Home is Wherever There is Food
By Grace Carballo ‘17
People always say that the best way to really immerse yourself in a new country is to live with a homestay family, especially when you’re trying to learn a new language. And I’m going to have to agree with the masses on this one, though at first I had my doubts.
On my journey towards becoming low-maintenance, living in someone else’s home is probably both the biggest help and greatest challenge. You never realize how much you go to your fridge or cabinets and just peruse and maybe graze a little until you’re living in someone else’s house and don’t feel comfortable being the free-spirited glutton your family knows and tolerates. Also with your own family, it’s a whole lot easier to turn down what’s being served and opt for a PB&J or something more appetizing, especially if you’re a vegetarian like myself.
At first, I was super nervous about being a vegetarian here, probably because in the orientation the program alums, without provocation, declared, “If you’re a vegetarian *chuckles*, good luck!” By some stroke of good fortune, and probably also because I indicated I didn’t eat meat on my application, I was placed in a home where they have a vegetarian daughter and rest assured, I am eating well.
In a homestay, you get to know your neighborhood and host city a lot better than living alone- another awesome perk. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m trying to become a local at this café by my house, both because I have a coffee addiction and also because it has a great ambience. I may have even started calling myself “a regular” and dubbing it “my café”, but I was quickly knocked off that high horse when I tried to study with my friend Leanna there and we couldn’t find it.
It was literally there one day and gone the next. Now I know they’re closed on Mondays, but it really cramped my style. We needed wifi (pronounced wee-fee in Spain) for our midterm projects and went to two separate Starbucks where it wasn’t functioning AND where they didn’t accept my gift cards. This was an exceptionally low blow because I had already started drafting in my head a post about how gift cards are the universal currency like math is the universal language. All of this almost made me late to my cita with Ignacio, my 68 year old amigo, and it led me to the realization that I’m going to need a lot more time here before I figure things out, but it sure was cute that I thought I was at that level already.
Now that I’ve been living with the host family for three weeks, I am super attached and I express this to them often to the best of my abilities. A few days ago, I was telling my host mom, Carmen, that she’s the best and she just laughed and asked why. I answered with a simple explanation because I have the verbal skills of a Spanish toddler, but she’s the best because she is so patient, so helpful, and literally sustaining me. Since Carmen doesn’t speak English, she always speaks slowly to me and especially with words in the kitchen, will point to things and tell me what they’re called. She asked my roommate, Caroline, and I to go the grocery store for 4 “berenjenas” and we had absolutely no clue what that meant. After she explained it a little and sort of mimed the shape, I caught on and showed her my phone. “Tengo un emoji”, I beamed and proudly pointed to the eggplant graphic, which turns out is the right one. Once again emojis have helped me to communicate what words just couldn’t.
Here’s the dish Carmen made with the berenjenas; they really were divine. I tell her all the time that she’s a better cook than my mom at home and she is too humble to accept this as a truth, but I know Mom wouldn’t mind and would in fact, agree.
Carmen also laughs at me because I’m obsessed with these really little spoons they have, I think for coffee, but I use them and their little forks when I eat my meals. If I’m being honest, it’s because the meals here, especially lunch, are so long, and I’m too fast of an eater for this stop-and-smell-the-roses lifestyle, so the little silverware forces me to slow down and I’m still the first one done usually. I told her when she asked about it it’s because “Me gusta sentir como un gigante” or that “I like to feel like a giant”, which in retrospect probably makes me sound like some sort of oddball but she’s accepted this about me, because that’s just what moms do.
I hate to make things all sappy, because that’s the worst thing about climbing a pine tree, but I really do feel blessed to have my amazing family waiting for me back home and an amazing family looking out for me and loving me here. I’ve already begun drafting plans for how we could all one day meet up for a family reunion/ gathering of people I like a lot. There will be a chocolate fountain.
- Grace
