Those nerves were shared by Chiara Bentrup, the Melbourne-based German exchange student who would be staying in Ms Torres-Gomez’s home.  

But the Bendigo resident and La Trobe University employee had a secret ice-breaker: her then three-year-old daughter. 

The two girls were quick to get along, making lamingtons and reading storybooks together.  

“It was really nice to bring in a bit of culture to our family,” she said when reflecting on the experience two years later.  

It's not so easy just to pack up and travel with the little one, so I wanted to bring the travel to me, and Chiara was very, very nice.” 

La Trobe University are again calling for families keen on hosting overseas students heading to Bendigo for a weekend dose of regional Victorian life. 

International student services coordinator Baadra AL-Darkazly said as many as 20 students are expected to visit Bendigo between September 9 and 11 this year – if enough families volunteer as hosts.

Ms AL-Darkazly said the weekend away was an important one for Melbourne-based students who did not live with Australian families and often spent their time socialising with other people from their home nations.

“The experience they have is very, very different, coming from a city life to a regional kind of feel,” she said. 

Even accompanying a family to their children’s sporting commitments could be a cultural experience for overseas-born visitors. 

As well as enjoying the everyday life of a Bendigo family, Ms Bentrup was afforded a particularly unique experience. 

Ms Torres-Gomez’s father, a pilot based in Bendigo, took the family’s house guest for a flight over the central Victorian city.

“She came down, and her eyes were just shining,” Ms Torres-Gomez said. 

International student Alonso Navarro Mendoza, from Mexico, speaks with gratitude about the opportunity he had to spend Christmas with a Bendigonian family.  

“When you're away from home, you always miss that cosy feeling that a family gives you,” he said. 

“It's an opportunity to get to know a different culture, to open your eyes to different and ways of seeing the world.” 

Ms Torres-Gomez also vouched for the value of overseas study programs, calling herself an “exchange junkie”. She enjoyed stints in Denmark, Japan and Mexico during her student days and said hosting Ms Bentrup was a way of giving back to the families who had opened their home to her. 

People interested in hosting a student should contact Ms AL-Darkazly at b.al-darkazly@latrobe.edu.au or 5444 7286.

The Bendigo International Students Club has reconvened after a two-year absence, a move its members say will give more opportunities for overseas-born residents to engage with their host city. 

The club’s redevelopment is part of an LCMS effort to forge stronger connections between the student population and broader community.

Club president Thang Quang Pham said BISC could become the first port of call for international student seeking comfort away from home. 

“I know the feeling of coming overseas to study and feeling lonely, and it’s hard to make friends as well,” the 22-year old student from Vietnam said. 

“This club gets people together.”

The aspiring pharmacist had studied in Melbourne between 2013 and 2014, but said shifting to Bendigo – and away from the capital’s large Vietnamese population – had seen his English language skills flourish. 

About 200 international students study at La Trobe University, a figure staff member Baadra AL-Darkazly said had remained steady for some time. 

Many of those had the same experience as Mr Pham. 

“It's always difficult for students coming from big cities, but once they settle in and find a lot of support, they're really surprised, saying, ‘Thank god we made that decision’.”