The Experiences of Living in a Homestay

It’s pretty crazy how attached you can become to a family after only knowing them for one month. One of my favorite parts of my study abroad program is living with homestay families. Between the three countries I have had four very different, very special groups of people that have accepted me as part of their family. 

In Santiago, Chile, I lived with a divorced single mother of two children. Soledad was a badass to say the least; she was a senior banker at the Bank of Chile, an amazing cook, and an avid pole dancer! She even installed a pole in our backyard that my two roommates and I played on. Her two kids, Damien (12) and Josephina (13), were so sweet and shy. And lastly there was Yanet, a kind woman from Peru who had been living with the family for ten years. Although they didn’t speak much English and my Spanish is sub-par (and that’s being generous), we were able to bond as a family and spend a great month together. 

In the south of Chile the quiet, sweet family was swapped for a lively, environmentally conscious one. I lived with a chaotic two year old and five month old who kept dinners very entertaining. The house was an almost 100 % self-sustaining farm, which meant we had delicious home grown meals. The best part was the house had no Wi-Fi and no service, so I was completely unplugged for a week, a refreshing break from technology. 

My third family was in Nepal and is definitely the family I was closest with. I had a brother (19) and a sister (24) who accepted us as siblings and genuinely wanted to spend time with us. Through my host family I was able to experience so much of Nepali culture that I otherwise would have never known about, including two different religious festivals and meeting the Kumari, an important religious symbol in Nepal. I will miss the nightly dal bhat dinners and card games!

As I’m writing this article I am waiting to be picked up by my last homestay family here in Jordan. All I know about them is they are a family of four with a small dog. I have been very lucky with my last three host families—trust me, some of my friends were in such horrible places they had to be moved out midway through—so fingers crossed for another amazing experience.