Hell has frozen over

Something absolutely incredibly happened in my house at lunch yesterday. For the last few days another of my host mom's daughters, Ursula, has been visiting from the United States. She lives in Seattle, in a vegetarian, and dresses just a little bit hippie. As we were sitting down to lunch yesterday, Ursula said to Rosita, "Rosita, why are you sitting over there? Come sit with us at the table." I expected Rosita to politely turn her down, but instead, she just thanked her and came to sit at the table with the whole family. If I hadn't been busy eating choqllo, I think my jaw would have dropped in that moment.

Later in the day I went with Ursula and my host parents to Gabi's house for dinner, and was fortunate enough to witness a debate about global warming and environmental issues, mostly between Ursula and Gabi's husband Pepe, who as you might assume from his name, is pretty much an airhead. If he wasn't Peruvian I would say he's your typical Bush-loving macho American. Worth mentioning is one very memorable interjection from my host mom: in response to Ursula's fear that the world's water supply is diminishing, Socorro scoffed and said, "I still have plenty of water in my house."

I'm starting to feel as if Rosita and Mijael are fighting over me. The last bit of drama to arise began with a piece of gossip Rosita told me yesterday: Socorro had told Rosita that someone had told her that Mijael had told that someone that I was in love with him (Mijael). I asked Mijael if it was true that he had told someone I was in love with him. He said he didn't know how Rosita had come up with that (I'm sure my host mom made it up). Then, to get back at Rosita for spreading rumors of that kind, Mijael accused her of sending him an insulting text message from my cell phone (which is a strange accusation, considering I never sent him any insulting text messages and I'm pretty certain Rosita has never touched my phone). Ayayay.