Visits
So, I thought that I would go over something that I know that at least I thought a lot about before going on my exchange year. When going away for a year, many people consider having their family coming to visit them. Some people say yes, while others highly recommend not to have any visitors. Personally, I think that it totally depends on you, your family, and you situation.
As you may know, my mom came for a short visit during Spring break. But that wasn't what I had thought all along. There was a lot of thinking back and forth about what I wanted to do.
Plan A was that my family was going to come and "pick me up" at the end of the year and then go for a road trip through the US, something a lot of families chooses to do. I then realized that I would feel kind of weird if I said goodbye to everyone here in Atlanta, but still be in the country. And I also wanted some summer break in Sweden before going back to school, so that I could catch up with friends and family. Therefore, plan A was not the way to go.
After I had thought about plan A, I decided that maybe I didn't want a visit at all. Plan B was to not have any visitors at all. I thought that it might be weird to have my Swedish family over to hang out with my American family. Maybe my host family wouldn't be excited about it or something? So, for a while I didn't plan on that at all.
When I then came to America, Tom and Michael started asking if I had thought about having family over. They seemed excited about meeting them.
My mom was originally planning on going to New York for a week with her friend, and that's how we came to think that maybe she could just combine that with a short visit to Atlanta. The New York trip got postponed, but we decided that she could just come to Atlanta.
It was great having her over, it worked out perfectly. I got to show her where I have lived and what I've been doing.
Many people might argue that it will interfere with your year to bring over family, but since I only had my mom over for a short period of time, I think it was great. I also had to go back to school the day after she left, which meant that there was no time for overthinking it.
The plan is also to come back to Atlanta in a couple of years, and that time bring my dad and brother. I want to show my family what I've been doing, since this is such a big thing. I mean, living a year in the US is not something small, it will have/has had such a great impact on my life. I want to share that with my family.
So, I would like to say that it's totally up to the person to decide if they want a visit or not. One thing I do recommend (AFS will also talk a lot about this) is to have your visits during the second half of the year. Preferably, during the last third. That way you will have already settled in and it will be easier when they leave again.
Puss och Kram
Erika
