Let's Play Golf

Our last two posts have been about the very competitive educational climate in Korea and in particular the rigourous study habits of Korean students. However, we are very happy to announce that while our girls, who are from Korea, are excellent students who know how to study hard they are also learning how to play.

My mom use to say to me, "All work and no play makes Jay a very dull boy." As a result, while I didn't study too hard, I did learn how to play hard. So its seems only fitting that one of our "missions" as host parents is to teach our girls how to relax and have fun after they have studied hard.

In that spirit we took all the girls for a day of playing minature golf. By the expression on Hae Jin's and Won's faces you can tell they too have learned how to play hard.

A Time to Study

While our girls are not under the regiment of study described in the "Elite Korean Schools" article below, nonetheless, they have strong study habits reflective of their earlier asian schooling.

In the picture some of our girls gather at the dinning room table with Dottie (as she grades physics lab reports) to be in close proximity to her just in case they have any questions related to their assignments. While Dottie and I are in bed by 10 p.m. it is not uncommon for our girls to be up til midnight or 1 a.m. studying.

All Academics - Is it Good?

The New York Times recently ran a front page story entitled: "Elite Korean Schools, Forgoing Ivy League Skill." The article certainly confirms for Dottie and I what our own girls have shared with us. While we applaud the Asian cultures for their high expectation levels Dottie and I often ask, "at what price?" It's a fascinating and eye opening article that we would encourage you to read, particularly as more and more Asian students come to America for their education.

Start Your Engines - Spring is Here

Temperatures today reached over 60 degrees for the first time this week and the last of the snow is almost gone. With warmer weather soon to come our girls decided to celebrate with a little go cart racing at a local track in Bangor.

The girls took to speed like ducks to water. I don't think any of them realized they had a brake pedal. The end result was that I got spun around and lapped...more than once. In the end their only response was "let's do it again." Pictured here are Hae Jin in the lead car followed by Seulki and Won.

YouJin Returns

Last June we said a hard good-bye to YouJin as she graduated from the Academy and headed off to Michigan State University. When Michigan State had their spring break two weeks ago YouJin headed back to Dover to spend a few days with us, but not just with us. All three girls who were with us last year - Seulki, You Jin and Jin Lee also had a reunion of their own as they shared memories and talked about the "early days" of living with the Brennan's.

Of course no evening would be complete without YouJin playing the piano for us, so while mom did the dishes (noise in the background) YouJin played on.

It's Still Snowing!!

Its March 26th and we have had over 160 inches of snow this winter, we still have over 46 inches on the ground with another two inches this morning. Its been a long winter and spring is nowhere in sight.

With all the snow and ice this winter we have lost power a few times. These short power outages have become the girls favorite times as we start a fire in the fireplace and roast eveything from marshmellows and hotdogs to bananas....yes bananas! As I said its been a long, long winter and we are all desperate for a little entertainment. Needless to say when Diana began roasting bananas we all just rolled on the ground in laughter and thanked her for the comic relief.

Girls in the Kitchen

This past Saturday 11 students crowded into our home many of whom had gathered to bake Valentine's Day cookies. Dottie, very wisely, had gone off snow shoeing while I took on the task of supervising a group of teenage girls as they baked sugar cookies for the very first time.

I was a little rusty on my sugar cooking recipe, so much so, that we completely forgot to add sugar to the recipe and rolled out the dough way too thick. However with the patience and help of Hae-Jin (putting the cookies in the oven) we got the recipe just right and our production line was in business. Almost four hours later we had baked and decorated about 50 Valentine's Day cookies.

The girls and I enjoyed a lot of laughs and flour was everywhere, including on each other - you can't bake sugar cookies without a flour fight! Fortunately for us (me in particular) the kitchen was clean by the time Dottie returned from snow shoeing.

Ji-Yeon Arrives

While most students arrive at Foxcroft Academy in August, some students arrive in January at the beginning of our second term. This year six new boarding students arrived in January many including Hoi Young (see post below) stay in our home for a biref period of time while I finalize their housing arrangements. Most recently, Ji-Yeon arrived at Foxcroft Academy and in our home.

Ji-Yeon came to us from another private school in Boston as a second semester freshman. Dottie and I are just getting to know her, but one of the first things we learned about her is that she is a wonderful pianist, full of energy with a playful attitude in front of the camera. We have been fortunate that all of our girls play musical instruments and enjoy nightly concerts on the piano or violin. While we are currently looking for a permanent host family for Ji-Yeon we are very glad she is in our home and are enjoying getting to know her.