One of the most crucial elements of my stay here thus far has been my host family. FIMRC has a group of families in the community that they work with, and I might be biased, but I think I hit the jackpot with mine.
Alma is my host mom. She’s actually only 8 years older than me, so she’s half big sister, too. She’s really fun and always jokes with me, which I understand about 50% of the time. She also teaches me how to cook and do laundry, among other things. I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m completely clueless about real life, and I always want to tell her, “No, I promise I do my own laundry at home!” She also tries to get me to dress up when I leave the house and kills bugs in my room if they’re just too big to handle (she claims she can smell cockroaches.) Like I said, half mom, half big sister.
Gerald is my host dad. He works really hard as a surf instructor at one of the hotels nearby. He speaks decent English, and we have a great thing going where we basically quiz each other constantly about words, phrases, and our countries in general. He really stumps me sometimes too. (The negative past tense of “to buy,” for instance, or what is the oldest city in the U.S. Any ideas?) Right now I’m working on when to use “yo” and when to use “mi” for myself, and he’s working on the “th” sound, which I’m not sure he believes exists.
My host sister Tatiana is thirteen. She is actually the best. She’s the president of her class, and she’s been practicing really hard for an English competition at school this week where she’s going to sing “See You Again” by Whiz Khalifa. I’ve been trying to help with pronunciation, and again, the “th” thing is a real sticking point. She’s very responsible and quiet, but she’s also very thirteen in that she loves One Direction, Taylor Swift, Dance Moms, Disney Channel, and karaoke. By the way, it is definitely true that America’s biggest export is culture.
And then there’s Camilla, who is two and a half. She is stinking cute but every now and again she gets this impish look on her face that we all know means trouble. Her favorite activities include dumping water on the floor, dumping water on the cat, pulling the cat’s tail, rifling through my suitcase, playing tag, and watching cartoons.
We also have a cat, Figaro, who is shared with the neighbors, and for a very short time we had a pig, who we ate for dinner last week. The neighborhood dogs come to visit most days too. As I write this I am listening to the rain on the tin roof; the geckos are taking shelter under the eaves outside, and a local toad is taking shelter inside. As Tatiana says, they’ll leave when the rain stops.
Viajes en Puebla 