In Brazil I walked in and made gestures that I wanted to learn Portuguese (they refused to speak English, even though some of them could, a little). The conversation went on like that and eventually one of the staff took me on a bus to where I would stay with a family. I ended up with a relatively wealthy family, others at the same school were in totally different environments.
One thing I hadn't accounted for was the paranoia of that situation.
My host family were really nice, but early on we had a discussion about how much people earned in the UK (with the aide of a translation dictionary). The next night I heard them arguing, I could tell it was about money, I was fairly sure it was about me. I recorded a little snippet of it and when I played it for a friend later when I got back to the UK he said they were talking about footballer's salaries :)
At the time it made me really self-conscious. It's tough when you're all alone and you don't have anyone to talk to in your native tongue. Leaves you entirely alone with your thoughts.