Sorry for taking so long to write-the past couple days have been busy. This is my third day here, so I’ll give a recap of the last couple days. I broke it up into two posts.
My host family is wonderful. It consists of my mom Amparo, dad Ambrosio, and little sister Paula. Amparo works at the Valencia campus of the University of Madrid doing something with finances. Ambrosio works for Ford, and thus gets a new Ford car every few months from the company. Right now he has a convertible, which Paula adores. She does a little dance every time we get in the car. Amparo says they will only have the car for 6 months, but it will probably be the best 6 months of Paula’s life. Haha. Amparo and Ambrosio both understand English, but they told me they will try to just speak Spanish to me, which I’m happy about. Paula speaks a little as well, because it’s required at school. Paula is just generally adorable. She’s 12, talks a million miles a minute, and has a special fondness for rescuing drowning ants from the pool and catching baby lizards. So, the first day:
The flight was long, and my big plans for sleeping the whole 8 hour Chicago-Madrid flight did not happen. When I arrived in Valencia, Amparo and Paula met me at the airport, and we dropped off my bags at the house. The house is so typically Spanish I can’t help but love it. Tile roof, tile floors, and PALM TREES IN MY BACKYARD. Enough said.
Next we visited my school, where we had a meeting with the person in charge of scheduling. I didn’t really know what was going on, but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow (Monday) when I start school. When we got home, Paula asked if I would play Mario Kart on the Wii with her, and how could I say no? Amparo says I have a lot of patience with Paula, and I say it’s because I don’t have a sister so it’s fun for me. We played for about an hour, and I royally suck at video games, because out of 12 places, guess who came in twelfth 16 times in a row? At one point I was on the verge of coming in eleventh, and Paula was practically hysterical cheering me on. Then I fell into a pit of lava. Yeah. On the plus side, I learned valuable phrases such as “Be careful not to fall off the cliff because then you lose a life.”
He suggested we jump in the pool before dinner, and told us he’d vacuum it for us. Paula said she would do it, and Ambrosio told me it’s a good thing I’m here, because Paula has never offered to help clean the pool before. Pretty sure she was showing off for me :) We swam for about half an hour, and then had an early (for Spain anyway) dinner. By 9:00 I could hardly keep my eyes open, so slipped into my bed and fell fast asleep. Everyone is wonderful, and I have to keep pinching myself to make sure it’s real.
Chas here! Spanish houses sound like most of the ones in Texas. (I, too, have a palm tree.) I should come visit you down there ;)
ReplyDeleteYou used to be so good at Mario Kart!! What happened?
Looks gorgeous in Spain. What are the main differences between here and there? I've heard that, in general, things tend to start later there than what the typical American is used to, but I don't want to be spouting stereotypes if that isn't the case!
Anyway, love ya! =D