Hi! I've finally made it to my placement city and new home! I will start work tomorrow but for the past few days I've been lucky enough to spend time acclimating to the new space and meeting my host-family. I've been flooding social media with updates (I needed to share with English-speakers!) but thought I would give a general reflection on my homestay before the school year begins.
Daegu is a big city for Korean standards- the view from my window stretches far with apartment comlexes and larger buildings with green mountains towering in the distance. My trip to downtown yesterday revealed more of a suburb feel than New York, as you'd expect, but I'm excited that I'll get a least some taste of city-life while here.
My family here has been absurdly welcoming. I have been very nervous about the possibility of a
homestay. My homestay in Paris was a frequently uncomfortable experience and having lived on my own for the past 2 years, I was very nervous about losing my independence in a homestay setting. Though I still have some anxieties about the year to come, I really can't imagine a more ideal setting or family for me.
The basics:
My host dad is an engineer who specializes in technological materials. He is very busy and travels frequently to present his research. He has a PhD in engineering and just bought the family a 3-D printer! He grew up on a farm outside of the city and each Sunday he returns to help his father- last week he harvested and packaged 250 boxes of peaches. On his day off!
My host mom is a designer for a non-profit design company in Daegu. She also has a PhD, which explains why her children are geniuses. I was so nervous about how conservative my family might be. Though we definitely have cultural differences, my host mom and I seem to share a lot of interests and values. She took my to the Daegu art museum on my second day here where we viewed an exhibit on African colonialism and its relation to Korea's search for identity. Since then, she has told me many stories of incredible projects she has worked on- providing jobs in the community through design, and making products for the MOMA gift store, to name a few. Not only is she super hip, she is overwhelmingly kind-hearted- small things she does daily reveal such a warm and giving spirit (yesterday, for example, we dropped off peaches at a new neighbor's house.)
My host bro is one of my future students (how trippy). He is a cute and super smart 12 year old who is a little shy about English but has been gradually coming out of his shell. He also knows how make robots and 3D designs...
Last but not least, my host sister Haeyun is my best fr
iend here. I can say that definatively because we made a best friend handshake and wrote "cool friends!" on eachothers' feet. I am so grateful for her presence. She eases a lot of tensions by being adorable and speaking awesome English, but she also is a great companion. She comes into my room a lot to read and play and yesterday she even came in to read a bedtime story. I never had the chance to be a big sister and I am reveling in this one!
The first day I was here I was hit with the shock of being back in a family home. Walking with my host mom around a department store on the first day, I was taken back to trips with my mom when I was a pre-teen and felt alternately homesick and resistant to being stripped of my new-found grown up independence. However, as I have stayed longer and worked to open myself up to this opportunity, it's easy to see how much I will be able to learn by living with a host family. They are amazingly welcoming and inclusive and have already invited me on several trips to Busan, their family farm, and other locations in Korea. They have gone above and beyond to show me points of interest in Daegu, provide me with vegetarian food, and even took me to CostCo to find American food I might want. Seeing as I have only one other ETA in Daegu, they are also simply great companions and I am thinking of them as an interesting set of "roommates" from which I learn and grow! I've already gotten many insights into Korean culture and am hoping to provide a good service to the family by speaking English and helping to improve their childrens' speaking abilities.
This is also a good practice for me in being open and aware of others- it is so easy when living independently (especially in New York,) to be come a little closed off and self-interested, so I hope to grow as community member in this setting.
I forgot to mention that my family lives in the nicest complex in Daegu- so my view from their 50th floor apartment is unreal!
Today, I'm very grateful for this placement and for the opportunities here that are unfolding. I hope that I can give back as much as I have recieved.
I'll keep you updated!
Best,
Maeve