Program Reviews

Just like many other exchange returnees will tell you, this trip was life-changing. Although it was very short, at just two weeks, it was long enough for me to love with China. Each day in this program was packed with different activities to do with the other American students on the trip or the Chinese students. We usually had Chinese classes in the mornings at an international school, and spent the afternoons experiencing cultural activities or interacting with Chinese students. We all stayed with host families. I had an amazing family, and we somehow managed to become very close in the short time that I was there, so much that my host sister and I were crying by the time I left, but I still wouldn't take back this trip for the world!

My host family had a total of five kids. I enjoyed the hospitality of my host family when I went to Japan. They had a yoga teacher and they decided to sign me up for a few classes. She spoke English, so asking her questions about how to say something made it a little easier. After getting a close relationship with her, she decided to take me on vacation with her to another island with a few friends of hers. After driving two hours and getting on a boat for half an hour, we arrived at a destination that was just beautiful. When we arrived we got treated to delicious food. We went on the beach very often during the trip which was very fun. Also, we decided to go for a swim at the beach. Additionally, we popped fireworks out on the beach having a great time. We also began to hike up in the mountains and saw a various amount of shooting stars. We were able to get a hold of many stars that night, so we decided to get a blanket and lay down on the floor to find more. It was an experience I will never forget.

I had a totally life-changing experience in Paraguay. I was placed with an amazing host family in Pilar. I had a lot of really difficult cultural adjustments to make, but working through those issues are what makes going abroad worth it. :) The Asunción national office staff and volunteers are wonderful, and most AFSers are placed in that area. I was one of the few people in my arrival group outside the Asunción and Ciudad del Este areas, and I didn't have a ton going on locally, but that's OK. I think I was more immersed because there were so few AFSers around me and I loved getting to experience a smaller town.

AFS is one of the best organizations out there. If you're looking for a 5-star hotel and a tour bus, this isn't for you though. It's not a vacation or a trip, it's regular life in another country, with all of the linguistic, cultural, social, introspective, and academic learning that entails. AFS will provide you with the key components you need to make an amazing experience for yourself- a safe host family, a school or community service placement, and ongoing volunteer support. You bring the adventurous attitude, very open mind, and lots and lots of patience. :)

I recommend Paraguay to people who are truly looking to expand their horizons and break out of their comfort zone. There's no chance to fall back on English here- you'll learn Spanish very quickly and will also get the chance to learn some Guaraní. It's not on most itineraries, so you'll never be mistaken for a tourist. Paraguayans are some of the most patient, generous people I've ever met.

I've since lived and traveled many other places in Latin America and elsewhere, but Paraguay will always have a special place in my heart. <3 Rohayhu Paraguai!

My journey started on an extremely bitter January morning in none other than the windy city of Chicago, where I boarded a connecting flight to the sunny Los Angeles. After bearing one of the coldest Wisconsin winters I could remember, the heat was a blessing. I distinctly remember being petrified that I had forgotten something important like my passport or plane ticket as I walked through the airport. The reality of the trip I was about to take was unimportant to me, believe it or not. I knew I was going to perfectly fine.

In all honesty, I was excited to be somewhere where the people didn't have a set idea of who you are based on what they have observed from you over a course of ten years in a small town public school. By the time I landed in Auckland and took a connecting flight to Tauranga, I had missed my original school orientation by a couple of hours, so I had the weekend to settle in before I started at Te Puke High School. Unfortunately, my first day was a bit of an awkward, rocky start. The bus that picked my up drove right past my host home, which was a kiwi fruit orchard with a very long driveway. It had a second route, so our bus was one of the first to get dropped off at school. I was a solid 45 minutes early every single day. For that entire time the first day, I did absolutely nothing but blankly stare at a wooden post in the courtyard. Later on, during morning break, me an a few of the other foreigners were sitting on the rugby pitch and I decided to take my lunch out of my backpack. Mind you, this was the same backpack I had used as my carry on and it had had a spare set of clothes. I hadn't realized that I had left a pair of frilly panties in my backpack, and in the process of taking out my lunch, I had knocked it onto the field. I didn't realize this had happened until we started to get up and leave. Many a junior boy had been staring as I tried to casually shove the lace atrocities back into my bag. What a great way to start out the semester, am I right?

The underwear incident didn't bother me all that much. New Zealand had this profound ability to make the world seem easy going and relaxed. I was much more confident and care-free in New Zealand than I have ever felt in the United States. Maybe it was due to the beautiful scenery and my close proximity or the pacific ocean... or maybe it was the fact that they were pretty easygoing with the foreigners, so it was to no surprise that I managed to conquer over 100 levels of candy crush while in various classes. sMy favorite class was Drama. We were a small, close knit group, and, like most Kiwis, they had little to no reservations when it came to being ridiculous. Pillow fights, hanging from the ceiling, and indoor rugby, were not uncommon. That is until Mr. Smith would bark at them to settle down. That was also the class where I discovered that for the first two months I had regularly been showing a gang sign with my hands, but everyone thought it was hilarious that a little blonde white girl was accidentally representing a notorious gang. Taniana and Victor tried to explain it to me, but I had made it a habit of simply nodding at them since their Maori accents and slang could be so thick sometimes that even asking them to repeat it 12 times wouldn't help.

Maori slang was also a struggle for me when I joined the girls rugby team. It was basically a team of Maori girls who had been playing since they were toddlers, and a skinny american girl who couldn't even throw the damn ball. I was basically the water girl that they let play sometimes, but I really appreciated their patience with me. With all my incompetence, they were always willing to walk me through whatever it was we were doing. It didn't help much. All I ever did was ran around in circles on the field and get in the way, but they cheered me on anyways.

Moonball, however, I was much better at. It's basically rugby, but with less rules and a large exercise ball. That's actually how most of the school got to know me. I was the crazy girl who played Moon ball during lunch break. About 50 plus students would play each time it was available during break, but when it came to girls, it was usually the rugby girls (this was before the rugby season started). So to see some random foreign girl no one knew start bolting at guys twice her size, it was a little hard to forget. Especially since they saw me get carried down the field on top of the ball once. Basically, I had tried to knock the ball out of a Senior guy's arms, but he took no notice and continued to run while carrying me along with the ball the entire way down the field. Each time I played, people I had never talked to before would always come and tell me how cool it was that I went so hard out during the games. It made me feel a lot more welcomed, even though all I had done was attack some guy with an exercise ball.

Then there was the time that my friend Coral, an exchange student from Hawaii, tried to teach me how to surf. The waves that day were huge, and after many many many attempts, I finally managed to catch one. Unfortunately, I also panicked. I couldn't remember how to stand un on the board properly, so I just rode it on my hands and knees while I screamed like a baby. I also had no idea how to stop (if there's even a way to), and the tides along the shoreline would pull out so quick that by the time the next wave came in it was about 15 feet of water and then just sand. I crashed down into the sand and started to sit up in the water, but, again, because the water pulled back out so quick it was hard for me to try to stand up and get out of the way. By the time I managed to get up, the water had pulled my board back at me, and it smashed me in the shins, knocking me over again. Not even a second later, another huge wave engulfed me and sent me tumbling back face first into the sand. This process happened about three more times before I could finally get back to the shore. Coral then came up to me crying not because she had been worried about me, but because she had been laughing so hard watching me struggle with the ocean. She ended up having to run into the water to pee, she was laughing so hard.

These stories are just a couple of short snapshots of my time in New Zealand. My various other adventures included my shenanigans in the Musical, jumping off of cliffs, being chased by swans while white water kayaking, chasing sheep around on Mt. Maunganui until they chased me back, and walking around school every day with a cheap ukulele. Each day was a new experience that I wouldn't trade for the world, and I am thankful that you took the time let me share a few of them with you.

I spent an entire summer in Cuenca, Ecuador with American Field Service. It was after my senior year of high school and before I went off to college. While all of my high school friends were enjoying a typical American summer of drive-ins and theme parks, saying teary good-bye to their besties from high school, I was in “The Land of Eternal Springtime”, which is what the Cuencans call their beautiful colonial town.

Cuenca was not nearly as developed back then as it is now, and the town was fascinating. The architecture, the culture, the people….it was all so engaging. AFS did a fantastic job in our pre-orientaion in Miami with thousands of students going to South America for the summer. After our pre-orientation, we flew to Quito and had an in-country orientating for a few days. Quito was also fascinating and Cuenca is similar on a smaller scale.

Mid-way through the summer, AFS arranged an in-country exchange where the students who lived in the mountains (as we did in Cuenca) traveled and lived on the ocean and vice versa. Our group from Cuenca lived in Guayaquil for a week and the diversity from Cuenca was staggering. The mid-stay exchange gave a wonderful contrast to what we were used to.

Whilst in Cuenca, AFS arranged activities on almost a weekly basis. Even though it was winter in Cuenca, we still were not in school and the students had a tremendous amount of free time. We were quite autonomous but the weekly or bi-monthly activities kept us in touch with the group.

The family I stayed with was wonderful and the lessons I learned about myself living there were in valuable. While no one can repeat the individual experience of an AFS aboard program, we all share the basic outcomes of knowing ourselves better, having our mettle tested, and growing up in ways that our high school friends back home will never have. So typical of this is that I could not relate to my high school best friends after being gone for a mere 2 ½ months. Even to this day, many years later, I remain iconoclast in relation to the old high school gang. In my adulthood I have not been afraid to move to a different city, take a distant job, re-invent myself. By contrast, all of my high school friends still live in the same town. While there is nothing wrong with that, it just isn’t me.

What you learn from an AFS experience is that no one can take you away from yourself and you are able to live life on your own terms. That is how l have lived my life since living abroad for the first time when I was 18 with AFS. Since then I have lived aboard again, have traveled extensively both internationally and domestically, and have lived in some of the most exciting cities in the US. I run my won successful business and know that I am not afraid of anyone or anything. That is how I have raised my family and live my life. If I never would have gone abroad with AFS at 18, I perish the thought that I would still be livng in the same small town in which I grew up. AFS gave me the opportunity to expand my own mind, spirit, and self, and the rest of my life was built on that experience. I will always be grateful for AFS for accepting me into their program.

I almost went abroad with AFS but, I find the programs are too expensive and a little shaky. For the most part the host families are solid but, I have friends who have lived with host families who after a few months wanted them to leave and had a history of doing this. The rules are slightly different than with other programs and it sort of feels like an exchange machine trying to spit out as many students as it can. Overall it is a solid program but, I would recommend going with a different organization.

The Czech Republic was so welcoming and breathtaking. It was easy to adapt to this culture and the people are so nice! The deciding factor for my selection of this location was the security! I spent a lot of time learning and growing and would highly recommend any high school student to participate in one of these programs!

By far the most humbling experience, I was able to live with a caring host family who provided me with lots of resources out of pocket. It was my first time in a foreign country by myself and I could not have selected a better place. However, mild warning, beware of the mosquitoes. Invest in some heavy duty bug repellent.

My life has two sections: before and after France. I left the United States as a fifteen year old who is unrecognizable from the seventeen year old girl I am today. I spoke almost no French and I was scared. I didn't realize then just how life altering it would be. I arrived in Paris and was overwhelmed with the incredible support from the second I got off of the plane. The volunteers were not only welcoming, but fun and crazy and caring. If I could commend one aspect of the AFS organization, I would say that the most comforting part of my experience was that my volunteers really, really cared about me. They wanted to not only keep me safe, but help me have the most exciting ten months of my life!
The most important part of my life in France was definitely my host family. I was placed in an incredibly kind and loving home with a family of six. Two of my host siblings still lived at the house and were my age. They went to school with me and helped me to find friends. My host mom and I got very close during my ten months with them and she is one of the most important role models in my life. I lived in a small village in the Provence of Burgundy where my host father owns a beautiful winery. I learned to love hiking and running in the woods behind my house and horse back riding at the local pony club.The life I have in California and the life I have in France are almost the opposite of each other. In France I learned one of the most valuable skills I have: to adapt. When you go abroad, it is your job to adapt and learn to love new things, and it is the job of the program you are with to make that adaption period as easy and comfortable as possible. I experienced something so special and rare and intense that I am sometimes overwhelmed even after several months back in the United States. AFS France and AFS USA have supported me through everything both in France and after my return. I love being a part of the worldly family that is AFS.

I think that the importance of studying abroad can be summed up by one of my favorite moments of my exchange. One weekend in June, just before my depart from France, my friends and I decided to go camping. My friends included one Chilian boy, a Brazilian boy, two Norweigan girls, two Dominic Republican boys, a Finnish girl, two Americans, and a French girl. We all spoke fluent French by then (In only ten months!) we had a blast! We not only had funny conversations, but deep, interesting ones. The type of conversations that change the world. We imagined ourselves as world leaders and spoke with passion about world issues not because we were told to in a classroom, but because we care. We cared because we knew each other and we could call up specific people when speaking of a war torn country, a friend who lived there. We care about each other so we care about how our countries interact. We stood in front of the most beautiful sunset any of us had ever seen standing on top of a hill in the middle of a French countryside and we held hands and promised each other to make this world a more peaceful place through our bonds. (Picure below)
Now, back in our native countries, when there are news headlines about other countries, we think of a specific friend and we care more than most our peers. What makes studying abroad important, what makes exchange students the future leaders of the world, what makes us passionate problem solvers: EMPATHY. Living with those unlike yourself makes you a more empathetic, mature individual.

I had a difficult semester abroad, like the exchange equivalent of Murphy's law! If I were to simply list all of the negatives it might sound like I'm disparaging the program or scare away people and I don't want to do that. Unfortunately I had a first time host family and I don't think they were prepared for me any more than I was prepared for them. Despite the challenges i came home with new passions and a newfound awareness that there will be things in life that are overwhelming that feel insurmountable but I know I can get through it. May stumble blindly through it but we can't always get through life with perfect grace and dignity!

I recommend AFS. My LP took great care of me and I was able to experience so much and meet amazing people from all over the world. I would happily choose them again