Home Interview time!

We both had our home interviews on Wednesday and other than some awkward silences they went really well haha :)

Emily:
My home interview was at 7:30 and I had an exam at school in the afternoon so I rushed home after to get ready. I know everyone says you should just act normal when the interviewers are there and you shouldn't tidy any more than usual and everything but yeah, like I'm sure every other past AFSer has done my family and I were cleaning and tidying all over haha. Two ladies came to my house, one was a past AFSer (NZ to USA) from 30+ years ago and the other was a Mum of an AFSer! It was pretty cool hearing about their experiences, especially since the lady's daughter who went on an exchange went to Italy! She told us heaps of stuff that I didn't know like don't think I'm stupid but I had no idea there was a massive Italian Mafia?! Everyone seems to know that now when I tell them but anyway...

My Mum wrote down some questions she wanted to ask them about me visiting England to see family while on the exchange, scholarships, contacting family etc. They seemed to know the answers to them all so it left us feeling like we knew a lot more about it all. They had a sheet of questions they had to ask me as well, it was things like are you quiet or loud, enjoy school or not etc. Then they had questions to ask our whole family like what we like to do together, who's the dominant one, formal or informal etc. I also had to choose my final top three countries for my exchange. Originally they were 1. Italy 2. Switzerland 3. Portugal but one of the ladies said that Switzerland is very academic orientated and I would find it hard not speaking German so I changed it to Norway. I'll be happy with any of these countries but I've really built myself up for Italy so fingers crossed that both me and Lilly get it!

If anyone reading this is a future AFSer don't worry too much about the home interview! Prepare questions before so there's not awkward silences and make sure you're left knowing everything you need to know.  It was pretty much just like a big chat and they stayed for just over an hour :)