My Host Family

I am now at my host family’s house… my house for the next six weeks. I was placed with them because they speak French! They are actually related to my residential director. I got here around four or five PM, and had nothing to do but shoot the breeze with my host dad… in French. My conversational French skills are completely lacking. There’s something wrong with my brain’s ability to convert thoughts into words… I can write OK in french; I don’t know what’s my road block as far as speaking goes.

Luckily I can communicate OK. I can only imagine what Brynn is going through. She had two “easy” years of Arabic and her family doesn’t really speak English. She wasn’t that confident in her ability to speak, so I guess I’ll find out tomorrow how it went. Like I said I am having an OK time communicating but they probably think I’m super boring because I can never think of a reply to any questions until like 5 minutes later–by that time we have moved on.

A note on dinner… here they eat dinner REALLY LATE! Like, not until 9PM! Luckily lunch is always humongous so I don’t really get hungry until then anyway. They keep forcing food on me! I am going to gain like a zillion pounds over this trip. Gym membership here I come!

Also, I took the bus today, with Selema (host family’s daughter, 18 years old). Is it bad I feel more confident on a Moroccan bus than I do trying to navigate the San Diego bus system? Also, the bus is SO CHEAP– about 4 dirhams one way which is like… 50 cents? Nice.