Meeting my host family!

Saturday, June 31st, the day after our Myeongdong adventure, it was host family meeting time! After showering and getting dressed (and making an effort to look a bit nicer for first impressions!) my roomies and I headed down to the lobby. Most students were scheduled to be picked up between ten and eleven, and as I dragged my luggage down to the lobby entrance around 9:45 I saw one student leaving with their host family! Right then it hit me...any minute now, the REAL part of my exchange would begin. I'd meet my host family and begin truly immersing myself in the Korean culture.

The student I had seen was, as I found out from the other students who had arrived earlier, was the first to be picked up by their host family. I didn't know then that I'd be the second! After grabbing a bottle of tea from the lobby store, I stood and chatted with my friends for a few minutes before Michele (one of our resident directors) pulled me over and told me that my host family had arrived to pick me up.

Here it was...the big moment. I had been unable to contact my host family prior to arriving in Korea (unlike a few of the other students), so I was especially nervous. But being the person that I am, I put up a calm, cool, and collected front as I gathered my luggage and walked to the front of the lobby. I saw a woman and a girl who looked around my age standing with Michele near the doors. I smiled as I approached, and managed a poorly-accented 안녕하세요. They smiled and said something back in Korean I didn't understand, haha. Then Seohyun (our Korean resident director) talked with them for a minute or so, and then waved goodbye as we left the hostel. I immediately felt guilty as my host mom and host sister insisted on helping me with my luggage (which amounted to about 100 pounds total...) and struggled to lift it off the ground into the back of their car, haha. Then we were off to my new home in Eunpyeong! Once in the car, my host family and I began to get to know each other. My host mom and sister quickly realized that my Korean was...er...lacking, and I was shocked to hear my host sister speak English! I knew Korean students studied English intensively, but I would have never imagined that my sister's English would sound so natural! She introduced her mom and herself, and told me I'd meet my other sister, my grandmother, and my host dad later that day. We spent the rest of the car ride talking, and my host sister would translate for my host mom. They asked me about my family, how my first few days in Korea were, etc, and I asked a few questions about them. I found out the mystery behind the email address (the server had had several problems over the past month) and found out that I indeed had an additional host sister! As I posted about earlier, my program had told me I had one host sister (age 21), but failed to mention I had an additional host sister that was my age exactly. And by exactly, I mean we were both born on the same month, day, and year. Crazy, right? Eventually, we finally arrived at my host family's house, which I'll make a separate post about later. I met my older host sister and my host grandmother. I was again shocked when my host grandmother greeted me in fluent Japanese! It makes sense that she'd speak it, since she was a teenager at the time that Japan had occupied Korea and forced the Koreans to speak Japanese. Since my Japanese is far better than my Korean, I've been able to communicate with my host grandmother a lot easier than I believed I would!

After arriving, my host sister helped me get settled into the room I'd share with her, and then the entire family settled in the living room and just talked for a bit. My host mom speaks only Korean, my host sister speaks very good English, and my host father and host sister also speak a little Japanese. My host sister studied it in her university and my host father learned a little for business. So, luckily, communication hasn't been a huge problem for me. But I'll have to be careful to use as little English/Japanese as possible so I can progress in Korean!

As my host parents both had to return to work, my host sisters took me out to a little cafe for lunch. They ordered peanut butter, cheese, potato, and jelly sandwiches, which are apparently really common in Korea. I was floored by this, and decided to stick with a simple ham-lettuce-tomato sandwich. Then they showed me host to get to Sogang by bus. My commute is about forty five minutes to school, and about and hour and ten minutes going back. Of course, sometimes it's longer or shorter by a few minutes depending on the bus schedule.

This post is getting lengthy! I'll finish up by saying that I LOVE my host family! They're super relaxed, laid-back, funny, kind, and I just feel like I fit in with them really well. We joke and poke fun at each other, and the whole atmosphere is just awesome. I feel really at home and within a week I felt super comfortable and at home here. I'm so happy and grateful to have been placed with such an amazing family! I have a picture of all of us together, but it's on my camera, which I can't upload pics from yet as I don't have my laptop. One of these days I'll borrow my host families and post them here. In the meantime, here's some pictures of my host sisters and I...and, of course, the weird sandwich.

Until next post!