Category Archive

study abroad

How doorknobs can help with homesickness

When I was 15, I moved to Germany as an exchange student on the Congress-Bundestag scholarship. It was there that we all received this advice from a wise teacher: When you feel sad and homesick, take pictures of doorknobs. Here’s why…

Holy crap we’re hosting an exchange student — now what?!

My husband and I were recently approached by a friend coordinating host families for a three week long cultural exchange program for students from Spain this summer. We decided to go for it — it will be a neat experience for us, and it’s a nice thing to do both for our friend and for the student who will be staying with us. The other day we got the email that we’d been approved as “host parents” and matched with a 17-year-old young man!

Six tips for creating awesome care-packages for children away from home

While I was growing up, I spent a lot of time away from home. I can tell you now, whether I was away for school, camp, high school summer jobs or even when I moved on to university, nothing helped my homesickness and general well-being better than when I received a care package from home. I was recently helping a friend put together a package for her high school aged child studying abroad when I realized that not everyone was in situations growing up where they were receiving care-packages.

I spent my teens in the Rotary Youth Exchange program and it ROCKED

Wanna ship your teen out for a while? Liz went to high school in JAPAN as an exchange student through the Rotary Youth Exchange program.