Exchange Student

[norexchange]

Hi

I'm an 16 year old girl from Norway with celiac disease. Next year I really want to become an exchange student, so I applied, but I got turned down because the organization claimed that it would be too difficult for them to find an host-family for me because of the celiac disease. My only chance to fulfill my dream of becoming an exchange student is to find a family that's willing to take me in myself. So I was really just wondering if any of you on this forum could be- or knows anyone that could be interested in hosting me for a year. If you are interested, or if you have any questions or want to know more, please mail me. My mail adress is i_lothe@hotmail.com.

Hope to hear from you!

Love,

Ida

[beaglemania]

wow! that's totally awesome. Maybe my family could take you in next year. take a lot pushing though to convince thrm. also, once my sister is kicked out and goes off to college. hmm........

That would be soo awesome, but I doubt it. Oh yeah, I'm 14. Good luck!! I hope you find someone!!! I'll try to convince my parents though if you'd like.

[flagbabyds]

I am also 16, it would take a LOT of pushing on my end but I do have 2 extra rooms and a guest house, e-mail me with more details

celiacmolly08@mac.com

[Corkdarrr]

What exchange program are you working through?

Courtney

[beaglemania]

I also just thought of it depends also on what kind of area you want to live in or visit. I live in Florida:) oh yeah, my emails horsegal1139@bellsouth.net. feel free to email me!!!!

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Thanks a lot for the replies

It would be so awesome if you could talk to your parents beaglemania and Molly! (push them a little from me ) I'm currently working through an organization called EF (www.effoundation.org), but I'm not entirely sure that they'll let me because of the celiac =( But I think they will if I can manage to find a host-family myself When it comes to area I kind of take what I get, but Florida sounds awesome Definetly one of my top 5 states!

Hope to hear more from you all!

Love,

Ida

[tarnalberry]

I did a home-stay (not exchange, because no one from the family I stayed with came over here afterwards) when I was 10 in France, going through NACEL. That was *FABULOUS*. Good luck finding a family to stay with!

[StrongerToday]

I know a woman in my town who is hosting a gluten-free exchange student through Youth For Understanding. Apparently the student was supposed to go to another family, but they got worried about being gluten-free and cancelled at the last minute. YFU contacted our local celiac disease group and it all worked out great!!

[norexchange]

Cool Btw, I'm not going with EF... They just sent me a mail where they said that it would be too much work for them to send me, even if I managed to find a host-family myself...

[beaglemania]

Hey! well, I kinda mentioned it to my mom, told her your foreign exchange student looking for a place to stay next year, and she didn't say no!! She just kinda and said, would you really like that?? I said yeah, so who knows!!! (oh yeah, in case you don't know, my name's Julie)

*kinda smiled*

[tarnalberry]

I would strongly encourage you find another program to work through and not do it on your own - primarily due to insurance and coordination reasons. There are some things that having a formal program to work through really helps for. (We had five exchange students stay with us from various countries growing up, and had oddities about all of them. It was very important - for our family and the student's family - that we had official channels to work through to keep everyone comfortable.)

[Corkdarrr]

I second Tarnalberry's advice

My family has had several exchange students and both my brother and I were exchange students ourselves. Per the diet, it would probably be a good thing if you could say you've already found a few families interested in hosting b/c of the celiac thing, but there's a LOT of formalities that go into doing an exchange program and it's awfully nice to have it all done for you.

[norexchange]

Hey again

That's really great Julie Looking foreward to hear how it's going

I am of course going to work through another program, I never thought about anything else! But I think it would be a lot easier if I told them that I had found a family that is willing to take me in, so they understand that it's not impossible. I have already apllied for three new programs, but they all seem a bit skeptic because of the celiac..

[GFBetsy]

Just wanted to mention that my sister's family hosted an exchange student with egg allergies . . . my sister has celiac and is dairy intolerant, so it made their meal planning a little interesting, but they did it! However, my sister was an emergency placement because the student's first family dropped her because of her allergies. So make sure that your host family is WELL aware of all that eating gluten free means right at first. (Finding a family that already eats gluten free is a smart way to go!) Good luck!