My experience with Wanderlust in Beijing

First and foremost I would like to thank the organization Wanderlust and especially my host family for the wonderful time I had respectively I still have.
After graduation, I decided to spend a year abroad before I will go to University in Germany.
On the internet, I came across the organization Wanderlust by chance and finally decided to join their program for 12 months.
All in all I've been positively surprised.
Wanderlust supported me with the preparation and the Visa very well and was always helpful during my stay abroad.
The host family is incredibly nice, and they really tried to make this year as comfortable as possible for me.
I am glad, that I have decided to go to this family, and I am delighted to have won them as friends.
I have been in Beijing for almost nine months now.
The Chinese lessons that I visit once a week are very helpful, as nearly nobody speaks English in Beijing.
I support a child in learning English, play games with him and accompany him on excursions. During the year abroad I received the opportunity to discover Beijing and to get to know the daily life of the inhabitants.
Because I have never been to China before, there was of course the one or the other culture shock for me. Wanderlust organizes a cultural activity (like a kung fu or calligraphy class) every month and enables thereby to learn even more about the Chinese culture.
During my time in China I also traveled to Macao and Hong Kong, because I had to extend my visa there.
This trip was unfortunately quite poorly organized.
I was told only one and a half weeks before that I have to fly there.
The airfare and also a part of the costs of the accommodation which I had to book were paid by the organization.
Once there, I had the feeling that I am the first from the Wanderlust program who flies to Macao to extend his visa respectively apply for a new one.
The address I should have contacted according to the organization was not the right authority.
I received there a new address which turned out to be wrong too. In the end, I was in three different places before I finally arrived at the right one.
With the visa there were no more problems and I enjoyed my trip there a lot.
By coincidence, however, I noticed there in time that the organization had booked a wrong flight to Shanghai instead of Beijing.
With the help of wanderlust I took then the high-speed train to get back to Beijing.
Apart from this incident, Wanderlust was very good and I am more than satisfied with the organization.
I recommend this program to anyone who wants to get to know a completely new culture and wants to get an insight into the lives of the people in Beijing (or other parts of China)