One of the things that many people were warry about when I told them, but made me more excited was my host family. Not all Fulbright programs do this, but Fulbright Korea ETAs get placed in a homestay for their first year. There are several rules that the homestay has to comply with to make sure you are happy and comfortable, for example, ETAs get their own room with a bed, and they have to feed you twice a day. There are other rules, but those were definitely ones I was worried about when I first learned about my homestay. The family can be anyone from an old married couple, to a couple with kids, to a single person, etc. The one thing they usually have in common is that in one way or another they are connected to the school. The school is in charge of finding your homestay.
So, in the past, I briefly mentioned my host family, without going much into detail. By request, here is my introduction to the people who are housing me for the year!
My host parents are awesome. Neither of them speaks much English, but they try really hard to include me and make sure I'm comfortable. My host mom is really sweet. She is a dancer, and she has one younger sister, who lives next door with their dad, her husband, and three boys. You can imagine the craziness with all the kids together. My host dad is really kind with a big heart. He is rather shy about his English, so I really only get to talk to him when he has been drinking. He shows he cares in other ways, like installing a small washer on the second floor for me to use and giving me hand lotion on the way to school one day, and when I told them I wanted to learn Taekwondo, he immediately called his friend (who is an instructor) to set up lessons. I later learned that he did that while the instructor was teaching. One time, my host dad was telling me about a plant that was growing in boxes on the bridge into town, and he didn't know the name of the plant, so he looked up a Wikipedia article, in Korean, to show me a picture and to see what the name was exactly. In the article, there was one line of writing that wasn't in Korean. He hands me the phone, thinking that it would be the name in English. Well, it was a name, only it was the scientific name in Latin. Yeah, that really didn't help. For Christmas this year, I wanted to give him a Christmas tie, since he wears one every day, but it came late, so he decided to wear the tie the day after Christmas. To Seoul.
My family also has three kids. I was especially excited about this because I am the youngest in my family, so having younger siblings was really exciting.
The oldest is 시연 (Si Yeon). She is currently in 5th grade (moving on to 6th in March), and she is a lot of fun. She always has a smile and ready to dance. She told me she wants to be an idol when she grows up (A famous k-pop singer/dancer). She likes most things girls her age would like, and recently she has taken up drawing as well. She is also in my English class, so it is fun messing with her in class.
The middle child is 민준 (Min-Jun). He is in 2nd grade and is a stubborn little boy. Because he is the middle child, he is often fighting for attention. I don't get to bond with him much, because he is more interested in playing Battleground on his phone or watching cartoons, he is still fun. He likes when I help him with his English practice because when he is writing the alphabet, I draw the letters on his back. He does enjoy playing games with me, but he would much rather play with his cousins next door.
The youngest is 민찬 (Min Chan). He is by far the sassiest and the cutest of the bunch. He is 6 in international age, and in Kindergarten. He is definitely a brat since he always gets his way, but he's too cute not to. He also acts like some little tough guy "threatening" me when he doesn't get his way. He is also picking up English faster than anyone else. He definitely knows the phrase "Kristy Game" as he says it on almost a daily bases. He also has a tendency to say "mmh hmm" in the middle of sentences when he doesn't know the word in English. This is really common when he is saying "Kristy dinner mhh hmm game" Telling me we will play a game after dinner. He also tells me things instead of asking. Brat. But he's cute.
Well, there is my host family. We also have two pets. A dog that lives outside, and a stray cat we adopted and feed every day. She also lives outside.
