[CatoRenasci]

Actually, I don't think we disagree on European bathing habits -- we agree that most aren't as fastidious as Americans, but some are.

It's still not clear from your post whether the girl you had was supposed to be an employee or student. Was the program a true student exchange (such as American Field Service) or was it one of the au pair progams where the students know they are expected to work and are paid a small stipend for pocket money? I do think the expectations for the two are very different. That said, it sounds like you got a real lemon. We never had a French girl, our were all Norwegian, Danish or German.

[Martin Tell]

It was a student program and we followed the rules. I think the problem was the individual even though (generalizing again) the French are more likely to be anti-American (and worse hygeine) than Scandinavians (3 years of my Euro-time were in Belgium and 2 in Denmark). That said, I was in Norway last month and I experienced my first overt incident of anti-Americanism. In a social setting (dinner), a Norwegian (petty government official) cornered me and laid into me about how America was the root of all evil in the world, how America brought the terrorist attacks on itself and how retaliation would only cause more problems (violence begets violence, etc.). I was shocked because I had never experienced anything like that before. He went as far as implying the US also deserved the Pearl Harbor attack (he called Hawaii a US "colony"). To be fair, the other Norwegians present seemed shocked as well and apologized profusely.