Moving In

[Written Saturday, the 5th.]
Today, I moved in with my host family!  I did some other things too, like talk about expectations, draw pictures of my fears, and play some percussion instruments (in the morning) but going home with mi familia boliviana was the most exciting part.  All the families came to our hotel around 12:30 to pick us up.  My host parents, younger brother, and sister came to get me in their family’s baby-blue jeep.  My Bolivian parents use it for their job as gardeners.  (I keep writing this in Spanglish and then I have to change it into English.  I guess that’s a good problem to have.)  We live in a part of the city that’s more uphill and close to some mountains (I can see them out the window).  Out the window I can also see a temple (random fun fact). 

Before lunch, we (my sister Andrea, my older brother Bruno, his girlfriend Abby, and I) played Clue.  Lunch was yellow rice, cauliflower in white sauce, fried bananas, little purple potatoes, and everyone else had some chicken.  We were seven—my mom, my dad, my 12-year-old sister Andrea, my 14-year old brother Andres, my 21-year old brother Bruno, and his girlfriend Abby.  I talked with Bruno about politics, which was interesting to hear from a real Bolivian instead of just reading in books.  My host parents showed me that they had cow’s milk, soy milk, and water in the fridge, and they said I could always take anything if I get hungry, because this is my home.  (I had to hug them both after that.)  They told me that food in Bolivia is almost always organic, since it’s from the Bolivian countryside.  They told me about a lot of natural remedies that they have here.  And I talked about being a vegetarian with Bruno, and he said, “Oh yeah, animals are treated really badly in the US, right?”  So of course I said yes, but I never thought about factory farms only being a US thing.  I guess I just assumed all animals are treated badly, but here it would make sense that the campesinos (country people, as opposed to city people) wouldn’t be pumping the animals full of chemicals and squishing them together in tiny buildings (necessarily).

After we went down the block to a little store for ice cream and globos (balloons).  Then I learned to play Puerto Rico, a board game where you colonize Puerto Riceo and send barrels of goods back to Spain.  There were lots of little nuances so next time it will be a lot easier for me.  Next it was tea time!  We ate bread, jelly, and tea, and I gave my family the Amish jam I brought.  They told me it was SO good, and made sure that I knew they appreciated it.  Then Andrea, Andres, and I filled up globos and had a long water balloon fight outside in the street.  I brought my computer to Bruno’s room downstairs so he could help me set up the WiFi.  I facebook-friended Andrea.  She loves singing and can sing every word to tons of songs in Spanish and English (especially Selena Gomez.)  My family members actually know a fair amount of English words, like hot sauce, worms (parasites), and …more that I can’t think of.  Andrea and I played Tetris on facebook, and she destroyed me (I did win once, but the next time I lost 0-20 so that canceled it out.)  Then Andrea and I watched Selena Gomez music videos and sang along, and took silly pictures on Photobooth.   There are LOTS of treasures from that photoshoot.  We came back to the house (we were downstairs in Bruno’s room, which has a separate entry) and showed my host mom our pictures and ate the yummy banana cake she made (with banana-flavored soy milk).   I love them even more than I did yesterday!  

(The internet is turned off right now at my house.)