Instant Siblings - Just Add Love

Buse from Turkey has adjusted well to her life in Bonne Terre, Missouri. She attributes her fantastic experience to her wonderful host family, the McBrides, who have made her feel at home since she arrived:

My host family is the best host family ever. They inform me about everything. They take care of me as if I am their own child. They love me. They do things so that I can experience them. They are doing things traditionally so that I can see and learn more. I do not have an older brother or younger sister in Turkey so I am even experiencing having different aged siblings. Everything is pretty cool. They are completely voluntary and I know that they want to learn more about me as much as I want to learn more about them.

My family first introduced me to everybody that is close to them! They took me to church so that I could meet people and they introduced me to their family—aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents!

We eat our dinner together as a family every evening. We have a movie night every weekend where we pick a movie and watch it together. My host brother takes me to play bowling with him and his friends, and he also takes me to his friend’s house for their scary movie night. My host brother loves to dance. Goofy dances! So he has tried to teach me the Soulja Boy dance but I was not really good at it!

I have a host sister and we go to sleep over to our friend’s home to have fun! We do not sleep so early we just talk, watch movies and of course gossip! My host brother, my host sister and I go to ride bikes when the weather is nice. We play Wii too—Guitar Hero, tennis and car races. We really have fun when we are together!

There are two shows that my host dad and I like (nobody likes those shows at home but we do)! We watch those shows together.  My host mom is British so she is kind of foreign too! I go to a place called Global Market with her and we buy the food that we miss. They try my food as I try American food. And we also have British cuisine!

I play tennis and my family comes to every single match of mine! My host dad, host sister and I play tennis together. My host sister Molly and I were even partners in doubles and won district champions. They support me every time I want to do something!

They take me to local tourist places. They do everything that is beneficial for me. We are living near the city of Saint Louis, so they take me to the malls so that we can shop! We also go to old shops with my host sister and our friends to just discover if we like something! We went to the Saint Louis Arch, and we went to a Turkish restaurant in Saint Louis. They tried the food as well, and I think they liked it! We will go out to restaurants to try their food or just for something different. We go to the movies, and we even booked tickets for the Lady Gaga concert! We went trick or treating on Halloween and on Thanksgiving the whole family was in our house to have an awesome dinner! It felt like home that day. I love my host family!