A Short Jaunt Across the Ocean: Spanish Familia

As I embark on my last week here in Salamanca, something that I'm actually trying to block from my mind since I don't want to leave, I thought I'd finally write a blog post describing my family here now that I've gotten to know them over the course of a few months. It took a while to feel comfortable around them, since it takes longer to get to know people when there's a language barrier. However they've have always been very welcoming and I wish I could stay longer now that I've finally gotten to know them well.

The youngest member of the family here is Juan my host brother. I'm guessing he's in his mid-40s and is a police officer here in Salamanca. He doesn't live in the apartment with the rest of us, but eats lunch and dinner here everyday, and is generally around a lot of the time. Juan is much more up on pop culture than Lidia and Felix since he's younger, so we can talk about movies, books, singers, etc. that Lidia and Felix might not know. He's also very good at explaining things to me when he can tell from my expression that I'm confused, and also sometimes clarifies things that I am saying to Lidia when either 1) I'm saying something wrong in Spanish or 2) she just doesn't get what I'm saying. He's a nice guy to have around.

The next member of my Spanish family is Felix. He's in his late 70s and is pretty funny. He really likes toros and so sometimes when he puts the tablecloth on the table for our meals, he waves it around like it's a cape. In the past few weeks I've finally been able to understand what he's saying most of the time. He has a very gravely voice and speaks kind of mumbly, so I'm thinking I would have a hard time understanding him in English too. Most of our conversations consist of him pointing out random celebrities on the TV to me and explaining why they are famous in España. Also we confer about the weather a lot, whether it's cold or rainy or what. He's very sweet.

Last but definitely not least is Lidia, my host mom here. I think I'm going to try to back Lidia up in my suitcase and bring her back to the States with me. Lidia likes to show her affection by giving me lots of food. Her newest thing is feeding my tons of clementines while I'm studying and giving me some to take to class in case I need a snack in the middle of my exam. Every time I've gone traveling, she's packed me a huge meal that sometimes lasts me the whole weekend with a bocadillo (sub sandwich), fruit, juice boxes, chips, and in a couple of instances galletas (cookie-biscuit things) in case I get hungry while "walking around." After dinner every night, we have yogurt for desert, and she's noticed that whenever there was a choice, I asked for the lemon yogurt which is my favorite flavor, so now that's always in the house. On Sundays, we always have a special lunch (lunch is the main meal of the day) with calimocho and ice cream, but on Thanksgiving since it was a "fiesta en tu pueblo" I got ice cream for desert too even though it was a Thursday. It turns out Lidia and I have very similar political views, so we've had a couple good conversations raging about Bush/the amount of the budget that goes toward the military and not, por ejemplo, education/the death penalty/the heavy prevalence of guns. They're always fun. Lidia also has interesting stories from the Franco regime that she likes to tell since she was born right at the beginning of the dictatorship, like how they all had to salute Franco in their schools, and how the Americans sent powdered milk since there was a lot of poverty back then. Lidia also has a good sense of humor; one of the tablecloths we use is a map of Spain, and one day when she was wiping it off she said "Look at how quickly I can clean up Spain, much faster than the politicians, look at me cleaning it all up!" I'm going to really miss her.

Pictures of all my family here are to follow once I get around to taking them, but here are some from around Salamanca that I've taken recently. My friends and I have been playing at being tourists here in order to fit in everything we've been meaning to do in Salamanca before we leave.