Walt’s experience staying with a German host family:
I am happy to describe how much I enjoyed the home stay which was at the end of my Elderhostel program in Tübingen; honestly, it was the best part of the trip (I did not learn much German). I was doubly fortunate to have Manuela Heider in charge of pairing up the class. She paired individuals up on the basis of their interests and hobbies. My friend Herb was a tennis player and he was paired with Manuela's neighbour, Birgit. I was fortunate enough to be a runner and, since her husband, Axel, was a runner, she took me!
She began our acquaintance by intercepting our Elderhostel tour a few days before we were to go to our home stay families and picked me out of the crowd to say hello. Since that day, I have an adopted German son and daughter plus grandchildren (they are about the age of my children and grandchildren). During my first stay with the Heiders, I was invited to their annual neighbourhood party where everyone made me feel welcome, went running in the nearby forest, hiked there with Manuela, visited their town of Albstadt, the Danube, castles and more. Since that day, the Heider family visited me in California (unfortunately, only once) and I have visited with them every time I have been in Germany - so many times I have lost count and each time my visit with them has been the best part of my trip. I have watched their daughters grow into beautiful young ladies and their son into a handsome young man. Aside from the pleasure of meeting a delightful German family I would suggest to those that have not participated in a home stay, which was my first visit to Germany, that the visit encouraged me to make many more trips all over Germany on my own, staying in guest rooms, never embarrassed to speak to strangers, by lack of good German, or afraid of getting lost; I even brought my wife on one trip and drove from the Mosel to the Rhine. And, of course, I love German food and beer!
Federation EIL is a member of WYSETC: The World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation
