RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I sent my 16yr old daughter abroad with AFS(Costa rica for6 mo.).I also have spent time with many of the students that have come to our suburban Maryland town through AFS. My feeling about AFS is that the experience is different for everyone. Our AFS tries to provide support and education to prepare and support the kids but depending on where and who you are placed with you have more or less. It's like life - some good/some bad. However ,all the kids come back stronger, more confident ,independant and aware in ways that they would not be otherwise. All in all it is a good group with a good cause. My advise is to be prepared to advocate for yourself and to speak up and activly seek involvement when you travel Those are the kids who seem to do well.

I haven't been an exchange student, but I would have liked to (I've already started university and I'm too old to go now). I think it's a great experience. You learn much more than you could learn in your home country and you have fun. I'm Eric's girlfriend and I agree that it can be difficult at the beginning but it's worth it, besides Erik learned spanish pretty well. You can't achieve that unless you live in a country where Spanish is spoken.

I myself have been a year a year abroad enlargening my horizont and getting new ideas & ways of seeing the world & life. It really teached me a lot, especially Spanish of course (I was in Chile for eleven months, not far away from Santiago)! Now I'm proud to anounce that I talk perfectly & fluently Spanish! I also learned tons about the Chilean society, it's far away from being a "dance at roses". Before going to Chile I hadn't been outside Europe. Because of that my chock was huge when I really descovered how conservative Chile is! It's like the Netherlands hundred years ago, based on what I've heard & read about the European society on that stage of the history. To be honest I had to change my personality while being in Chile to fit in to the society. It's a shame, but it will take a long time to change. My positive first meeting were soon changed with frustration & a great homesickness (and I've never enjoyed my home country Norway!). I've decided never to return to Chile, although my girlfriend is Chilean & living there. The problem is that not even she respect me a 100 %. She hasn't even decided if she wants to see me again, which would mean she would have to go to Europe, also because I feel it's her turn to visit me since I've been with her for a whole year. She wouldn't even have to pay a penny since my father & I will pay her ticket (my dad said he wanted to pay half of it some days ago, without me even asking him! It made me so happy!)! If she doesn't come this summer (my family & I have invited her especially to my sister's wedding in the first week of August), I've been making a substitucional plan, the so-called Plan B. It starts with me going (on my own of course, like with AFS) to Kenya, trying to get a job in the capital Nairobi (I guess it'll be too difficult to get any job at some national park there). There I'll live & work for some months, maybe some years if I'll fall in love with the country (which I think is quite possible). Then I'll move forward, first to Tanzania, Botswana & South Africa, then till Nigeria, Cameroon & the Ivory Coast. In some countries I'll just be on vaations for some weeks, in other I'll try to make a life working with local challenges. But it doesn't stop here, I'll continue to Ghana, Liberia, Marruecos, Egipt, before I'll move on to Asia; Singapore, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, China, Thailand, the Maldives etc. The end of my trip will probably be New York before I finally settle, after five to ten years maybe in an European country, probably The Netherlands, Spain or Great Britan. All this mainly because of my AFS year which made me want to travel & to descover the rest of the world so much!! I don't know how my life had been today without AFS!!! :-)) PS: Today I got a hand-written letter from one of my best class mates from Quillota, my AFS town! Some months ago I got an e-mail from another class mate. It's always lovely to recieve them! :-)