Tutorium student Sang Hyuk Lee signed-up for the Thanksgiving Homestay Program this Fall 2008 Session. The Thanksgiving Homestay is a wonderful program hosted every year by the International House organization located on the University of Chicago campus here on the south side of Chicago (very close to president-Elect Barack Obama’s home). The International house has invited Tutorium students to participate in the Thanksgiving Homestay program for over 20 years. The program gives TIE students a unique opportunity to live with an American family from a small town or city outside of Chicago for 4 nights over the Thanksgiving holiday. Mr. Lee was assigned to a Family from a place called Prophetsown. Prophetstown is a tiny farming community about 2 hours west of the Tutorium. Sang Hyuk Lee just completed Level 3 at the Tutorium and he will begin Level 4 in January 2009. The following is an interview with him about his Thanksgiving Homestay experience: QUESTION: “Did you like going on the Thanksgiving Homestay” ANSWER: “Of course, yes. You can feel native Americans open mind. Some countries have no kind of open mind. By open mind I mean acceptance of differences. Just living in a house of an American family is different. My hosts accepted everything about our differences and accepted me. And that is the most important thing in this Homestay program”. QUESTION: “What was your host family like?” ANSWER: “Their names were Gale and Janet Goodell. They were an older couple, about 65 years old, with grown children. Gale is the husband and he is a farmer. He farms with his son. Janet is a housewife and she took us sightseeing and took care of us. We usually talked with Janet because she had more time than Gale. My host family had four Homestay students. The other students living together with me in their home came from Taiwan and Mexico. The Taiwanese were a couple; the husband was studying at the post-doc level at the University of Chicago. The Mexican student studied at Harold Washington College and he wants to be a Catholic priest”. QUESTION: “What kind of things did you do”? ANSWER: “The town I visited is Prophetstown, a typical farming town. We visited Ronald Reagan's birthplace. We visited the Mississippi River and the River Center at Iowa State University. They had a display of Christmas trees and decorations for sale. We went to the John Deere Company factory. The most interesting thing was the farm machine controlled by satellite - like a remote control toy, but it was really big. We went star gazing at night. I have never seen soooooo many stars in the night sky”. QUESTION: “What did you eat for Thanksgiving dinner”? ANSWER: “The most interesting was that the whole family came for dinner - grandparents, children and their kids and with the students there were 12 of us in total. I liked all the food. There was a lot of corn because it is a corn farm. They harvested the corn that day before so it was really fresh. We had turkey and vegetables, meatballs, cookies, cake, pumpkin pie. QUESTION: “Would you do it again if you had the chance?” ANSWER: “Yes. I had an amazing time being with people so kind and so different and living on an American farm. It was totally perfect vacation and good chance to learn about American traditional holiday. I strongly recommend taking part in this program. Some students don't want to be burden to other people. They may think that they might cause host family trouble. And they may come from a different culture that would never let an unknown person live in their house. Honestly, I felt that way. But now, I can say that it was the most exciting experience in my life. I believe you would say so, too". The photo below shows Sang Hyuk with his host family and other students. Sang Hyuk is on the far right.