Host Family Stories

Hi I`m Elena from Italy, and I live in Portland, OR. My host family is the Degliantoni’s! The first thing that you will think is - they`re Italian and they can speak Italian! Well you are right only about their origin, yes they`re Italian, but they can`t speak Italian.

I had a lot of experiences with them: a wonderful trip to the awesome San Francisco city, Christmas all together with their traditions, convention about Anime and videogames called ‘kumoricon,’ skiing in the mountains, but the best thing that I had was them.

They make me happy; make me feel part of their family with their love and protection. I think that they’re the best host family ever, the host family of my dreams!! I want them the family of the month to tell them thank you for making my exchange year amazing and full of experiences that I will never forget, because they’re locked in my heart.

This is my great host family. I want them to be the Host family of the month because they mean just everything to me. They are like my new big family I just found.

They did with me a lot of fun and exciting stuff. They took me to Kansas City, to Iowa, and to Dallas for Thanksgiving. They are there for me when I need them, support all the things I am doing and gave me the best time I ever had in my life. I wouldn't know what I'd do without them. They just opened me a new window to another world. A perfect world I'll never forget.

It just felt like home when I first arrived here. They made this semester the best and I hope that I can have a lot of opportunities to come to Nebraska again and visit them. Most of the time I do stuff with my host Mom and my host sister. It is a lot of fun doing stuff with them even if it's only a walk over to Wal-mart. 

And also all the new traditions I learn over here are really cool. But we also take the German traditions on! I am just so glad that they picked me and I want to say "Thank you" by nominating them for the family of the month.

They are my new family and they will stay in my heart forever.

-Christina Greiner, Germany

I'm Nadia Ali, an exchange student from Tunisia, staying in Pensacola, Florida.

I’m so thankful for my amazing host family that I wanted to tell AYUSA about it.

Before coming here, naturally, I was worried about living with a new different family. But that feeling went away as soon as I met my host dad and my host sister at the airport. They welcomed me with big smiles, extreme kindness and amazing sense of humor. When I met the rest of my host family, I knew that my experience in the US was going to be even more awesome than I had expected. The Parkers have opened both their home and their hearts to me, made me feel like a real part of their family, have expressed a huge interest in learning about my country and its customs, my family, and my life back home. Homesickness was so easy to overcome with them being at my side at all times and giving me all the comfort and support I need.

The Parkers have also been taking me to very interesting places, in fact these holidays we're going to Orlando, North Carolina and Maryland! They've been also introducing me to their friends and relatives, teaching me about the American culture and values. But what I appreciate most about them is the great love, care and fun times we share on a daily basis. My host dad's amazing sense of humor, my host mom's kindness and my host sisters great support are the reasons I would like to recognize my host family. 

Host Mother Vonda Keon publishes a weekly column in Bruce, MS. Below Vonda reflects on her hosting experience with AYUSA and how her students, Ping from Taiwan and Ji Eun from Korea, became a real part of her family.

There are times when I see life unfolding around me like a butterfly breaking its way out of its chrysalis.  It takes a lot of time and energy for the butterfly to squeeze its way out of the confines of the silk cocoon and then rest its weary wings while they dry and grow stronger until it is ready to flutter away. 

When our family decided we wanted to be a host family to two international exchange students we thought we were prepared. We were already going to be experiencing major changes.  Ariel was going off to the W for her first year of college.  Erin was going back to public school after being homeschooled for the past 10 years. I was training for a new position at work and we had worked to get the rooms ready and to make this a second home for two more girls.  Not only was there going to be a language barrier, there would be the added areas of culture and food but we were up for the challenge.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I really like it when things to go smoothly and nothing falls apart.  No such luck.  The dishwasher died, then the central heat and air units bit the dust and that was just the first week!  Thankfully we were able to get those things replaced but at a big bite to the family economy. 

Food didn’t turn out to be an issue as both girls have an adventurous spirit when it comes to eating. I also showed them how to use my stove and I told them to make themselves at home and they could cook anytime they were hungry.  It’s been fun to watch them learn to make pancakes and waffles and other things.  And like typical teenagers they can leave some pretty big messes.  But they will help clean up when I go in and start putting things away. They feel pretty comfortable in both the kitchen and laundry room now.

I worried at first about them staying in their rooms so much.  But little by little they have both ventured out as they learned that they didn’t have to wait for an invitation to come and join the family.  We have played games and had birthday parties and eaten huge meals and snacked in front of the television.  The girls like to watch CSI as well as Scott and I do and it has made for some interesting conversations. 

Friday evening I arrived home from work with a horrible migraine.  I have the ocular type that affects my vision before the pain strikes.  I made it home just before the pounding started.  I was sitting down stairs in my bedroom in the dark when Ji Eun came down looking for some bottled water.  I could tell by her voice that her throat was a little scratchy.  She could tell that I was not doing to well either.  She was hungry and I was a little too so we went upstairs and I threw together a pot of spaghetti with meat sauce.  It was quick, easy and the girls love spaghetti.  Ping joined Ji Eun and me as we ate.  We talked about how our day had been. 

They told that there was no school on Monday and they were wondering what holy day it was.   I sat there for a moment thinking about holy day and then I realized that holiday looks like ‘holy day’ to them.  That led us into a long discussion about how English speakers pronounce things.  Ji Eun then surprised me by pulling out my keyboard and playing a song for me that I love.  I knew she had been practicing something in her room.  It was a wonderful gift for me. 

Ping has been studying to take the ACT test for the first time on Saturday.  She was nervous and we talked about that.  English as her new second language was going to be an issue and I know how she is about making a high grade so I talked to her about the test and how she shouldn’t be so hard on herself and to just use the first test as a the learning curve to get a feel for it and then retake it for the grade.  She was up early the next morning fixing her breakfast and then she walked over to the school.  I was cleaning house when she came back at noon.  All she could say when she walked in the door was “whoooa! It was a lot of words!”  I just laughed.  She was starving, so she and Ji Eun headed down town to Jeffrey’s for a sandwich. 

Later Saturday evening, Ping was doing her laundry when the washing machine decided to give up the ghost.  And it gave it up in a big way.  I thought the belt on my vacuum cleaner was burning.  No, it was much bigger than that.  The whole basement filled with smoke when the motor burned up during the spin cycle.  The girl’s new assignment for this week is to go with Scott to find another washing machine because we won’t survive more that a couple of days without one; not with 3 teenage girls and 2 adults in under one roof. 

Since their arrival in August, they have gone from being the exchange students and guests to being a real part of the family.  Their time with us will come to an end after school is out in May.  We have all been working our ways out of our little cocoons. Soon they will fly away. It’s going to be hard for me to say goodbye.