Empuje!

Day 5- 1/8

Today we took a bus to Valladolid to meet our host familiies. Everyone was very nervous for what to say/to start talking all in Spanish/doing the check kiss thingy. I am with Erin and our family is a divorced lady, Maria Jesús, and she has a son, David, a daughter, Laura, and one grandson, Marcos. 

She also has two fish that are in a bowl on her breakfast bar. The orange one’s name is Colorina? And there’s a blue one I couldn’t understand when she said the name. Erin and I each have our own room. Erin is staying in her daughters old room and I am staying in her grandson’s room for when he comes to visit. It is decked out with Dora, carebears and story books. 

It is a nice apartment on the 11th floor with three bedrooms. I had to take the elevator by myself because they are very small and I had all my stuff with me still. Apparently once the gates open on your floor you have to push the door open. I didn’t know that and was waiting for them to open and the elevator started going back down all the way to the basement then I had to ride it back up. Note to self: Empuje! 

Our mom is very nice and excited to have us. She does not speak any English and talks pretty fast in Spanish. I understand about half or 2/3 of what she says or just go si, laugh a little and nod my head. Same for Erin, haha. So we're definitely going to learn some good Spanish by the end of this.

We got our things settled, ate lunch and took a nap. During lunch we watchd the equivalent to E!, talked a little bit and watched some of the news. Maria is very concerned with the unemployment crisis. She does not have a job right now but will return to work in February. 

She took us around Valladolid for a bit and we got hot chocolate. There is still a lot of Christmas decorations up. It was in the 30s tonight and is incredibly foggy. I guess that is what their winter is and the fog will last for the next month.