The Host Families Business in Cambridge

Even though the task was to write a public diary entry, I decided to write my blog-post about host families, in particular about my host father, whose name I will not use in order to protect his privacy. For clarification he will bear the nickname Ed. 

During the first week of our stay in Cambridge a recurring topic was host families, and for the majority a rather negative one. In comparison to the language stay in Bordeaux there are some huge differences regarding the families that accommodate us. 

One of the biggest points is money (how unexpected). From my conversations with the inhabitants of the region I have come to understand that:

1. People in England don‘t earn very much. The average income is half the one we have in Switzerland. And the life costs aren‘t proportionally smaller, in some categories they are even higher (tobacco and alcohol). 
2. Cambridge itself is not a cheap city (compared to the rest of Great Britain). As Steven, our teacher at the Embassy school, explained to us, the rents are equal to the ones in London city.

These factors make it very attractive for people in Cambridge to house exchange students and earn money to round up their lean incomes. It has become a business, with host families housing students from schools that pay the most, and as it is normal in the business world, they want to minimize their prime costs and maximize the income. For the students this can mean that they must live in a small room without heating; eat different, worse food than the host and have a myriad of restrictions that they must follow.

In my case these restrictions included: only one shower (from 8.30 to 22.00) and one coffee a day, no Wi-Fi and only the cheap yoghurt and coffee. Regarding the food, although Ed once told me that he was a chef de cuisine, it seemed more like he was the chef of canned food. I was served every canned and ready to cook food possible, most of the times it wasn’t that bad, but I couldn’t imagine eating that for a longer period.

In the end I don’t want to condemn Ed or the actions of the other host families, because although they try to cut costs everywhere it’s possible, I still had a good time and Ed was never disrespectful to me.

Matteo L. Quadrelli 

The neighboorhood where I lived

A typical Ed's dinner