...Anyways...About that weather...

Our host mom has a daughter that might be in Utah going to BYU...but we dont really know for sure. She might be in Hawaii or was in Hawaii, but I am pretty sure she is in Utah. Well she left her son with Anna Maria so he lives here too. He is five years old and is head over heels in love with Chloe. Two days ago he asked Anna Maria if Chloe had a boyfriend. She said no, and Chloe definitely got some action that night. A big smooch on the cheek. But when she asked him to be her boyfriend today he said he already had a girlfriend. There is more fish in the sea Chloe, more fish in the sea. Oscar goes to school in the morning and gets picked up by abuela (Anna Maria) everyday by 4. He watches a lot of cartoons when we are there and before dinner we watch them with him and try to talk to him. These cartoons are nuts where little boys transform into machine men in the blink of an eye. Abuela claims he is bilingual, but turns out he only knows numbers up to ten and colors. He is real good but not exactly bilingual. My favorite is when he screams at the top of his lungs almost every night "ABUELA!!!!! Buenas Noches!!!" to Anna Maria even though she is in the next room. What a great kid. One time his best friend named Alex came over. He never said one word, stayed near the door and hissed/growled at us while Oscar was running around the room.

I have no idea what our mom (abuela/Anna Maria) does during the day. Shop? Clean? Who knows. Sometimes I think she really doesnt like us because we dont understand anything she says to us. Its terrible because the study abroad girls who were here before us had Spanish majors and were practically fluent in the language. Its like having an older sister who was a straight A student and then you come along as an average C or F student. Constantly being compared. She has gotten better recently at slowing down to help us out and will sometimes teach us some things in Spanish we could say instead of the horrifically wrong sentences we try to form. Today was the best because she basically gave us a whole lesson on Spanish. I think she liked that she was able to teach us see that we were improving from her help. But seriously, just by talking to her every night at dinner has already helped me improve.

Discussion Topics: Typically what I THINK we are talking about on a day to day basis...

-How cold it is outside. She says that it is freezing outside eeeevvveeerrry day. Never gets old though.

-bufandas and juentes which are scarfs and gloves. She is obsessed and basically screams at us nicely that we need to be wearing scarfs and gloves because it is so cold out. Your probably thinking that we are living in -10 degree weather here right? nope. The days here are beautiful with clear skies and perfect weather! Yeah, its get chilly in the morning and at night but not as cold as you would think. Its about the 50's here during the day.

-How beautiful it is here during the spring and how many flowers there are here. And how green the trees get. Good to know.

-Watching television and her favorite shows. She asks and insists that we watch television after dinner a lot. Her and Oscar get into a fight almost everynight because she wants him to turn off his cartoons so that we can watch television. Finally one night we gave in and decided to grant her wish of watching television with her. She turned to one show telling us it was her favorite. It was this crazy game show were you will win 1.3 million euros if you complete the circle with all of them green by answering these random questions correctly. I guess there was a time limit though or something. They talk super fast so I will never really know the point of that game.

-Food and Hamburger. I think she may have said that the girls before them loved hamburgers so she assumes that we are just as in love as they were since we are American.

-Distance to the center of Alcala. She always says it is super close or something. I just say "si".

If you think about it I guess she always goes the safe route and talks about the weather. haha! Either she thinks this is pretty awkward or she thinks that it is probably the only topic we will understand.