Fernando,
I think you would have enjoyed staying at our home in Illinois. We had an exchange student that was with us for two years (his junior & senior years in HS). The second year was actually illegal, but we held things up in paper work with the State Department, INS, and with a college and our high school, which helped us make it work. Since we had two teenagers at home, he had a blast.
Our oldest son, at home, went off to college during O's second year with us, but he still had a blast, got his Illinois drivers license, and would drive around the area, and got involved in basketball and baseball with the HS team, and received what's called a "letter" for participating in baseball.
He also went up to my son's college (son was playing football there), on quite a few weekends, and enjoyed the campus life there as well.
Needless to say, our kitchen table was always a "hotbed of debate" and we often went on until the wee hours of the morning.
The young man, from Bilbao, has become an important part of our family, and to this day, he calls my wife and I Mom and Dad, and he's one of our Sons.
I guess the problem with the exchange programs is that too many young people are put in homes where they don't get a chance to grow in their understanding of the U.S., and the people who host them are obviously stunted in their own ability to comprehend the differences that exist around the world. I wish your experience was better than it was. I'm so sorry to hear how bad it was.
Wolf