As she prepares dinner for two, Tina Kile wonders how her kids’ first day of school went. After all, as a mother she worries about those things. However, she is not the real mother of these two girls.

“It’s a plus by me if, at the end of their stay, they feel like they have a family to come home to,” Kile said.

Through a foreign exchange program, seniors Zuzana Liskarova from the Czech Republic and Aleksandra Bryll from Poland, were able to come live with Kile and attend school in America for a year.

“I chose the program myself, and my parents were proud of me,” Bryll said.

Although Kile has a 24-year old son, she enjoys having the presence of the girls as an addition to her family.

“I’m usually up for new experiences, and one night I was up online and saw an ad for hosting an exchange student,” Kile said.

Just last year she and her husband hosted a boy from Belgium, but this time they decided to try something new.

“(My husband said) ‘we have two spare rooms, we could choose two girls,’” Kile said. “I laughed and said sounds good to me. It would give them a chance to experience a sibling.”

Liskarova said she wanted to take the next step towards independence.

“I wanted to try something new and work on my English,” she said.

The mood in America is very different from the one in Europe, Liskarova said.

“In my country, people look sad,” she said. “No one is smiling.”

The school system is different from what the girls are used to in Europe.

“There is a better education system in Poland,” said Bryll. “Every class here is easier than back home.”
Both girls have been to the U.S. before.

“It’s very different here, everything is (like) the movies,” Liskarova said.

Both of the girls are the only children in their household back in their countries, so living with another teenager was a new experience for them, as well as their host mother.

“So far the girls have been easier than my own son,” Kile said. “I enjoy learning from both of them. They seem able to share the differences (in) their countries with us as well as each other.”

The girls are scheduled to stay until June 2015.

“I hope they enjoy their time here and have a great experience,” Kile said. “I already feel as if both of these girls are my new daughters and I will be here for them as long as they need me.”