[DSTRen13]

When my siblings and I were in high school, my family did the foreign exchange student thing. THE AGENCY IS CRUCIAL, even moreso than the student herself/himself. The first time was with a French student, and the agency didn't really organize things very well so both my family and the girl were really left hanging. It wasn't a bad experience, but things were awkward, and some financial issues were not attended to. Definitely didn't get as much out of it as we could have, unfortunately. The second time was with a German student, different agency. Much better, even though the boy was crazy. There were organized activities for all the German exchange students in the area to do together with the American students, and everything was well communicated with the families. My brother then went to stay with the German boy and his family the following year as a part of the same program and loved it. (One thing to note, however - my sister was uncomfortable with the crazy German boy, who was only a year apart from her in age, staying in the house. This probably wouldn't have been an issue had he not been psychotic, but it's still something to consider if you have children of certain ages/genders.)