parent's visit

hey everyone!

I guess its about time to update this thing....

This is the last week in Buenos Aires before stage two of this adventuring thing. Tomorrow (Friday) is my last day of class, an oral final that will only last about 4 minutes, Saturday is a ballet performance by Gulia, José and Marí´s grandaughter, Monday night I take an overnight bus for Montevideo, Wednesday night Laura and Victoria fly back to the US. It really doesn't seem real. The truth is I spent the entire afternoon practicing for the final and watching Spanish youtube videos to practice my pronunciation and learn what the youth are saying these days, It was kind of pathetic.

OH! One pretty sweet thing, my parents visited last weekend for a few days. Dad was only able to stay for the weekend, but Mom and I enjoyed the easy life sitting by the hotel pool and walking around and just catching up on life and being friends. That's one thing I like about growing up. The first night we went to a wonderful restaurant called El Establo and my parents got to experience the inconsistency of nighttime public transportation matched with my lack of any sense of direction, but, in the end, we made it there and enjoyed wonderful food and probably the best service I've had at a restaurant. The waiter was actually from my neighborhood, which was kinda cool. (Ever since serving this summer I evaluate every restaurant I go to... watch out world. :)

Saturday we went to La Boca, one of my favorite neighborhoods and actually quite touristy where we went which is called El Camino.  It is full of colors and art and has a really relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed our time chatting with Laura and Victoria. La Boca has a history of Italian immigrants and one of the two opposing soccer teams (River and Boca are the two mortal enemies of Buenos Aires futbol.) Because of this, you can just taste the passion in the air <- how poetic. But its true. I want to get to know better the people that live and work there, what life is like outside of the touristy hours.
 

One of my favorite parts about their visit was Sunday night when they came to the apartment to have dinner and I got to play the part of translator. I LOVED doing this. Something about helping people understand each other, who wouldn't be really able to know much about each other's lives otherwise is freakin' awesome. I loved having the chance to explain cultural things to both sides and practicing thinking on the spot of translations. this also showed me how much more I have to learn in Spanish. It was  a lot easier to take the Spanish idea and turn it into English than the other way around. The other thing about translating that I realized is the responsibility to do it correctly, to get across exactly what someone wants to say. You are influencing one person's perception of another based on what they say. This is crazy to think about. It inspires me to want to improve my Spanish even more. Besides this, it was also sweet to be able to see the love and respect that both sets of parents had for each other without really saying it. My parents left a little more assured that I was in a good place and my host parents got to know a huge part of my life at home.

 

The whole idea of this thing we call FAMILY is actually pretty special. Nothing is perfect but I am SO thankful for what I have.