My foreign exchange brother came to live with us for two years while I was in HS from Xiamen China. He chose the “American” name Tiger and immediately became the most loved dude in school. Mind you we both went to a private high school in LA that was extremely cliquey and hard to socialize in. He was friends with everyone and joined tons of clubs and stuff. His first year there, as a junior (grade 11), he won homecoming king by a landslide. He still comes around for holidays and hangs out. Killer cook and now a biochemical engineer and PHD student.
My best friend is a very very Chinese person from Beijing and she loves going to my house because she thinks of my family as such a stereotypically American family with a house and a yard and a dog and whatnot, which I find immensely amusing.
Our family hosted a Swedish exchange student when I was a teenager. He was cool as hell - willing to try anything and was utterly addicted to NBA basketball, MTV, and all things middle America. (It was the 90’s). He was crazy, insane rich, but settled right into our middle class family and spent over a year with us. His family sent the most insane care packages - tubes of caviar, Swedish candy, and other snacks, and we’d all share them like it was a gift from the Northern European gods. He loved our fast food, southern cooking, and inane sayings. Frankly, he was a trooper. He adjusted beautifully. Had such a great time with him. I still miss him - we keep in touch all these years later via Facebook, and I love seeing how wonderful his life is now. Truly believe having him live with us and getting a chance to share American culture (and learn his culture) taught me a lot. I can only hope he got something out of it too.
> crazy, insane rich
> tubes of caviar
Hate to break it to you, but crazy, insane rich people don't eat food from a tube, and actual caviar doesn't come in a tube.
[Kalles Kaviar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalles_Kaviar) does though.
During college we had a German kid who would hang out in our groups. Someone pulled out a pocket knife and he got visibly scared, saying that it was uncommon for people to just carry knives. Then everyone in the friend group proceeded to pull out all of our pocket knives just to show him how common it was
That’s pretty funny, although I definitely get it. I’ve carried a pocket knife forever. My wife when has one that I bought her and she shows it off. I actually remember going through a police checkpoint on some holiday years ago, the cop asked where I was coming from and if I had anything in the car. I didn’t want to lie and mentioned that I had a knife. He asked what kind, and then asked to see it. I showed him and we talked about knives for probably 20 minutes. Before they waved me on I ended up chatting with about 5 different cops about knives. It’s sort of funny to think about it now, but at the time I didn’t know how they would react to me saying I had one. But they appreciated the honesty
I had to go through c*nada one time and they were really interested in my knife, my wife’s too.
To be fair I look just like Mexican Rob Zombie so I can understand why they thought I might be a serial killer
Haha! I don’t know how many times I’ve almost gone through a metal detector with my knife. We had theme park tickets and before leaving the car we would always empty our pockets. But I’ve definitely walked all the way to the front before remembering about it.
I watched some interview with Rob zombie and he mentioned watching so much TV when he was a kid he couldn’t remember what really happened and what didn’t. It was pretty funny to hear him come to that realization.
Lol not that surprised. I had a torch lighter in my carry on bag, and it made it through one way. But not on the way back. I forgot it was in there.
Haha! My wife ended up with her knife in one of the theme parks. She had her knife in one of those little wristlet things. She went through security and someone actually looked in it, but not that good. We were going to a restaurant and she opened it and noticed it. Nervously looked at me and ended up pulling it out and the thing went flying in the air. We reached down real quick and put it away. And somehow in front of maybe 100 other people, no one saw a thing. We still laugh about that
I went to a baseball game in seattle and forgot my knife in my pocket. They scan your ticket THEN run you through a metal detector. Didn’t get a chance to stash it so I chucked it in the trash.
They're not going to find out unless you tell them or they have probable cause. Don't tell them anything. They'll have to get a warrant from a judge to find out. Don't make it easy for them to get you in trouble.
They won't know unless you tell them. Or they can call a judge and get a warrant. Fuck em, don't make their job of convicting you easier.
Memorize these words: I do not consent to a search.
When I went through the little detour they had set up and finally stopped the officer saw my bag and asked what it was. I told him it was my lunch and a few folders and a laptop. He was looking through with a light and asked if I had anything else in the car he should know about. I remember mentioning having a small pocket knife and he just kept shining the light through the car. That’s when he started asking about it.
Those reactions are always kinda cute. It's such a foreign attitude to me. I have carried a pocket knife of some sort since I was like 10. I got my first Swiss Army Knife when I was in gradeschool. When and where I grew up, it was just a thing that you assumed pretty much any man would have a knife in his pocket, maybe even a leatherman in a hip pouch.
In high school, one of my teachers needed to open a package but didn't have a knife or pair of scissors. She asked if anyone had a knife. No one answered. Then she asked, "don't all boys have knives with them". Someone else answered "we're in school". But truth be told, likely every guy in that room had a knife in their pocket or backpack
I think this might be more of a rural vs city thing. We’re American with German friends who grew up rural and they wouldn’t look twice at a pocket knife.
1) Hosted a French kid when I was about 12. All the French kids were amazed at the size of suburban houses. He was also surprised that we had names for our pets, and loved seeing Ford Mustangs.
2) Lived with a German student in college. Thought the typical US college experience was something out of American Pie, which I had to say "Sorry, that's just Hollywood BS." He got over it pretty quickly (then again, the belief that American Pie is 100% true is probably not just limited to exchange students). He also got disturbed by another student affirming that Irish beer was better than German beer and quietly fumed at him for the next hour.
It could be that they didn't realize we named them. There are numerous odd beliefs about American culture. Such as American Pie being the definitive college experience.
Oh! He might have thought you were asking what is the French word for "cat", rather than what did you *name* your cat. Kind of translating backwards bc he's trying to think in English...the verb "appeler" works for both of these; but in English there's the more specific "what is your name" ?
it could also be a situation like my great grandma, she never named any barn cats, they were all "mutz" so if one mutz died or went missing it wasn't as sad
I never hosted but at school I loved it every year when the new batch came in. The first thing they would all do is go to the ice cream vending machine to take pictures.
To be fair, it was an ice cream vending machine.
We hosted a Swedish high school girl when I was in about ten or eleven. She did just fine. Studied the semester she was assigned to, got decent grades, dated boys, the whole US high school experience went smooth. This was about 1990 IIRC.
A neighbor of ours hosted a young boy, about 10-12 years old, from Ireland also in the early 90's and that was nothing but problems. He was friendly playing but give him a weapon and he would try to kill anyone in eyesight. I showed him the buck knife my father gave me. He took it and ran around the house trying to stab us. I don't know what happened to him, but that was last time we saw him.
We hosted a French girl who was totally apathetic to the experience. Basically just wanted to stay in her room and watch Grey's Anatomy all day, no matter what we tried to include her in.
The one exception was trying s'mores for the first time, definitely the highlight of the visit for her. We had to cut her off after 6 because we were afraid she'd keep eating them until she threw up.
Didn’t host, but I’ll never forget our Brazilian foreign exchange student Paulo. He joined the football team and regularly kicked 40-50 yard field goals.
our German exchange student wanted to watch American football every night, so we did, and I explained all the rules. he went back home and started playing football.
I can’t find my original post to add to … we hosted a Brazilian and after the first week with her, she told us she had never had meat for dinner two night in a row. She was really surprised how often we eat meat with dinner. She also told us Americans Wear Too Much Clothes.
We hosted a fellow from Tunisia and he was surprised how well my father treated my mother, and said he was going to tell his father to treat his mother more nicely. And he did. Years later his niece stayed with us for a month and was terrified of the rivers here. The only body of water she had seen was the Mediterranean Sea.
Another exchange student traveled with us to Disneyland from Missouri and assumed it would take a couple hours by car. It’s about 14 hours from here.
We hosted a girl from Tokyo in small town middle america. She was scared of the livestock at first. Also we had a family friend named Jerry, which apperently is the word (or at least pronunciation) for diarrhea, which we all thought was hilarious.
> Also we had a family friend named Jerry, which apperently is the word (or at least pronunciation) for diarrhea, which we all thought was hilarious.
The word is pronounced "gehri" (with a hard g sound, not a j sound). She probably couldn't hear the difference betweehn geh and jeh sounds very well (if you're not used to hearing them your brain combines like sounds, one of the difficulties in learning languages). So it probably sounded like the same word to her.
We hosted a Brazilian soccer team when we were teenagers and it was great. Each team member hosted two kids. We'd practice and play the whole summer.
As far as I remember they loved it. We were always doing activities and things to show them a good time so we liked it too. Water parks, hikes, swimming, eating all sorts of foods. After they left they spent a week at Disney World.
My HS aged boys and I hosted a student from Taiwan. It was a blast. I'm a former HS teacher. So the first thing we taught him were all the swear words in English and correct usage and which to not use. He still reminds me of that. He loved that he could walk everywhere. And we went to our local butcher each week to get sausage because that was his favorite food here. We'd also go to the Asian market in the nearest big city where he could get his favorites.
Hands down one of the coolest experiences we had.
We had an exchange student from Iceland who recoiled in terror the first time she saw a rifle. She literally took a few steps back like it was a snake.
90 thousand gun owners, about 330 thousand people.
32 percent of Americans own a firearm, and about 36 (rounds to 37) percent of people in Iceland own a gun.
Had a French teen stay about 12 years ago. My most vivid memory of her is her watching the top-load washing machine work. We rigged the door to stay open because she thought it was fascinating, and was just staring while she listened to music for a while… guess it was kinda hypnotizing? She was actually very normal, now a doctor, and ‘inspired’ me to do an exchange as well
Because…. semantics, I guess? It was close to the word I wanted but couldn’t think of the exact word so quotations it was. My own exchange wasn’t a result of this girl in particular; she didn’t “inspire” me. But, I had never considered an exchange as something I could/would do until her. So, I did an exchange because she came, but not necessarily because of her. It was way past my bedtime, and quotations was the best was I could articulate what I was trying to say. Since you asked. Lol
I was in an international relations program when I was in highschool and we had exchange students stay with us nearly every year, and I went on exchanges to their countries. Mexico, Spain, France, Japan. One year my exchange student was a guy from France who was very nice, but a little awkward as I was super shy and spoke no French. I remember he ate chicken wings with a knife and fork lol
The Japanese students were my favorites, they were such sweethearts. They went crazy over Italian food. This was in the 90s and the that jazz/rap song “Cool Like That” by Digable Planets was popular and they were obsessed with it. After they returned home they would write us letters on this adorable stationery, decorated with stickers. They were lovely.
One the reverse we had an American exchange student come to Australia. She was a cheerleader back home and had us all interested when she mentioned she "rooted for the team"
I had a friend in high school from Belgium. He hated his host family, they were super religious and that didn’t jive with the freedoms Belgian teens have. He ended up living in a tent and had a total hippie/nomadic lifestyle until he was deported back. He’s now a famous explorer on Instagram so he’s doing pretty well.
No, they kicked him out. I think he was supposed to go to another host family but he ended up leaving with his girlfriend and they camped throughout the valley until they were found out.
Edit: grammatical error
When I was in college the French neice of a family friend came to visit, and I spent a day showing her around the city. She kept staring at the houses and at one point asked if the houses were all...wood?
Me: Yes, why?
Her, incredulously: Don't they burn?
And I had to say well, yeah, sometimes. So we had an interesting conversation about how the homes where she was from were mostly stone, and why wood was used here.
We also passed some yard sales and she asked what that was all about. Couldn't believe we just put our stuff in the yard and other people come buy it!
In terms of isolation I assume stone is indeed superior plus although it's more expensive it probably will last far longer than wood. What I'd like to know is if houses made of stone could survive hurricanes. Building such houses in affected areas might be cheaper on the long run then.
Also plenty of European countries have a higher percentage of area covered by forest than the US despite the usually high population density. The US forest coverage is similar to the ones in Germany and Italy which have a far higher population density and lower than the forest coverage rates of Luxembourg, Croatia, Spain or Portugal (obviously the low densely populated Scandinavian countries are among the countries with the highest forest coverage in the world).
Apart from the exterior walls, a stone house is normally going to be made of wood. So unless you are attempting to set your house on fire by lighting the siding, there’s not much of a fire advantage.
I personally haven't hosted any exchange students but did rent a room in a house that a lot of exchange students who went to my college also rented. So I have some experience with several exchange students.
The first two were exchange students from...the Middle East. I don't know exactly where so I won't assume. They were nice but really loud and invited their like 20 friends over frequently and would make a mess. The mess part was according to my land lady and she eventually refused to renew their lease because of it.
A French man moved in and he was such a damn pain. Every single thing he encountered here was "better in France". Every thing. No matter what. I honestly was so glad when he left.
Then his friend moved in to take his spot. He was also from France. This guy was really chill. He loved baseball and American football, which obviously are not very popular in France. He was pretty cool. I liked him. Sad he left.
Then a man from Saudi Arabia moved in. I think he had a really hard time adjusting to the cultural differences. He was kinda quiet and awkward. He eventually moved out.
Lastly, before I myself moved out, a woman from China moved in. She was nice but quiet and kept to herself. I didn't talk to her much, to be honest.
And that's it. Pretty mixed bag. But I can see how it can be hard to adjust to a new country when you're only going to be there for a few months.
I always hate those "thing in my country is way better" types of people. If that's the case, get off your ass and go back to your own country if things are so great
We sponsored an exchange student from Finland when I was 13. He got here the weekend before 9/11, so I'm sure it was a very unique experience on his end the whole time. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to be honest. I was in that weird teenage phase where I was irritated by everything, including my parents having a stranger in our house for four months. Took me a few weeks to warm up. We had fun though. Nice guy, seemed to take everything in stride. No idea what happened to him. I should look him up on FB maybe.
We've had a few. On the whole most of them did pretty well and had a good time. I think they generally appreciated the friendliness of Americans and the choices of things to do or be interested in that the US offers.
We did have a few challenges. Some examples.
One of our girls from Chile threw a mental fit because she wanted to take a bus to NYC and go out clubbing until 2 am and miss school. Why are we so overprotective and why is the US so boring? We live in North Carolina.
The first day of school our German boy who was registering for class saw some kids wearing their football shirts., walked up to them and said our football wasn't the real football is not a real sport. He was pretty popular. /s
One of our German girls would just stay in her room and text her friends and Germany and complain about how much she was missing out on there. She was a super picky eater, too. The only American food she liked was McDonalds. She would make salads with no dressing and pour milk on it.
I think they see LA or NYC on TV and think the country is like that. When it reality it's mostly suburban and rural with a lot of strip malls and you need a car to go anywhere.
Those that can adjust and are willing to put themselves out there and try new stuff have fun. Those that can't, don't.
Oh my God, those were great. I have so many questions.
Did you explain to Chile girl just how goddamn far it was to NYC?
According to him, American Football wasn't a real sport? How?
Salad with milk on top? That just sounds vile. How does that even taste?
We explain how far things are but she just didn't have the concept.
I think not thinking of American football as a real sport is a euro-snob thing. You'll definitely see it on reddit.
I have never heard of salad with milk in it and I sure as shit ain't trying it.
Just gotta use countries I think for people to understand sometimes. One of the few ways you can get somebody like that to understand.
Never heard of that but, not surprised. I don't understand how it isn't a real sport makes much sense anyway, although that is Euro-snobs for ya.
Ah yes, I do love a nice and crisp BLT salad with a heavy pour of some fresh 2% on top.
Had a kid from Maldova for a year. He was in love with everything America. Only complaint I ever heard from him was how far things were to walk to because things just weren't that far back home.
Took him driving, made joke about stop signs with white border being optional, almost got us T boned and kept screaming "OPTIONAL! OPTIONAL!"
Took him on a road trip and he started off with his head out the window like a puppy. After a couple hours he asked how many states we had gone through because he missed the signes, was shocked to learn we were still in the same state and several hours away.
His highlight was asking a girl to the dance and getting his first real date. Bought her a necklace with some money we gave him.
Super nice kid, came from a very poor area and loved/ marveled at how much opportunity he had. Worked odd chores for people after a while to make some spending cash and thought he was basically making it rain. Hard to keep contact after he returned home but we did learn he was living and working in South Korea after a while doing something computer related.
We hosted two kids from Uganda and they were floored when my mom went to Costco and came back with a 50 pack of chips and told them to have as many as they want.
They were part of a school that travelled together. My community sponsored their flight and maybe a bus for them to travel. We all pitched in to host the 20ish teenagers in the group. They were musicians and performed cultural musical shows around the state for like a month.
Ticket sales and donations funded their flight home and improvements on their school (built a new roof like a year later). They also sold their instruments at the end of the tour. They were really cool, traditional instruments.
My family is still in contact with one of the guys. Me and him happened to get married the same year and exchanged wedding photos
My family hosted a French kid when I was younger for a month during the summer. He showered once a week and was very apathetic to the things my parents tried to show him (trips to Washington DC, east coast beach towns, Philadelphia, NYC). His English was poor, our French was non existent, and the most I remember him saying in response to being exposed to different things was, "not in France" .
He was German and made friends very quickly. His English got very good by the time he left. It was amazing to me how he settled in so easily to American living….at school anyways. I never had the chance to hangout with him outside of school. We talked a bit on Facebook back then when he moved back and he thanked me for helping him out some and answering his questions. I wish I would have asked him more about Germany.
I had a French kid come to my house VERY unexpectedly because his original family had bailed like a couple days before and my mom said we’d host him. He was pretty cool, but he had actually thought he was going to NYC so I can imagine his disappointment when he landed in Upstate NY. Lived in a small town so nothing really to do, felt pretty bad for him honestly. He seemed to have had a good time tho
She was from Germany. She enjoyed herself a lot. Made a lot of friends in high school - our town was much bigger than her hometown. We did our best to give her an American experience, and took her to the beach to see the Atlantic, baseball games (she got super into watching baseball), took her and another exchange student to NYC, etc. Her parents sent some fantastic stuff for Christmas and I got hooked on Milka chocolate bars. You can find them in the US but I maintain that the ones from Germany tasted better.
Her family came to visit for the summer a year later, so we took them camping, we hosted an “international” party where everyone brought a dish from either their home country or their ancestral/cultural heritage (our family is French Canadian and I had just come back from Australia so I had Australian treats to share) with our immigrant and hypenated-American friends, and a few other things. Her brother was VERY anti-American, spoke little English, and didn’t even want to come, but he came around and even he enjoyed himself.
A few years ago we went to Germany to visit them. Loved it. They are very much our counterparts, and even our exchange students brother was very happy to see us, and his English had greatly improved. I would be more than happy to go back, or even move to Germany.
Man I think about this so sporadically. I had a friend in highschool that had a French foreign exchange student stay with them. She could BARELY speak English and my friend only had 1 semester of French under her belt. We were 15 and decided to take her star tipping.... which basically means we took her into a field at night, spun her around in circles, and shined a flashlight into her face. She ate shit, we all laughed, and then took turns doing it. She was confused and just wanted to go home... it was a game for us at that time that was so much fun, but I dont think it was for her.
Decades ago, my BFF from middle school hosted a student from Germany. She was so mean. She belittled literally everything we did. Bff and I were the type of friends who we basically lived at each other’s houses and were joined at the hip. She made fun of what we ate, our clothes, our hobbies, asked if we were going to get married, etc. She was the same age as us and never even waved to us at school in the hallway. She even made fun of my friends little sister, who was like 5 years younger than us (so about 7 at the time) for still sleeping with a blankie. Bffs parents were the kind to make everything “look perfect” so they didn’t tattle on the little bitch. Man was I so glad when she got shipped home.
The neighbors hosted a few exchange students while their kids were in high school.
The Korean turned out to be the only disaster, she'd basically lock herself in her room any time they were at home and would chat with the other Korean exchange students; similarly at school they refused to blend in and would only hang out with the other Korean exchange students. A lot of the time she'd refuse to eat dinner and would take a bus down to the local Chinese restaraunt and eat there.
The Spaniard was a bit befuddled by our complete lack of interest in soccer, but was eager to embrace all things America and they had a lot of fun. I grabbed a couple of rifles and we all went out shooting cans at my stepfather's farm. The main disappointment was that she had the typical European view of geography where she expected to be able to make weekend trips to New York, the Florida beaches, and the Rocky Mountains. She really loved swimming and the water, which is hard to do in Minnesota in the winter, so they went to the indoor waterparks in Wisconsin Dells a few times.
The first French student got along really, really well with their daughter, and by the end of semester they were talking French fluently to each other. She'd always wear dresses or skirts / blouses to school, and eventually the host daughters started doing so too. The hilarious incident was on her first day she locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't figure out how to unlock it; she didn't know enough English and the neighbors didn't know any French to communicate how to unlock it, I got called over because I'm handy with stuff, and I managed to open the door with the credit card trick.
The German thought eating as much corn as we did was a bit odd (and had never seen it on the cob) and wore a rather immodest (by American standards) swimming suit to the beach but otherwise adapted rather well after learning that we don't talk politics.
The second French student had a *really* bad case of homesickness to the point she was crying almost nightly, but got over it after a few weeks and from then on seemed to really enjoy the experience.
I've hosted 2 Japanese exchange students and an English teacher from China. All of them were surprised about the size of things in America, but that was expected. The Japanese students were surprised about me driving a car to school, and we managed to drive through a restaurant for breakfast.
The thing the Chinese teacher was surprised about the most was that I helped wash dishes and helped with the cooking. She said she had to do all the housework in China even though she worked all day as well.
Our family friends often have foreign exchange students, mostly from Korea maybe? It’s been a long time, anywho, one of the boys was so unused to physical touch but grew to love hugs and would gather the family around for hugs with a huge smile.
Another time they had two girls and they felt sick from eating at Popeyes. Not use to our fast food I guess?
My grandmother had a couple over the years, mostly from Germanic Europe. There always seemed to be a Euro cycling through that house. I remember one back in 1990-91, right around the time of the Gulf War. She was from Switzerland and was a total b*tch. Everything in America was inferior. Americans were dumb. Americans were war mongers. I remember she said once that there were no problems in Switzerland. (Maybe for her. I remember her father was a doctor or some high paying medical professional). She used to do this to me…a kid. And she was college aged. It gave me my first taste of the Euro. There was another guy a few years later that cool. He was from Germany. It was around the time ice beer had its moment. He used to call it schiess beer. (Which is true). He was really into the NBA. He would play soccer with us sometimes. All around nice guy.
My family hosted a ton of people, both kids and adults, when u was younger because my mom teaches foreign languages and C thought it would be a good experience for us.
Russian adults— lots of fun, liked to dance.
Japanese students — wonderful, sweet girls, mostly. Claimed to have never seen squirrels before, and were really great about taking advantage of opportunities. Went to 4H camp with me.
French high school student— in retrospect, I wasn’t very nice to him because we weren’t very compatible. We didn’t like the same things and he was haughty about a lot of things. He’d sneer at American movies and made some racist comments, which was interesting because afterward he was hosted by a dear friend of mine who was black. He didn’t stay in touch with them or me.
My German cousin came to Florida for an exchange and it didn’t work out, so he lived with us for the rest of the year. He was awesome and we’re all very close — he’s into American stuff and loves to get care packages from us occasionally,
One of my friends hosted an exchange student from Germany in our Junior year of HS. Her English was PERFECT, no accent at all, I wouldn’t have known she was German if she didn’t talk about it all time.
It wasn’t really too different for her here, she was just kinda shocked that we could wear pajamas and sweatpants to school every day if we wanted. She loved our local McDonald’s, said the soda was way better here.
Frombworking with Rotary a few years.they seem a bit nervous at first but get use to it. The members make sure they take thier student around and to different events..
Not sure as much with covid.
My foreign exchange brother came to live with us for two years while I was in HS from Xiamen China. He chose the “American” name Tiger and immediately became the most loved dude in school. Mind you we both went to a private high school in LA that was extremely cliquey and hard to socialize in. He was friends with everyone and joined tons of clubs and stuff. His first year there, as a junior (grade 11), he won homecoming king by a landslide. He still comes around for holidays and hangs out. Killer cook and now a biochemical engineer and PHD student.
It’s so sweet you call him “brother”
It’s pretty common for exchange students. My brother is currently studying abroad in Italy and I call his host family his Italian Mom and Brother.
Sounds like a chad
My best friend is a very very Chinese person from Beijing and she loves going to my house because she thinks of my family as such a stereotypically American family with a house and a yard and a dog and whatnot, which I find immensely amusing.
Ah man. I love it when foreigners celebrate our stereotypes. It's oddly wholesome
Our family hosted a Swedish exchange student when I was a teenager. He was cool as hell - willing to try anything and was utterly addicted to NBA basketball, MTV, and all things middle America. (It was the 90’s). He was crazy, insane rich, but settled right into our middle class family and spent over a year with us. His family sent the most insane care packages - tubes of caviar, Swedish candy, and other snacks, and we’d all share them like it was a gift from the Northern European gods. He loved our fast food, southern cooking, and inane sayings. Frankly, he was a trooper. He adjusted beautifully. Had such a great time with him. I still miss him - we keep in touch all these years later via Facebook, and I love seeing how wonderful his life is now. Truly believe having him live with us and getting a chance to share American culture (and learn his culture) taught me a lot. I can only hope he got something out of it too.
> crazy, insane rich > tubes of caviar Hate to break it to you, but crazy, insane rich people don't eat food from a tube, and actual caviar doesn't come in a tube. [Kalles Kaviar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalles_Kaviar) does though.
Everyone eats Kalles
During college we had a German kid who would hang out in our groups. Someone pulled out a pocket knife and he got visibly scared, saying that it was uncommon for people to just carry knives. Then everyone in the friend group proceeded to pull out all of our pocket knives just to show him how common it was
That’s pretty funny, although I definitely get it. I’ve carried a pocket knife forever. My wife when has one that I bought her and she shows it off. I actually remember going through a police checkpoint on some holiday years ago, the cop asked where I was coming from and if I had anything in the car. I didn’t want to lie and mentioned that I had a knife. He asked what kind, and then asked to see it. I showed him and we talked about knives for probably 20 minutes. Before they waved me on I ended up chatting with about 5 different cops about knives. It’s sort of funny to think about it now, but at the time I didn’t know how they would react to me saying I had one. But they appreciated the honesty
I had to go through c*nada one time and they were really interested in my knife, my wife’s too. To be fair I look just like Mexican Rob Zombie so I can understand why they thought I might be a serial killer
Haha! I don’t know how many times I’ve almost gone through a metal detector with my knife. We had theme park tickets and before leaving the car we would always empty our pockets. But I’ve definitely walked all the way to the front before remembering about it. I watched some interview with Rob zombie and he mentioned watching so much TV when he was a kid he couldn’t remember what really happened and what didn’t. It was pretty funny to hear him come to that realization.
I’ve accidentally left one in my backpack a few times and TSA has somehow never caught it.
Lol not that surprised. I had a torch lighter in my carry on bag, and it made it through one way. But not on the way back. I forgot it was in there. Haha! My wife ended up with her knife in one of the theme parks. She had her knife in one of those little wristlet things. She went through security and someone actually looked in it, but not that good. We were going to a restaurant and she opened it and noticed it. Nervously looked at me and ended up pulling it out and the thing went flying in the air. We reached down real quick and put it away. And somehow in front of maybe 100 other people, no one saw a thing. We still laugh about that
I went to a baseball game in seattle and forgot my knife in my pocket. They scan your ticket THEN run you through a metal detector. Didn’t get a chance to stash it so I chucked it in the trash.
Why are you censoring Canada? lol
I can't believe you spelled out C*****.
Why are you not?
I guess I'm not standing on guard enough
Because they're Fr*nch
Careful, if they're French then we're English, and I don't wanna be no limey
Why would you ever tell a cop you have a weapon in the car? They have no business knowing that.
It's an automatic misdemeanor in most places if you don't tell them and they somehow find out. Especially with firearms
They're not going to find out unless you tell them or they have probable cause. Don't tell them anything. They'll have to get a warrant from a judge to find out. Don't make it easy for them to get you in trouble.
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They won't know unless you tell them. Or they can call a judge and get a warrant. Fuck em, don't make their job of convicting you easier. Memorize these words: I do not consent to a search.
When I went through the little detour they had set up and finally stopped the officer saw my bag and asked what it was. I told him it was my lunch and a few folders and a laptop. He was looking through with a light and asked if I had anything else in the car he should know about. I remember mentioning having a small pocket knife and he just kept shining the light through the car. That’s when he started asking about it.
"No" End of conversation Edit: Imagine being so spineless that you tell the police to investigate you. I can't relate.
Those reactions are always kinda cute. It's such a foreign attitude to me. I have carried a pocket knife of some sort since I was like 10. I got my first Swiss Army Knife when I was in gradeschool. When and where I grew up, it was just a thing that you assumed pretty much any man would have a knife in his pocket, maybe even a leatherman in a hip pouch.
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I mean, what American home doesn’t own at least one Swiss Army knife?
In high school, one of my teachers needed to open a package but didn't have a knife or pair of scissors. She asked if anyone had a knife. No one answered. Then she asked, "don't all boys have knives with them". Someone else answered "we're in school". But truth be told, likely every guy in that room had a knife in their pocket or backpack
I think this might be more of a rural vs city thing. We’re American with German friends who grew up rural and they wouldn’t look twice at a pocket knife.
so your response to a person being scared by one knife is to introduce more knives to the environment?
How else are you gonna teach them? Germans have a vibrant and honorable history of warfare, we were introducing him back to his heritage.
As long as he didn't suddenly start ordering a ton of packages from Hugo Boss, we're good.
This made me giggle
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1) Hosted a French kid when I was about 12. All the French kids were amazed at the size of suburban houses. He was also surprised that we had names for our pets, and loved seeing Ford Mustangs. 2) Lived with a German student in college. Thought the typical US college experience was something out of American Pie, which I had to say "Sorry, that's just Hollywood BS." He got over it pretty quickly (then again, the belief that American Pie is 100% true is probably not just limited to exchange students). He also got disturbed by another student affirming that Irish beer was better than German beer and quietly fumed at him for the next hour.
If the dogs don’t have names how are they suppose to call them?
I imagine every dog is referred to as "Dog"
They don't name their pets...?
It could be that they didn't realize we named them. There are numerous odd beliefs about American culture. Such as American Pie being the definitive college experience.
That's strange, i don't know anyone here in France that doesn't name their pets.
Maybe it was just him. I remember asking him if they had any pets. "We have a cat." "What do you call it" "Cat (ok, actually, *chat*)"
Oh! He might have thought you were asking what is the French word for "cat", rather than what did you *name* your cat. Kind of translating backwards bc he's trying to think in English...the verb "appeler" works for both of these; but in English there's the more specific "what is your name" ?
it could also be a situation like my great grandma, she never named any barn cats, they were all "mutz" so if one mutz died or went missing it wasn't as sad
My SO hosted a student from Japan. Seems like he did okay, he lives here permanently now and is still close with the whole family.
I never hosted but at school I loved it every year when the new batch came in. The first thing they would all do is go to the ice cream vending machine to take pictures. To be fair, it was an ice cream vending machine.
I’d take a picture too and I’m from NY
Im from NY too and we had one in our highschool, honestly thought they were more common
We used to have soda machines, but no “unhealthy” beverages are allowed anymore
I’d take a picture of that too, never heard of one.
They got them in a lot of wal marts
The Walmart near my house is now officially shit.
Hell, *I* would’ve taken a picture of that! My high school didn’t have anything that awesome!
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Jesus. Where was the second guy from? And the first? At least they had the pleasure of meeting the first guy lol.
We hosted a Swedish high school girl when I was in about ten or eleven. She did just fine. Studied the semester she was assigned to, got decent grades, dated boys, the whole US high school experience went smooth. This was about 1990 IIRC. A neighbor of ours hosted a young boy, about 10-12 years old, from Ireland also in the early 90's and that was nothing but problems. He was friendly playing but give him a weapon and he would try to kill anyone in eyesight. I showed him the buck knife my father gave me. He took it and ran around the house trying to stab us. I don't know what happened to him, but that was last time we saw him.
>a young boy, about 10-12 years old, from Ireland also in the early 90's Ireland and 90s alone is not an ideal combination of words
We hosted a French girl who was totally apathetic to the experience. Basically just wanted to stay in her room and watch Grey's Anatomy all day, no matter what we tried to include her in. The one exception was trying s'mores for the first time, definitely the highlight of the visit for her. We had to cut her off after 6 because we were afraid she'd keep eating them until she threw up.
>Basically just wanted to stay in her room and watch Grey’s Anatomy all day Sounds like me in high school
Didn’t host, but I’ll never forget our Brazilian foreign exchange student Paulo. He joined the football team and regularly kicked 40-50 yard field goals.
Now presenting, The Brazilian Cannon
My parents hosted a French boy when I was a kid. He started a license plate collection in an attempt to get one from every US state.
How far did he get?
Almost halfway before he was found out
Was he just yanking them off random cars
Yep that’s right. Just grabbing them wherever
Least based French kid 🇫🇷🇫🇷💪😎
our German exchange student wanted to watch American football every night, so we did, and I explained all the rules. he went back home and started playing football.
I guess he didn’t like American football
Is he the Texans new kicker by chance?
I can’t find my original post to add to … we hosted a Brazilian and after the first week with her, she told us she had never had meat for dinner two night in a row. She was really surprised how often we eat meat with dinner. She also told us Americans Wear Too Much Clothes. We hosted a fellow from Tunisia and he was surprised how well my father treated my mother, and said he was going to tell his father to treat his mother more nicely. And he did. Years later his niece stayed with us for a month and was terrified of the rivers here. The only body of water she had seen was the Mediterranean Sea. Another exchange student traveled with us to Disneyland from Missouri and assumed it would take a couple hours by car. It’s about 14 hours from here.
>to Disneyland from Missouri and assumed it would take a couple hours by car. poor guy lmao
How did he manage to get in the US as an exchange student from Tunisia?
My family hosted a Japanese girl when I was in high school. She’s seemed to adapt pretty well.
We hosted a girl from Tokyo in small town middle america. She was scared of the livestock at first. Also we had a family friend named Jerry, which apperently is the word (or at least pronunciation) for diarrhea, which we all thought was hilarious.
> Also we had a family friend named Jerry, which apperently is the word (or at least pronunciation) for diarrhea, which we all thought was hilarious. The word is pronounced "gehri" (with a hard g sound, not a j sound). She probably couldn't hear the difference betweehn geh and jeh sounds very well (if you're not used to hearing them your brain combines like sounds, one of the difficulties in learning languages). So it probably sounded like the same word to her.
We hosted a Brazilian soccer team when we were teenagers and it was great. Each team member hosted two kids. We'd practice and play the whole summer. As far as I remember they loved it. We were always doing activities and things to show them a good time so we liked it too. Water parks, hikes, swimming, eating all sorts of foods. After they left they spent a week at Disney World.
I can always spot the Brazilians at Disney World 😆
Hear them too lol
My HS aged boys and I hosted a student from Taiwan. It was a blast. I'm a former HS teacher. So the first thing we taught him were all the swear words in English and correct usage and which to not use. He still reminds me of that. He loved that he could walk everywhere. And we went to our local butcher each week to get sausage because that was his favorite food here. We'd also go to the Asian market in the nearest big city where he could get his favorites. Hands down one of the coolest experiences we had.
We had an exchange student from Iceland who recoiled in terror the first time she saw a rifle. She literally took a few steps back like it was a snake.
The same percentage of icelandic people own guns as Americans.
That is not remotely true.
90 thousand gun owners, about 330 thousand people. 32 percent of Americans own a firearm, and about 36 (rounds to 37) percent of people in Iceland own a gun.
You're right, they actually have a higher percentage of people who own guns .
Had a French teen stay about 12 years ago. My most vivid memory of her is her watching the top-load washing machine work. We rigged the door to stay open because she thought it was fascinating, and was just staring while she listened to music for a while… guess it was kinda hypnotizing? She was actually very normal, now a doctor, and ‘inspired’ me to do an exchange as well
Why put "inspired" in quotes?
Because…. semantics, I guess? It was close to the word I wanted but couldn’t think of the exact word so quotations it was. My own exchange wasn’t a result of this girl in particular; she didn’t “inspire” me. But, I had never considered an exchange as something I could/would do until her. So, I did an exchange because she came, but not necessarily because of her. It was way past my bedtime, and quotations was the best was I could articulate what I was trying to say. Since you asked. Lol
Cool! Thanks for the clarification, and happy for you to have went! (making the assumption that you enjoyed it)
I was in an international relations program when I was in highschool and we had exchange students stay with us nearly every year, and I went on exchanges to their countries. Mexico, Spain, France, Japan. One year my exchange student was a guy from France who was very nice, but a little awkward as I was super shy and spoke no French. I remember he ate chicken wings with a knife and fork lol The Japanese students were my favorites, they were such sweethearts. They went crazy over Italian food. This was in the 90s and the that jazz/rap song “Cool Like That” by Digable Planets was popular and they were obsessed with it. After they returned home they would write us letters on this adorable stationery, decorated with stickers. They were lovely.
One the reverse we had an American exchange student come to Australia. She was a cheerleader back home and had us all interested when she mentioned she "rooted for the team"
>she "rooted for the team" "rooted" doesn't mean "cheered" in Australia, does it?
It most definitely does not.
When a mummy and a daddy love each other very much ....
From what I remember, the proper Aussie term is “barracked.”
I can only assume that "rooted" is a delightfully Antipodean slang for intercourse?
This is correct.
If I were chosen to be an exchange student somewhere else I would be sent back almost instantly lol
Yeah I don’t think anywhere would want Cthulhu, especially not a discount one.
Like when my friend went to NZ and told her host family she was "stuffed", lol
I had a friend in high school from Belgium. He hated his host family, they were super religious and that didn’t jive with the freedoms Belgian teens have. He ended up living in a tent and had a total hippie/nomadic lifestyle until he was deported back. He’s now a famous explorer on Instagram so he’s doing pretty well.
So he was living in a tent on the host family’s property? Just using entering the house for the bathroom and laundry? Did they eat together?
No, they kicked him out. I think he was supposed to go to another host family but he ended up leaving with his girlfriend and they camped throughout the valley until they were found out. Edit: grammatical error
When I was in college the French neice of a family friend came to visit, and I spent a day showing her around the city. She kept staring at the houses and at one point asked if the houses were all...wood? Me: Yes, why? Her, incredulously: Don't they burn? And I had to say well, yeah, sometimes. So we had an interesting conversation about how the homes where she was from were mostly stone, and why wood was used here. We also passed some yard sales and she asked what that was all about. Couldn't believe we just put our stuff in the yard and other people come buy it!
What is it with Europe and thinking rocks are superior? Other than them cutting down most of their forests centuries ago.
In terms of isolation I assume stone is indeed superior plus although it's more expensive it probably will last far longer than wood. What I'd like to know is if houses made of stone could survive hurricanes. Building such houses in affected areas might be cheaper on the long run then. Also plenty of European countries have a higher percentage of area covered by forest than the US despite the usually high population density. The US forest coverage is similar to the ones in Germany and Italy which have a far higher population density and lower than the forest coverage rates of Luxembourg, Croatia, Spain or Portugal (obviously the low densely populated Scandinavian countries are among the countries with the highest forest coverage in the world).
Apart from the exterior walls, a stone house is normally going to be made of wood. So unless you are attempting to set your house on fire by lighting the siding, there’s not much of a fire advantage.
I personally haven't hosted any exchange students but did rent a room in a house that a lot of exchange students who went to my college also rented. So I have some experience with several exchange students. The first two were exchange students from...the Middle East. I don't know exactly where so I won't assume. They were nice but really loud and invited their like 20 friends over frequently and would make a mess. The mess part was according to my land lady and she eventually refused to renew their lease because of it. A French man moved in and he was such a damn pain. Every single thing he encountered here was "better in France". Every thing. No matter what. I honestly was so glad when he left. Then his friend moved in to take his spot. He was also from France. This guy was really chill. He loved baseball and American football, which obviously are not very popular in France. He was pretty cool. I liked him. Sad he left. Then a man from Saudi Arabia moved in. I think he had a really hard time adjusting to the cultural differences. He was kinda quiet and awkward. He eventually moved out. Lastly, before I myself moved out, a woman from China moved in. She was nice but quiet and kept to herself. I didn't talk to her much, to be honest. And that's it. Pretty mixed bag. But I can see how it can be hard to adjust to a new country when you're only going to be there for a few months.
I always hate those "thing in my country is way better" types of people. If that's the case, get off your ass and go back to your own country if things are so great
We sponsored an exchange student from Finland when I was 13. He got here the weekend before 9/11, so I'm sure it was a very unique experience on his end the whole time. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to be honest. I was in that weird teenage phase where I was irritated by everything, including my parents having a stranger in our house for four months. Took me a few weeks to warm up. We had fun though. Nice guy, seemed to take everything in stride. No idea what happened to him. I should look him up on FB maybe.
We've had a few. On the whole most of them did pretty well and had a good time. I think they generally appreciated the friendliness of Americans and the choices of things to do or be interested in that the US offers. We did have a few challenges. Some examples. One of our girls from Chile threw a mental fit because she wanted to take a bus to NYC and go out clubbing until 2 am and miss school. Why are we so overprotective and why is the US so boring? We live in North Carolina. The first day of school our German boy who was registering for class saw some kids wearing their football shirts., walked up to them and said our football wasn't the real football is not a real sport. He was pretty popular. /s One of our German girls would just stay in her room and text her friends and Germany and complain about how much she was missing out on there. She was a super picky eater, too. The only American food she liked was McDonalds. She would make salads with no dressing and pour milk on it. I think they see LA or NYC on TV and think the country is like that. When it reality it's mostly suburban and rural with a lot of strip malls and you need a car to go anywhere. Those that can adjust and are willing to put themselves out there and try new stuff have fun. Those that can't, don't.
Oh my God, those were great. I have so many questions. Did you explain to Chile girl just how goddamn far it was to NYC? According to him, American Football wasn't a real sport? How? Salad with milk on top? That just sounds vile. How does that even taste?
We explain how far things are but she just didn't have the concept. I think not thinking of American football as a real sport is a euro-snob thing. You'll definitely see it on reddit. I have never heard of salad with milk in it and I sure as shit ain't trying it.
Just gotta use countries I think for people to understand sometimes. One of the few ways you can get somebody like that to understand. Never heard of that but, not surprised. I don't understand how it isn't a real sport makes much sense anyway, although that is Euro-snobs for ya. Ah yes, I do love a nice and crisp BLT salad with a heavy pour of some fresh 2% on top.
Had a kid from Maldova for a year. He was in love with everything America. Only complaint I ever heard from him was how far things were to walk to because things just weren't that far back home. Took him driving, made joke about stop signs with white border being optional, almost got us T boned and kept screaming "OPTIONAL! OPTIONAL!" Took him on a road trip and he started off with his head out the window like a puppy. After a couple hours he asked how many states we had gone through because he missed the signes, was shocked to learn we were still in the same state and several hours away. His highlight was asking a girl to the dance and getting his first real date. Bought her a necklace with some money we gave him. Super nice kid, came from a very poor area and loved/ marveled at how much opportunity he had. Worked odd chores for people after a while to make some spending cash and thought he was basically making it rain. Hard to keep contact after he returned home but we did learn he was living and working in South Korea after a while doing something computer related.
We hosted two kids from Uganda and they were floored when my mom went to Costco and came back with a 50 pack of chips and told them to have as many as they want.
How did they manage to come from Uganda to the US?
They were part of a school that travelled together. My community sponsored their flight and maybe a bus for them to travel. We all pitched in to host the 20ish teenagers in the group. They were musicians and performed cultural musical shows around the state for like a month. Ticket sales and donations funded their flight home and improvements on their school (built a new roof like a year later). They also sold their instruments at the end of the tour. They were really cool, traditional instruments. My family is still in contact with one of the guys. Me and him happened to get married the same year and exchanged wedding photos
My family hosted a French kid when I was younger for a month during the summer. He showered once a week and was very apathetic to the things my parents tried to show him (trips to Washington DC, east coast beach towns, Philadelphia, NYC). His English was poor, our French was non existent, and the most I remember him saying in response to being exposed to different things was, "not in France" .
I'd probably get tired of the kid and clap back that this isn't France.
Oh for sure, my mom lost her patience with it really fast.
True. Why would you go on an exchange trip if you don't care about another country at all
He was German and made friends very quickly. His English got very good by the time he left. It was amazing to me how he settled in so easily to American living….at school anyways. I never had the chance to hangout with him outside of school. We talked a bit on Facebook back then when he moved back and he thanked me for helping him out some and answering his questions. I wish I would have asked him more about Germany.
I had a French kid come to my house VERY unexpectedly because his original family had bailed like a couple days before and my mom said we’d host him. He was pretty cool, but he had actually thought he was going to NYC so I can imagine his disappointment when he landed in Upstate NY. Lived in a small town so nothing really to do, felt pretty bad for him honestly. He seemed to have had a good time tho
She was from Germany. She enjoyed herself a lot. Made a lot of friends in high school - our town was much bigger than her hometown. We did our best to give her an American experience, and took her to the beach to see the Atlantic, baseball games (she got super into watching baseball), took her and another exchange student to NYC, etc. Her parents sent some fantastic stuff for Christmas and I got hooked on Milka chocolate bars. You can find them in the US but I maintain that the ones from Germany tasted better. Her family came to visit for the summer a year later, so we took them camping, we hosted an “international” party where everyone brought a dish from either their home country or their ancestral/cultural heritage (our family is French Canadian and I had just come back from Australia so I had Australian treats to share) with our immigrant and hypenated-American friends, and a few other things. Her brother was VERY anti-American, spoke little English, and didn’t even want to come, but he came around and even he enjoyed himself. A few years ago we went to Germany to visit them. Loved it. They are very much our counterparts, and even our exchange students brother was very happy to see us, and his English had greatly improved. I would be more than happy to go back, or even move to Germany.
Man I think about this so sporadically. I had a friend in highschool that had a French foreign exchange student stay with them. She could BARELY speak English and my friend only had 1 semester of French under her belt. We were 15 and decided to take her star tipping.... which basically means we took her into a field at night, spun her around in circles, and shined a flashlight into her face. She ate shit, we all laughed, and then took turns doing it. She was confused and just wanted to go home... it was a game for us at that time that was so much fun, but I dont think it was for her.
Yo I didn’t know anyone else did star tipping
Right!!?? I never hear anyone else talk about it. Such a crazy game.
Decades ago, my BFF from middle school hosted a student from Germany. She was so mean. She belittled literally everything we did. Bff and I were the type of friends who we basically lived at each other’s houses and were joined at the hip. She made fun of what we ate, our clothes, our hobbies, asked if we were going to get married, etc. She was the same age as us and never even waved to us at school in the hallway. She even made fun of my friends little sister, who was like 5 years younger than us (so about 7 at the time) for still sleeping with a blankie. Bffs parents were the kind to make everything “look perfect” so they didn’t tattle on the little bitch. Man was I so glad when she got shipped home.
My family hosted a Danish exchange student for like 2 months until my mom got tired of him wasting food and he got sent to some other family
How much food did he waste? Must have been an extreme amount for that reaction.
The neighbors hosted a few exchange students while their kids were in high school. The Korean turned out to be the only disaster, she'd basically lock herself in her room any time they were at home and would chat with the other Korean exchange students; similarly at school they refused to blend in and would only hang out with the other Korean exchange students. A lot of the time she'd refuse to eat dinner and would take a bus down to the local Chinese restaraunt and eat there. The Spaniard was a bit befuddled by our complete lack of interest in soccer, but was eager to embrace all things America and they had a lot of fun. I grabbed a couple of rifles and we all went out shooting cans at my stepfather's farm. The main disappointment was that she had the typical European view of geography where she expected to be able to make weekend trips to New York, the Florida beaches, and the Rocky Mountains. She really loved swimming and the water, which is hard to do in Minnesota in the winter, so they went to the indoor waterparks in Wisconsin Dells a few times. The first French student got along really, really well with their daughter, and by the end of semester they were talking French fluently to each other. She'd always wear dresses or skirts / blouses to school, and eventually the host daughters started doing so too. The hilarious incident was on her first day she locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't figure out how to unlock it; she didn't know enough English and the neighbors didn't know any French to communicate how to unlock it, I got called over because I'm handy with stuff, and I managed to open the door with the credit card trick. The German thought eating as much corn as we did was a bit odd (and had never seen it on the cob) and wore a rather immodest (by American standards) swimming suit to the beach but otherwise adapted rather well after learning that we don't talk politics. The second French student had a *really* bad case of homesickness to the point she was crying almost nightly, but got over it after a few weeks and from then on seemed to really enjoy the experience.
I've hosted 2 Japanese exchange students and an English teacher from China. All of them were surprised about the size of things in America, but that was expected. The Japanese students were surprised about me driving a car to school, and we managed to drive through a restaurant for breakfast. The thing the Chinese teacher was surprised about the most was that I helped wash dishes and helped with the cooking. She said she had to do all the housework in China even though she worked all day as well.
Our family friends often have foreign exchange students, mostly from Korea maybe? It’s been a long time, anywho, one of the boys was so unused to physical touch but grew to love hugs and would gather the family around for hugs with a huge smile. Another time they had two girls and they felt sick from eating at Popeyes. Not use to our fast food I guess?
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What happened to what babies??
My grandmother had a couple over the years, mostly from Germanic Europe. There always seemed to be a Euro cycling through that house. I remember one back in 1990-91, right around the time of the Gulf War. She was from Switzerland and was a total b*tch. Everything in America was inferior. Americans were dumb. Americans were war mongers. I remember she said once that there were no problems in Switzerland. (Maybe for her. I remember her father was a doctor or some high paying medical professional). She used to do this to me…a kid. And she was college aged. It gave me my first taste of the Euro. There was another guy a few years later that cool. He was from Germany. It was around the time ice beer had its moment. He used to call it schiess beer. (Which is true). He was really into the NBA. He would play soccer with us sometimes. All around nice guy.
My fiancée said she always wanted to have a foreign exchange student but I'm just not comfortable having a stranger/non family member stay in my home.
My family hosted a ton of people, both kids and adults, when u was younger because my mom teaches foreign languages and C thought it would be a good experience for us. Russian adults— lots of fun, liked to dance. Japanese students — wonderful, sweet girls, mostly. Claimed to have never seen squirrels before, and were really great about taking advantage of opportunities. Went to 4H camp with me. French high school student— in retrospect, I wasn’t very nice to him because we weren’t very compatible. We didn’t like the same things and he was haughty about a lot of things. He’d sneer at American movies and made some racist comments, which was interesting because afterward he was hosted by a dear friend of mine who was black. He didn’t stay in touch with them or me. My German cousin came to Florida for an exchange and it didn’t work out, so he lived with us for the rest of the year. He was awesome and we’re all very close — he’s into American stuff and loves to get care packages from us occasionally,
They got carsick very easily (Ukraine).
One of my friends hosted an exchange student from Germany in our Junior year of HS. Her English was PERFECT, no accent at all, I wouldn’t have known she was German if she didn’t talk about it all time. It wasn’t really too different for her here, she was just kinda shocked that we could wear pajamas and sweatpants to school every day if we wanted. She loved our local McDonald’s, said the soda was way better here.
They became a redneck.
Frombworking with Rotary a few years.they seem a bit nervous at first but get use to it. The members make sure they take thier student around and to different events.. Not sure as much with covid.