Today was a pretty chill day...no class in the morning, so I just uploaded pictures to this thing and picked up my laundry. Went to El Cuartito, a pizzeria recommended by my family, which wasn't super amazing, but like all food here, very very good regardless :D and at a great price! After Spanish class, I wandered around to Plaza de los Congresos to take some pictures and then back home.
The evening was more hectic/eventful. I cooked dinner for my family tonight, which consisted of bao zi, some sushi, fried egg rolls (all of which were bought from the grocery store in Chinatown), and fried rice, which I made myself. Personally, I thought the rice turned out not as great, since it cooked differently (a normal pot, not a rice cooker!) and such, but I think it's what my family liked the best out of the four, since they've never really had Asian food before XP Oh well! At least now they can say they have, whatever they may think of it, haha. All the same, they were incredibly gracious about it and did their best to finish it. :)
After dinner, thanks to the beauty of webcams and video chat on Gmail, my families got to meet each other! :D (well, except for Daddy, who's still in China, and my older host sister, Sofi, who was out with friends) It was really great to see Mommy and Michelle :) and fun to introduce my families to each other, haha. My host family thinks my Mommy looks super young (which she does XD)--they even thought she was one of my friends from school, not my mom! Hehe.
And it was so hard to talk for a while...three languages running through my head at once! Haha. I could barely think in Chinese, so I spoke mostly English with Mommy and Michelle, and then I had to translate between my families--I'm not quite that fluent yet XP at least not with all three languages at once. But it was fun :) then just chatted with them for a bit while my host family did their own things.
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So, I know I've said it several times before, but I absolutely love my host family. They're so friendly and unique and dynamic. Hehe. And hilarious, especially during dinner...but more on that later XP For now, I think I'll just introduce them.
I have a little sister, Belen (accent on the second syllable), who's 14 and really friendly. Out of my three siblings, I think I've talked to her the most. Even on my first day here, I got to talk to her for an hour or more, like I mentioned, when we were searching for Treasure Island (the book, not the place XD). She's crazy about Casi Angeles (whose music I also like--it's catchy!) :P I think if she were a little older and closer to my age, I'd be closer to her. I just feel like she's so easy to talk to!
I have a younger brother, Fede, as well. He's 17 and so silly. He's always doing random things or making faces or saying things that make me laugh, and I'm pretty sure it's just who he is XP I've gotten to talk to him a few times, which was nice. He plays rugby for a team in Buenos Aires, and I really wish I could've gone to watch him play...! But they only had one game this month, and it was during my urban orientation that first Sunday. :(
My last sibling is Sofi, who's 20 and works with little kiddos at a daycare (in addition to college). Honestly, I'm not very close to her, partly because she's pretty busy and also (I think) just because of her personality. To me, she seems pretty different from the rest of my family (at least in terms of interacting with me), but maybe she's just not a huge fan of hosting students? I don't know.
Then there are my host parents. Fede (yep, same name XD), who is such a great person and really easy to talk to as well (I think his accent is probably the easiest to understand/least prominent as well, which helps!). He probably helps me with practicing my speaking the most because he'll always ask me to tell him something (but he also tells me a lot about Buenos Aires and other things in return :D). My host mom, Andrea, is such a character as well. She knows a lot of people in the neighborhood (most likely from owning DDesk, haha) and is an AWESOME cook. She helps me with a lot of things (like what buses to take, lol) and is also fun to talk to.
And I can't forget: Mateo! The dog :) aka "the fourth child," according to my dad XD He's a cocker spaniel and very soft and cute. He tends to growl a lot (when my siblings mess with him or when he doesn't like the cars passing by), but overall, he is very sweet.
It's hard to put into words why I like my host family so much/why they are so awesome. I think one big reason is because dinner is so yummy and fun XD (but I'll save that for another post). But I think another reason is because...I don't know, I feel like I just click well with them (except for Sofi, kind of). And I feel like I already know them...or know their personality types? As weird as that may sound. I wouldn't necessarily classify them, but they're definitely the type of people I would get along with, no matter what country I was in.
Like...I feel like Belen and my host dad are the most open to me and the most willing to help me with my Spanish. They've probably talked to me the most one-on-one and do it out of sincere interest. It's really nice :) Fede is, like I said, just plain silly, and someone I would have liked to have as a real brother, I think. Daily doses of goofiness.
And it's funny, because with my host mom, I feel like I enjoy being around her so much because she reminds me a lot of my own mommy...at least in that she's also silly, even though she's a mom. :) They both make random noises to demonstrate things sometimes, and they both enjoy talking about different topics. Maybe it's a mom thing, who knows? :P She also says "Yupi!" a lot. It doesn't even really mean anything XD kinda like my "Whee!", I guess. Hehe.
With Sofi, I think it's harder to say because I haven't gotten to talk to her much. I feel like she's the type who has a relatively short temper and gets frustrated easily (reminds me of myself, actually :X ). And I think it might just be because I'm a host student, but I feel like she isn't as welcoming as the rest of her family (but then again, what is the need for comparison?). But she is still an awesome person, I'm pretty sure. I wish I could get to know her a little better.
Wow, guess this ended up being pretty long! Haha. But I still wanna blog...especially since we don't have class tomorrow morning XP We'll see if I can make it to a post about dinners or this past weekend...if not, good night!
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