French flag outside Clara’s host family home.

Aspect Foundation’s inbox is flooded with notes from students expressing their gratitude for the experience they have had on student exchange. On Thursdays, we post one of these notes, sharing the “warm fuzzies” with all of you!

Today’s Thank You Thursday features Clara from France, who thanks her host family for her year abroad in Illinois.

I took this photo a couple of minutes before I left my American home, the same French flag was hung to our home 10 months ago when I came here, when my English was bad, when I didn’t know what I was about to experience. It seems it was yesterday, but so many things happened during these several months. My exchange has honestly been the best year of my entire life, and I would like to say thank you to all of these people I’ve met for being a part of it. I also have to say thank you to my parents, whom let me leave our French home for a year. I’ll always be thankful for what they did to me. To my host parents of course, for being so kind and make me feel like a part of their family. (Illinois is not that boring and flat) Saying goodbye to the people I love is hard, I left family to see my family again. These past few days have been a roller coaster of emotions, I didn’t know that I could be sad and happy in the same time.

This town will always be a home for me, and I’ll do my best to come back soon, and see all of the people who I will miss for sure. My American Dream is over, but I couldn’t ask it to be better. I left the airport with a thousand of memories, I will never forget them, either the people I shared them with.
So thank you, to all of you.

-Clara from France, in Illinois

Interested in sharing YOUR corner of the world with an international exchange student? Learn more about becoming a host family at: http://aspectfoundation.org/host-families.

Clara and her host parents.