Dia: 11

El 11 de junio

Today I realized that I have hardly talked about my host family and my American roommates..so here goes:

I live with Pedro (mi papa), Magda (mi mama), Marta (mi hermana), Jóse (mi hermano), Marta's fiance, Amanda, and Lindsey. Pedro and Magda have another daughter named Marcela that has a husband and four children, but they live closer to the center.

I will start with Pedro. Pedro is the Bishop of the Mormon church in Oaxaca. I see this as being quiet a big deal but after a little research, I found out that the Bishop is a step higher than the priest, deacons, and other church people.  Nevertheless, it is interesting and something I have never experienced before. Before he retired, he was a government worker, and probably a pretty important one because he now has an upper-middle class family in the wealthiest part of Oaxaca City. Now, he controls the finances at the Mormon church.  In the Mexican families I have observed it seemed like the men went to work and the wives tended to stay at home to take care of cooking and cleaning.  Not to say that this applies to all Mexican families, but that has been my observation thus far. However, I noticed that Pedro helped Magda with the cleaning today.

Magda: Our host mom is cute. Her profile says she loves zumba, not that I have seen or heard of her doing zumba since I have been here but I would love to attend a zumba class with her, which they typically have in the park on Sunday's. Magda spends all day cooking and cleaning, a characteristic that I find very USA 1950's. She does serve the family to the best of her ability by making sure there is always food in the house and cooking all of the meals in the morning, that way, when someone is hungry, she can put the finishing touches on it and serve that person. 

Marta (29): I believe Marta is a teacher at the collegiate level. When she isn't at work, she is usually home with her finance. They are really cute together. Unfortunately, I am missing their wedding, which is July 6th. I wish I could be here to experience that because I am sure that it will be an awesome event with tons of family, food, and festivities. I will have to have my roommates keep me posted about that. 

Jóse: Jóse is 25, I believe and her works at a company called PublyPlay. From what I understand, he works online and does some kind of marketing similar to Groupon and websites like that. I was excited to have a host brother, hoping that he would be able to show us around and have fun with him but we do not have the typical Mexican family. Jóse spent two years in Argentina doing missionary work, which I guess is a lot more like preaching to non Mormons. When someone says missionary work to me, I picture them building a house or something but I guess Mexican Mormon missionary work is different. Last night we found out he is engaged! In Spanish, the word "novia" is used for both girlfriend and fiance, a little confusing, right? Anyway, his "novia" is 19 and her name is a little Asian so they call her Miaya. She has a beautiful non-traditional ring and their wedding date is sometime in December. I also met her brother and father last night. They are pretty cute because they were trying to speak English to us, which made me feel pretty at home and liked. Her dad's English was not great but it was awesome that he tried and her little brother spoke really well. Her family actually lived in Long Beach for two years and then in SLC for 6 months. I bet that is why they speak a little English. 

Marcela: Marcela is about 33 and she has a husband that speaks English really well and then four children. Her oldest son is 14 and he is awesome. I went to the market with him the other day and I can tell that he was raised really well. She has another son that is about 12, a daughter that looks to be about 8, and then her youngest son is probably 5 or 6. He is also super cute. Every time he speaks I think of a Spanish cartoon. 

I also have two American roommates. The three of us occupy the second level of the Castro house.

Lindsey: Lindsey is 21 and from Wisconsin. Her major is English and she has two minors: biology and Spanish. With this interesting combination, she hopes to be an editor for a medical magazine. Lindsey is interesting because she has never been outside of the US until this trip. She is pretty timid about certain things, and I understand why, but she is pretty opposite of me. Lindsey hates doing things alone, and at times I do too around here because my Spanish isn't the best but she is able to understand almost everything. However, she sticks out like a sore thumb because she is very pale and she has a terrible accent. Also, all of the Mexican boys love her. We went to a salsa bar the other night and all of the boys wanted to dance with her haha. Lindsey and two other ProWorld participants are doing a museum project. They have been going to pueblas to collect indigenous artifacts and interview people so they can build a museum. 

Amanda: Amanda is 22 and from Monterrey, California but she goes to school at Rice University in Texas, which is apparently a really great school. Amanda has spent a lot of time abroad, all of which her university has paid for. Last semester she was in Seville, Spain and before that she spent a year in Istanbul, Turkey. However, this is her first time in Mexico, despite the fact that she has a boyfriend from el D.F. Things with her boyfriend must be going really well because he paid for her to meet him in the city on July first, when he will be there to vote. Anyway, Amanda's Spanish is conversational but she  makes a lot of grammatical errors. Nevertheless, she can understand people when they speak, which is my goal with the language.

Hopefully I will have pictures of the whole family to post soon! 

but for now..Amanda is in the middle and Lindsey is on the right!