My brother will be doing a highschool-year in the US and he has just gotten notice that his host family lives in Chester, IL. It’s a couple in their sixties, which is fine, since they will have lots of time for him.
Anyone know what Chester is like? All I could find out is that it’s Popeye’s hometown and has a little over 8000 inhabitants. And St. Louis is not too far away.
I’ve been to Chester since my wife and I own a house in DuQuoin. It’s a small little town; the only reason I went was because of the Popeye thing: one mural, one decent museum, and a cool statue of the cartoon sailor. When people think of Illinois they usually think Chicago-Illinois and not nearly-Kentucky-Illinois, but Chester is definitely part of the latter: long stretches of highway, a high church-resident ratio, covered bridges, furniture & antique auctions every weekend, pickup trucks, and fields, fields, and more fields. Southern Illinois does have some interesting things to do and see, but more of an outdoorsy nature (look up Garden of the Gods and other areas). For an urban dweller like myself, it’s far from a buzzing Metropolis (unless you count Metropolis, ILL., home of the Superman museum). Culturally, it’s more conservative and ethnically it’s mostly white.
Has he had any contact with his host family yet? It might help if he got some idea what types of things they do for entertainment (besides TV and yard sales); if he’s anything like the average high-schooler, he’ll probably hang out with his school peers more (if for no other reason than they’re the ones with wheels, which you definitely need in So. Ill.)
He hasn’t had contact yet, but he should call them soon. On the info sheet it says they like all kinds of stuff like golfing, going to sport events, museums etc.