Our first visit to meet our family from Myanmar was an awesome introduction to the refugee community. We entered the apartment to a warm welcome from a petite Burmese woman and two shy boys hiding behind her with smiles on their faces. As we introduced ourselves, I was quite impressed with the language proficiency in speaking and understanding. I had entered the apartment under the assumption that we were going to be using various forms of sign language and charades to communicate yet we were able to maintain a normal conversation with little or no misunderstandings. The two boys, ages 8 and 11, continued to peek their heads around the corner to observe the new ‘foreigners’ that had just entered their house. The petite women led us to the table as we began to engage in small conversation about some of the cultural acclimations, specifically the cold winters of Chicago. We focused on getting to know the boys by engaging them with questions about friends, hobbies and school. When we asked questions to the younger boy, all he seemed to answer was “I don’t know”. I assumed it was his shyness in answering questions to strangers; yet, It later became a joke that we laughed about as their aunt told us that “I don’t know” is often a nickname for him because he seems to be unsure about everything. Similar to most elementary age boys, they emphasized their passion for super heroes and video games. It vividly took me back to my elementary years when my family owned a Sega genesis video game with games all about the favorite animated characters of the 1990’s. It brought a smile to my face to understand that the cross-cultural balances between American and Burmese children are much more parallel than many would think. They brought out several small books including “Greek Culture” and the “Box Car Children” to show off what they were learning in school although neither seems overly enthusiastic about the books. Although their reading, writing, and speaking abilities are impressive, I can imagine that a reading assignment in a language other than Burmese would be intimidating. Together, we read aloud their favorite book about Batman, Superman and Wonder women, a gift given to them by the previous student working with them. The grandmother returned home about an hour after our arrival and began to bring out an assortment of items to eat including a bowl of peanuts, a spicy ethnic dish from Myanmar, cookies, tea and coffee. We helped the aunt with her ESL class homework assignment that was essentially describing her life in the refugee camp. It was interesting to hear the few things she had to say about her job, studies, hobbies, and difficulties in Myanmar. I am not sure exactly how many people live in the house because there was talk about three additional people that were not in the house at the time. They are such a kind, warm and welcoming family and I am eager to get to know them over the course of the semester.