Our student arrived and immediately became part of our family. It has been two months now, and she is just an absolute delight to have here. She is polite and respectful. She loves to be with the kids. She is responsible about doing her homework, her chores ( dinner dishes and keeping her room neat and bed made) and social time. She has made friends and has gone out with her girlfriends. We had a little trouble getting a cell phone for her- it was more about coverage availablity. Now that is costing more than expected with a pay as you go, so we are looking into a family plan on my account. Although this is not recommended, I feel safe that she is going to pay me. Why? Because she has been having great difficulty with her bank card from home. ( doesn't sound good , right ? wait) We tried several banks and not one would work. Then the last bank suggested that maybe the magnetic strip was deactivated when she came through security at the airport. Highly unlikely, but the card was not working at all. So, now her mother has sent a second card, which did not work yesterday. Her mother also is trying to wire money into my savings account so I can take it out for G. I could easily work out with G to keep $100 to use toward the phone bill. Then I don't have to worry about her running out of money to pay me. Although, we made a deal to treat her as one of our own, and as such I give her $10 a month towards school lunches. Each child in school gets to buy 4 times a month. It was once a week , but then some weeks there was nothing and other weeks there were two that they wanted. So we could call it even and have no exchange of money- assuming she doesn't eat into my minutes too much. She is very respetful of our home and our generosity in hosting her.
Everyone who meets her says how great she is! She truly is an ambassador of exchange students! I can't say enough great things.

Now YFU- that is a different story. The woman who was fired or quit left an awful mess. We just got an area rep last week. Then we had a required meeting this weekend. First of all, we were told that we all had to attend. That was not true. So we all took an hour ride- each way, we ate lunch in the car, and the little kids had no naps. Then there was nothing for the kids to do but sit through boring meetings! Boring because it was the same information we have gone over twice now!!! Then we had to have dinner out on the way home. Arghh. The only good thing was G got to meet some of the other students. She had not gone on the first sponsored trip as she is not a great car traveler. Also, there was a big expense for the first trip, and they were expected to sleep on the floor of someone's house! There is another trip in the spring, but it is even more money. That is to NYC and Washington DC. However, today she is in NYC with the HS International club for a rather small amount of money. Plus, she is with her school friends. There will be other activities she will get to do with the exchange students.

Hosting has been great, I would just recommend you choose your agency carefully!