I wouldn't ask my AP to travel if I didn't have a proper space. I don't know if it's against the rules, but it feels wrong. I would sleep on the couch before I asked my AP to do it. Particularly, if it was my family.

On the other hand, the AP is going to have 2 full week of vacations. That should count against her time. That's a half a month off.

If it was me, I would compromise and ask AP to give up a week of vacation time for the two weeks spent at home.

It doesn't have to be winner take all.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see anything wrong with the couch as long as it’s a private room, like the office and not the living room.

Is an air bed really that much better than a couch? And maybe it’s a pull out couch.

I call OP an AP troll looking for ammunition against their host family for not giving a free extra two weeks of vacation and leaving them at home to do whatever they want plus having a chosen 2 weeks.

Now that I think about it, you are right!

Anonymous wrote:"AP-Larla, we are going to Auntie Ems house in Kansas for two weeks over Christmas. If you want to come and work, you will have the downstairs rec room for your space. No one else will be using it during the trip. It has a pull-out couch and half bath; you'll share the main shower upstairs with everyone else. If you don't want to come and use your 2 weeks of vacation instead, that's fine. Just let us know by the end of next week."
There is nothing horrific about this scenario.

It is so, so expensive to travel over Christmas and APs balk at family situations. One of the reasons I am so jaded on the program. If they're here for a true family-based cultural exchange (as opposed to an education study abroad), why all these posts about APs that don't want to go to grandma's house.

They are already living with someone else's family. I can't blame them for thinking two weeks (!) in close quarters with a lot of other people they don't know and nowhere private to retreat to would be pretty awful.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see anything wrong with the couch as long as it’s a private room, like the office and not the living room.

Is an air bed really that much better than a couch? And maybe it’s a pull out couch.

I call OP an AP troll looking for ammunition against their host family for not giving a free extra two weeks of vacation and leaving them at home to do whatever they want plus having a chosen 2 weeks.

Nope, not an AP troll.. just annoyed at hearing of other families not treating their AP's as I think they should.. I agree with the point that I am only hearing the AP's side.. and no, it isn't a private room, it is the couch in the living room and according to the prior AP they need to be up and have the couch cleaned up early morning so the rest of the family has some space...

Anyway.. keeping my nose out of it...

"AP-Larla, we are going to Auntie Ems house in Kansas for two weeks over Christmas. If you want to come and work, you will have the downstairs rec room for your space. No one else will be using it during the trip. It has a pull-out couch and half bath; you'll share the main shower upstairs with everyone else. If you don't want to come and use your 2 weeks of vacation instead, that's fine. Just let us know by the end of next week."
There is nothing horrific about this scenario.

It is so, so expensive to travel over Christmas and APs balk at family situations. One of the reasons I am so jaded on the program. If they're here for a true family-based cultural exchange (as opposed to an education study abroad), why all these posts about APs that don't want to go to grandma's house.

Anonymous wrote:AP doesn’t have to have her own room, unless she’s working.
AP also doesn’t have a week of her choice, unless that was what her HF and AP agreed upon.

She is working. Otherwise, they wouldn't tell her that if she doesn't go, then that time is her vacation. In other words, if she works on the trip and sleeps on the sofa, she will still get her two weeks vacation. If she doesn't want to sleep on the sofa, and therefore will not be working on the trip, then she has to take those two weeks as her vacation.

Take what that AP says with a grain of salt. You're only hearing one side.

I don’t see anything wrong with the couch as long as it’s a private room, like the office and not the living room.

Is an air bed really that much better than a couch? And maybe it’s a pull out couch.

I call OP an AP troll looking for ammunition against their host family for not giving a free extra two weeks of vacation and leaving them at home to do whatever they want plus having a chosen 2 weeks.

The family cannot make the ap travel, work and put her on the couch. They need to leave her home or get a hotel room or something if there is not space for her.
It amazes me that host families would think it was ok to live on a couch for 2 weeks.

AP doesn’t have to have her own room, unless she’s working.
AP also doesn’t have a week of her choice, unless that was what her HF and AP agreed upon.

Don’t agree. The one week of the APs choosing is not a rule. Just a guideline. My AP takes her vacation when we do. But she gets at least 4-5 weeks.

The way this is framed is a problem. The family should have told her a long time ago that this was their vacation time and she should plan something if she didn’t want to go with them.

She has to have her own room. Tell the friend to call the LCC if they do not like it.
The family sounds evil.

She gets one week when she chooses regardless of whether they count this as their week or not. If they choose to take 2 weeks or more it still doesnt count against her one week of choice.

Anonymous wrote:Our AP's friend has been told she either has to go with her host family for Christmas (at a family members house, sleeping on the cough) or give up her entire two weeks of vacation. I am pretty horrified by this. Are there any rules preventing the family from doing this?

If they can't give her a separate sleeping space, the house doesn't qualify. I have never seen any rules saying the AP always gets to choose her vacation, though.

This is pretty crummy of them, but probably within the rules. She might want to try to reach a compromise with them; my guess is that they imagined having a babysitter with them on the trip, and now they're mad and being unreasonable.

Our AP's friend has been told she either has to go with her host family for Christmas (at a family members house, sleeping on the cough) or give up her entire two weeks of vacation. I am pretty horrified by this. Are there any rules preventing the family from doing this?