March 3rd, 2016
I want to talk a little about the process of the homestay, because it is an option for certain study abroad programs and I didn’t know very much about it when I went in. Here in France, I live in a large home that is a little bit outside the city. I only have a host mom and two housemates. IAU gave a questionnaire during the application process that asked things about my preferences like dietary restrictions, rooming, and allergies. My room has space for another person because I was supposed to share with another girl, but she was allergic to the cat and had to move homes. Like I said, the house is very large, however we don’t have access to all of it. Having a bigger house means that we aren’t going to be in the city center because the houses there are smaller- a lot of people that I know here live in apartments. Living in a homestay requires more out of the student in terms of interaction and compromise. My host mom is very particular, she likes things done a certain way and gets annoyed if you don’t do it that way. I have had to get rid of certain habits because I live with other people and everything I think of doing needs to be considerate of other people. Independence does exist, but not in the way it would if you lived in a dorm or by yourself in an apartment. IAU does offer the option apartment living but you need to seek it out yourself which can get really complicated in this city. On the other hand, living with a host family is like nothing else. It has been the best option for someone like me- I live at home in Orlando and get very homesick. Here, I have gotten actually sick two times in the span of three weeks. I’m one of those people who can only be cured with love and care, so without my mom, I could’ve been sick for a really long time because I wouldn’t have known what to do. My host mom would get me medicine from the pharmacy and make the soup my mom makes for dinner and drive me to school when I still wasn’t better. She really didn’t have to do any of that, but it made all of the difference because I knew she genuinely cared for me. Having a host family is like that, when we get in from a flight really late, she goes to pick us up. This structure really helps people who are not used to being alone; you’re given independence and autonomy, but you have a fall back in case you cant manage right away.