Jossan

This is a section of what I wrote about my first two weeks at my first host family and host dad Dave!

It was 68 days ago I left sweden, with the American flag in my view. This moment was the moment I had been waiting for since I was ten. When i hugged my mum and dad good bye for the very last time and boarded the plan for the very first time by my self I felt like an adult. I knew I would miss them so much, but at the other hand, I knew my organisation in Sweden had done a really good job, finding a hostfamily for me. So I wasn't afraid. I was so excited to start getting to know my hostfamily, all the students in my new school, the American culture. What could go wrong? Nothing! I had pictured my whole year in my head, all the friends I would get to know and my hostfamily. I was ready!

When I finally arrived at the airport, Svetlana (my double placement friend from Germany) ran to me and hugged me. I was so happy. Unfurtunatly, I couldn't see Dave anywhere. Lana told me he was outside smooking and that we should take my suitcases and see him. He was short, kind of absent minded but seemed very friendly. The first few minutes were kind of awkwerd. No one knew what to say so we were quiet for a short while. Dave told us the trip should take about two hours home and that we could sleep if we were tired after the long traveling we had done. I couldn't really do that, the truck was so dirty, it was melt chocolate on my seat, dirt, cigaretts, smoke, leftovers and a lot of other stuff all over the truck. It was a mess. But I forgot about that when he finally told us we were home. It was a small, old, yellow house. The yard was like the truck, dirty and uncleaned. The first step I took into the house, I strated to cry inside. I knew, from the very forst moment I saw the house, I couldn't stay there for ten months. Everything, and when I'm saying everything I really mean everything was a chock. There were stuff and dirt all over the kitchen, old food in the zink, leftovers on the table and on the floor, the fridge smelled after old, really old food and there was smoke all over the house. I could hardly brief. He showed us around the house, quite as big as my basement at home in Sweden. There were three bedrooms, a small livingroom, a kitchen and one bathroom. Nothing was prepared. One of the three bedrooms wasn't even ready to have a bed in, because he was still working on that one. Jade, his six years old daughter had one room and he had the other. I didn't know where Lana and me should sleep. He told us we could chose if we wanted to have his room, share with Jade or have the room that wasn't ready. We told him Lana could take the unfinished room for this night and I could sleep with Jade, in her bed and he could sleep in his room but we wanted his room from the day after. Told and done. That's how we did. The first night was okey. The second day when we woke up Dave wasn't home. Jade was in school and we had no clue what to do. He didn't leave a message somewhere, a phonenumber or something so we could reach him, the internet didn't work so we couldn't talk to our parents. Lana started to cry and I asked her if she wanted to take a walk with me arround the village to get to know it. I mean, It would be great if we knew how our new village looked like. It took five minutes walk around the town and that was it. It was plain boring, nothing to do, I couldn't see a person around and it was so quiet. Then I started to cry to. I didn't know what to do, I was thousnends of km away from my mum and dad. I didn't know anyone here and Lana was my only friend. I can easy say I had a hard time in that moment. Later, when Dave finally came home, he told us he was at the hospital because he had a heartattack a few weeks earlier so he needed to be at the hospital three times a week to do tests. That didn't make me feel more comfortable. A heartattack? What a hell? Is he sick? What happens if he gets another one while we are here? What are we suppsoted to do then? I had a lot of thought flowing around in my head. And every single one of them told me I couldn't stay there very long.

We told him we wanted him to move out from the room so we could start unpack our suitcases and all things we had brought. But he couldn't. There were no place for us to put our things, the closet was full of his stuff and the bed didn't has new sheets. He said we could sleep in his old ones and have our clothes in our suitcases for a few days. OMG!!!

Jade's mum had a criminal background. She was 38 years younger then Dave, a stripper and got pregnant with Jade when Dave visited her while she was working as a stripper. They decided to keep the baby and they have really strange realtionship now. The mum, named Trea, had been taking drugs for some years and had been to priston because of that. She had been an alcoholic and lived in a ”dangorous” part of Minneapolis, Daves sister Debbie told us some days later.

There were no rules home at all. Everyone could do excactly what they wanted, whenever they wanted and however they wanted. In clear sentenses: THE FAMLY WAS A MESS!

We started school and life strated to get a bit easier. There was finally something else to do when we got homework that kept us away from the thoughts about the place... But then some other issues came. We couldn't be alone doing homework, Jade was always interupting us, wanted to play or whatever she wanted to do. And Dave didn't tell her to knock it off. He didn't care. He just said: I don't care, she can do what ever she wants to do, you two guys as well. Yeah, but now we want to do our homework alone. But that didn't work.

There was no food in the fridge, just dirty, old stuff I couldn't tell what it was. I had to paid 165 dollar for food once, and that was enough. I was sick and tired of this place. Dave walked around halfnaked in the house which made Lana and me very uncomfortable. We didn't want to see a 65 years old man walking around without pants. That's discusting! And after two weeks in the family, I finally got together with Lana and we called our local cordinator and told him all about it. My dream had became a nightmar! We moved the same day to Daves sister Ermina. I like her, very much. She was so nice to us and I'll never, ever forget her because of the huge favor she did for us, taking us away from Dave's place. We stayed at her place for one week, till our school found a new hostfamily for us. The Loven's! Where we live today. And I love it!!!!

This is one of the best hostfamily you can ever think about. It feels like a home, its full of love.