Sunday Mornings

I love Sunday mornings. Hee Won, Sung Chan and I have created a new routine of playing games, making breakfast and relaxing together all morning. Living in a homestay is a constant reminder that big brother is watching. I have to appropriately wash my clothes, separate my delicates from the other clothes, wash them secretly and hang them to dry in my closet pretending they don’t exist. I cannot sleep in too late because I don’t want to worry my family that I will miss breakfast and only have two bowls of rice that day. Despite the silly things that I have adapted to in an effort to make living with me easier for my homestay family, I have also had to learn to be myself within my homestay.

For my first six months I ate very spicy foods and a bowl of rice for breakfast each morning. I never felt well after breakfast and told myself everyday for months that I was going to have a talk with my host family. Finally, in February, I had that talk. After months of tip-toeing around my apartment like a stranger, I am finally starting to incorporate more parts of “me” into my home life. For example, this weekend I awoke to find two plates of kimchi kimbap (a Korean sushi-like roll without the fish) on the kitchen table. My host sister pointed at one plate and said breakfast, then pointed at the other and said lunch. Her parents were at church for the day and it was just me and the kids hanging out at home. I love Sunday mornings because they are my chance to “secretly” do my laundry and make western breakfast. I could not bring myself to eat the kimbap when I knew that there were eggs in the house. The kids and I made scrambled eggs for the second Sunday in a row, and it wonderful.