2003-08-19 - 6:12 p.m.
I drank my first bag of juice today.
Technically, it is an agua de fruta which is different from jugo, though I'm not sure how. Not so technically, it is served in a clear plastic bag with a straw.
You can buy one in a cup. And normally, they ask which I want because I am a fer-ner. But today she just handed me the bag. So I walked home from school with a cold bag of juice in my hand.
The house I'm staying in has:
1 senora
1 senor
1 hermano (brother of the senora)
2 hijos (sons)
1 nieto (grandson)
3 estudiantes
2 turistas
1 full bathroom
1 half bathroom
The senora is very tiny and old. She wears bright pink blush and speaks a squeaky baby Spanish. I can't understand a word of it. Barely see the senor. Once a week at most.
Number 1 son is Paco. He is very nice. He is in charge of breakfast. Owns lots of Jesus shirts. The spitting image of the senor but he's always around. Emilio is his son. He plays soccer. That's about all I know of him.
Number 2 son is Victor. Victor listens to the same cheesy disco song over and over again at top volume while he's getting ready to go out. Which is always. His room is right next to the bathroom and he often leaves the door slightly ajar. I have seen him pull on his pants more times than I care to recall. Yes, he wears his chest hair as an accessory, shirt unbuttoned to the belly.
The brother is Fernando. He's got the saddest eyes I ever saw. A retired teacher, he spends most of his days riding the bus around town. No lie. He always eats with the students. The rest of the family does not. Fernando is very nice and helpful with Spanish but his breath is godawful.
Caroline from Vegas and Ani from Minnesota are fellow Spanish students. Caroline is a pre-med student. She is very enthusiastic. Has had the same boyfriend since high school. He's a musician. Reminds me of me at that age. Yikes! We go to salsa lessons together.
Ani is tiny, wee even, and but has this incongruously deep, mellow voice. She seems a little high, even when she says 'You're stressing me out.' She's training to be an opera singer and studying to be a dietician. Strawberry blonde hair and outrageously big blue eyes. Victor (Son #2) tells her they are very expressive. She says 'Victor is nice, but ...'
The 2 turistas slipped in and out of the house almost unnoticed. You could hear them on the stairs sometimes if you listened closely enough. Later they were replaced by another student, Soodie, a social worker from Oakland. She's Persian, an exotic beauty. We don't hang out much but I like looking at her. She's got incredible cheek bones, full lips, and a mass of black curly hair streaked with red and blonde.
Most of the students at the Spanish school are alot younger than me. It could be a drag if any of us cared too much about it, but nobody seems to.
I met Ryan at a movie, Eraserhead actually. Cute blond guy sitting next to me. I was sure he was after one of the many college lasses around. The next night, at salsa class, he actually left a really pretty German girl to dance with me. Yay me! We went out for drinks afterwards and hiking the next day. He's really nice, very straight laced, smart, etc. Also divorced.
