My daughter is studying in Sevilla for the spring semester. She is staying with a host family and plans on bringing them a gift. We are unsure what would be considered appropriate. Please let me know your suggestions.

When my daughter studied in Spain for a year she brought her host family a calendar of San Francisco, a bottle of California wine and a subscription to National Geographic. She had a host brother she brought a local team jersey.

Please do not bring wine to the land of wine.
How about a painting of somewhere in your home town?
A local football shirt to the oldest son, if they have one?
Fridge magnets?
Cotton shopping bags?
Personalized mugs with the guest name on it with your home town logo or place of interest. Get these made up on line.

We brought gifts to our son's host family representative of where we lived at the time. Professional sports team jersey for their teenage son, photo books, regional food for the parents.. They had a gift for us of their local pottery which I still have. Our son had a wonderful experience living with his host family in Dublin and stayed in touch with them.

All of those (except maybe the wine suggestion more because you don't know their tastes than anything) are excellent suggestions.

Is there anything your area is known for? Focus on that.

Personally I think photo books about your home area - or special items from local museums are always good. We used to give those to ex-US MDs at special events and they loved them.

Thanks for your ideas.

sparkchaser - Our area in New Jersey is very small, not really noteworthy. However we live about 30 minutes from New York City. Do you think we should include NYC in our decision making?

I bet they'd be thrilled with anything from the NYC. Everyone I know from overseas, especially those who have never been to the States, are fascinated with New York.