my new host family!!!

Hallo again! So yes, I realize I’m posting two things on the same day, though actually I’m not sure if I’ll actually POST this today (2/16)… we’ll see : )> anyways, I did so because the two things are so entirely different, that it seemed odd to put them all in one post. The other contains stuff up to and through changing families, but ends when I changed… this one talks about my new host family!!!

I have two host parents, and two host siblings who live at home, then a half host sister who’s 30, but who lives nearby. My host parents are Cristina and Ruben Muller. My host dad’s grandfather was from Germany, his grandmother from Russia, but he grew up in a German speaking community (in Argentina), in a province called Entre Rios (because it’s between two rivers lol), on a farm. He only saw his real dad once in his life, but there’s actually a really cool story about how last year he finally met all his half siblings and half family for the first time, only it’s really long and I’m tired of writing so much haha… anyways long story short, he met them last year for the first time and it was really emotional and cool and like a movie. Oh, and he’s a mechanic.
My host mom is from Paraguay, she moved to Buenos Aires alone when she was 13. By 16, she was married, but her husband had cancer, and when their daughter was 3 (four years after they were married) he died. I’m not sure how many years ago she married my host dad, but they’ve got two kids. My host mom is a beautician, but she works at home… it’s a small business, all through word-of-mouth… she does mostly waxing, but also manicures and such.
I get along really well with both of my host parents, we talk a lot. They’re lots of fun, and I’ve spent tons of time just talking with one or both of them, about all kinds of things. My host dad plays the harmonica, and we were playing around with his harmonica and my flute, playing songs we both know, though I don’t know many pieces by heart on the flute… singing, I do by ear, but for the flute I need music. We’ve talked about practically every random topic imaginable… movies, books, the holocaust, wars, funny family stories… it’s cool, cuz with them we talk a lot more about my life here and stuff… riding, French, and all, instead of just about my life in the States, which I’m really thankful for.
The daughter from her first marriage, Veronica Laura (Vero) is 30, and lives nearby. She’s divorced, but has 2 small kids, who’re adorable. Vero is studying to be a make-up artist, but also sells make-up and lingerie and stuff from catalogues. She’s incredibly nice, cracks me up. She’s tiny, you’d never know she’s 30, but great fun to talk to. She and Vicky are really close too, which is cool.
Vicky is 18, and has always been one of my closest friends here, mainly because she lived 5 blocks away, but we get along really well, talk about EVERYTHING; like I said, the first night we were up talking until 6am, and since then, cuz she works late a lot of nights and doesn’t get home until 1am or 2am, we end up going to sleep really late; she hates just coming home from work and going to sleep. That makes sense and all, just means we end up going to sleep at 3 or even 4am some nights lol, but whatev it’s all fun. She works at McDonalds, and when her college starts, she’ll go to school in the morning, and work in the afternoons.
With Vicky comes her boyfriend, Facu. It’s almost like I’ve got another host brother, cuz I see him practically every day. He works too, but I doubt he’ll go to college, if only because he doesn’t have the money. He’s also a huge soccer fan/player… he’s in training right now to try out for the professional team from this area (not one of the huge teams from the capital, Boca Juniors or River Plate, though I think it’s the same league). He’s lots of fun, gets along really well with her brother, Niko.
Niko’s 15… I didn’t really know him before I came here, but the first two days when Vicky worked all day, I spent most of the day with him, and we’ve gotten along really well. He goes to the technical school connected with the Ford auto factory… it’s cool cuz when he graduates, with the diploma from this school, even if he doesn’t go on to work for Ford, he’ll have no trouble finding work. Because of this, he’s really into computers and stuff, duh, so until my computer decided to be special and stop working with the dial-up internet, no one really used the other computer, and mine lived in his room (where the phone cord is) and he practically lived on it, it was pretty funny lol. Cool though, cuz like I said, I got to know him a lot better.
Then, there’re the pets… in the front yard lives a huge white rabbit, that Facu gave Vicky three years ago after they’d been going out for a month. The rabbit’s best friend is a black kitten, who’s now about 10 weeks old, currently fast asleep, wrapped around my chest, wrapped around my neck like a scarf. The kitten (I’m not honestly sure what his name is; Vicky calls him Manuel, Niko and my host mom call him Pancho, and my host dad calls him Gaturro, after a cartoon cat figure kind of like an Argentinean Garfield… though at the same time not lol). The kitten has three modes: sleeping, eating, or running around like a psycho cat… one day he’s going to give the poor rabbit a heart attack, I swear lol. He is adorable though, and great fun to take pictures of.
In the backyard lives a turtle, which I saw for the first time yesterday, cuz he practically never comes out of wherever he is. Then, there’s a little black dog called Daisy, and a huge Saint Bernard called Otto who, I swear, is at least as tall as Cookie was.
So that’s my new host family… the house is a bit bigger than the other, plus we have a telephone and internet, which is cool, though like I said my computer went special on us the other day and since then has refused to recognize that the phone cord is, indeed, plugged into it (it’s not the phone cord, as it works for the other computer). Sigh, oh well. When you walk in the front door, the first half is a living room/where my host mom has her waxing stuff set up behind a screen thing, that turns into a dining room with a table and such, as well as the computer. Then, there’s a little hallway that leads to the kitchen, which is where we usually eat. Off the little hallway, first is my host parents’ room, next to the first room, then a bathroom, then the room I share with Vicky, and then on the other side of the hallway is Niko’s room.
In the front yard there’s a little garden, where the rabbit is slowly diggin a hole to China, which the kitten is slowly filling in as he plays in the dirt the rabbit puts aside, and a small yard which is very nice for sitting and drinking matte in the late afternoon. In the backyard there’s a little covered patio, and then a nice big pool. Behind the pool is a little garden with a couple trees, and behind that a parrilla and various other tools and such.

My life as far as friends, riding, French and all hasn’t changed, though I’m not taking voice lessons this month because the place where I take them is closed… but everything family-wise has, and so far it’s all changed for the better. It’s like they were my “real” family, though at the same time I couldn’t have been with them from the start, mainly because they wouldn’t have been able to handle someone who didn’t speak the language, who didn’t know the area… as my host dad needs the car to go to work every day, my host siblings and I take the bus everywhere, which is fine for me now, as I’m used to that, and by now I know where I’m going or at any rate how to figure it out and get there, and I speak the language. But whatever; I don’t want to have any regrets here, and I don’t, so it’s all good : )> So… I don’t have more time today, but in a bit I’ll post all about our trip to CORDOBA! (see the pix though! http://picasaweb.google.com/overtheequator )

January and changing families!!!

HAPPY LATE VDAY EVERYONE!!!!
Jeeeeez, sorry so much time went by!! Basically, after New Year’s, I really just didn’t feel like doing ANYTHING. I was fed up with everything, and at the same time, didn’t feel like anything was going to change, SO, really didn’t feel like writing. Before, during the long breaks between posts I was at least keeping a daily journal… well… I’m working on catching that up as well. Haha, but whatever, it’s all good now, because just in case anyone didn’t know, I CHANGED FAMILIES!!! Finally!!! Well, actually I changed February 3rd, but since then, everything’s been wonderful. However, cuz changing families was such a huge thing, I’ll write this post up to February 5th, then another, just to separate them more… kk, enjoy!

So.. NEW YEARS!!
Definitely the most amazing New Year’s EVER. I posted pictures I took at the family party – I still haven’t gotten the pictures my friends and I took that night/morning, mainly because my friend who has them has been on vacation for a month. Anyways… the evening/night of the 31st, we all went to the “quinta” that Florencia’s (my old host mom) brother Sebastian owns, it’s like a weekend house, with a big pool and such… they hold a lot of parties there and such. Anyways, Florencia’s ENTIRE family was there, 25 people, which, when considering it’s all close family (as in, nothing more distant than a first cousin), that’s quite a lot of people. And of those people, there are quite a lot of little kids. So, around 10 we sat down to eat the first dish, which was a sort of potato salad, followed by chicken that had been grilled on the “parrilla” which is like a huge grill-type thing (SO good!). Everyone was talking and laughing, and it was just lots of fun, everyone was in a good mood, Florencia’s brother kept slipping me this drink that’s like a very sweet carbonated white wine (really good too) whenever Claudio (my old host dad) wasn’t looking, and for the first time in like a month I wasn’t thinking about switching, or the States, or anything… it felt like I was part of the family.
Everyone finished eating a bit before midnight, then they all battled about who’s watch was correct, and so we had about 5 countdowns going at the same time, and five different “NOW IT’S THE NEW YEAR,” but it was all in good fun. Champagne and “turron,” which is a nugget-ish candy with peanuts, were passed around, then more champagne… and a bit more… Florencia passed me her cell phone, and asked me to call my parents, to exchange New Year’s greetings. The exchange was fun, though I don’t think my parents understood a word Florencia or Claudio said, and though Florencia said she understood, I’m not so sure... Claudio I know didn’t understand a word, but it was still really funny.
Well, this being Argentina, someone had to bring a car around and put music on really loud, and everyone started dancing. Well, everyone except the grandma who was so drunk she couldn’t even stand up… definitely the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone was laughing sooo hard; it was great. A song came on the radio that’s actually an add for a cell phone, but the commercial goes “this is the song of summer, the one most heard, danced to, and sung,” etc, and the commercial, for a cell phone with an mp3 player as well, ends saying “the song of summer is more dangerous than the sun- protect yourself, choose your own music.” However, the song is incredibly catchy (it’s a full length song), and it’s become a huge hit on it’s own, which I find incredibly amusing. There’s a whole dance that goes along with it, so of course everyone was doing the dance… you hear this song everywhere though, it’s totally turned into the “song of summer.”
Basically, just a really fun time. Around 2am, Florencia took me to this gas station/café where I was meeting up with all my friends, and we went to a party at the house of a friend of theirs (I’d never met the guy, but I swear every kid in my grade and the grade above me I’d met was there). SO MUCH FUN. First, there was a local band playing, rock-ish music, and it was good, but everyone was listening, and therefore not dancing… plus, Argentineans don’t really dance to anything other than cumbia and reggaeton. So though there were a lot of people, it was a bit boring at first… so we ended up leaving, and going to another party. However, we didn’t even enter, cuz there were a ton of old people outside the house, and anyway when we returned to the first one, the band had stopped playing, everyone was dancing to music on the stereos turned WAY up, and it was sooo much fun. Definitely the best New Year’s of my life. Around 6am, when it was just too light to really keep partying, we left and split up, some kids went home, then a group of us went to get breakfast. En route, we amused ourselves by taking a bunch of funny pictures, which I promise I’ll put up when I get them. Nothing much else happened, we talked and laughed at the pix from the party, then a friend’s dad took us all to our respective homes… but it was a pretty awesome new year’s.

January… nothing HUGE happened really incredibly worth telling about. Or that I’m willing to tell on the internet more like. Haha but what happened was, new year’s was sooo much fun, and I’d had such a good time, with the family and then even better after, that I really thought things had gotten better. Then the first day of the new year sucked; I was just kind of… disappointed. Like I said, the 31st was like the first day in a looooooong time I’d just felt like part of the family and not much else, then the 1st, Florencia’s family came over again and they basically spent the ENTIRE DAY (or at least it felt like that… I slept in late, obviously, so it was probably just all afternoon but whatever) anyways, talking about the US, telling me oh you’re going to miss this, you’re going to miss that, what do you miss, what is you’re family doing RIGHT NOW? I was just like I have no bloody clue wtf my family is doing right now, I’m HERE. Just let me be HERE. I’ve come to hate it when people go on about oh you’re going to miss Argentina so much, you’re going to miss this. It’s like DUH I KNOW. SO LET ME LIVE IT WHILE I’M HERE AND MISS IT WHEN I’M GONE. I’m going to have PLENTY of time to miss Argentina and think of all the things I miss. Just let me forget, maybe, for a little bit of time, that I’m here on exchange and not really part of the family. I mean I was prepared for those types of questions the first month or so; what’s different, what’s a normal day like for you, you’re family, what do you eat, etc. But in January, it had been six months. And five of them with that family. I was just tired of it. I swear they either talked about the States, asked me what each member in my family was doing AT THAT MOMENT, or told me I was going to miss such-and-such at least once a day. And so, when they ask me about the States, naturally they get me thinking about them. I don’t want to spend my time in Argentina thinking about the States. I love you guys dearly but I’ll be home in four and a half months. I’ll think about what you guys are doing when it has something to do with me; right now I’d rather think about what I could be doing with my friends here or such.
The next day I went and talked with my councilor, and told her I wanted to switch. I was tired of thinking about switching. I was tired of all the stress thinking about it gave me; I either wanted to switch or not switch, but I didn’t seem to be able to stop thinking about it. I was building up a wall between me and the family so that every little thing they did that annoyed me didn’t bother me; it didn’t bother me when Florencia talked about nice people as if they were horrible, didn’t bother me that Maria Paz and I still hadn’t, in the entire time I’ve been here, ever talked for more than, maybe, five minutes. I fricking lived in the same room with her, it was sooo stupid that not once we stayed up talking about ANYTHING, or even during the day just talking. Be it no one’s fault or both of ours, I don’t know, I certainly tried, many times, to talk with her but nothing really worked; and I got tired of trying. I basically gave up on the family, gave up on it working. December I tried hard to make it work and January I just didn’t really give a shit. Me cansé.

So I thought I was going to switch before the end of January; we called one family and they didn’t say yes but they said maybe- they said they’d get back to us the last week of January. So I figured, well, it’s settled, I’ve just got to survive January. Surviving January included spending two mornings a week at the barn, then all morning and afternoon Saturdays, French classes twice a week for an hour, a voice lesson, and hanging out with my friends, going out with them, but as for things with my host family… the wall was there. They still had no idea, one thing which always perplexed me. It seems strange that you can’t notice that the girl who’s living in your house doesn’t really engage in anything… basically is more like a boarder. I was trying to be a good exchange student, I really was, until I just couldn’t, it was hard on me and I just got fed up with everything, so I zoned out, came into myself, put up a wall, however you want to call it.
January did have fun things though; I love going to the barn, and teaching’s been really fun. Where the barn is, it’s a gated community, but a COMPLETE community; school, restaurant, I think there’s some sort of a grocery store as well… I often wonder if the kids leave the place. One thing that’s cool though, is companies, big international companies, own a lot of the houses and when they bring employees in from other countries, put them up in these houses. Because of this, I have students from all over the world- Italy, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Israel, to name some. It’s fun though, the kids all speak Spanish, though often their parents are more comfortable with English (which of course, for me, is fine lol). I honestly don’t think I could’ve survived January without Lucia, the “real” teacher (as in, the one who gets paid haha). Though as I said I hung out with friends and went out and such, most of my close friends were all on vacation or working, so as it was Lucia I saw every morning, when everyone’s generally in a grumpy mood to begin with, she got to listen to all my complaints, poor thing lol. Oh well.
Stuff with friends, the most fun was going out clubbing again, we got in free because the friends I went with, one girl had another friend who knew the owner, so we went first to that girl’s house, and then as a group to the club, which was great fun. Granted, Florencia didn’t know I was there, she knew I was with my friend though, and my real parents knew I was going out, and my friend’s mom knew where we were… yea, I know it’s horrible to sneak out and lie and stuff but I needed to get out lol. And like I said, I was in a bit of a “I realllllllly couldn’t care less right now” mood. There were also more birthday parties, of course… haha there’re always birthday parties : )> along with various friends’ birthday parties, Maria Paz had her 15th birthday, which here is the most important birthday party for girls. The party is in March (I was SURE there was no way they were going to invite me after I switched families, and I didn’t really want to go anyway. Then yesterday I get a txt asking if I was going to be home so they could give me the invitation. I almost died. WHAT IS WITH THIS FAMILY AND AWKWARD SITUATIONS??) Anywayss for her actual birthday, we went out to eat at a restaurant, with, as always, Florencia’s entire family. I actually met Claudio’s mother for the first time on Maria’s birthday, when she came for… 15 minutes to drink some matte and drop off her present. Lol, whatever. Then, two days after Maria’s birthday was that of Florencia’s mother… and the day after that, I was supposed to change houses.

What had happened was, my liason had called me to go to this recreational park place to spend the day with her, her daughter and son-in-law, and her son and his girlfriend. I was INCREDIBLY fed up with everything by now. The family who’d said maybe had ultimately said no, and I was about two seconds with just moving in with the family who live in front of Florencia’s (the family with whom Florencia wasn’t speaking with, and had forbidden us to talk to over some stupid thing she said to them in November, which naturally pissed them off, and then she got more pissed of and it was all a big mess). Anyways they wanted me to come live with them, but that would’ve been REALLY awkward, to live right in front of my old host family, especially with a family they weren’t talking to. I still would kind have liked to see her face when they told her I was going to live with them, but I never got to see it, cuz we never told her, cuz Vicky called me right before I went to spend the day with Ines (my liason). Vicky, a girl who graduated in November from my school, had always been one of my closest friends here, mainly cuz she lives so close, only about 5 blocks away from my old host house. Anyway, I saw her two days before, and I was NOT in a good mood, and apparently she felt really bad for me, and asked her parents what they could do, and her parents were like HAVE HER COME LIVE HERE!! So she called me, asking what they needed to do. All they needed to do was talk with Ines, who would give them the paperwork that they could easily do in an hour, hour and a half. Well, they were all for that, so it was all planned that I was going to move the Sunday after Florencia’s mom’s birthday (a Friday). I didn’t want to tell them I was moving until a day before, because to stay with them longer I thought would be reallllllllllly awkard.
Saturday night I had a party at a friend’s house, and we were going to tell them before I went, so I wouldn’t have to be stuck alone with them all night, and their questions, then Sunday I’d come back, get my stuff, and go… then Ines calls me Saturday and is like nope not this weekend, I still haven’t talked with AFS in the capital to see if you can move. Ummmmm why not? SIGH. So I had to wait another week.
So I get home the next Thursday (February 1) from the barn and Florencia is in a REALLY weird mood, asking me a thousand times if Ines has called me… no, she hadn’t told me a thing. Finally, just as I’m leaving a couple hours later for my French class, Florencia tells me that Ines called her to say she thought Florencia’s having me in the house was too much for her, with the nerve/muscle thing she has, etc, etc, and she thought maybe I should move. Florencia wanted to make sure I knew that she didn’t want me to go, and that when Ines talked to me, that she didn’t make it seem like Florencia wanted me gone. Thanks, Ines, for warning me! XP. Thursday night I was talking with Ines, who had finally told me she’d told Florencia, who then came even though she wasn’t supposed to, and when I went to the bathroom, poof, the whole story changed and suddenly it was me who wanted to go, and my idea, and everything. But I still couldn’t change yet, for some reason or another. FRIDAY WAS THE MOST AWKWARD DAY OF MY LIFE. I was exhausted from everything, and slept in, then when I got up Florencia started accusing me of not wanted to have breakfast with them, going on about how nothing was important to me, I didn’t care about anything and all the stuff they had done for me… when she goes off like that, it’s impossible to say a word. Then they all left, except me and the youngest, and Maria who was still asleep, only they took they keys and forgot to open the door for us (we were outside). So Meri and I spent about 2 hours trying to get Maria to wake up and let us in, talking, etc, so what came of that is at least one of the family members (in my opinion, the only sane one) basically understands why I left.
That afternoon I sat down and talked with Florencia, who was all like yea I understand, I know it’s not that you don’t care about us and what we’ve done for you, but it’s your fault cuz you never said anything, I mean if I’d noticed you weren’t comfortable here I’d have said you should change too, etc, etc, etc… I dunno. As far as I could tell, it was pretty obvious I wasn’t doing well. Everyone kind of lives in their own little world there, so it didn’t surprise me much that they didn’t have any clue, but… I don’t think that was my fault. Friday finally ended, and I got up Saturday to go to the barn, where I was until around 5pm, when Ines told me to go home with Lucia, and wait at Lucia’s house until 7, then come and talk with her. I was with her for 2 hours, which were horrible. She was going on about how she wasn’t sure when I was going to change, she didn’t think I could change Sunday (I was supposed to have changed Saturday afternoon), that it was going to be a long and hard switch, that she was making an exception for me because, really, AFSers don’t switch families unless the problem is really big. I was about to explode. I looked at her I was like DO I LOOK OK TO YOU?!?!?!?!? Only I didn’t say anything. Cuz that wouldn’t have helped. GOD I wanted to kill her though. So the long and short was, we were going to have dinner with her, my old host family, AND Vicky. I was like wtf is with the awkward situations here?!?!? UGH.
Well, it turned out… I dunno what word to use. On the way over, I asked Ines, in ALL SINCERITY, WHEN SHE THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO MOVE. She replied, maybe Sunday, but she wasn’t sure yet; she had to see how things went that night. Only Florencia and Meri (the youngest) were there; Claudio had to work, and the other girls were at friends’ houses. Vicky came with her boyfriend, and everyone talked about everything that had nothing to do with me or with changing families. So. Half way through dinner, Ines leans over and tells me “so… you’re actually going to switch tonight. Afer dinner, go to your room and pack all your stuff, then I’ll take you over to Vicky’s.” what?!? Ummm ok… I was really excited to move, but… all I could think of was all the CRAP she’d been saying two hours earlier!! It wasn’t that she’d changed her mind; everyone else knew I was leaving that night, except me! They’d known all day! Ines had been going on about how she wanted everyone to be happy, she’d been lecturing me on appearing happy and relaxed at dinner, and I knew that was why she’d lied to Florencia at first so… sorry if I’m totally missing something here, what was the point in lying to me?? If she wanted me to be happy and relaxed, TELL ME I’M SWITCHING. I really really really wanted to kill her. SIGH. So I moved! At 10pm Saturday February 3rd I finally got to Vicky’s. However, I’d packed so quickly, I naturally ended up forgetting some things… namely a pair of jeans, shorts, and 2 tanks. One of the tanks happened to be the one Florencia had given me for Christmas… two days later she came by and dropped off the clothes, all but the tank she gave me, I found that pretty funny, but whatever, she wants to keep it, go ahead lol. I did like it though. Haha oh well.
When I finally got to Vicky’s house, her mom (Cristina) gave me a big hug and was like finally!! Then when her brother (Niko) came home he was like hermanita!! (little sister) which didn’t really make sense cuz aside from being at least a head taller, I’m also older than him lol but whatever. It was pretty hot out, so aside from my host mom, we all got in the pool, until around 1am when we ordered ice cream. My host parents then went to bed (my host dad’s name is Ruben), and Vicky, Facu (her boyfriend), Niko and I watched a movie, Facu went home, and Vicky and I stayed up talking until 6am… pretty awesome night : )> It was just such a stark difference… you maybe think well was it really so bad with the Grij family? And it’s just more that… it’s just so much better with the Muller family. Anyways, I’ll leave this post here, and write a second about my first two weeks with my new family. Ttyl xoxoxoxo!!