Some Family Time

My first impressions of my host family discouraged me yesterday, but my time today with them really countered my initial feelings. After going out with my family and spending time with them in the house, my anxiety disappeared. I went grocery shopping with my host mom and cousin, explored the neighborhood with my sister, and spent time watching tv with my grandfather. At the grocery store, my host mom kept asking me what I want, and went around looking for slippers, water bottle containers, and anything else she thinks I may need. She asked if I wanted ice cream, and when I said sure, she took a generous amount of ice cream tubs with different flavors. My grandpa really enjoys watching tv, so I joined him and we talked about different things showing up on the news (like bullet trains). I feel a strong connection with my host sister, and I know we will have a great relationship this next month and a half. She's extremely nice, helpful, funny, and someone I would definitely choose to have as a sister if given the choice. We benefit each other because she's learning English and I'm learning Chinese, so we converse back and forth using those languages (I usually speak to her in Chinese and she replies in English). Also, when we see something, she asks what it is called in English, and then I ask what it's called in Chinese. Today she took me to different places around our house, and I ended up buying some bread and boba milk tea. She told me that when she bought milk tea in Mongolia, they put yolk in it and also made it salty, not sweet. Tomorrow I'll be leaving the house with her at 6:30 AM so that she can show me how to take the bus to the host institution. I love her and I can't wait to spend more time with her!

I'll start school tomorrw, and the host institution will be putting us into three different groups. The NSLI-Y officers said don't worry about the groups because there is no ranking, but today the host institution teachers showed us the classrooms and explained specifically that one is the beginning group, one is the middle group, and one is the advanced. Based on the pre program tests and the two tests I took today, I think I'll be either in the beginning or middle group, which I don't mind.