As for WWOOFing. I had a mixed experience. I'll give you some quick information now and if you'd like to know about the specific problems I had I am more than happy to tell you.
First off I think WWOOFing is a great opportunity and really does encourage immersion that is unique and challenging in ways that going to school is not. For this reason, among others I think it was the most informative experience I did while abroad. I also did it alone which forced me to become more independent and focused on what I was doing and where I was going than I'd ever had to before, mainly because I plopped myself in the middle of nowhere Normandy and trusted in myself and in the people I was with that everything would be okay.
I think it is better to do it alone, mainly because you are likely to meet other WWOOFers either on the farms or nearby. Since it is a growth experience, growing alone allows for more opportunities to put all your faith in yourself.
The main issue about WWOOFing which I would really say isn't a problem but just a quality of WWOOFing based on the nature of the program is that many of the farms are poor or have people incapable doing as much work as they would like. One of the farms I was at, the woman owed the bank 600,000 euros and could barely provide food for us much less the animals. The second farm, the woman had a medical problem that prevented her from doing manual labor (I'm still not sure if this was entirely true) and so basically hired WWOOFers to do her chores (her farm was also not very extensive and didn't produce anything or have any visitors). Both of these farms are designated "pédagogique" which meant that they were for educational purposes and therefore partially subsidized by the state. These two farms were the most difficult for me for these reasons among others. I actually ended up leaving the second farm more than two weeks early because of the bad relationship I had with the woman.
The last farm I was at was wonderful and I think that it is really luck as to where you land without any background information. This farm was operated by two different couples who shared the land and lived communally. There were other people living on the farm as well and the community was young, fun, exciting, and very willing to share the experience with me. These people were great and I still keep in touch.
The only other WWOOF experience I know about that is different was that of a friend of mine who WWOOFed in the south of France at a very primitive farm in which she slept outside on a hill with some goats and had buckets for bathrooms...
Retrospectively it would have been nice to have read reviews of the farms that I was thinking about before I inquired so that I could read about other WWOOFers experiences. Some countries do have this...France does not. While this may have been helpful, there could have easily been people that enjoyed the farms where I had difficulties. I think a lot of it depends on the personalities of the WWOOFer and the farmer.
n.b. A friend of mine asked me about WWOOFing and as I was writing to her I thought I'd share my experiences with you. It has almost been a year since I started WWOOFing in Normandy last summer so I think of these as words of attempted wisdom. If you'd like to know more, please let me know.
