Elba & Juan Miguel: Host Parents

Vase of REAL flowers, balcony in the background

our living room as i am sitting at the dining room table

I haven’t talked about my host family in a while so I figure its time to mention them! I’ve been thinking about how much they do for me a lot more since I’ve become an “only-host-child” here. My wonderful roommate, Abbi, left a week ago and I won’t be getting another one for another couple of weeks. I have been an only child for a very short time period of my life, to be more specific April 22^nd 1994-February 5^th, 1996. Not that I don’t enjoy having a little sister, but its kind of nice being the solo kid of the house for once! I love you, Ellen!

Moving along, my host mom cooks the most incredible meals ALL OF THE TIME. Its crazy how much fresh, well made food can flip my day around; I need to keep this in mind when I go back to my oatmeal for every meal-plan at college. Elba spends usually at least an hour in the kitchen preparing the meal before lunch and dinner every day. I thank her continuously for the amazing food, but she tells me it’s because I am so easy to cook for! Apparently a lot of the exchange students they have aren't big fans of any type of sea food, and here they love fish! 

Dinners/Lunches range from pastas, paellas, and soup to all different types of shrimp and fish to the Española style of big erbs and gerbs sandwiches. Its honestly incredible, though I’m a little worried that after 5 months of absolutely no cooking it will be a little bit of a survival struggle once I move back in with my roommates and don’t have my host mom calling me for dinner. What a worry to have! I honestly can’t believe how lucky I am to have gotten placed with them. 

Here are a few examples of what a typical meal looks like:

My host dad Juan Miguel is equally as fun to hang around with as my host mom, though I am unsure about his cooking abilities. JuanMi used to be in a rock band and will play his electric guitar when he has free time from his work! He is also fantastic at explaining answers to any of my questions and repeating things slower to make sure I fully understand what he’s saying. The other day I was really struggling with a concept that JuanMi and Elba were trying to explain to me, Elba got on the phone with her friend who is a professor and explained the problem in Spanish and then handed the phone to me so that her friend could explain it to me in English. Doing little things like that always shows me that they really are here to help me learn about their language and culture.

Coming back to reality I do sometimes struggle with the idea of being somewhat of a permanent guest in someones house. Every morning I wake up I make my bed and make sure all of my shoes are put away and off of the floor, ask anyone, especially my own mother, and they will inform you that this is a hard thing for me! Also despite my talk of all of the wonderful food that is made for me, I sometimes wish I was able to choose what I was having for meals, and eat the food I am craving. My past 42 meals (breakfast included) have been chosen for me. It kind of gives you a weird sense of powerlessness as silly as that may sound. 

Overall I am happy with where I have been placed and will enjoy my next few weeks of only child-ness!