Well, sjde, what would you like to get if you were having a student from France come stay with you?

Personally, I like things I can use (wine, specialty foods or sweets, soaps, spices, etc.). If it's something for around the house, I'd prefer it to be something I can keep in a drawer and then use, just in case we don't have the same taste (apron, kitchen towels or oven mitts, trivet, etc.). I also would appreciate a book about my guest's home city or province.

That's me, though. What would you like?

(oh, and I'd definitely LOVE a sweatshirt from a French university! But hey, like I said, that's just me.)

I am french, and I find the idea of the college shirt ok. Those shirts are not weared in banlieues, they often represent the 'high society' and are mostly weared in such people here... So I find ok this idea.

But if you don't want to buy one of those shirts for each one (and how will you get the size?), you can easily buy typical things from your region.

Popcorn : you find popcorn in France but it is true people don't eat popcorn very much.

But if you take various eating items from where you live, it would be ok, and popcorn like we can find in the US (packages like the one we see in Scream movie) can be fun for kids...

I also know that my friends who like to go to the US often bring much candiesn toffess and cookies like the Oreo's that are popular but can just be found in department stores (Lafayette for example)... Base ball, basket ball shirts cannot also be found easily in france...

Well, it is not like in Japan where offering things is a way of living, the family will be ok with what you will bring her.

Could someone please tell me what a banlieu is?

Merci.

It's a suburb but one where immigrants (and their descendants) live, crime & unemployment are high - think ghetto

<i>Banlieue</i> simply means suburb. Some are bad and some are quite fancy, and some are just plain middleclass.

thanks.

I'll try not to be too defensive but I feel the need to explain my popcorn idea just one more time (smile here). It less the idea of popcorn (or the pancake) and more the tradition of a dvd and the family in front of the tube eating popcorn night. It could also be a pancake breakfast or a hamburger on the bbq kind of get together. It's an american tradition I could see sharing with a family. Same as if our visiting friends would fix us a traditional meal or treat.

pdx, I agree. This can be small things that makes the family think of what are the everyday 'pleasures'...

well, the word banlieue mean suburb, and banlieue can, it is right, be a ghetto or a very upper-class one. I live in Banlieue, but no insecurity here!

But it is also true that generally speaking, they use this word in the medias when speaking of issues in suburbs with problems...

But it is not politically correct to use this word in this meaning...

We have had both Swiss and Japanese exchange students. We enjoy seeing postcards and pictures from where they are from. The Japanese usually bring cookies beautifully wrapped, the Swiss usually bring chocolate. We have also received thank you cards from the parents for taking good care of their daughter. I think just a small gesture of something from your town would be nice along with some photos.

pdx, if I may also join you in not trying to be too defensive, I also think the gift of an American breakfast, is, as you mention, not just food but an experience. I would hardly call the multi-grain mix which I purchase in the local health food store junk food.
I hosted a French woman in my home for a week, and I made blueberry pancakes for us one morning, albeit a high-protein version which contains no flour, and she was intrigued by them and enjoyed them. We both agreed they bore no similarity to crepes, and are truly an American food.
By the way, I rarely eat them myself - too high in calories.

This probably isn't useful for the exchange student, but my mother-in-law fills her suitcase with the following. Her French friends ask her to bring:

Gardening gloves
Cling wrap
Dental floss

The blueberry pancakes made me laugh, our Swiss exchange student really loved those, I made them all the time for her. After she gets acguainted, your daughter could offer to make some. One note on being a good exchange student, I always appreciated it when my students and said please and thank you, I think that sometimes when speaking in a different lanquage you forget to use those words.

christycruz, that is a mind-boggling list. Dental floss? Gardening gloves and saran wrap? What??? Wow. Wild.

&quot;Gardening gloves
Cling wrap
Dental floss&quot;

Now why on earth do they ask those things? Cannot they just walk to the nearest store?

An odd list indeed unless they live halfway up a mountain.
Mind you, an American friend of my daughter's asked her to take rabbit flavoured cat-food and Heinz baked beans to San Francisco.
It seems that British Heinz beans are nicer than the American variety.

..books or a calender of your area/city; I always bring cookies for my friends with kids- peanut butter, chocolate chips and brownies. I have been known to bring large amts of maple products and peanut butter for expats. I brought smoked salmon. I bought it frozen and it &quot;warmed' up to N temp (but was still cool). I always bring a few family pictures; my street and an updated picture of my kids.

I'm sure a bottle of something (wine, spirit) would be much appreciated. Or something like coasters, or a calendar or book with pictures of your region.

I'm not sure about taking pancake mixes as a gift (you can buy them in many French supermarkets), although I'm sure if your daughter made an American breakfast for the familly one day it would be a hit! (my French husband loves pancakes and maple syrup).

Preserves or cookies would probably go down well, but beware about bringing chocolate from the US - many of my European (British, French, Belgian) friends, myself included, don't like the taste of it.

I'm American and live in Switzerland, the French speaking part, and one thing that all my co-workers ask me to bring back from the U.S. each and every time is Double Stuff Oreos! And if they are the coffee flavored ones even better. You can't get them here and they love them and admit they are junk, not one natural ingredient in them.

As to American calendars - no! The week on American calendars starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday, effectively splitting up the weekends. European calendars have the week starting on Monday, ending on Sunday, keeping the weekend together. My birthday is in December and every year some well-meaning friend sends me a U.S. calendar of someplace I may be a bit homesick for but I simply cannot use them anymore, nor can anyone here that I offer them to (because I get at least 5 per year). It is far too confusing when you are used to seeing the week one way and then have another system foisted upon you.

lawchick:
why no university shirts,!I am Dutch living for 30 years in France now with a French husband and French kids(I 'inherited' them they are his)all the kids and students I know just love them!
I agree with the idea of: 'today I'll make you american breakfast' could really be fun. As to popcorn I agree with Lily.
Chocolate is questionale: the French just have the best and generally do not like to too sweet ones.

What about a photoalbum in which you already put some photos of your daughter's history ( baby, girl at school etc)to be completed by the family with photos of your daughters stay with them??
Just an idea!