My host family is very friendly and very kind. The mother is a widow who has two grown children living with her. One of whom is married with 4 little kids, while the other goes back and forth between her home and his apartment in a city two hours away. The whole family welcomed and greeted me in the living room when I arrived. The little kids behaved so well and very friendly. The oldest girl is, I think, twelve years-old, next, a 10 year-old boy and the twin: one boy and one girl of 5 years-old. They were not shy to stranger at all. Their mother, the home owner’s daughter is a kindergarten teacher who knows some English. She is the one who helps me out whenever I am stuck with my Spanish.
I took some pictures with them and stayed up to watch some TV with the whole family. We were making our best efforts to communicate and to understand each other. For some reason, I did not feel frustrated or discouraged not being able to express what I wanted to or fully understand what they said. I felt very at home with them. They had prepared a room with two beds. From what I gathered from Maria’s explanation, she was expecting two students staying at her home but in the end there was only me.
The first day of school, I woke up around seven. Everyone was in a hurry finishing up their breakfast before school. I had some bread, milk coffee and a bowl of tropical fruits: water melon and papaya. As a tradition of Olé, the Spanish program I am attending, the host family would take their student to school on the first day to make sure they get there. My home is a little more than a mile from the school which took us 20 minutes to walk there.
My first thought while walking to school was how much Querétaro reminded me of Saigon: the streets are narrow and the houses are one next to the other; and almost every house has some business, while everyone in the family stays on the 2nd floor. You would see on these small streets convenient stores, food or drink shops, clothing stores, flower shops, shoe stores, private doctor offices, gift shops, small café, etc. The roads are all bricks, and the houses were built in, I think, the Spanish colonial architecture. Most of the streets are one-way because they are narrow; however, the cars move very fast along those small streets. There are many people walking on the side-walks on both sides. There is a school for rich kids which is called “particular escuela,” and a public school just across from that school. That is why the streets I walked were busy in the morning with students and their parents.
The mother of my home walked me to school. She is a strong woman, and I can tell that the living conditions in this town keep her and most other people very healthy. Why? Because they walk to places every day. What else? Because they know how to eat together with family and take time out to relax: after sun down, the benches along the city sidewalks and little parks and squares in the city are filled with people. They are just chilling with their family and friends, on a week day. More on the lifestyle will be talked about in another journal entry.
It is rather hot during the day and there is no air condition in this city. Heat is always my concern when I come to a place, but for some reason it has not bothered me that much here in Querétaro. It is cool at night: I’d say it’s around the low 70’s. If you walk to fast to school in the morning, you might be sweating by the time you arrive. That is why I take my time to walk to school.
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