Culture Shock!

After thinking I was going to be living with a Señior all week, to my surprise M. José does not stand for Mr. Jose, but rather Maria Jose. This morning she arrived at the hotel and brought my roommate Whitney and I to her home.

Not wanting to offend my Señiora I just keep saying “si.” I have no idea what she is rapidly saying to me, and apparently I agreed to wear her “house dress,” a cloth, long sleeved dress with slits exposing my entire bum.

When I told Maria I am a vegetarian and that I don’t eat fish, she responded with a slap across my cheek (jokingly I hope) and said “solo pan y aqua? es come una prisión, no?” (only bread and water its like a prison, no?) followed by “oh my god your killing me,” over and over again with much laughter. She turned to Whitney and quietly whispered “Voy a poner el jamón en el sándwich el lunes" (I am going to put ham in her sandwich on Monday), but I overheard and much nervous laughter pursued.

I then had the pleasure of meeting her pequeño amigo (little friend,) ya know just the pigeon that comes in and out of her kitchen window and sits on her cabinets while she cooks. Ah, so that explains the coooo cooooo, coo coo, coooo coo noise I have been hearing from my room.

The rest of the afternoon we all sat in our house dresses (dying of heat) having your usual conversation about my Señioras breast size followed by looking out the window so that she could point out all the fat people walking down street. We finished out our afternoon watching dramatic Telenovelas (Spanish soap operas) unsure of whether or not we were allowed to get up.