| Oct 26, 2005 - My host family
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 | | show all 14 | | Sitting down to lunch (my door in far background) | | My bedroom | | Another shot of my bedroom | | |
| My famiy in Cuenca consists of 3 people: Mom (Maria Augosto), Sister (Loly, 25), and Brother (Juan, 23).
I am very happy overall with the way things turned out with my family, and so grateful that I decided to do a home stay and not live in a hostel. I was able to see and experience more of the daily culture (though it is not so different than an American family), practice my Spanish a lot more, and get good insight and advice for Cuenca in general.
The house is part of a 2-family building, and we occupy the first floor. The layout is pretty basic, a living and dining room, kitchen, 4 bedrooms, and an outdoor area with a garden that is used for laundry.
My daily schedule did not change much from that first entry, and the majority of time that I spent with the family was during lunch and dinner, and maybe some down time after dinner. They are actually a pretty busy bunch, as was I, and so I did not do too much with them outside of the hosue. My host mother is a manager at a furntiture warehouse, Loly is a pre-school teacher, and Juan is both studying to be a lawyer and working for an insurance company. My first weekend in Cuenca Loly and Juan took me out with them, which was fun and nice to have people show me around. But after that I spent a lot of time with the friends I made at Cedei, and I'm guessing Loly and Juan probably appreciated not having to drag along the foreigner every time they went out.
Really it was just a very easy and peaceful experience. I had my own set of keys to the house and was free to come and go as I pleased. They are wonderful people, and are very experienced with having students in their home. They've been doing it for almost 10 years now, and they estimated that I was about the 25-30th student they've had. I am certainly going to miss them when I leave. |
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