La Familia Real y El Palacio

2 posts in one day...am I overwhelming you? now you know mas o menos how i feel!

I live with "the royal family" aka the nicest couple in the entire world and my

15 month old brother, Donato. Donato loves Barney and we had a good time singing and dancing to the raindrop song and "i love you" in Spanish. Mama (Margarita) talks really really fast but she is patient with me and seems perfectly fine carrying the conversation while i nod along and try to understand. Papa (Juan Carlos) and I are besties already! He's an awesome cook--omelette and grilled cheese for almuerzo--and he took me with him to the supermercado.

He loves playing guitar (and has an extra for me) and playing basketball. Que perfecto!

I live in the palace, or the penthouse. Mama Susi (abuela) lives on the first two floors with a ton of other family (including many more kiddos and another student who should arrive any day!) and we live on the top two.

I get the entire top floor to myself--bedroom, bathroom, sitting area (complete with dead tree!), and balcony with roof access!

I live across the street from a gym (gratis--FREE!), basketball courts, and a park. El Parque Carolina is awesome! I spent an hour just exploring today.

Things I saw:

-horseback riding

-paddleboating

-middle school dance crews (not kidding)

-a martial arts group doing cartwheels

-cheerleaders practicing their stunts (one guy did a handstand on top of another hand to hand)

-more jungle gym equipment than you could ever imagine (the good kind that's not "safety approved" so it burns when its hot and pinches your fingers if you're not careful)

-a tightrope walker

-an AMERICAN! (we did the wave..ya know the one that says "you're tall and blonde and white and I am too so just for a second lets be friends". Then again maybe he was German--they're blonde and white too. No se!)