Introducing My Host Family...

I hit the jackpot with my host family. They’re absolutely great. Here’s why:

Stella, “The Queen Bee”

Stella dancing to her native folklore music after dinner.

I live with my host mother – Stella – who is the Queen Bee. She’s in her late 50’s, has three daughters and is an extremely proud grandmother of four. She’s very animated, slightly melodramatic, and is obsessed with Facebook. No lie. She speaks Spanish faster than anyone I know and isn’t fazed that I don’t understand half of what she says. Stella is caring and attends to all of my needs. Her passion is her family and she adopted me as her fourth hijita (daughter). She loves to laugh and smile.

Josephina, “My Go-to Gal”
One of her daughters – Josephina – also lives with us. She’s 30ish, works as an accountant, and speaks English very well. I turn to Jose, as we can her, for everything. Whether it’s translating what Stella is saying, asking where to buy bus tickets, or getting the morning weather report, she always has the answer. Jose routinely asks how my day was and we often talk together at night. She also really helps me with my Spanish… one night we sat together and took turns reading the classic children’s novel El Principito in order for me to practice grammar and pronunciation.

Sofi, “The Ball of Fun”
Sofi reminds me of my cousins. She’s in her late 20’s, works for a Hewett-Packard and lives in an apartment with her boyfriend. On a personal level, she’s really fun to be around, always laughing and checking in to see how I’m doing. Plus, she’s addicted to Groupon! LOL. Although she doesn’t live with us, I still see and talk to her quite often. We hang out on the weekends, go to “ferias” (street fairs) together, and when I arrived she invited me out for dinner with her friends. She’s sweet and I really like her boyfriend too. He’s a giant (very tall!), but is also a really chill guy. He plays tennis and invited me to play with him some time. They play on red brick clay here (picture the French Open). That type of surface doesn’t exist is the U.S. so I’m definitely anxious to take him up of the offer! Anyway, I always look forward to hanging out with the two of them. (Sofi is in the center of the picture above with Jose on her right).

Lucio, “Mas Despacio (Slower)!”
Lucio is Stella’s boyfriend/partner of 11 years. He’s 60-something and I’m pretty sure he’s retired (like Stella). Although he lives with us, I mostly just see him around dinner time. Lucio also only speaks Spanish, but it’s ironic because I can often communicate with him way easier than Stella. While she’ll ramble my ear off for 10 minutes before I can get a peep in, Lucio talks slower and often asks if I understand. It’s hilarious when he yells at Stella to slow down because she’s talking too fast. He’s great to have around and we all get along really well.