We were lucky enough to host a Korean foreign exchange student in our home for a week. We made many preparations for Songha to come, we had a quick crash course in Korean culture, and we exchanged several emails with her before she came. Finally the day was here and we picked her up from the airport.
We were so excited to meet Songha in person!
We took her to IHOP for breakfast on the way home from the airport. She loved the chocolate chip pancakes!
We also stopped by Willamette Falls on the way home. She may have been a little tired by this point!
She was shocked and totally excited about our house. The houses here are much bigger than what she is used to. She took lots of pictures of our house, inside and out!
When we got in the house she immediately gave us gifts she had brought for us. Gift giving is a very important part of the Korean culture. We learned that it’s not the actual gift that is important, but the giving of the gift and how it is given and presented. She brought us these miniature versions of traditional Korean masks, some beautiful neck pillows, and lots of different Korean foods and candy. We also enjoyed a letter from her mother.
After she took a good long nap, we went to the mall with Emma’s friend Sierra, her mom and their Korean student named Hyewon. Songha was very excited to go shopping and it was fun to watch all four girls act just like, well, four teenage girls!
The next day Songha really bonded with Isaac and Grace. She was so sweet to play with them before church.
We completely bored poor Songha with our typical Sunday. Three hours of church plus meetings afterwards is a lot for someone who doesn’t even go to church! She suffered through it well though and had a good attitude. We spent some time later that afternoon learning all sorts of things from Songha about her culture and her family. We learned that in America she is 13, but in Korea she is 15 (when you are born you are considered 1 and they change their age with the new year instead of on their actual birthday). She also taught us how to write our names in Korean characters and she taught us how to say several Korean words.
Later that evening we took her to my parents house to meet my family and to have dinner. She fit right in and played lots of games.
We also took her to the temple which she thought was beautiful. She got to learn about the Book of Mormon in her own language at the visitors center.
Songha spent Monday at school with Emma, going to her classes and experiencing life as a middle schooler in America. The school had a special assembly to welcome the Korean students and the staff of their school. The host students got to introduce their guest. It was so cute to watch Emma and Songha!
Koreans don’t do much baking, so one suggestion we were given was to bake and cook with our guest. Emma was so excited to show Songha how to make chocolate chip cookies. Songha was totally amazed with the process, especially the mixer. I loved hearing her exclamations! The cookies were good despite our oven difficulties. It worked long enough to get one cookie sheet worth of cookies, enough to sample!
Later that afternoon we met up with Sierra and Hyewon again to design t-shirts at Team Spirit. The girls were so giddy with excitement while they picked out their design. It was fun!
After that we headed to the school for a potluck with all the other host families. The highlight of the evening was the Gangnam style dance the Korean students performed for us (in Songha’s words, Gangnam is famous!). They made the American kids go up and try it out as well. I thought Emma was going to die… Songha introduced Isaac and Grace to all her friends. They were a hit! Everybody kept petting Isaac’s curly, blond hair. Most of the Korean students have only one sibling, if any, so younger kids were fun to be around.
At the potluck they took some group photos. First was American style:
Then Korean style (although they look a little too smiley for Korean style!):
That evening I made some play dough for a playgroup activity the next day. Songha had fun playing with it before they went to bed!
The next day Songha went to the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood. She came home exhausted. Jet lag must have caught up with her at that point! She took a nap after dinner but we had to wake her up because we were afraid her schedule would get really messed up if we didn’t. It took her awhile to wake up, but she finally did. She played Ninjago with Isaac, and then some games with us.
We introduced her to our favorite, Wackee Six. I wasn’t sure how well she would be able to pick it up, because it is a fast game with numbers, but she surprised us and learned really fast. She even won a round!
The next day they went to the coast for the day. Emma got to go on that field trip. They had a blast at the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Hatfield Marine Science Center. They also got to play on the cold beach for a little while. When they got home we gave Songha some of our gifts to her. One gift was her t-shirt. She was so excited and loved it.
We headed off to Mutual after that, and then I took the girls to Dairy Queen. Emma was anxious to treat Songha to her favorite ice cream treat.
The field trip the next day was to OMSI and the Nike Employee Store. The girls wore their matching t-shirts. They looked awesome, and very bright!
That night we took Songha bowling. Fun! Grace beat us all.
Songha wanted American hamburgers so we stopped for dinner at Burgerville (yah, we went out to eat more than usual that week!). Emma and Songha almost got in a ketchup fight.
What a wonderful experience we had with Songha in our home. We loved her excited sounds of astonishment of everything. She was game to eat and try anything new. In fact, almost everything she ate was “delicious!”. She was funny and goofy, just like Emma. Her English was really good, we only had a time or two when we had to do some guessing. We got a kick out of how she took pictures of everything she came across.
We really lucked out with Songha coming to our family. She fit in perfectly for the week she was here. We learned so much from her, hopefully she learned from us as well.
One of my favorite things was hearing Emma and Songha call out “saranghae” to each other. We have started using that word a lot in our family even since Songha has left.
It means “I love you!” in Korean (roughly translated). We love you Songha and are so glad we got to meet you!
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