Saturday, August 11, 2007

Welcoming Euri Jo

I am sorry that I have no pictures for this blog... by Wednesday I may be able to add one. I still am in the old world and have to have my 35mm film developed and now put on CD to add my photos to my blog!

We have the pleasure and the honor to welcome another exchange student this year. Her name is Euri Jo and she is from South Korea. We have enjoyed her immensely! She has a light step and a sweet voice, is quick to smile and has even burst forth in laughter a few times! We picked her up from the airport Thursday late afternoon. She had been on the plane since 3:30am that morning! She was quite tired! Friday we took her to a local (well, in the next town over) International Store and we purchased a few Korean snacks that she was familiar with. The children were already familiar with some of the candies because we had some last year with Ji Min at our homeschool international fair.
We have learned so much, already about South Korean life... Euri is more traditional, I believe because she lives in the country, the mountains really. Ji Min was from Seoul... big citiy life is about the same anywhere.... and extremely different from our life.
On her application, it was written that her parents work was in 'forestry'... I had no idea what that meant. Well, I found out! They have a farm on a mountain with a waterfall and a ravine... they raise Walnut trees, how fun! They also raise chickens to sell eggs, and have 5 goats they raise to sell. Euri says that she doesn't like goats because they charge at her... we are bringing her to the Woodard's Homestead so she can see what short, cute, friendly goats are like!
Her mother made a drink mix of roasted brown rice, barley and black beans ground into a fine powder. Euri showed me how to mix this drink with water and sugar... it tasted like bread... sweet bread! I can't say that I loved it, but I didn't hate it either. She also brought some Korean instant Mocha... LOVED that! Her mother had crocheted a pot scrubber out of pink and purple scratchy yarn, beautiful yet practical... a sweet gesture.
Euri was a sight trying to sweep with my kitchen broom, holding it out with one hand in front of her, with her feet spread apart and the handle of the broom flopping around over her head... I showed her how I held the broom and she explained to me that Korean brooms are short and they use quick short strokes ..... this is why she was unable to maneuver my long handled broom... funny thing to think about, how even a broom can be 'culture shock'.
So far as food goes, she loved tuna helper and brownies and corn (thought not all together! :0)
I hope we get to spend a lot of time with her this year... Amelia has already bonded and they were fixing hair together. Euri has played chess with Daniel, checkers and tic tac toe with Alex and UNO with everybody! We already love her, and hope that we do not seem tooooooo wierd to her!
Updates on Euri Jo later!

3 comments:

Traci said...

How fun! I love this. Tell me more. How old should your kids be when you start hosting? Do the exchange students homeschool with your kids or go to public school? How does that work out if they do go to public school? I think I'll quit now!

Traci said...

About spinning, you can learn to spin on a drop spindle. They are very inexpensive. Or you can make them from a dowel, some grommets, a cup hook and a cd!
It is a lot of fun!

Family W said...

It does sound like fun. Maybe Mark will change his mind. Love, Lynn.