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The best way to find overseas friendships is by hosting exchange students from different countries. We have hosted 17 exchange students in all. Five students were for the whole school year and the rest were short term from 3-5 weeks. We love people and love to get to know other cultures.

Each student was special and there were no favorites though several stood out above the rest. They became part of our family. The countries we hosted were Belgium, Uzbekistan, Japan, Czech Republic, Mexico, Nigaragua, Germany, Russia, and Argentina.

We went through gobs of applications and tried to match their interest with our family as much as possible. And the whole family had to agree to host or it just doesn't work out.

The students that were here for the full year we noticed it took them three months before they started thinking English without translating in their heads. They became very fluent in English when they thought English before speaking.

We would take them to a buffet restaurant where the foods were labeled so they could try all kinds of new American food. I would watch what they filled their plate with and then I knew what to cook for them. It was fun to watch them try new foods and the faces they would make.

We took one student to Chuckee Cheese Pizza place for her birthday. At first they didn't think it would be fun but they had lots of fun. I invited some other exchange students to come.

We had a wonderful exchange student co-ordinator that helped us choose our student and gave us ideas that other parents had tried. Throughout the year she planned activities for all exchange students in her area like parties for Halloween, Christmas, Birthday, ski trips, Day in Boston, Mass., visiting the state capitol, hay rides etc. The exchange students had a choice to go or not to go. We would each bring a dish of food to share.

Some of the parents and students seemed to click and we had our own get togethers like sleep overs, pizza party, roller skating, ice skating and what ever else we could think of.

We had fun of showing our student around our beautiful granite state of New Hampshire. The mountains, lakes, beach, foliage, parks, concerts, fairs, farmers market and street parties. We had cook outs and barbeques with games for all.

What ever we did as a family they had the choice to join us whether it be concerts, movies, mystery ride, out for ice cream sundaes, or visiting friends. They liked visiting friends as they got to see other American families and their homes.

The Japanese student group cooked their favorite Japanese food and we had to eat with chop sticks. They sang American songs to us and demonstrated fencing and karate at a going home party for us.

We had a communication board on the refrigerator that they would write on if they wanted to walk downtown, bike ride, or go to a near by park. They would just write on the board where they went.

This is how we found overseas friendships. We can email each other and keep in touch. Some have re-visited us and a couple of parents came to meet us and video taped our house to remember where their son stayed for a year.

This may be the way you too can find an overseas friendship.

Learn more about this author, Donna Mccay.
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