After spending two weeks on a trip to Korea, a group of students and chaperones representing the Snoqualmie Sister Cities Association have returned to the Valley.
Eight youth ambassadors and two chaperones left the Valley on June 21 and flew to Seoul, Korea. Mount Si High School students Elsa Marsh, Jessica Volbrecht, Hallie Caudle, Nathan Horn, Christian Melgaard, and McKayla and Bella Freitas were the youth ambassadors along with Mount Si alumnus Wilkins Melgaard, now attending Utah Valley University, and chaperones Jessica Gerber and Anne Melgaard.
Melgaard, a third grade teacher at North Bend Elementary and Sister Cities Association board member, had previous experience with the Sister Cities program in past years as she has hosted Korean students in her classroom, but this year, she got her first chance to travel with the group to Peru in the spring.
“Over this spring break I went to Peru with the Sister Cities Association and that experience was remarkable,” she said. “I asked about the Korean exchange and when that was. I was excited about this whole cultural exchange and I was very happy to learn it was in the summer when I was off school. That’s how I became a chaperone.”
Once they arrived in Seoul, the group spent three days touring the city, going to traditional markets and large landmarks including Seoul Tower, the highest point in the city. From Seoul, they took a train south to the city of Gwangju and from there, a bus to Snoqualmie’s sister city of Gangjin.
Once they reached their destination, the students began their language education programming, learning Korean, and teaching English at a Korean orphanage.
They met other Korean high school students, had dinner with the mayor of Gangjin, and stayed with host families in the city.
Melgaard said watching how the students adapted to the new culture and built bonds with each other and the Korean students was one of her favorite aspects of the trip.
“To watch them build relationships, work through struggles with language and food, heat and humidity, and be so interested and excited about what’s happening next and sharing stories together.” she said.
“It was a fascinating development, our eight students did not know each other prior to this trip, and they really all started talking and connecting with each other.”
On Aug. 6, the group returned to the Valley, changed for the better, Melgaard said.
“I’m sure every single one of them learned something about themselves and something about their world,” she said.
The next day, a group of Korean exchange students arrived in Snoqualmie to begin their two-week stay. This time, the Valley youth ambassadors were able to share their own culture by helping teach English classes during the exchange, which will last until Aug. 24.
Now back at home, Melgaard will host some of the visiting students during their stay, something she found great value in during her experiences in Snoqualmie’s sister cities.
While in Gangjin, Melgaard had dinner with the parents of the children that she will be hosting.
“I was invited to a dinner with the families and met the kids and those families hosted my boys. I feel like I owe those moms the best care that those kids can get, because we were treated so incredibly in their homes,” she said. “It’s a rich cultural experience, because of that individualized connection to you get to make because you are in somebody’s home.”
In addition to hosting activities with the Korean students in Snoqualmie, the Sister Cities Association will celebrate the dedication of a park in Snoqualmie to the association.
The dedication is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17 at the park, adjacent to Snoqualmie City Hall. Mayor Matt Larson, along with representatives from Gangjin, Korea, and Chaclacayo, Peru will cut the ribbon marking the opening of Snoqualmie Sister Cities Park.
