¿Cocinas? No, no puedo.

Friday night I finally spent some quality time with the roomies. I helped cook dinner, and by helped, I mean I watched, because I can´t cook. And we made pasta sauce from scratch, so really, I couldn´t do much to help. I tried chopping an onion and Mariaisabella took it away from me and promptly began laughing at me telling everyone how I couldn´t cook. This is true, so what are you gonna do.

There is now a woman from Germany living there as well, who actually speaks less spanish than me, lol. So we all (like 9 of us) in the house were out in the common room, talking. It was interesting to see, because we talked about difference between cultures. When we talked about family life, half the roomates expressed disgust at the American way of leaving your family early and then living far away. But there were some younger people there who are doing that right now, and they obviously felt differently. I didn´t know how to say I think being able to live away from my family helps foster a closer relationship with my parents, because I feel I can be more open with them when my live does not revolve around them.

However, I understand how in Latin cultures taking care of your own is so important. I suppose I feel my parents don´t much need me, and to be honest, I think they enjoy having the house and their lives to themselves again. Mom, you can tell me I´m wrong, but I think my experience helps foster an independence that is very necessary for me to go out into the real world of American jobs. If I still had my mom to do my laundry, and take care of things that weren´t going my way, I´m not sure I´d be prepared to take care of myself someday. Granted, my mother takes care of me all the time for the big things, i.e. see my first 5 posts, lol. But that´s what´s great about our relationship, she´s there to support me whenever I need it, but I´m a mature adult because she was forced not to baby me once I was away from home.

It´s hard for me to understand how someone matures into a caretaker, into being responsible enough to have their own family when they never leave the nest. Obviously much of the world in fact lives in this method, so it is most certainly possible, and very successful. I however, can´t comprehend it. It is so foreign to me, that to understand this concept might be more difficult than understanding spanish. In the U.S. people who live with their parents are often not successful, usually are high school dropouts. They have failed at starting their own life, and living with their parents is a sign of this. Thus it is looked down on. Here it is normal, and people live their lives together, and being able to take care of and live with your parents your whole life can be a sign of affluency. Perhaps I will be able to understand family dynamics in the Chilean household someday, but for now, it elludes me. Maybe I´m too independent for my own good.