AFS-USA Reviews

It has been three years since my year long study abroad program in Spain with AFS, and I still notice the different ways it has affected my life. Three years later I am still in contact with my host family and friends while I Spain. Three years later I am still tapping in to everything I learned about myself and the world around me. This is not to say my year was perfect. I struggled just as every exchange student does. What separates those who had a successful year abroad and those who did not enjoy most of their time abroad is how they dealt with those hardship. Mine was finding friends. This is not to say people weren't friendly to me, but in the beginning I never felt connected to my class. The downside was that I was with them all day long at school. My solution was making friends in the grade below me, and not only were they younger than me, but they were also my host sister's friends. I know there is the stereotype is that Spaniards are extremely friendly, and they are. However, in my experience, I could not get passed the "acquaintance" stage of friendship. I worked on that the whole year and I was finally successful in finding true friends.

This was the best experience in my life. I will keep things short here, that the support was great, the family was great, the experience was once in a lifetime, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

While I was abroad, I grew so much. I realized that I loved to travel and see places, meet new people, experience a new culture. I can still remember getting off the train my first day meeting my family. I was so nervous. I didn't speak Italian and I really hoped they would like me. As we pulled up to the train station, there was a huge American flag sign that said "Welcome Ashley". As I got up and grab my stuff, my knees were shaking. I walked down the steps through the door and I was greeted with a sea of people. There stood my soon to be friends and family. Everyone threw their arms around me and kissed me on the cheeks. I made my way through the crowd and there was my host family. They began telling me how excited they were and that they could not wait to begin this new adventure together, which was exactly how I felt. Throughout my stay there were ups and downs because naturally I became home sick at different time. However, they were completely understanding and helped the best they could. I was so fortunate to have such a great family and a wonderful school to attend. The friends I made there are some I still talk with and think about often. I know that when I get my next chance to return to Italy, I will have people to see, a place to stay, and wonderful memories to reminisce. The proof of this lies in last summer, when I returned to Italy for the first time since my program in 2010 and was greeted with open arms by my host sister in the new city she lived in. She took me around and treated me just like family. The connections that you make while on an AFS program are incredible and cannot be traded for anything. This was the best decision I have ever made.

I had an absolutely amazing experience! I lived in Patagonia and my friends and my class were the highlight of my experience. Although when I arrived I understood almost nothing, my classmates and my family talked to me all the time even when I didn't understand. They taught me everything, even when it was swear words or jokes or tongue twisters that I didn't understand it helped. By the end of my time there, I couldn't imagine leaving and I didn't remember how to speak English properly. I won't lie, there were plenty of moments where it was hard for me to understand what was going on because of the cultural barriers but at the end of my exchange I felt like I was a part of the culture and now I can't wait until I can visit Chile again.

I grew up in a small rural town in Vermont, with a population of under 2,000. The program I was accepted into, AFS Summer Language Intensive, assigned me to study abroad in Tokyo. When I arrived in Tokyo, I felt a certain sort of disbelief that so many people could coexist in the same place. The city was an unceasing bustle around me that excited me.
My host mother had come to pick me up, and it was a little awkward at first. I didn't speak much Japanese, and her English was limited. I had taken two years of Japanese in high school, but that really didn't amount to much when I was confronted with having to speak entirely in another language to get my point across.
The program that I attended was entirely based around improving language skills, and they did a spectacular job. By the end of it, I could speak confidently with my host family, ask directions, and make small talk. I did run into the issue of accidentally using masculine words that set my host family off in fits of laughter, but it was a part of the learning experience.
My host family made the experience of being abroad absolutely wonderful. Before this program, I hadn't known that you could become so close to strangers within such a short time. It was honestly like I gained a second family through this program, one that I will remain in contact with throughout my life.
I would recommend this program to anyone who wishes to better their Japanese and broaden their cultural understanding.

i had a wonderful time in the netherlands, i met so many people and got to explore and experience so many new things. i enjoyed music festivals, cultural events such as village-wide festivals, school parties, and holiday celebrations with family, as well as fun sightseeing outings and trips like playing mini-golf or going to the amusement park!
i truly loved getting to intimately experience the vibrant and different cultural life of my host family and friends. learning the new traditions, trends, and lifestyles of the netherlands was exciting and enriching. i loved crafting elaborate wrapping for my host father's present on sinterklaas, biking to germany at sunrise on hemelvaartsdag, eating oliebolen on the holidays and dutch pannenkoeken, seeing the vibrant gardens of het keukenhof, and walking through the village market full of bustling stalls. some of my favorite memories are of simply wandering, riding my bike alone through the cobblestone streets of my "dorpje" (village) and admiring the quaint and cozy architecture. my host family and friends spoke to me in exclusively dutch at my request, so i learned to speak fluently, which is a skill that i still value greatly.
while i was there i had an illness, and the AFS staff did reach out to me and offer caring support and help for what i was going through when they found out. i think that the volunteers really care about the exchange students and put in a lot of effort to make sure they are ok, and that was meaningful to me. its good to feel safe and supported when you're in a far away place. i developed a lot of independence and introspective insight while abroad, as well as cultural knowledge and deep lasting friendships.

I was lucky enough to win a spot on the AFS Project Change Trip where we travelled to Russia and catalogued Udmurt Culture. One of the really special moments of the trip for me was sitting in Red Square with Sam, the winner of the project, and eating caviar in front of Lenin's Tomb and just thinking about how lucky we were to be in Red Square in Russia learning about a foreign culture.

During my year in Belgium, some days after I got out of school I would take a bus to the nearest city called Arlon which was about 20 minutes away. I would walk to meet some friends outside of their schools or walk to wherever I felt like. I could go to the market and buy a bar of Belgian chocolate and then walk up to my favorite church or viewpoint and just sit and enjoy my chocolate. It gave me indescribable freedom to be able to do small things like that with my time.

My experience in Italy was really a great one. Of course there were hard times, but also very many happy memories. I met a lot of people from all over the whole through AFS. I got to learn not just about Italy, but also about countries on every continent. One special memory I had was Thanksgiving in Italy. Even though they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Italy, my host family helped me make dinner. We went to the butcher and only managed to get a huge leg of the turkey, which barely fit in the oven! After that we all made mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn together. It was really special and I will never forget my host family!

While the Czech Republic may have changed significantly in the last 9 years, going on AFS was a pivotal moment in my life. This isn't necessarily limited to the country, but to the experience of stepping outside of your comfort zone as a teenager. AFS does their best to provide support in your host and home countries. The Czech Republic had great volunteers who cared deeply about the students. I ran into a few issues when I had host family troubles, but overall it was a positive experience.