Staying with the Polar Covarrubias family

Straight after finishing my first classes at Amigos today, I got picked up by Flora and Mario Polar Covarrubias, the mother and father of the family that I'm staying with, for the duration of my four weeks of study. It seems that, as with the school, I've hit the jackpot with a great host family. They're very warm people; they live in a nice, safe area in Cusco; they only speak Spanish; and judging by today, I'd say they're going to be feeding me very well indeed.

Flora and Mario are an older couple — I'd say in their early 60s — who have four sons, the youngest being 25. The youngest still lives at home, but he's in Lima for a few weeks at the moment. The other three are all married (some with children), but they're very close, and I believe that they visit often. There's also a maid — Vera — who lives here, and who cooks and cleans for the family, and who goes to high school here in Cusco each night).

The house is a big, two-storey affair, with a very posh living and dining area, and with about 4 bedrooms. I have one of the bedrooms — mine's a kind of bachelor pad, upstairs at the back, with its own separate flight of steps. The suburb — barrio Magisterial — is also very nice. It's a bit far from the city centre, but it's all upper-middle-class homes, and it's close to the university (which is handy for Mario, since he's a chemistry professor and he teaches there).

Today, we had quite a big turnout, and quite a big spread, for lunch and for dinner. As well as Flora and Mario, there was also Manolo (eldest son) and his wife; Paulo (third son) and his wife and little daughter; and Gabriel — a cousin / nephew from Lima, who's here on vacation at the moment — and his wife and daughter. So I really did get to meet the whole extended gang on the first day. Unfortunately, I was still suffering from last night's food poisoning all day, so I wasn't exactly in the best shape to get to know them all. Ah, well, plenty of time: 4 whole weeks!