3/23
Okay. So I have absolutely fallen in love with Buenos Aires, and I usually have such a positive attitude about everything. But the television louder than my thoughts has inspired me to write this blogging rant about my homestay life. That and the fact that it came up in class today, and I spent like 10 minutes almost yelling about the drama in my homestay family.
Disclaimer: I am almost hesitant to write about this, because I realize they have deep-seated family drama/issues, and I don't want to glorify that or make a mockery of it. I wanted to document my entire experience here, however, and it's time I had a blog entry about my living situation.
For starters. The television is literally on TWENTY.FOUR.SEVEN. I don't know how my host mom does it. She rarely leaves the house, so basically spends 20 hours a day/7 days a week in her living room, with the television on. By twenty four seven I mean I literally fall asleep to the garbage equivalent to like Extra or some wannabe E! channel in Castellano and wake up to again some off-beat morning show in Spanish. How do people live like this? It's the definition of couch potato but even worse. Think watching Extra and infomercials and bikini contests on that awkward HD network that half plays movies half travel shows.
Other noises to add to my atmosphere are the nails-on-a-chalkboard voices of my house grandma and my house grandma's friend.. more on that later.
RECAP: I started my Argentina adventure with me, my housemate Jessica, my house brother Nacho, and my house mom Gabriela. Our apartment is spacious for four people, with a small kitchen, one and a half bathrooms, and three rooms- one for each of the kids and my house mom gets the living room to herself.
Two weeks into the program enter my house grandma, or abuela. Gabriela's sister had been taking care of her for months/upwards years, and she just couldn't manage having her mom and a newborn to take care of.
And then there were five.
Having abuela around wasn't so bad- she was a chef at one point in her life, so she cooked us really intricate meals (still somewhat unhealthy- think designer empanadas) and spends her down time cleaning around the house.
Having abuela around gets bad when her and Gabriela have arguments that end in screaming fights, which occurs about once a week. Often past midnight or right before dinner, when Jess and I have to come out and walk past their arguments.. Talk about awkward. Also it gets really bad when she fights with... the cousin?
Enter the cousin. The cousin is a boy Nacho's age- we still aren't sure if he's always over or there are two of them who look the same. He sometimes surprises us with a visit, often popping up in the worst of times (i.e. when I think everyone's a sleep at 4 in the morning after a night out and go to shower in just a towel) or when he brings his girlfriend over and it's just Jess, me, the cousin, and cousin's girlfriend in the house.... like what? Who are you again? Regardless abuela decided she didn't like the girlfriend, which emitted a screaming battle complete with doors slamming and everything... oh and this all happened on Valentine's Day. Cue entrance of abuela's friend.
A month ago, or a month and a half into the program, enter my house grandma's friend. On Nacho's birthday, the whole family and two of abuela's friends and one of Gabriela's friends were gathered in the living room to celebrate- Jess and I had just gotten back from Iguazu, so we retreated exhausted into our rooms, but at 130 we heard the most terrifying screaming and sobbing coming out of the living room.
Basically abuela's friend's daughter died in a car crash in Uruguay, and she got the call that night. Like I said before, this is all their private information, and I feel so terrible for everything that's happened, but I need to let this out and I can't even make this stuff up. For the next week, our house was the mecca for mourning, which made it really uncomfortable to ever come home. I was stuck in my room for a while, since it was a storm and I couldn't get out of the house, and Lord knows I didn't want to be around the living room/kitchen where everyone was crying or yelling, etc.
Now our comfortable 4 person apartment has gone from a cozy five person to a tight 6 person squeeze. Abuela and her friend can't seem to talk under a yelling decibel, and I always seem to be in their way. The worst is when the friend orders me around, or makes me leave a room so she can clean... I feel horrible for having such negative thoughts but all I want to yell is "SHE DOESN'T EVEN GO/live HERE" (cue mean girls quote).
Numerous times I've had to plug in my ear phones because either the TV is on full volume or the abuelas are yelling, and it's getting to a point where my house family has turned into a house nightmare.
I've already blogged about how bad the food is, and tonight I want nothing more to eat out, but unfortunately Jess is no where to be seen (pretty sure she's watching Hunger Games) and so I'll be stuck eating a platter of rice mixed with "cosas extraños" or stuff I don't even want to know what it is.
Again. I am having THE BEST time of my life right now, especially in this week/month/whatever it is, but I have to have one blog entry about my housing situation. It's gotten to a point where it's comical. Needless to say I am so excited to live with my parents in their hotel room for a week, eat out at solid restaurants, and escape the madness that has become of my apartment in Palermo.
PS: Our house abuela just tricked us into having a bite of cow intestine. She made us try it without telling us what it was. I almost threw up after taking a bite. Then she explained how it was cow intestines. Now I may just be ill for weeks. She said she'll make us hamburgers instead. I don't even want to think about meat or cows or food ever again. AAAAAAAHHHHHH.
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