If you’ve read pretty much any of my other blogs, the topic of this one will come as no surprise! Getting to know my visiting host family has been one of the best parts of my study abroad experience. It’s provided me with the best of both worlds between student housing and a homestay, and my visiting host family is the absolute sweetest!
Naturally, I’ve referenced the program frequently in my other blogs, but I thought it was about time to dedicate a whole post to it. So, to start, what is a visiting host family?
Visiting Host Program: An Introduction
The Visiting Host program is a unique DIS offering for both Stockholm and Copenhagen students to get to know a local family while abroad. The program is a great opportunity for students who want to live in independent housing but still meet a Swedish or Danish family, and it’s also a great opportunity for local families who want to get to know international students but who might not have the capacity to be homestay hosts!
When you commit to DIS and complete your registration, you can check a box to indicate whether this is a program you’d be interested in. If it is something you decide to do, upon arriving at DIS, you find out which family you’ve been matched with and receive each other’s contact information along with some practical information from DIS about how the Visiting Host program works and what to expect. From there, you and your host get to decide how often you’d like to meet up and what activities you want to do together!
Meeting My Family
The traditional first gathering for a visiting host family is a dinner at their house, so on my first day in Stockholm, my visiting host mom emailed me, introducing herself and planning for that! Visiting host families can come in all shapes and sizes. Mine has a mom and a dad as well as two kids, a brother and sister who are 18 and 16 years old. I was very excited to meet my family, but as a worrier, I also had all the usual questions – what would they be like? Would they like me? Would we have things to talk about?
Fortunately, I really had nothing to worry about. Armed with a bouquet of flowers and instructions from my host mom about how to reach the subway station closest to them, I headed out for our first meeting! My host mom met me at the train station, and since we were still in the depths of Swedish winter, drove me to her home, where I met the rest of the family. We talked all about what they do for work and school, what I’m studying, and our thoughts on the US and Sweden. My host brother had even spent a year studying in the US, so we had plenty to talk about!
To eat, we had a traditional Swedish dinner – meatballs with sauce, potatoes, pickled cucumbers, lingonberry jam, and some other veggies. For dessert, we tried GlassBåt, which is like an ice cream cone but in the shape of a boat (fittingly named!). At the end of the night, my visiting host mom drove me back to my housing and pointed out some of the sights along the way. Since my tunnelbana travel is mostly underground, it was fun getting to see more of Stockholm!
What We Do
After our first meeting, my nerves were gone, and I was so excited to keep seeing my visiting host family! We’ve done a bunch of different activities together, some with just me and my host mom, some with the rest of the family, and some even with other family friends. Here are some of the outings we’ve taken together:
STHLM Brunch Club is quite a hyped-up spot in Stockholm, and for good reason! The whole family met for brunch there, and then the kids split off for their own weekend plans while my host parents and I went shopping and for a walk around Stockholm.
After that, I was invited to a brunch my host family was holding for one of their friend’s birthdays. The food was delicious, and it was fun to get to know even more Swedish people and hear about what was happening in their lives! Their dog even came along, which definitely made the meeting that much better.
Before one of my field studies, my host mom and I met up for lunch at Tokyo Ramen in Hötorget, then went window-shopping and exploring Stockholm once again.
My host mom and dad and I also got to visit the National Museum. I found myself thinking back to my art history class in high school – there were plenty of Rembrandts to see! The museum features a combination of older and more contemporary work, as well as variety in mediums. It was so interesting to walk through all the different exhibits, and wrapping up with fika in the museum cafe was the perfect way to end the day!
One of the most exciting visits I had with my host family was another dinner at their house, but this time with more company! My host dad’s sister is also a visiting host for one of my classmates at DIS, so we had a joint dinner with her and her host family, along with my friend who was visiting for the weekend. It was so fun getting to meet more of the family and also share the experience with friends!
Why I Love It
Pretty much all my blogs contain a plug for the visiting host program, and it’s because it’s been something that has truly shaped my study abroad experience so much! I don’t know of any other program that has something like this, but it’s such a brilliant idea that I hope others launch something similar.
When I was applying for housing (which you can read more about here), I was really torn between applying for a homestay and student housing. I liked the latter for the independence and the chance to meet other DIS students more easily, but I was also excited by the idea of getting to live with a Swedish family and have more cultural immersion that way. But with the visiting host program, I have the best of both! I can live independently with other students, but I’ve also gotten to form a great relationship with my visiting host family (and gotten to meet other Swedes, too!).
Taking part in this program was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my time abroad! I’ll be leaving Stockholm soon, and saying goodbye to my host family will definitely be one of the hardest parts. Luckily, we do have some more things planned before I go, including, in typical Swedish fashion, fika! My visiting host family has been super welcoming, supportive, and fun to spend time with. I’m beyond grateful for them and the way they’ve warmly welcomed me to Sweden.
Elise Abroad 
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