My host family

I'm all moved in with my host family. I had to move out of my apartment and had two options: I could live with a host family or live in one of the classrooms at the school. So, I'm with my host family.

I was an exchange student in High School, so I'm pretty excited to re-live my younger days and live this out again.

My family has three members. A dad, a mom, and a sister. I hate trying to describe Korean people. My host dad is short. He has short, black, straight hair. He wears glasses. He keeps an abacus on his desk. I still can't pick him out of a crowd. My mom has a unique look, she's very pretty. They are in their 40s I've been told. My little sister is 8. She's shy. I don't know their names. No one has told me yet. I just call them mom and dad. My Korean is getting a little better everyday.

My new house is really quite fantastic. It's a three story school with an emphasis on creative arts. We live on half of the second floor. The outside is purple and beige and there is a sculpture in front of the school. The first floor is creative arts. There are about a dozen pianos on one end of the building and a huge art workshop on the other. The third floor is for English classes.

Our apartment is very big by Korean standards. The living room is large and the kitchen has everything an American kitchen would have. They even have a toaster!
My bedroom obviously belonged to the little girl before I moved in. Even the bathroom is Pretty Pretty Princess themed. I have a large bed, a reading nook, a TV, a dresser, a spot to hang up clothes, and my own bathroom - so I could basically just survive in my room forever. I also kind of have my own kitchen. There's a kitchen on the third floor that the staff uses; but since I work the same hours the school operates, I'll never see anyone in there. My fridge vacuum seals!

We never close the door to our apartment, so it feels like the whole school is just an extension of the apartment - like our house is so big that we choose to just live in one section of it. It's pretty great. There are big paintings everywhere and the staircase is old pine (it creaks and moans as you go up it- so there is NO sneaking in late!)

My family is really cool. We have some communication issues. (My host father teaches English grammar, but a lot of English teachers here just know grammar rules and really couldn't hold down a conversation. I think if there was an emergency I could write down what I want to say and he could diagram it and figure out what I want pretty quickly.) But they have really bent over backwards to make me feel welcome.

And I'm working like a trooper to make it work. I ate chicken wings with chopsticks last night! I'm pretty good with chopsticks, but holding up a heavy piece of chicken while trying to tear meat away from the bones was a bit much for me.

All in all I think this will be a really good experience.