Meet the Parents

Saturday, January 15 -- Meeting my host family

Accidentally overslept that morning -- AHHH. I was planning on waking up at 9 - getting ready, eating breakfast, making sure everything was packed and in order so I could meet my host family with ease and a few prepared spanish phrases. Unfortunately, no one in our room woke-up - and before I knew it, I was leaping out of my covers panicking at 10:30. My family would be at the hostel in a ½ hour and half of my suitcase was still strewn about -- not to mention it had been a while since I last showered. Basically, I was a mess! But I whipped around the room like a tornado, stuffing all of my stuff into my bag in a haphazard-i-dont-care-must-not-be-late kind of fashion. After brushing my teeth and a lightening speed application of makeup, mckenna and I took all of our bags to the teeny tiny elevator on the fourth floor. YIKES. We piled it high and then met it at the bottom. As I lugged all of my bags into the lobby, I noticed there were already a few senoras there - it was a few minutes past 11 after all. Almost right away, a very pretty woman came over to me with my picture in her hand -- this was my senora! She essentially tackled me a great big hug and started saying how beautiful I was and other things in spanish that my stressed out brain could’t decipher at the time.

Jorge (my 34-year-old host brother) slipped away to get the car and we walked out to the street to meet him. We stuffed the trunk and then I got into the back seat. I was so stressed from the frantic morning that my words decided to abandon me. So while driving, when they asked me what I liked to eat - I replied something along the lines of ‘te gusta…” meaning I was telling them what THEY like to eat. WRONG-O! I must have made the worst impression. Things got slightly better after that thoug.. I asked about granada, the weather, any other simple things.

Unlike miguel angel or our guides so far, Carmen and Jorge spoke very quickly and stay true to the andalucian dialect--- they ‘lisp’ their c’s and drop their 's'. Therefore, not being an expert in understanding spanish in the first place, this was pretty darn rough.

We got to their apartment buiding and I live on the second floor. The building is very nice -- marble looking floors, nice big wooden doors. And Carmen’s place is wonderful! It’s clean, stylish, and comfortable all at the same time. It has three bedrooms -- one for Carmen, one for Jorge, and one for me --- we all share one bathroom, but so far it hasn't been a problem.

this is my señora's room. every single day she arranges these weird stuffed animals in the same creepy way. she's cool, but i really don't understand this.

There is a living room/dining room where the formal table is set up within a short distance to the TV - as españoles like to watch noticias during siesta (eating their lunch).




There is also a kitchen with a tiny eating area for breakfast -- where Carmen and I eat usually eat.


I brought my suitcases to my room and unpacked EVERYTHING in a record time of less than 40 minutes. I am starting to think I may have underpacked a bit…. Oh well! My room is really nice - I have a window over my bed, a desk, a bulletin board, a few shelves, and a wall-sized storage armoir unit with hanging space, drawers, and shelves.



After I unpacked, I went to the kitchen to see what Carmen was up to. Showing me what was for lunch, she opened up the oven door --- and what do you know? In it is a gigantic fish just sitting in the pan, scales, head and all! Ahhhh! I reassured myself, this is Spain and you’re here to try new things -- no pasa nada.

Soon enough Jorge and his novia Juana came over to eat lunch with us. We set the table in the living room and chowed down. The fish was DELICIOUS. If all fish is like this, I imagine I could eat it everyday for the rest of my life -- which is a lot coming from me. After lunch we sat down to watch Los Cuatros Fantásticos (or Fantastic 4) together. Let me tell you - it takes a LOT of energy to follow a movie in Spanish... so much so that I'm sure my new family noticed that I was nodding off... oops.

Around 6:00pm, Carmen took me out to meet up with a few other señoras and students from my neighborhood. We all walked together to the school, CEGRÍ, together so that we would be familiar with the route. And then we went to a tetería together (a tea house). La tetería was decorated in arabe style and the tea sets were beautifully intricate. I tried té moruno (de morocco) that was green tea, mint, and lime. It was realllly sweet - but pretty tasty!

Carmen, un otra señora, Erin, and myself at the tetería

When we got back to the house, Carmen left and Jorge and Juana made dinner for me. Actually, they started making dinner around 11pm. YIKES. We ate around 11:30 and it turns out that they made pizza... or something they called pizza but was unlike any other pizza I've had. This pizza had tuna from a can and mushrooms as toppings. HAHA.