family

On the left is Kumju, my 11 year-old host sister. She loves English books, science, sugary cereal, ginseng tea, and making crafts. Yesterday she gave me a decoration she made by wrapping bright yarn around chopsticks. I told her I loved it, so today she came into my room with extra yarn and chopsticks and told me since I liked it she would teach me to make more decorations to send to my family in America. She also told me that her goal in life is to be a doctor in Africa to help the poor and sick (after she goes to Harvard). She has enough heart and spunk for three people.

In the middle is her older sister, Yaegi. Yaegi likes math, science, Korean pop music, and like every student at my school, Disney’s High School Musical. Yaegi is 13 and really smart, but according to her mom recently stopped finishing all of her homework and (!) started buying fashion magazines. I think she’s generally making it through adolescence pretty well, though, as those were her mom’s only real complaints.

On the far right is Mrs. Lee herself, my host mom. She is a radiologist and works at the clinic her husband, Mr. Lee, manages. I go out with her a lot, either to eat or pick up/drop off Yaegi and Kumju from academy. I really like talking with her. She is very small—a good two inches shorter than I am with her Korean appropriately high heels—but opinionated and smart. I don’t have a picture of my host dad, but I like him a lot as well. We don’t talk a ton, as his English is only a little better than my Korean, but he has a really warm personality and laughs a lot. He also installed a wireless router for me, which is great.

In this picture you might notice a box of Wheat Thins. That’s in homage to my American family—I got a spectacular care package full of English-language news magazines and American snacks this week. It was pretty fun explaining "granola bar" to my host family, and the Wheat Thins got good reviews as well.