Summer 2012 June to August I had an exchange student directly from Spain named Judith Martin Rodriquez. I didn't know what to expect when I found out he was going to live with us. The fact that he was from across the ocean and spoke a completely different language would have been a challenge because we didn't know what to expect. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay We didn't know much about her, would she speak English? This is one of the many questions we asked ourselves. His family had sent us family photos and emailed us some information about them. This wasn't part of a formal exchange association, it was just through friends, which was pretty scary because we knew even less than we could. I was really excited to have another "sister" living with me because I had always wanted to share a room and clothes with someone my age. I would find a friend or end up having a “sister” with lots of ups and downs to deal with along the way. The day finally came when we picked her up from the airport. We were at the Toronto airport with a sign with his name on it. It felt awkward…it was like we were searching for a long lost child. He came out the sliding doors and saw his name on the board and came towards us. When I first saw her she looked nothing like the girl in the photo I had seen because she had dyed her hair light brown and looked good. She was dressed similarly to me which was surprising, I was ready to see her wearing a coat because everyone thinks Canada is always cold. He hugged us and started talking immediately, I thought he was going to speak Spanish but he spoke English with a couple of mistakes here and there, but overall it was really nice. She told us from the beginning that she wanted us to correct her when her English was wrong so that she could learn, this is why she came to Canada to learn to speak English better. He also told us that his luggage was lost and that they would send it to our house when they got it back. The 2 hour car ride home was really interesting because we learned a lot about his life and how his life was so different in Spain. He was showing us pictures and we absolutely couldn't get enough of his accent. We couldn't wait to take her to Elmira to experience the total shock of a culture so different from her own. He immediately took out his camera and started photographing everything; food, Mennonites and animals. When we got home we showed her our house and all our pets. He always had a smile on his face; and I was amazed at how different living in the countryside was compared to the Spanish city. She was very tired due to the 9 hour time difference, so she had a bit of jet lag and it took her a couple of days to adjust to our time zone. The next morning we had a surprise for her, we were taking her camping on Sauble beach, she had never been camping and this is my family's favorite thing to do so we were really excited to take her camping for the first time . We found plenty of clothes to wear due to the suitcase situation and off we went. By the end of the weekend she really enjoyed it and looked like she had a lot of fun. Back home, sharing a room with her was the only option, so I tried to make her feel at home as much as possible. It was awkward sharing a room with an unfamiliar stranger, but I got used to it.
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