My Homestay Family

So upon arrival a very pretty blond walks up to me and gives me two kisses, one on each cheek, and tells me, "Bienvieda" or welcome, to us English folks.  I figured she must be my "host mama" Eva, and knew for sure when she asked "Que tal Nikki?" or, how are you, with a paper in her hand with my picture and name on it.  She is energetic and very excited to have me stay with her and her family.  We took a taxi back with another student, Anna, and her host mama Lina because we live so close to one another.

Once we got to the apartment I got to meet some of the other family members. Pictured below is my street with the entrance to the apartment complex directly in the middle.  The flat is on the first level (which is actually second level to us, but they use 0 to describe the base floor of places here).

 Everything is sectioned off with a door, not open concept like HGTV wants everyone to love back home.  It is very clean and my room is cute, with some art, a mirror on my drawer, a little ikea closet, a desk and bed with a lamp.  The other guest room had blue walls, even though it is closer to the rest of the house, they were scared that I would have an allergic reaction to the paint on the walls.  It was the cutest yet most confusing thing to explain my blue dye allergy to Eva and Arturo, they even bought new cleaning supplies to make sure nothing would bother me.

Arturo is Eva's husband and grew up in a small town in the "middle of nowhere" as he likes to say.  Because of that his accent is rather thick and we tend to use google translator to make sure we are on the same page for things.  Thank goodness it is so easy to access and use.  Paula is their two-year-old daughter, and she is beautiful.  I can tell now that she will be a real heart breaker when she grows up,  hope they are ready for that!  Though she is shy and didn't want to be alone with me the first few days now her and I will watch TV or play keep away with a balloon and their dog Scooby (a mini pinscher). Her laugh will just brighten your whole day and when her big, bright, blue eyes look up at you, your only choice is to smile and laugh with her. Jorge is their older son, he is thirteen and doesn't leave his room much but he is always polite to me on our chance encounters.

One thing I did notice is that you will never see someone barefoot, not even in their own home.  Not knowing this I did not pack any slippers (I tend to only wear them in winter back home anyway) and right away Eva told me I would get sick without shoes on.  As someone who lives close to the beach back home I was a bit surprised by what she thought was a true fact.  So of course I went out a day or so later to buy myself some slippers, Eva even approves of my color choice (purple of course).  So now all is right in the world and house hold of my home stay.

Another little side note: I am not the first person to have stayed here as a study abroad student.  It seems to me that the first person and I are worlds apart which at times leaves Eva and Arturo confused, as they assumed most (if not all) American girls were similar to her.  They were very surprised when I liked the way they make coffee because it is so much stronger than how "most Americans" drink it.  However, thanks to my daddy I almost exclusively drink strong coffee so to me it was just normal coffee.  I also am not one to party to six in the morning every night, another shock, just goes to show you, meeting one person from another country and cultural will never give you an adequate representation of the people from it.

That's all for now darlings!

Until next time,
Little Red