My head sort of hurts this morning. I've been living a life of English, German, Spanish, and Greek. Obviously we are, umm, rather surrounded by German these days. I also speak my broken Spanish to Jack (my fluency level is about on par with a 16-month-old student), and his mom sometimes speaks Greek to him. Due to a recent burst of ambition, I had been studying my German phrase book but now I have to switch gears and get back into the Spanish mode.
In a few hours, I'm going to board a plane for Madrid and visit my old host family. These are the peeps I lived with seven years ago. In exchange for room and board, I taught English to their 10-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son a few hours a day. The parents truly treated me like another one of their kids, taking me to dance recitals, Christmas dinner, and family celebrations. They even had a Thanksgiving dinner for me so that I wouldn't be too sad about missing out on the festivities back home.
Point is, they are awesome and I cannot wait to see them again.
I've visited them a few times since my original six month stint but it has now been three years. The kids aren't really so much kids anymore. I'm sure, though, that my host parents are exactly the same.
Oh, a funny thing that I exposed them to while I was there...the wonder that is the chocolate chip cookie. The first time I made them, the whole fam went absolutely nuts. The entire batch (40ish cookies?) were gone in one day. So last night, amid my frantic packing, I whipped up a batch. They are currently nestled somewhere deep in my suitcase.
Eeeek! Gotta go...not yet ready and must have sufficient coffee in my system. Okay, Berlin...hasta luego. I will see you next week!
1 comment:
i would have killed for the opportunity you had at 13. beautiful.
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