Who Knew?

Who knew that the world of exchange student hosting was so competitive? Yikes.

Mike and I are heavily considering hosting another student this fall. We thought every other year is a good time frame for us. We can bump it back if we need to and make it longer between students, but we'll aim for every other and see how it goes. So, the weird thing is though, that now that we're moving forward and begining to look for a student we're getting sales pitches. Our program is the best, our students are the best... Crazy.

So first, I guess, is that we're still being courted by FLAG. We had already decided that we would not go the FLAG route again because of their lack of structure. So, instead we settled on looking into YFU. We're familiar with them and their program so, it seemed like a good fit. We put in our interest on the web and got a call the same day from a representative. Talk about being on the ball and trying to sell it. The representative was very nice, but was certainly hoping to "hook" me. Which is weird, because I didn't say I was looking at other programs... because I wasn't. Then a moment later it seems I got a call from a friend's friend who is working for yet another program and was trying to sell us on hosting with them as well.

I understand many people currently don't have the means to support another body in their household, so it may be tougher to place students... but man, I didn't expect to be a piece of prime "hosting family meat" that everyone is trying to get!

This definitely gives me an impish grin and a devilish mind about the situation though. I'd like to figure out what these people can do for me. I mean how badly do they want us to host a student?? hehe