¿Dónde Está Mi Pan?

My host family consists of the nicest woman (who makes the best food), and her son, Jose.  Paqui, the mom, is always super talkative, and tells me all about her life, and her clases de pintura, (painting classes) and her singing group.  Jose doesn't really talk to me...it's kind of a coin toss over whether he's just shy or he hates me.  

I choose to believe that he's shy. 

It's hard to tell.  

Paqui, however, is ridiculously nice.  She lets me help set the table, but other than that she won't let me do anything to help her around the house.  I started cleaning up after my breakfast, and washing my dishes...because you know...it makes sense, and it seems like the right thing to do, right?  

No. 

Apparently that is NOT correct, because after she talked to me about it once, she started hiding the kitchen trashcan in the mornings so I couldn't help clean up.  Crazy sweet.  

Paqui and I have worked out a really good communication system that involves a lot of hand motions, noises and pantomiming.  It's especially interesting when we're trying to talk about animals....

One of the hardest conversations we've had so far, is me trying to teach her (in broken Spanish)  how to use her remote control and DVD player.   

Let's suffice it to say that electronics are hard enough in English...add Spanish and it's a regular 'Who's on First?'

But, it's getting better everyday.  So, when I return to the New World, I will either be proficient in Spanish or the reigning world champion in charades.   Too soon to tell.  

Another difficult thing is that I don't know where anything is, or where it's supposed to go.  Paqui always leaves breakfast out for me, but this morning she only left jam and butter, and forgot to leave out the bread and milk.  Jam and butter, though delicious, aren't particularly something I'm interested in eating plain.  I wasn't sure what to do, so I just ate some fruit and went on my way.  When I got home from school, Paqui laughed at me, and told me I was ridiculous.   So, today I learned that it's ok to search the cabinets if something doesn't seem quite right...like a jam and butter breakfast!

I'm learning, and I'm loving Ronda, and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!