Moving

Written March 16th.

When I first received my host family information in December, AFS (the program I’m traveling through), said that I would be changing families half way through. I talked with my host family and they explained that they only wanted a student for less than three months. In September to November 2008 they had another American exchange student. I’ll call her C. C stayed with them only three months because that’s how long they were willing to have a student. Afterwards, she moved to a family right in the city of Santarem. AFS told me I would “probably” stay in the same town and school. I wasn’t sure how certain “probably” was so I was very nervous that I would have to change everything.


This weekend I went to my counselor’s house to stay because everyone in my host family was going out, either to friends or to parties. My counselor lives in the same apartment building as the family that C lived with for the rest of her stay in Portugal. My counselor introduced me to this family. The mother has four daughters; ages 18, 17, 13 and 8. The 17 year old is with C in America, living at her house as a foreign exchange student, which is neat. The 18 year old goes to a university in Lisbon and comes back on the weekends. She’s in the process of getting her license. It’s a huge process here. They can only start to get it when they turn 18. Then they have to take driving lessons and pay lots of money before taking their driving test after so many hours are completed. The mother is American, but she moved around to many countries as a child. She married a Portuguese man and ended up staying in Portugal (they are divorced now, but the kids still see him often). The mother and children speak Portuguese with a perfect Portuguese accent and English with a perfect American accent. They 8 year old will effortlessly switch between English and Portuguese in the same sentence. They invited me to stay in their apartment for the night so I did. Their family was so warm and welcoming, I instantly felt like I was at home. Saturday I saw Alice in Wonderland with my friend and hung out with the daughters in the family. I could just walk to the movies because their apartment is right in the city. I ended up staying the Saturday night too. Sunday, I went with the mother and two youngest girls to Lisbon. We went to the Hard Rock Café and walked around the city. Yes they do have Starbucks in Portugal! (Though I think only American tourists go there). They also have Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs ice cream stores. After those 48 hours, the mother offered to be my next host family. She talked with my counselor and my counselor talked with AFS. So this Thursday, I will come to Vale de Figueira to have lunch then move to my new family.


At first I was so hesitant about having to pack and move, but I am so excited to move in with me new family. I will be going to the same school. The two youngest daughters start school the same time I do and their schools are close to mine so I can have them drive me or I can walk 25 minutes with a friend who lives near by. Vale de Figueira, my current town is about ten miles from Santarem so if I want to do something I have to plan days ahead and arrange a ride with my host parents. It’s going to be so convenient to be able to walk everywhere I need to go. One of my good friends lives 10 minutes away and I can hang out with more people after school instead of going home, which is what I’ve been doing most days. This Friday, is Father’s Day, a Holiday so we don’t have school. Next week is the last full week of school before the two-week Easter vacation.