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Published: July 16th 2008
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Antigua homestay-
Through the school, most students arrange a homestay which includes meals. My homestay has been great, although I was surprised when I first arrived on that Wednesday afternoon. When I filled out the application for the homestay online, I checked the box for "no children" and "no pets." Is there a difference? So, of course, my homestay mother, Sylvia, has a 15 year old son, Franchesco, and a "pretty little dog too" named Terry. Actually, neither has been a problem. And I wouldn´t trade the experience for anything. I would describe the family as working to lower middle class poor. There are also other students living there. Now, we have two American college girls and one woman from Mexico doing an internship here from a university in the U.S. Everyone has been sweet and helpful.
Sylvia works very hard all day. She cooks three meals a day, except for Sunday and Saturday night, and cleans and washes constantly. They don´t have a washing machine, so she must clean everything by hand, a job I wouldn´t wish on anyone. Well, maybe that´s not entirely true. She speaks no English, which is good, and has a dynamic personality. A
real drama queen. And she likes the TV soaps- the Hispanic novelas.
One day we were eating lunch and Franchesco came home as he usually does around 1:15 p.m. (he starts at 7 a.m.). Shortly thereafter, Sylvia got a phone call from his teacher. The teacher told her that Franchesco hadn´t done his homework for the past 4 days and he hadn´t done any work in class. It was great to have a front row seat to that one! Boy, did he get. It´s funny, but it´s one of the few times I could understand what she was saying. I´m sure it had something to do with the gestures and big eyes she made. What can I say, never a dull moment here.
Some interesting factoids:
1) When I arrived, Lindsey, one of my housemates, informed me that you don´t put toilet paper in the toilet. OK. What do you say to that? Of course my reply was, well, where does it go? In the wastebasket. And this is everywhere. Any home, any restaurant, I mean anywhere. It does take a while to get used to it. No, I´m still not used to it. But it helps me
front door
It´s the little one with the yellow wall to appreciate what I have at home. I know, you want to know why. They say it´s because the pipes can´t handle it.
2) Did you notice the picture of the showerhead yet? Yeah, this is typical. They can´t afford to heat water all day long, so they have a contraption, and I mean contraption, that heats the water as it comes out. It´s a little disconcerting when you see electric wires hanging freely around a water source with nothing but electric tape holding them together. Can you spell electrocution? And it took a while before I learned how to get a hot shower. Basically, you have two choices. Either you have a trickle of hot water, and by a trickle I mean a thread, one thread, of water coming from the showerhead, or you opt for more water and less heat. Your choice. I go for the thread of hot water.
More factoids later
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yo
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hola.
hola. me llamo esther. buscando un homestay. para estudiar.....voya vivir 1-2 anos... ...