First I had to make it through one of the craziest taxi rides ever. Think monsoon style rain, intense hail, cobblestone roads with no drain system, and steep, narrow, winding hills. Water was literally gushing onto the streets from every direction. Note that stop signs, stop lights, and lanes are all really more "optional" here then the law. I couldn't help but laugh.... it was nuts!
My host Mom and Dad picked me up really fast. My host mother is Janeth and I think her husband's name is Xavier (need to check). They also have a son whose name is Juan (he's 20) but I haven't met him yet.
They are very very nice as far as I can tell. Xavier is at work (I think?) until 9pm so Janeth has been showing me everything. She speaks a little English and I speak a little Spanish and we're both really great at pointing :) I don't think her husband really speaks English.
I managed to ask if I could drink the water (no, they have a jug of bottled water), if the toilet paper went in the trash or the toilet (trash, of course), and if she was taking me to my orientation at the university tomorrow at 7:30am. That's a lot of questions for someone who doesn't speak much Spanish (though the toilet paper question was really me just dragging her into the bathroom and pointing a lot :-P)! It's challenging but good. Staying at someone's house in general can be a little awkward and adding a big language barrier does make it harder to make sure I'm not being rude or what not.
They have a beautiful house though. I snuck a picture of the living room and a couple of my bedroom (complete with my own - I think? - bathroom)!
It's a stark contrast to some of the intense poverty just a few minutes away.
She was also so super sweet and gave me some crackers:
I think I confused her about whether I was hungry now or whether I could wait til nine when her husband came home. "Ahora" (meaning 'now') and "hora" (meaning "hour") are just so similar!!
Lastly, just for fun, here is the picture of the three girls who got in before midnight last night. They'd all been up for almost 24 hours when this was taken and it's still really cute (from l to r: Shelby, Jacquie, and Sarah):
Hasta luego!
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