and it won't give you much of a good experience either. There are plenty of low cost activities you can do (such as going to the springs and beach). Whether you decide to go to theme parks or to the beach, do try to do some activities with the student so that they have some memorable experiences from their trip. You will get bios from students who are available and you can read them over to try and select the one that you feel will fit in well with your family.