No longer homeless

Previously on Ginger Takes Germany: I was anxiously awaiting news of a host family. It seemed like all of the other CBYX students had their host families, and I was still left alone. What if no one in all of Germany wanted to take in a strange ginger child? Would I be released in Germany as a homeless vagabond?

Actually, things weren’t that bad. It takes a while to find so many students host families, and the good folks at CIEE* and Experiment** work their hardest to make sure everyone has a good placement.

Well, I received word that I should be getting my placement after the weekend. So Monday and most of Tuesday looked something like this for me:

1. Wake up

2. Check email

3. Wait five minutes

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the remainder of the day

Of course, I would occasionally get an email that wasn’t my placement and that looked something like this:

1. Refresh email

2. See 1 new email downloading

3. Get extremely excited: “Is it my host family? It has to be my host family!”

4. “It’s not my host family”

5. Sad face

Then the whole cycle changed Tuesday night:

1. Refresh email

2. See 1 new email downloading

3. “It’s probably more spam”

4. “Wait that’s not spam…”

5. “HOST FAMILY”

6. I repeat “HOST FAMILY” x10

Suddenly, all of the waiting and avid email refreshing were worthwhile.

They are my permanent host family (some students receive a temporary “welcome” family for the first month or two). I have three host siblings (ages 9, 6, and 3). The whole family loves soccer, outdoor theater, singing in choir, sailing, and they have one dog. They live in Lübbecke, which is an adorable town in north Germany.

I’m so happy to no longer be homeless, and having a host family makes this exchange so much more real for me. I am so excited to learn more about them and become a part of their family over this year!

*CIEE is the regional organization in charge of CBYX for the southeastern US. They select fifty students from the southeast to be part of CBYX each year, and they work with us throughout the year coordinating things such as orientation and other events.

**Experiment e.V. is the German counterpart organization, and they select the German students who will come to the US as part of CBYX. They are also in charge of the American CBYX students while we are in Germany.