Helllllloooooo! Long time no chat! We were scheduled to come back in early March and then the pandemic struck. Now we are all physically distancing and staying at home, so the Homestay Kitchen had to re-work our podcasting schedule to fit our new routine. In the meantime, we thought we'd check in with you. How are you doing? Erin is now the multi-tasker extraordinaire working from home while maneuvering all five of her kids which includes two students. Mary is also navigating working from home while everyone else is also home, so finding a new routine has been challenging. In this episode, Eri ..read more

It's coming to the end of the year and some students may be leaving or some students may be heading home just for the winter break. Either way, when it's time to drag the luggage out and dust off that passport, we need to start thinking about our pre-departure rituals. What is it like when your student finally leaves? What strategies are you going to put into place when it comes to saying goodbye? In this episode, we tackle the end of the student homestay experience. And since we are talking about goodbyes, the podcast is going to go on a little vacation too. We, Erin and Mary, will be taking ..read more

Boundaries. We've all got them or we should all have some in place. There are limits and rules to all sorts of things during a homestay experience. Boundaries around the house, food, laundry, safety issues, and even personal boundaries. What are they and how can we enforce them? In this episode, we share our own set of boundaries and how we communicate these rules to our students. What are your boundaries around the house? What challenges do you face when applying these rules? Let us know by emailing us at homestaykitchen@gmail.com. We'd love to share your feedback on an upcoming episode and a ..read more

At one point or another, whether you as the host knows it or not, your student will get homesick. Sometimes it'll show through their emotions or difference in actions. Or sometimes, it only happens when they are hidden away in their rooms, when the lights are out trying to fall asleep. When do you intervene and what do you do to alleviate homesickness? In this episode, we go through some of the stories we've had dealing with homesickness. Situations where students feel a longing or connection to someone they are missing back home. In small doses, this is healthy and shows signs of attachments ..read more

So what defines a short term student and a long term student? Mary defined a short term student as being anywhere less than 6 months, but after she said that (and even after we finished recording this episode), we were still debating what differentiated a long term student from a short term student. Any way you look at it, hosting short term students and long term students can be very different experiences. In this episode, Mary and Erin go toe to toe on the pros and cons of hosting long term students versus short term students. Have you hosted both? What's your take on this battle? Let us kno ..read more

In today's episode, Erin had work to do, so Mary got to chat with Jennifer Longworth from Lexington, Kentucky. A new host parent who's only hosted a total of 3 times for very short periods and all from Japan. We talk through what it's like to be a very new host and what were some of the most surprising aspects of hosting. And it wouldn't be right to talk to our fellow neighbours to the south without pointing out a couple of differences from our countries, like hockey for us and southern food for her. Our family has worked with the Lexington Sister Cities program to host a high school student a ..read more

How do you meal prep for your students? What do you incorporate into your meal plans for them? Food is a big factor when it comes to homestay experiences. Not only the culture of different foods to eat and explore, but also how we eat and when. In today's episode, we talk about navigating all the meals of the day including snacks and dessert. We also touch on preventing food waste and figuring out what your students like or don't like to eat. Hopefully, this episode won't make you hungry, but if it does, you can make that hummus recipe Mary loves and snack on that; just like we did while we re ..read more

One of the major challenges of hosting international students is to navigate the language barrier. Communication is key to any relationship, so how do you have the confidence to speak your mind when your student doesn't speak your language? At times you need to be fearless and in today's episode we chat with Heather Thompson who shares this grit with a side of humour. Heather and her family of four has hosted 13 students over 5 years. She discusses her experience as an international student when she was young, being a host to students, and even being hosted by a former student in Belgium. Hear ..read more

Culture shock can come in many different forms, not just language for international students. From food, to hygiene, and even the way people dress. It's not about what each culture is doing right or wrong, but about how things are done and are acceptable in different countries. Culture shock can be entertaining and fascinating to new students at first, but then it could also lead to confusion, feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and disoriented, which could induce homesickness. So what is this cycle and what signs are we looking for? In today's episode, we go through the 10 steps of culture shock an ..read more

When you decide to host international students in your home, it's not an easy decision, especially if this is your first time. And even if you have hosted before, sometimes you've got to weigh the pros and cons. There are so many details that could be overlooked and really, you don't know what you don't know. So we tapped into the knowledge of Tatiana Robertson, who has hosted short and long term students from all over the globe for over seven years. In today's episode, we chat with Tatiana, whom Erin crowned the Master Host Mom, not once, but twice in our conversation. Hear her tips on what t ..read more