Sunday, Nov. 18
It was time to leave Jenny’s house.
I was reluctant at first – I met with Claudia from CIEE earlier the week before and she had discussed my options. She had two houses lined up for me to choose from – but either way, they were not having students stay with Jenny any longer. I was reluctant because I only had 3 weeks left, was moving worth the hassle? But after Marina’s exit evaluation and hearing bits about our experience that I had told Natalia (also from CIEE), Claudia knew that it was time to go, and I realized that as well. (There are a lot of factors that built up to contribute to this, and not all of them are written in this blog for the sake of others)
It was kind of awkward in the sense that Jenny didn’t know – she wouldn’t know until the day of. However, it was better that way. I figured that she wouldn’t take it well, she had strong personality, and I wasn’t excited to deal with her reaction.
I packed my things Saturday night, and on Sunday, she was out for the day – she left that morning for a family event. (Realizing that she didn’t do much cooking on the weekends, she cooked us some hotdogs and rice at 10 am and left them on the stove for us… all day **see photo below** I guess that it was still better than the time she had left us a box of expired mashed potatoes to make for dinner) She got that call that I was leaving while she was driving out to her family function – and called me to ask what was going on, but I was at the gym.
Later that day, I was at a café and she called me again to figure out what was going on... Things got a little sticky when I told her that I was reluctant to leave at first, but that everything was ready to go and I was going to move at 9 pm that night.. She told me that I didn’t have to go and told the program that I wanted to stay in the house (though I didn’t)… It was awkward. I told her that I would talk to her more when she got home from her family event, before I moved out that night. I wanted to talk face to face, in person – it felt like a breakup, and it’s not right to break up over the phone if you can do it in person.
Jenny called me around 8:30 to ask me for sure if I was leaving or staying, and to tell me that she wouldn’t be home before 9 (like she said she would). I haven’t seen her since. Claudia from CIEE came in a taxi at 9:30 that night and helped me move my stuff to a new host family – a women named Cecilia that lived in an apartment in another nearby neighborhood.
It was a lot, but in the end, worth it. Since moving, my living situation has been a lot more comfortable – no awkward tension and no food shortages – but instead a nice, clean, peaceful place to come home to every day.
