American Family Day

Today, August 8, was American Family Day. We all gathered in the multimedia center and the AGU in America team showed pictures and talked about their families. The group got to hear about families of different backgrounds, religions, and styles. Laura and Ji Won's families immigrated more recently than Nina, Kevin, and Tim's families, retaining more of their original culture. Nina's family is characterized by a lot of "mixed" marriages: interfaith, inter-racial, and intercultural. Nina's and Tim's families are very spread out, with different people living in different states, and half of Ji Won's family still lives in Korea. Kevin's family is really small, without a large extended family like Nina's or Laura's. Ji Won has a lot of close friends that he considers to be like family.

The students wanted to know if our families ate together (some of us), who pays for a wedding (it varies, but traditionally it's the bride's family), and whether our parents both worked outside of the home. We also had many questions for them about Japanese families.

Afterwards, everyone except me went to Pentagon City Mall to "shop till they drop"! What did you think of the mall? Did you buy anything? Where did you eat?