Elia Alberti beams at these words from his host “father,” Berkeley Police Chief Mike Meehan, who is sitting at his family’s dining room table. It has been nearly nine months since a then-16-year-old Alberti stepped off the plane from Milan, frantically plugging “the airline lost my luggage” into Google Translate. Misplaced bags and a tenuous grasp of the English language were only the first adventures that Alberti and his host family would tackle during the year to follow.

Hundreds of suitcases fill the parking lot outside Elmhurst College  as 500 international students board buses to the airport to go back home.

“It’s sad. I feel horrible. It hasn’t hit me hit that I’ll be home tomorrow,” said 18-year-old Gustavo Lopez from Brazil.

Lopez spent the last year living with a host family in Skokie and attended Niles West High School .

“I hope I remember how to speak Portuguese when I get home. This has been the best year of my life. I feel like a totally different person. I’m so glad I did this,” Lopez said.

This Fall, Houston area high school student, Karen Ortega, will embark on a yearlong study abroad program in China with AFS. For ten months Karen, who has never traveled outside of the U.S., will live leave behind everything she knows to live with a Chinese host family, study in a Chinese high school and gain an intimate understanding of Chinese culture.