By Mohamed Hamed (YES 2018-2019, Tunisia, hosted by AYA in Florence, SC)

I was very lucky to have been placed with a group of exchange students in my city. Our group consisted of 15 students from many countries across the world including Albania, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, and Turkmenistan. There were three students from the FLEX program, one core student, and the rest were YES students.

I was also very lucky because I had the best coordinator and host mother, Mrs. Dina Berg, who has been and will always be my mother. She has been hosting for 15 years so she had lots of experience, and never hesitated to make sure that we were always happy. She organized volunteer activities, trips, and lots of parties and sleepovers. She even helped us work to collect money to go on a trip to Disney World in Florida.

Lastly, I was very lucky to have had been placed in a great community. We always did fun activities with the host families. I always believed my family was the best. No words can better describe my relationship with them than the fact that I felt like a part of the family. My school was great too, I knew everybody and everybody knew me, and I had lots of fun when I went to our football games, they made me feel like I really was part of something.