Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Another update!

Seriously, Melissa could not be sweeter or cuter, we're having a ball with her! She has really warmed up to us this evening and we've enjoyed her a lot! We took her out to dinner tonight and she ate her first taco! :)

It's really fun to look at America through the eyes of a foreigner. And because we just went through a similar experience a few months ago when we visited Korea I feel like I understand a little of what she's going through. I remember just feeling bombarded with new experiences during our whole trip to Korea. The food was different, the language was different and nothing feels familiar. It's really fun and exciting but kind of exhausting and overwhelming at the same time, so we're taking it slow and letting her tell us what she wants to do. She's doing great with the boys and she's so curious about Clarissa coming from Korea. She doesn't quite understand how all of that worked, I think. She's asking a lot of questions, which is really cute.

One fun thing is that she brought us all gifts from Korea! She brought me and Shawn a beautiful piece of artwork, she brought cute pens, pencils and erasers for the boys and she brought Clarissa a bib (which actually matches a shirt that Jin-Ha gave to Clarissa in Korea!), some cute socks and a burp cloth. She also brought me bulgogi marinade (YAY!!) and gochujung, which is the Korean red pepper paste that is in so many Korean foods. So fun!

One fun thing that we found out today at the airport is that the exchange program provides our whole family with free access to the YMCA for the month and also free ski passes for our family so we can take Melissa skiing. We were also paid a stipend that we'll use to pay for more fun activities. So I think we're going to pack everything we can into this month. I'm really looking forward to it!

Melissa is really sweet and polite and I don't know if it's the accent or what, but everything that comes out of her mouth is adorable, lol. She keeps calling me teacher, which is a common thing to call people in athority in Korea, and it makes me smile. I helped her call her mom tonight and I enjoyed hearing her speak Korean. I don't know what it is, but I just love hearing Korean spoken. I love the way it sounds.

Now we're watching the movie Up with her and then we're going to get the kids to bed. It's been a busy day and I'm sure that Melissa has to be exhausted, but I keep asking her if she's tired and she keeps telling me no. I don't know how she's doing it, when we went to Korea I wanted to curl up on the floor and sleep for a week when we finally arrived. Traveling that far is exhausting!

I'm off to watch the movie with the kid but stay tuned because I'm sure that I'll have many stories of our adventures with Melissa this month. Exciting days are ahead around here!

2 comments:

JET said...

How fun! Thanks for sharing this experience with us. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

My5Blessings said...

Hi Wendy,

Just wanted to wish you and your family(and Melissa, of course) a Very Happy New Year!!!

Michelle