Hosting An Exchange Student?

Have you ever hosted an exchange student or gone on exchange to another country? I've always loved the idea of going on exchange but for one reason or another, I just never went through with it. Whether that was due to a lack of confidence or purely because I didn't have the right contacts, I'll never know. I do know that at the age of twenty-two, I've finally come to the realisation that I'll never cross this item off my bucket list and instead tonight have found myself filling out an application to become a host family. 

Crazy, I know... I haven't even mentioned it to the other members of my household. It's actually rather daunting when you think about sharing your home 24/7 with a complete stranger and to make things worse, we're usually pretty quiet people so at this point we've opted for a teenage girl but have left the country of residence as open-ended. Hopefully, it'll be like having a temporary little sister, right? 

A friend of mine hosted a student on exchange a few years back and the poor girl was so shy that she spent the entire time in her bedroom and barely spoke a word to her host parents/siblings. For right now, we have to focus on acing an interview with the programme advisor then we'll be all set to host our first foreign exchange student! I'll keep you updated with my adventures as a host family. Wish me good luck :)

Q: Would you ever host an exchange student in your home?