My Host Family

Having written about the place I live last night I'd like to take a minute now to write about the people with whom I live. I live with an elderly couple in one of the older neighborhoods in the city. My host Mother's name is Irma, but she goes by Kuky (which is pronounced like "cookie"--I don't know whether or not this is intentional). She's very experienced with having foreign students in her home and is very nice. She takes care to explain things to me when I don't understand, speaks slowly and clearly and seems to take a genuine interest in my life, which I appreciate. It is a good feeling to come back home every night to someone who cares about you and about your well being and your safety. She was also very supportive when I told her that I recently lost my dad and this I appreciate a great deal. If she has any fault that I know of, it is only that she feeds me too much.

Her husband is a quiet and kind fellow, who likes to watch soccer on the television a great deal. I have less interaction with him however, because sadly he has Parkinson's disease, which makes it very difficult to understand him, and this tends to make conversations between us very awkward. I can understand when people speak Spanish to me, and if he spoke English I might be able to make out what he said, but the combination of the two is very difficult for me, although hopefully this will improve as my Spanish improves.

Though Argentines in general try to imitate Europeans a great deal, they seem similar to other Latinos with respect to their families, if Irma's family is at all representative of other Argentine families. This is to say that extended families are much more important here than in the States. I've already met several of Irma's children and one of her grandchildren. And it seems that they come by regularly. The day after I got here we celebrated the birthday of her oldest (if I remember correctly) son Hernan whose son Marco was also present, as well as another grandson whose name I can't remember.

By coincidence Marco, who has the same name as my brother (marco with "s" they told me), is also the same age as my Marco. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mother, but he still comes over to the apartment here with great frequency, and even has a bed made up here with some of his things. He is quite adept at using Irma's computer (which she knows next to nothing about) which is additionally impressive considering that the ancient monitor is completely green, making it hard to make out anything on the screen. Although I haven't been here long, this indicates to me that Marco has and will continue to be around this apartment a lot and I'm likely to see a lot more of him. So far I have not had many interactions with him, but from watching an American movie with him and seeing him around the house when we were both back here for lunch, he seems like a really good kid.