EXCHANGE STUDENT FROM FINLAND

[RED2]

My family will soon be hosting an exchange student from Finland. Can anyone suggest anything that would make her feel more at home here in Australia?
Also I would like to learn some simple words and phrases.

[interleukin]

I second what roger_roger wrote, the last thing she wants when first arriving is something from home (you will never be able to exactly mimic her favourite things anyway). Everything will be new and amazing and her brain will be full every evening. In a few months, when things go into routine, she might get homesick. Then her family sends her something from home and all is well again (hopefully). Your role is just to be yourselves and to be totally different from how things are at home.
Source of opinion: Me, a former exchange student.

[RED2]

Thanks for your reply, I realise that she is interested in our culture, but just trying to pre-empt any homesickness which I know she will feel at some point.

[Pursuivant]

Oh, make sure you give her "the talk" about "things every 5-year-old Australian knows" like spiders and snakes and such. Like not doing stupid things that she would do without thinking in Finland like putting your wellies on when they've sat in the garage without knocking them about first, kinda stuff... Or that if its hot you close the windows... Or that you need sunblock on cloudy weather too...