Live with a host family in Montreal, Canada.

Posted on by MSHomestay

When you ask someone what a homestay is, most of the times they answer is staying in a family’s home. However, a homestay experience is a unique accommodation because what makes a homestay different to other types of accommodation are the hosts, they will be there during your stay, to welcome you and make it as enjoyable as possible.

Staying in a homestay you not only get to visit a destination, you get to really live it too! You will learn how the locals live, new traditions and costumes, besides, it is the cheapest options for housing. It doesn’t matter if you’re planning a short break for one week, if you’re going to study abroad or relocating to another country, a homestay is ideal to get familiar with a new culture.

Living with a host family allows you to experience a multicultural environment, meet new people from all around the world, practice your language skills, it gives you easy access to public transportation and a secure zone in the city you’re going to live, and the most important is that you will be like a new member of the family, you won’t be alone in a strange and new culture.

As a housing agency, we offer homestay experiences in Montreal, Canada, one of the best cities of the world to live. We want to assure you live an unforgettable experience, for this reason, we select carefully our hosts through a selective process.

  1. First of all, we have a golden rule: “If we wouldn’t like to live in that home, we do not recruit that family”.
  2. Then, potential families fill in a questionnaire to know the type of family they are. We ask information about how many people live in the house, birth date of each one, hobbies, jobs, what kind of the students they prefer, since when they started to be host, etc.
  3. Once we have their information, we filter families that live 50 minutes far away by bus or metro from the main schools. The families that live that far way are not selected.
  4. We interview the selected families to verify the information they gave us and we asked for a criminal record given by the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal.
  5. We verify the spaces where students will be living, if they’re in good conditions and if they’re equipped for them.
  6. Finally, we score our potential host families according to this process to decide if it can be a host family or not from MS Homestays.

MS Homestays offers two options according to the necessities of the students: half board and full board. The half board includes 2 meals: breakfast and dinner, and full board includes 3 meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To start your registration you have to pay a 30 CAD fee.

For more information visit our website or find us on Facebook and Instagram like MSHomestays.

What is a meaningful gift?: 5 gift ideas for your host family

Posted on by Yesica

If you’re about to go to study abroad and you are planning to live with a host family, we recommend you to bring a gift. Not only for politeness but also because this is a way your family can know you better.

We know that shopping a gift is difficult, especially for someone you don’t know. Luckily for you, we share with you 10 inexpensive and meaningful gift ideas for your host family.

1. Food. Everyone loves food. However, remember to go regional! Is there a local jam maker in your área? or anything non-perishable typical from your country or city of origin that can be easily transported?

2. Recipe cards. Do you like cooking? or do you know some famous recipes from your country of origin? Great!! Write them down on cute recipe cards, you can use these easy and cool templates from canvas. There’s no doubt this gift would be especially meaningful as the family can appreciate the time taken to translate everything into your host family’s native language.

3. Art. Are you artsy? So be creative! You could paint or draw something special for your Host Family, like their city, their portrait or even their pet.

4. Winter accessories. If you’re going to a cold place, a winter accessory is always necessary. Nevertheless we recommend you to personalize it, maybe you can buy a scarf or a pair of gloves of your favorite sports team.

5. Candies. Buy some of your favorite candies at home, put them in a cute basket and personalize it for your host family. Check some ideas on Pinterest.

When you’re looking for your gifts remember to keep portability in mind, go regional, and share something with a story!

 

What does it mean to become a Homestay family?

Posted on by Yesica

Traveling helps you not only to discover the world but you can also make the world your home. How is this possible? Become a homestay family! By living with  international students, you and your family will be exposed to their traditions, culture, lifestyle and language. However, what does it really mean to become a Homestay family?

Becoming a Homestay family can bring you new perspectives on your everyday life. By hosting an international student you will be aware of many different cultures and approaches to life in the world. At the same time, this will allow you and your family to build a better understanding toward different cultures.

Furthermore, hosting  students will allow you to learn a foreign language at home, especially at the beginning when the student is still having troubles practicing the language they come to learn. Also, you can get to know your own language very well while your students learn it.

This experience is about sharing cultures and getting to know each other. The Homestay Families are committed to sharing their own culture, customs, and traditions with their exchange students. It can be something as simple as cooking your family’s favorite meal together.

Remember that hosting international students means you are going to receive a new family member with whom you can stay in touch for many years, you will get a new friendship, which will last forever.

We share to you why Josy and her husband became a Homestay family in Montreal in 2017.

“When I came to Canada many years ago, I decided to live with homestay family. It turned out to be a very good experience. 

My homestay family helped me a lot to adapt to the life in Canada and get to know the local culture.

Most importantly, it is that we have developed great long lasting relationship. 

We still visit each other for holidays and help each other whenever one needs help.

Thereafter I got married in Canada and bought my own new house in 2017.

Now I would like to do the same kindness as my homestay family did, by helping other international students to know better the life in Canada. 

We provide our students a clean, cozy and friendly environment. Also, we try to help our student as much as possible.

It is always fun for us to know students from different background and we enjoy a lot learning different cultures from our students as well.

With mutual respect, I am pretty confident that we will have a great experience while you’re staying in Montreal.

Best Regards,

Josy”