Spin the globe. Meet the exchange students.

Western & Southern Europe

• Spain — Madrid, Spanish. A student from Spain might teach you that a meal is not something you finish -- it is somewhere you stay, ideally with somebody's family paella recipe on the table.
• Germany — Berlin, German. A student from Germany might arrive with real recipes for the holidays -- and a December full of Advent candles, lantern songs, and Christmas-market stories your family will keep.
• Italy — Rome, Italian. A student from Italy might take over your kitchen for one night and hand you a dish their nonna has made for fifty years -- made now, in Michigan, for you.
• France — Paris, French. A student from France might turn Saturday breakfast into an event -- crepes from scratch, opinions about butter -- and leave your family a standing invitation to their side of the Atlantic.

Nordic Europe

• Denmark — Copenhagen, Danish. A student from Denmark might teach your family hygge by December -- candles lit, aebleskiver in the pan, and the discovery that a dark winter night is something you can actually look forward to.
• Norway — Oslo, Norwegian. A student from Norway might get your whole family outside in January and make you like it -- then mark May 17 on your calendar forever, with waffles.

Central & Eastern Europe

• Czechia — Prague, Czech. A student from Czechia might bring your family a Christmas Eve unlike any other -- carp and potato salad, shoes by the door for St. Nicholas, and stories from a city straight out of a storybook.

Latin America

• Brazil — Brasilia, Portuguese. A student from Brazil might fill your house with music and pao de queijo -- and by June, your family will be celebrating Festa Junina in a Michigan backyard.
• Mexico — Mexico City, Spanish. A student from Mexico might teach your family that tamales are a two-day project worth every minute -- and that remembering the people you love is something you can do with marigolds and a meal.
• Colombia — Bogota, Spanish. A student from Colombia might make arepas a permanent part of your family's weekend -- and light up your porch with little candles the first week of December.

East & Southeast Asia

• Japan — Tokyo, Japanese. A student from Japan might teach your family that a packed lunch can be an act of love -- and years from now you will still be getting New Year's cards from Tokyo.
• South Korea — Seoul, Korean. A student from South Korea might install a permanent kimchi shelf in your fridge and Korean barbecue in your repertoire -- and show your family what a Seollal bow means on New Year's morning.
• Thailand — Bangkok, Thai. A student from Thailand might ruin takeout pad thai for you forever by making the real thing -- and teach your family to float a wish downriver on a candlelit krathong.
• Vietnam — Hanoi, Vietnamese. A student from Vietnam might make your kitchen smell like real pho on a snowy Saturday -- and when Tet comes, your family will get red envelopes and a new holiday.
• Taiwan — Taipei, Mandarin Chinese. A student from Taiwan might introduce your family to soup dumplings and proper bubble tea -- and hang lanterns with you when Lunar New Year comes to Michigan.

Central Asia

• Kazakhstan — Astana, Kazakh and Russian. A student from Kazakhstan might show your family what steppe hospitality means -- and when Nauryz arrives in March, your table will be part of a tradition older than most countries.
• Kyrgyzstan — Bishkek, Kyrgyz and Russian. A student from Kyrgyzstan might fold your family into a hospitality tradition carried down from Silk Road caravans -- and make manty dumplings a house favorite by October.
• Mongolia — Ulaanbaatar, Mongolian. A student from Mongolia might hand your family a bowl of milk tea and a story about the open steppe -- and prove, all winter, that nobody handles cold with more style.