Perfect Family Match

One of the biggest concerns someone might have about getting into this program is what the family will be like that you are set up with. I was really quite surprised at how perfect of a match my family was with our style and things we liked to do. We were both laid back and loved to travel and keep active. My family was a husband and wife where the husband was retired and the wife still worked. The student was just the husband as his wife actually was already fluent in English. Both were very active and we would travel somewhere every weekend and they loved sharing places with me. One of my favorite travels with them was when they took me to Spain to go canyoning. I was actually not familiar with it and it's when you literally jump off different areas of a canyon into flowing rivers. It was so much fun!

During the work week, the husband and I would take the dog for walks or go on bike rides and then I would come back to do lesson planning, do the lessons and that would then flow into appertifs before dinner and a long dinner where we would all just converse to get to know each other more or about current events, it was great! I did not turn on a single TV once the entire time I was there.

The lesson planning was what I found most challenging and tried to get creative. I found that games really helped enforce the lessons and were the most fun part of the lessons so I always tried to end the lesson with that.

My participating in the program was probably in a little more unconventional as I'm in the middle of a career break and changing careers. I'm not moving into any teaching profession but I thought this was be an incredibly unique way to really dive into another culture as travel is such a large passion of mine. I've done quite a bit of international travel so I also did not experience any culture shocks other than not finding all my ingredients in the grocery store to make dinner with :)

I still keep in touch with the family and I'm sure I will visit them again sometime in the future as I consider them wonderful friends and my french family.