I met my homestay family last night - I am staying with them for 2 weeks while we´re in Antigua, and maybe extra time sometime in the 5th or 6th week. They live in Magdalena, which is a smaller town outside of Antigua, about a 20 minute bus ride away. I think 6 other kids live in the town, so we just travel back and forth together.
The mother´s name is Olga, the father is Carlos, and they have 2 kids named Nancy (20) and Carlos (17). Olga is really really nice to me, she is very very welcoming and they all really go out of their way for me!
My understanding of conversational Spanish is worse than I thought, again. I can definitely communicate with them, but I have to ask ¿como? ¿como? a lot. I can pretty much get across whatever I want to say though. A lot of kids have it a lot worse than I do in terms of Spanish! Its really hard to understand their quick conversation though, and even hard to understand when they´re speaking regularly to me.
The house pretty much has no amenities, haha, except for a ´refe´. I have my own room which I really like, though. The bed is actually pretty comfortable. The toilet doesn´t flush by itself, you have to dump a bucket of water down to make it flush. Also they only have bucket showers! It wasn´t that bad this morning! REally, its a lot more economical than showerhead showers because you use way less water. The roof is tin I think, which might be pretty loud when it rains. There are 4 rooms, whcih all branch off a central outside area.
It is very loud at night - lots of barking dogs (there are tons of stray dogs everywhere), birds, music, and roosters everywhere. Sort of hard to sleep but I think I´ll get used to it!!
I really like my family - they are kind of quiet and not very conversational, but I think thats just cultural. Anyway, I´´m heading out to the bus right now to go back there for the night.
Love!
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Rosie, We are delighted you have a welcoming family to host you. The language barrier will be gone just about the time you are home in December from Argentina ! I will follow all your postings. xoxodad
ReplyDeleteWow, what a change from Chester, well, except for the crowing roosters, but at least ours are a field away.
ReplyDeleteAshley & Kirsten are practicing hairdos for prom right now. Charlotte just got back from a Girl Scouts bridging ceremony. I am going to eat dinner. Aren't you glad you're doing more exciting things?!
We're thinking about you all the time.
Thanks for starting the blog.
xoMoM
Hi Annie!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds pretty awesome so far! Glad you have a nice family...keep up the blog. Don't be surprised if you see a lot of snippets of this blog in the newsletter. =)
I have a concert on Thursday, with a big solo. I will let you know how it goes.
Miss you lots!
xoxoChar
I really like your descriptions of the sounds.... so different from the white noise provided by the fan in mine at the moment.
ReplyDeleteDon't you think bucket toilets are cool?!?!
Though tempting I am sure, I might advise against petting the stray dogs.
love
Christina
Charlotte's concert was awesome tonight!! She did a really good job with the solo. Dad's on the phone with you right now...sorry Mom and I didn't pick up your calls earlier - we were in the concert (which was 2.25 hours long, btw). Hope you're having fun! Buena suerte, y disfrutalo!
ReplyDeletexoxoAsh