The Host Family Life

What will it be like as a foreign student living with a host family? This is the question that haunted me a little before arriving in France, and it encompasses all the other nit-picky little questions that plagued me, such as: will I actually be able to communicate? Will they have any bizarre traditions or rules that I'll have to follow? Will they like me? Will I like the food? (Those last two were especially important).

I was just recently reminded of all these questions on Tuesday, when my new housemate arrived and barraged me with about a hundred questions. Her name is Emma, and she is--like Ella was--an American student from Centre College who will be spending the next three months in Strasbourg. I'll admit that it feels awesome to be able to give her helpful advice, and I think she's thankful to have a fellow 20-year-old-American-in-France. (The first words she said to me when we met where: "Wait, Karen? You're American? Oh, you speak English! Oh thank God.")

After spending over six months now under the roofs of two different host families, I think I have a decent perspective at how it feels to live with one.

Oftentimes, I feel like the house ghost, or like a bug that the whole family knows is living in the walls, but who only emerges for mealtimes. I realize that these aren't exactly attractive descriptions for what living with a host family is like, but, well... that's exactly how I feel. I hear and witness all of the daily disputes and heartwarming moments that my host family shares while still remaining a little detached from the situations.

In some ways, I really am a part of my host family. This holds true for the bad: I have to live under the same rules as everyone else, and yes, that means non-continuous three-minute showers. But it also holds true for the good: I am now a regular member of the twice-monthly Sunday family lunches, which last forever and are quite cozy. And I'm always invited out shopping or out to dinner or to the movies with Laeticia. In other ways, though, I am more of a long-term houseguest. For example, my host mother refuses to let me do any chores (honestly, I can wash a few dishes!) and I still sometimes feel as if I'm tip-toeing around the house.

Also, it's a little strange to return to mixing student life with family life. In college, my dorm room slowly devolves into a state of organized chaos until my roommate and I can no longer stand it, and we hold a big clean-up dance-party. Here, though, I've been told to clean my room by my host mother when it is just the right amount of slightly-messy, and it feels quite backwards. Set mealtimes was another thing that I had to get used to again. We always eat dinner here at 7:45pm--not at all late taking into consideration Spanish standards--and that is an unchanging obstacle. If I want to do something that starts at 8pm, I'll either arrive late to the event or I'll skip dinner (with a warning in advance to my host parents, of course).

Furthermore, I've gotten used to all of my host parents' little idiosyncrasies. Finding my host mother reading her tarot cards at breakfast (except on Mondays--they're never accurate on Mondays, apparently) no longer surprises me. As soon as the phone rings and my host mom starts chatting in Alsatian, I prepare myself for the apology that I now have memorized: "Pardon, je parle en Alsatian," to which I always reply: "Pas de souci, vous ne devrez pas vous excuser!" (It's quite interesting to try to figure out what she's saying, even though Alsatian draws a lot more from the German language than it does from French). And my host father can almost always be found tinkering in his downstairs workshop with the radio blasting all sorts of music (I almost burst out laughing the first time I heard him listening to Ke$ha and Demi Lovato).

After living in this house for many months, though, it has almost become my home. For example, I know which steps on the staircase are the creakiest (all of them) and I have free access to the fridge! Honestly, I was unsure about host family life before arriving in France, but now I know for certain that it is undoubtedly the best way to live in a foreign country as a student. I get traditional home-cooked cuisine every night, I've built relationships with great people that I never would've met otherwise, and I've learned so many lessons--in language, in French culture, in life in general--in everything! 

So when Emma was questioning me about life here, I just smiled and told her, "You're going to love it."