Pre-departure meeting and host family!

Just this last week, I was finally place in a host family! I have a host dad, mom, and sister that I am so excited to meet. Through the past couple of days I have been emailing the daughter, who is my age, and we have found that we have a lot in common. Everyone in the family already seems so sweet and welcoming to me. Thank you so much for accepting me into your family and I am so excited to be a part of it.

Also, Saturday was the pre-departure meeting, where I was able to meet and discuss with other exchange students, returnees, and volunteers. I met Michele (family member from Dawn Fest Memorial scholarship) and a volunteer named Jan and her husband (have hosted many exchange students). They were all so sweet to me and showed me the heart of AFS. I truly feel that I picked the best company that really cares and want the students to succeed. A lot of the activities really got me thinking and are going to be very useful to me during my exchange. Some main ideas that stuck out were: Say yes to everything you can to make your experience memorable, to not have expectations so you can feel uplifted for most of the time, and to also pay attention to how comfortable your family is instead of always paying attention to how comfortable you are. Thank you everyone at AFS for the meeting! It was very helpful to my parents and I.

Imogen