I could not help but think that she would have a strange likeness to the Elvira of American culture. I pictured her as a cohort of Frankenstein and Dracula that would welcome me into a dark apartment filled with torture chambers and rats. Fortunately for me, my host family thus far has not turned out to be like the Munsters or the Adams Family. A woman in her sixties, Elvira is a happy woman, who literally does nothing but cook for me. She helped me a great deal my first day here. She took me to Movistar, so that I could buy my cell phone. In the first day, I will say there was a great deal of smiling and nodding. My word of choice was "Sí." I felt it better to just agree with her than raise too many questions. Between my flurry of sí's and my constant nodding, she must have thought that she landed a real bruto. Having exhausted the sí and nod, today I've worked on paying attention to everything she is saying. My Spanish is improving very quickly. Tonight over dinner, we discussed things like Europe's perception of Obama and the Spanish Civil War. It was extremely enlightening to have such different perspectives. Right now, though, I'm still a capitalist.
Another thing that strikes me as a little odd is that Elvira does not work. She does not appear to be wealthy, but she has things which to me would be seen more as luxury items, like a Ukranian cleaning lady. So, I've begun to wonder if she receives some sort of retirement check from the government or alimony from her ex-esposo. Perhaps there is something a little more devious within this apartment than I had initially expected.
The apartment itself is a nice, clean, and rather small - very middle class, very Europe. There is not air conditioning, which thus far has made sleeping a little difficult. My sleep has also been impaired by shrieking and moaning from what I have decided is an elderly woman suffering from dementia. Since there is an atrium in the middle of the apartment building, you can hear all of the neighbors. When I return from my orientation which begins tomorrow, I'm going to purchase fan.
One last thing, the name of my blog 'Quiero un Mullet' refers not to the fish, but the haircut. Since most of Spanish men have what appears to be a mullet, one of my friends and I have decided to get mullets in order to be more Spanish.
