The New Home

As time passes rapidly I now find myself living with my second host family. Cousins to my first host family they reside on the east side of the city. A lovely two story home with quaint little garden in the back to have asados (BBQs) in. They are Armenian Argentineans and living with them is sort of like the recreation of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, well of course except for the fact that they are Armenian. The whole family lives on the same block. My cousin and her boyfriend who is also Armenian live in the house in front of me. My aunt and uncle and their two children live in the house to out left which we share a wall with. My sister’s boyfriend lives 15 blocks away who is also Armenian. And not to forget the grandmother that lives ten blocks away. We are one block away from the street called Armenia and seven blocks from the Armenian school, church and club. All the Armenians’ took refuge in Argentina after the genocide and have now formed a large community. If there is one thing my mother loves to do it is to cook, I feel like we are always eating. The younger generation of cousins also get together a lot to eat. Saturday we had dinner together which started a 1:30 at night, might I add. We took a cardboard box and made a table in the grass. For chairs we cut up little pieces of cardboard. Sunday we gathered in the house of my cousins to the left with all their boyfriends and girlfriends and made pasta from scratch. It was real yum! My sister is named Silvina but everyone just calls her the Chili she is twenty four and very studious. She spent the last year working in New Zealand and traveling South East Asia. She is an English major. The back bedroom has been turned into a study were she teaches children English two times a week. My brother Simon is very adventures and enjoys all sorts of sports his favorite including sailing. He also helps my father with his shoe business; a common business for Armenians according to my first host mother. My father Juan is very proud of his Armenian heritage and gave a fifteen minute PowerPoint about Armenia upon my arrival. He also enjoys reading the back of the newspaper everyday where he intently scans the car section. My mother Patty lives for her cooking and also helps with the family business. I’m very content with my new family. I get the best of both worlds as I learn about Argentine and Armenian culture. Each new host family has something new to offer and a load of new memories to create. As much as I miss my first I know I will have the opportunity to visit a lot.