Thursday, February 2, 2012

At-Home Interview

Thursday night, I had just gotten home from mock trial, and had a missed call with the most wonderful message from one of the local volunteers, Kathleen. We decided to schedule the meeting for Friday.
She brought along her host daughter, and it made me feel more comfortable and allowed me to ask a lot of questions I’d been wondering about.

I was asked “Why Belgium?”, “Why AFS?”, and “Why do you want to study abroad?”, which all seemed to be easy questions. I was also asked about my home life, my personality, what I’m interested in, and if there was anything that would inhibit placement, like an allergy or a fear. I was asked what I would do in various situations, like if my host family and I had a conflict.

My parents also made sure to ask about AFS’s policy about emergencies, which she explained that if there was an emergency, the local volunteer in my country would tell me personally, so I wouldn’t have to be alone when I found out the news. She also said that if I had to immediately fly home, I could, and I could maybe even come back depending on how far along into my stay I was.

It was a great experience, but made me feel really anxious to want to be accepted already! I had Jack, my boyfriend, there with me, as well as both of my parents, and it made me feel wayyy less nervous. My advice is to be as calm and honest as possible, because the volunteers are there to do all they can to get you a proper placement.