Mi Familia de Córdoba (Warning: SUPER long)

The past few days have been extremely busy. All of us got to meet and move in with our families and we also took some placement tests for school. Tomorrow is a holiday....I'm not sure which one...it's just called "La Fiesta!" We officially start classes the day after that. 

I seriously can’t get over how blessed I feel with the family that I was paired with. My friend Angela and I are now “sisters” or “hermanas” as we were paired off with the same host-family. First, I am so glad to be paired with her; for those of you that don’t know, Angela and I knew each other before studying abroad through UpperRoom, a Christian club on campus. By living with her we are able to keep each other accountable throughout our time here, and pull each other up if one of us needs it. The other thing is that she absolutely insists on speaking Spanish all the time as well, so I definitely do not have an excuse to not learn! God definitely had the hand in putting us all together. Our host-family consists of Valle and Enrique (the mom and dad) and their unbelievably adorable children Lorena and Enrique (who we call Quique for short). Lorena is 5 and Quique is 2. Our first day, we were picked up at the hotel by Valle, and walked back to her house. Valle has had many students stay with her in the past, so along the way she showed us many cafes, stores, and bars we could go to. She can’t speak English, so it is a must for us to speak Spanish in her house, but since she is ridiculously kind and patient, it has been much easier to communicate than I thought it would be. She speaks slowly to us and corrects our terminology when needed (which is QUITE often, I must say), as she is determined to teach us how to speak Spanish. Oh hey...that’s exactly what I wanted! She usually stays at home with the kids while Enrique works with some type of commercial company. Unlike most of the host-moms or señoras, she has asked us many times if we would like to help her in the kitchen to learn about how to prepare Spanish meals and stuff like that. Usually, the kitchen is the señoras’ domain, and we aren’t supposed to enter unless we are invited to. Our first day, Valle taught us how to cook “tortilla de patatas,” but it wasn’t a tortilla...it was more like a frittata or an omelet with potatoes (Spencer, she is teaching me how to cook stuff here!!) and it was really good. I have been able to adjust to the Spanish diet quickly...to me, all the food has been delicious. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the Indonesian diet is FILLED with fried foods as well, so I was already used to it (Thanks Mom!!!). A few of the students are feeling sick already because they aren’t used to having these kinds of meals. I mean, we even have fried foods for breakfast; our first morning at her house, Valle made us fresh churros! (not the Disneyland kind, but the legit kind that you get when you come back to the border in Mexico...SO yummy). 

The kids have also been very fun. We watched Dora the Explorer with Lorena (by the way, in Spain, Dora teaches English to her viewers instead of Spanish. Instead of singing “Backpack, backpack..” and saying “Hola! Me llamo Dora!” she sings “ Mochila, mochila...”   and “Hi! My name is Dora!” haha! It’s really cute). With Quique, it’s a little more difficult, because he is just beginning to talk. You know how hard it is to understand small children? And to figure out the code of what they’re saying or asking for? Yeah, well it’s like that...but in Spanish. I’ve figured out that “qui!” means “aqui” (here), “tetete” means “sientete” (sit here) and “cheche” means “leche” (milk) and “nena” is “Lorena.” But he is really stinkin’ cute. 

This is Lorena

This is Quique. He squashed the doll's head. Pobrecito!!

PS: I had to buy a beer to use the internet to post this and check email and stuff...IT'S SO GROSS.