My Host Family

Hi everybody! Apologies for not keeping up with my blog very well lately. I promise to get much better, and to write more regularily. Ok! :-)

So one of the greatest parts of being at my new placement is my host family! That aren't words to express how happy I feel that I belong somewhere, and that I have people that really care about me and who have welcomed me into their family SO openly! I much appreciate the deeper experiences I'm getting with them because of living here, with the language, food, different aspects of the culture, everything.

So here I will just update you on each member of my host family!

Jana (host mom): She is SO sweet! She keeps close tabs on me and calls me daughter with her two other real daughters. She constantly checks on me, if I'm hungry or cold (and even when I say no, she comes over to me and covers me up with a blanket anyway...). She has learned a bunch of words and phrases in english for me, and it is really funny! :) She tells me I'm very skillful and gets really excited whenever I help her do chores around the house. She is a pretty hyper person, and talks really fast because she gets excited (even my english speaking contact person said that she has a hard time understanding her, in SLOVAK, because she speaks so fast). It was difficult in the beginning to communicate because of this, but it's getting better now. She is learning to adjust to my speed and understanding level with the language, and writing things down in a little notebook she has. And she has a dinner song that she sings and is determined to teach me, which is awesome.

Jan (host dad): He is also very sweet! He is a quiet and smiley guy. He works quite a bit and isn't around all of the time, but when he is he always makes the effort to pop his head into whatever room I'm in and say "ciao ashley!" He's pretty patient. I felt a bit bad in the beginning, because the man lives with his wife, mother, and two daughters, and I was YET ANOTHER girl to add to the household (and his two sisters are here every day to visit). But he handles it like a trooper. Him and Jana took me shopping a few weekends ago and told me that they wanted to buy me pajamahs as a gift. The only stipulation was that they had to have animals on them, so they would match my sisters' elephant pajamahs. HAHA! We like to match here in the Turcanova household. And so I am now the proud owner of blue zebra pajamahs.

Starka (a.k.a. Grandma): She is pretty feisty! She can be pretty funny sometimes, even though we don't really understand each other a lot of the time. The other day we were having coffee together (me, mom, grandma, and sisters), and I left the room for a few minutes and while I was gone Starka put sugar in my coffee! She did it on purpose, because she knows I hate it, but she thinks I need more sugar (and more of everything for that matter). Sneaky Starka! She laughed a lot at my face when I took the first sip and made a terrible face. She is constantly telling me, "YOU DON'T EAT ENOUGH! YOU DON'T SLEEP ENOUGH!" According to her, I don't eat enough, or the right things, and I dont wear slippers like I'm supposed to, and I don't wear enough clothes, or the right clothes, and I should wear hats, and use umbrellas, etc. The list is quite long. Sometimes we struggle seeing eye-to-eye, because our relationship faces not only a cultural barrier, but a big generation/age barrier as well. But we do okay.

Katka (older host sister): Katka tries SO hard to improve her english! And I'm impressed at how much she's improved already since I got here, so I'm excited to see her at the end of this summer! She's very sweet too, and GIGGLES a lot. She has a really fun high pitched cackle-type giggle that makes me laugh. We both like to dance, and we both like to exercise. I'm really excited for spring time, because we have plans to go jogging together!! Should be great :-)

Janka (younger host sister): I have a great time attempting english conversations with Janka! It's usually the two of us together, because she speaks the best english of anybody in the family. And she also has tried to learn a lot for me, and I'm very grateful for that!! I love Janka's attitude and sense of humor with things. When we're in the kitchen and mom or grandma starts talking about how we don't eat enough food, she is the one who rolls her eyes and is like "LEAVE HER ALONE! SHE'S NOT HUNGRY!" I love it. She watches out for me. Also, her and I both like to read. One of my favorite things to do is sit in the kitchen and read with her (when there's actually enough silence to concentrate...which isn't often). She loves Harry Potter. She is currently trying to read one of the books I borrowed her, in english!

I will write again soon about more experiences with them! As well as some pictures!