By Sadie Ellis, High School Abroad Italy Fall Semester 2024
Making Contact
A major highlight of my semester studying abroad in Italy was spending time with my host family! By the end of the semester I truly felt like a part of their family and that’s something I will cherish forever.
One of the most nerve-racking things about the process of studying abroad is waiting to find out where you’re going to be placed and who you will be living with! The days feel like months as you anxiously wait. Then, when you finally receive the email saying, “Meet Your Host Family!” it is the best and most terrifying feeling ever. You finally know who picked you! Who read through your profile, saw your photos and videos, and thought, yes this is the person I’d like to open my home to.
Now the challenge is reaching out to the people you just “met”. It’s your very first point of contact. What should you say?
In my case, I wrote a short email introducing myself in Italian and mentioning how excited I was to get to know them. After sending it, I waited about a week and they responded.
Contact made! (Cue fist pumping the air.)
Each member of my host family wrote a paragraph, giving me the chance to hear from all of them. In response, I wrote a paragraph back to each of them, and we kept exchanging emails like that. From there we wrote to each other every week! I got to know each of them personally, we exchanged photos, questions, and jokes. Eventually we switched to texting on Whatsapp which worked great as well.
Questions you could ask your host family
Getting to know your host family’s interests, routines, or what life will be like for you when you arrive can help you know what to expect and look forward to!
Some good questions to ask would be:
- What do you guys like to do for fun?
- What’s your favorite food?
- Any packing recommendations?
- Do you know much about the school I’ll be going to?
- What do you do during the holidays?
- What type of music do you listen to?
- Have you hosted an exchange student before?
- (If so,) What was the experience like?
Questions like these also helped me figure out what kind of gifts to bring them based on little things (like how my host sisters really loved chocolate haha).
When you finally meet
I cannot stress enough how crucial building a relationship with my host family beforehand was to my experience. By the time I actually arrived in Italy and met my host family in person, it felt like I already knew them. I wasn’t going home with strangers, I was going home with my Italian family!
Building a relationship with your host family before you leave home can set the stage for a smooth and enjoyable arrival. By putting in the effort to connect ahead of time you’ll skip the awkwardness of starting from scratch when you arrive, allowing you to dive right into the cultural experience.
Ultimately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to getting to know your host family – it’s unique for every student and every family. The key, however, is establishing that relationship early on. When you’ve already built a solid foundation, you can focus on embracing the culture of your host country and spending more time truly bonding with your host family.
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