Iksan!

Hey, it's Ashleigh, one of the three girls placed in Iksan. I just got home from our Korean teacher's house, which I think a lot of my friends back home will find strange. However, it was so much fun. After Korean class today, our teacher drove us to her house and we met her 3 sons (who were adorable) and then helped her make a little bit of dinner. She had also invited her friends that live nearby, but they arrived later on. It was really nice getting to know her family. She has a son that's 11 years old and then twin boys that are 8 or 9 years old and they're all so adorable. At first, they were a little shy and hid from Ami, Lizzie and I, but after a while they started to come around more.

Our teacher's friends that came also have 3 children, a small toddler and two girls (one of them was five, but I didn't catch the older one's age). The toddler was SO cute! Once all the kids were together they started playing and getting loud and it reminded me of my family back home because my house was never silent while people were home.

The children's mother is Japanese and their father Korean, so it was really awesome that Ami and Lizzie could communicate in Japanese with them as well as Korean. Everyone also spoke at least some degree of English and it turns out the wife lived in Ohio for a little while! It was really interesting to hear the mesh of languages at the dinner table and the blending of cultures.

After we finished eating, we all helped clean up and it really reminded me of when my family gets together at times like Thanksgiving, which is perfect since Chuseok is right around the corner.


Yesterday, my other host sister came home from living at an art high school. Honestly, I was really nervous to meet her, but she's SO sweet and I had a lot of fun showing her pictures of my family and whatnot. We also talked for around an hour which really gave my ego a boost when it comes to my Korean skills. It made me realize how much I've actually learned in the past month and I'm a lot more confident than I was before! I should probably head to bed soon, but I hope everyone has a really nice Chuseok and is doing well ^_^ Bye! ~~