Have you ever thought about hosting a foreign exchange student? Every year local Rotary Clubs bring students from all over the world to Northern Nevada and they're always looking for families to host these students here.  

Julie from Denmark has been here since last July.

"It's been great," she said. "I see this as my home now and I've had so many great experiences with the host families, with the exchange students and with the whole Rotary family so it's been really great so far and I've really enjoyed my stay."

For the past few months she's been staying with the Roser family in Reno. It's their first time hosting an exchange student.

"It sounded like fun; my daughter my daughter Riley wanted to do it mostly," said Jessica Roser. "She introduced the idea and I haven't had a lot of opportunities to travel so it kind of gave me a chance to experience another culture and to learn about another country without leaving my house."

Exchange students spend a year here but move host families every few months. So far, Julie has traveled to San Francisco, Hawaii and will soon take a trip to Cancun. There's also plenty of time to spend in Northern Nevada with different families.

"We went to San Francisco over spring break," Roser said. "Mostly, it's everyday life. One of our daughters got married so we've been doing wedding stuff and playing games, hanging out in the garden and going for walks, that kind of stuff."

Julie will head back to Denmark in July and it's already feeling a little bittersweet.

"It's so sad, and I'm speaking for most of the exchange students too," she said. "This is our home now and this has been our life for almost a year; we've been adapting to these new cultures and so it will be weird to go back; almost being a tourist into your own country because this is our home now. So its going to be sad when I go home now but it'll be great to see my family again. Now that I've been in Rotary I have so many contacts and friends all over the world so now, whenever you travel you have a home in every country and that's nice to know."

There's a Rotary event at the Elm Estate at 1401 W. 2nd Street on Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for anyone interested in hosting a foreign exchange student in the future. It's informal and free to attend.