Saturday, January 23, 2010

Talking with Turtles




Today was an exciting day because I moved in with my host family. The dog’s name is Baxter and there’s a parakeet living in the kitchen. I live in the area Triana and it’s actually quite a long way from the city center…about a 30 minute walk. I was immediately bombarded with questions about my life, family, food preferences, etc. by my senora and was completely overwhelmed. Everything was going so fast I could barely catch anything at all. I’m sure everything made perfect sense but every word sounded like it could be one of about 4 or 5. Here’s an example of me translating the Spanish of my senora: “Do you like dogs? Our dog spends much time maintaining trees in our stores and we use little soap to cook with.” Or: “Our son Santiago plays soccer in his room but never eats standing up in the park.” My jumbled Spanish was embarrassing but Dolores and Antonio were very complimentary and I they continue to be incredibly caring towards me.

I have a great room with a bed, desk, and dresser, but overall I was surprised at the size of the apartment. The only rooms are a living room/dining area, my room, that of Santiago, a kitchen, closet, bathroom, and a room for Dolores and Antonio. I think it speaks to the arrogance and abundance we cling to so tightly in America that the thought did cross my mind I was living with poor people. However, that is not the case whatsoever; life is just more compact.

I can tell that a highlight of my semester will definitely be going to the bathroom because I discovered that there are four turtles living in basins there. It’s the best restroom company I’ve ever had. The funniest part about it was that I asked Antonio, a man who cares for four turtles in his bathroom, what their names were, and he looked at me with surprise and asked, “Why would you ever name a turtle?”


I spent a lot of time hanging out with Santiago down on the street corner and meeting his friends. It’s a little awkward because I don’t smoke and smoking is social activity number one here, but his friends were all very cool and thought I was quite amusing (probably laughing at me, not with me).

I was late for my oral evaluation to determine what classes I’m eligible to take because lunch lasted about 2 hours. Dolores brought me more and more food and I could not tell her in good enough Spanish that I had to leave. I learned very quickly that although men dominate life outside the house, women wear the pants inside and the way of the house is the way of the senora. It’s interesting that Antonio does most of the cooking but Dolores does most cleaning.

At night my orientation group went out for tapas and drinks and I almost missed out because I lost track of time and had to run to the meeting point, looking like a classic American idiot. But similar to the night before, dinner was a lot of fun and it’s very easy to get into buying multiple dishes and sharing between everyone. The sangria was sweet and the food very good, and afterwards the guides took us to the Plaza del Salvador, which is a square of a couple bars, ironically surrounded by old churches. I had my first conversation with random Spaniards…it was rough but I found it a little easier to talk to people my own age.


Next came two more bars, one of which was bartended by the son of a host couple for our program, and as I knew the girl who lives with them, drinks were free all night. Nothing crazy but by about 2am (which is early here), I found myself a little borracho, and headed home. The bars were fun but I must say it was a little disappointing that the music they played included eminem, the bee gee’s, and even Miley Cyrus.

Random note of the night: Met two businessmen from Granada who desperately wanted me to introduce them to the girls I was with. The guys turned out to be 34 and 36 and not wanting to be a possible kidnapping accomplice, I told them I didn’t know the girls well enough.

Back at my apartment, I’m tired and ready for bed. Overall: Un exito.

1 comment:

  1. Counting down the days till the Dog Blog is unveiled. If what the critics are saying is right, it's going to blow us away...

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