Maïssa’s Experience

My name is Maïssa, I’m French and I’ve always lived in Meyzieu. I speak French (obviously), more or less English and dialectal arabic thanks to my Algerian origins. I have quite a large family composed of my mom, my older brother and my three little sisters, god knows it’s never quiet at home !
I think both the most exciting and scary thing about hosting a Swedish person was
getting to know someone new. Were we gonna be friends ? Will she be funny ?
On the way to the airport to get Zunita I was so stressed I started rambling, singing …anything to ease my nerves. Then, we got to know each other and it was amazing, we got along really well, really fast and it was like she had always been here. My siblings were so excited, my mother tried her best to talk English.
The thing that most surprised me about the life-style of Swedish people was her eating habits, mostly the hours they’re used to eat but overall we loved the same things. I think the fact that we both have the same religious background helped a lot; we had the same way of thinking, acting, spending our time. We listened to different music and now I have a whole new great playlist.

My overall impression on this exchange, looking back to how difficult saying goodbye was can be resumed in one word: amazing. I’m really looking forward to going to Sweden.