To embrace a lovely Australian family

Hey there!!

I’m Eva, a 20-year-old girl from China, an international exchange student studying Business in Tourism and Event Management at SCU. I would like to share my homestay story about a lovely Australian family in Gold Coast.

The most romantic thing of life is unknown. I have never imaged that I could meet such an amazing Australian family with love and warmth. In my host family, there is a mother, a father, two daughters and a dog. The hostess Annette is a brilliant university lecturer, and the host Brett is a humorous company owner. The younger daughter Anna studies at a primary school, while the older daughter Mia studies at a high school. What’s more, I also have a kind roommate Hikari who is a Japanese girl studying English courses at BU, and she became my first dear friend in Gold Coast. Hikari and I had our own separate rooms in the beautiful double-decker garden house, and we are free to access everything as family members.

On one hand, homestay provided me with a great opportunity to live in Australia like a local. We always shared happy time together: we often made BBQs under a starry sky in the backyard; we usually watched different sport games or movies at nights; we sometimes paint watercolor or made food in the afternoons; we celebrated family members’ birthdays and prepared surprises; we had a family trip to Byron Bay at a weekend; we took part in Anna’s school concert as a whole family; we enjoyed a sunny Christmas lunch with the big family… These beautiful fragments of life brought me lots of love and warmth, which also made me adapt to the new environment quickly and enjoyably.

On the other hand, living with a host family is a great way to explore colorful diversity. We always shared not only interesting stories but also different views of culture with each other. I did learn a lot from my Australian family: knowledge of various areas; values in education, belief, and life; the subtle similarities and differences among global culture… To embrace a lovely Australian family, is not only to build friendships with kind local people but also to understand the beautiful Aussie life and culture in depth. It is also a process of self-exploration, for the reason that the more you know the world and “others”, the more you know yourself.

All in all, I love my host family very much, and I do appreciate all the efforts AHN has made. My gratitude is far away beyond my words.

Thanks for your time to read my stories.
May the place you go to is home.
May the people you meet is family.