My Family and the Mexican Cultures

SO I wanted to talk more about my host family since I know a little more now. My mom is very nice. She spends a lot of time helping me practice my Spanish and is making sure I am getting adjusted well. We have a live in maid five days a week named Lupe. She lives in one of the rooms and cleans and cooks everyday. I always make my bed in the morning and when I get home the bed is re-made. She also does my laundry and everytime I walk into my room my clothes are folded on my bed. I probably should not get too used to this haha. The host dad is a mechanical engineer and owns the family business. For this reason, the mom does not have to work. They have three sons. The youngest is 21 and lives at home. He goes to my University and majors in Economics and Finance but he will be studying abroad in Chile in March so right now he is not going to school. His English is very good so he helps me out a lot. But I hardly ever see him because he is always with his girlfriend. One of the sons is an engineer in San Diego so I probably won't get to meet him. He is married and has one child. The other son is an engineer also and is married with 3 children all of whom I've met. The daughter is married and has 2 children. I've met all the grandchildren except the one in San Diego last Sunday when we had lunch at the daughter's house. Every Sunday the family gets together for lunch so I will probably get to know them more.

Right now, I think Im experiencing what they call "culture shock." Other students have said that it's taken them a month to adjust. My mom has been very helpful as well as the International advisor at the University. The eating patterns here are much different than in the US. For breakfast I usually have cereal and fruit before class. Then, everyone including the dad comes home for lunch around 3. The lunch usually consists of what we would eat for dinner. Then everyone goes back to work or school. Dinner is really small and is around 8 or 9. It's similar to Spain's siesta if anyone is familiar with that. I'm really trying to improve on my Spanish by reading magazines that the family put in my room for me and watching TV in Spanish. I already can tell a difference in my vocabulary so I'm curious to see myself in four months. I get to see Kate almost everyday at the University and I visit her in the dorms.

The security at the University is very high. Every student must show a school ID to pass through the gates. To get into the dorms, someone who lives there must sign you in and you have to leave your ID with them until you leave. The students here are generally very nice and I notcied that pretty much everyone can speak a good amount of English. The teachers try not to speak to us in English so we can learn more Spanish. The University has buses only for its students. A ticket is the equivalent to $.60 each way. The bus comes every hour and picks me up at the corner and drops me off directly across the street from the house. Well that's it for now. Let me know if you want to know about anything else by leaving a comment.