My Host Family

After the first two weeks, I have finally began to feel at home with my host family. The first week or so it was kind of awkward. I didn't want to get in their way or inconvenience them. When I left for school I would just slip out the door without saying anything, but now I am finally used to their habits and lifestyle. Margaret and I live with a family of four. Jordi: the father, Berta: the mother, Nil: their son who is 10 years old and Laia (Lie-YA): their daughter who is 9. The first night we sat down with the kids and they immediately started to bicker with each other. Jordi came in and reassured us that it was ok and that they live in a very informal household. Discovering that has been such a great relief. I don't know what exactly I was expecting, but they are like any other four person American family. Nil and Laia both play ice hockey. Nil recently broke his tailbone at a tournament and will take his school classes online for the next month! Laia often tells him he is faking it and that he isn't really hurt. Berta and Jordi live a fairly modern lifestyle. They have iPhones, iPads, and Macbooks. They both cook and clean, it just depends on their schedules. I haven't yet figured out what they do for a living, but I'm pretty sure Jordi works from home. Dinner time is really the time we get to know them and have real conversations. It is often the most entertaining part of my day because Nil and Laia really get into it with each other at dinner time. We can't understand their fights, but their parents translate it to us and it is very reminiscent of dinner times at my house when with my brother and I would fight. One time Nil told Laia that he would punch her in the nose and cut it into pieces and Laia responded to Nil that he may think he is funny, but he is actually sad. It is really entertaining to listen to their fights because even though I don't know what they are saying, their attitudes change as the fight becomes less serious and more joking. When the sibling rivalry erupts at dinner, Berta and Jordi apologize profusely, but Margaret and I reassure them that we both have brothers and that it is quite normal in our house. Nil always taps on the door and asks us to play Monopoly or computer games. Laia hasn't done that so much because she doesn't know quite as much english as Nil, but she will always give us a hug or tell us goodnight. Jordi is very knowledgeable and helpful whenever we have a question or need a suggestion about how to get somewhere or do something. He even promised cooking lessons by the time we left! Berta is very kind and patient. She does our laundry twice a week and folds it into perfect piles on our bed. I think we hit the jackpot with our host family and our friends love hearing our dinner time stories the next day at school. Two of our Wofford friends stayed with Berta and Jordi last spring so we owe a very big thank you to them for suggesting we request this family!! I think that as the semester goes on Margaret and I will develop an even better relationship with the family, making it harder to leave Barcelona.