Don't judge a book by its cover

Mari

"When I first thought about going to Germany and staying in a family house, I was pretty sure that they would all be very strict, careless and not a loving kind family. I was also very nervous because I knew that not everybody would be lucky with theirs host families. And I kept thinking like that till the day I arrived at my German house. At the train station, they were all very kind and helped me with my luggage. My house was a huge typical Bavarian one, not a chic or a rich house, but a very comfortable one. After unpacking my stuff in my own bedroom, I sat at the dinner table with my family and that was the moment I realized that all my thoughts about my “strict German family” were wrong. My family had a huge heart and they were always looking after me and offering me something.

My house was on a neighboring village of the main city called Murnau. Seehausen, the name of the village was just 2km away from Murnau, where my exchange school was. That’s the reason I didn’t have any problems getting there. My host mom usually drove me by car and when she couldn’t take us, we went walking.

I had a 16 year old sister, and she was really sweet. So, as she used to go to school with me everyday, we became very close friends. I had also an 18 years old brother and, of course, my lovely parents. Their grandparents were also in the house and we had no pets. Lucky me, as I am very allergic to them.

Mari's Family

I really enjoyed my time in Germany. My family contributed a lot with that, because they were always taking me to visit some different places and taking a good care of me. Now, I certainly can say that I have a second family, which will be always in my heart, even coexisting for a short time with them."

Mixed Feelings

Lucas

"As soon as we landed and picked up our belongings, everyone took their cabs feeling pretty scared, as no one knew exactly how things would turn out. Lucky me, I was able to share the cab with both Arthur and Andre, who made the whole journey more enjoyable. My host mother, Marie, was such a sweetheart. She's a retired lady who was very kind to me. Her house was adorable, and very British. As I had never been abroad before, everything was just wonderful. For my assumption, her house was pretty big for just an old lady, but then, I was introduced to her sister-in-law, Diane, who really helped me in the first week. Our daily journey to school was pretty ok, as it was only 30 minutes away from home. However, we used to have to walk until our nearest tube station, Willesden Green, and after arriving at Finchley Road, take a bus, which left us in front of The Hampstead School of English. It wasn't such a boring journey though, as André, who lived nearby, used to go to school with me. After a while, Cecília, Beca and Gabi ended up in the same house I was. You can't imagine the amount of fun the 4 Brazilians had in that lady's house. It was really awesome. It seems to me it was just yesterday when I arrived at Cultura and Beca was like "LONDON BABY! OH MY GOD, ONLY xx DAYS YOU GUYS, YAY!" You have no idea how I'm missing that place. I would like to thank everyone who was a part of this trip, which was by far, the best in my life."

Lucas, Gabi, Marie, Beca and Cecília

Our project

"We're students in Cultura Inglesa Blumenau, and we've created this blog to talk about homestaying in a foreign country. Every year some students from the school travel to London, where they stay for three weeks, to improve their English, so we decided to create this blog to talk about their experiences. We'll be updating the blog every two weeks, so keep connected. See you guys later!"