7-20 and 7-21 Homestay/ church

Our next task of the week was the much anticipated home-stay. I was one of the first to arrive downstairs in the hotel lobby. The social worker Ms.Seol introduced me to my home-stay family and Esther was nearby too.The home-stay family's last name was Choi. I said goodbye to the Holt staff and set off with them(The Choi's). They had only arrived with their domestically adopted daughter Seung Ah. On Saturday evening at 2:00PM my home-stay experience began. I was paired with a nice family who has 3 children; a 2 year old daughter, 14 year old son and 18 year old son. The youngest Seung Ah was adopted domestically through Holt. The family lives about an hour outside of Seoul. the father Taewon speaks English fairly well. He told me to call him Sam chon which means uncle in Korean. Taewon's brother lived closer to Seoul so before going to their home we visited his brother. His brother's name is Jason and therefore, I was to refer to him as Jason. 

To begin the fun we walked around some older streets of Seoul; one place we walked near was the president's house. Here in Korea it's called the blue house. It is like the equivalent of the White House in Washington D.C. to the US president. 

After walking around a bit and drinking our coffees we said goodbye to Jason and his wife.The coffee I had was a green tea latte with almonds in it. We used their bathroom first though since we had an hour drive ahead of us.

Then we drove about an hour away to the home-stay family house.When we arrived at Sam chon's home his other two children were home from school. I was introduced to them.

The two year old Seung Ah was naturally interested in the gift bag I had in my hand do, they opened the gift to satisfy her curiosity. They seemed very appreciative.

 We then went and ate pork for dinner at a local restaurant. Their original plan was to eat sushi but I was disinterested in eating raw fish so they changed dinner plans for me. After eating dinner we returned back to their home. The children decided to stay there.

Sam chon seemed very enthusiastic about taking me to a jjimjalbang( a spa/sauna). I was rather shocked at the nudity of this place even though we were seperated by gender and Sam chon had warned me about this on the car ride there. First you are in a public area where everyone is naked. You take a shower and then get into sauna's of varying   temperatures. Then my home-stay mother paid for me to get a complete scrub down. I cringed at the sight of all the dead skin cells that flaked off my body. After the scrub down you shower again and put on the uniform they supply for you to wear in the sauna room. During the sauna time you eat food and drink drinks like tea or energy drinks. Your head is wrapped with a towel like a sheep's head called "yang meori". The rooms smelt of burning wood and are varying temperatures. Most people sleep when they are in a jjimjalbang. you start in a hit room and then move to a cold room because everything must be bakanced. after this you shower once more and then return into your own personal clothes. After the sauna we came back to home-stay house and I went to bed. I was very relaxed and tired.

7/21 ~The next morning for breakfast we ate bread... Sweet honey bread, red bean bread and bacon, toast and eggs. My host family is not religious so rather than attending church we went shopping in Bundang. This district is where Taewon works as an insurance salesman. I was able to pick up more souvenirs here and then I ate noodles for lunch. They were traditional japanese noodles called udon and I ate rice balls. The home-stay family also graciously bestowed a few gifts to me prior to my leaving their home. They gave me hand-made chocolates( very expensive) and instructed me not to share them with anyone. They also gave me a compilation of Korean music that their 14 year old son downloaded and put onto a USB for my listening pleasure. The last gift was a book called "Dandelion this is how we love you"; written by Neil Park and illustrated by Yoojin Jang. This was an adoptee family story written by adoptees. Taewon says they attend a meeting at Holt once a month with Seung a to go over adoption issues and tribulations.

Then, the home-stay will be over. At 4pm I'll be joining staff member and our house mother YuJin/ Vicki to her church service. The church was an English service and is called Onnuri church. The sermon was on 2 Kings 22. Eating pizza for dinner and then going out ...The club was very crowded for a Sunday night and busy, it appears nightlife here thrives... The club was called NB2 it stands for Noise Basement 2 and had the music blasting, strobe lights going and smoke everywhere. We danced on the noise bar.