I Be Hood, Yo

So my roommate's boyfriend came on this program as well, and over the weekend she went to visit him and his host family at their apartment in the neighborhood La Parroquia.  When she came back she described an apartment of epic proportions compared to ours, how he got his own bedroom and how it was bigger than the one we shared.  She also talked about how there was relatively no noise. No car horns, no traffic, no motorcycles with or without mufflers, no buses blaring their loud music, you know, sounds she and I had become used to after a week.  His family was a little older and a little more well to do. When his host mother asked my roommate where she lived, she replied "Avenida Las Americas".  And the lady gave a strange look and was like "OH." And her boyfriend joked with her later in English that we essentially live in "the hood" of Merida. There is always traffic, lots of people, and lesser quality housing.  Don't get me wrong, my apartment is lovely, and it's not dangerous except for this one strip after dark which is easy to avoid.  It's just not where the proper folk live.  I be so ghetto.

In Venezuela, the word of the day is "chevere".  Every day.  Everyone says this word all the time.  It originally meant "That which has been well done" but now it is more or less the equivalent of our words "cool or awesome".  Except, which a bit of a different connotation.  Because it has less enthusiasm.  We would say something like "Wow, that's awesome! How cool. Neato." Chevere is more reminiscent of the hippie culture. The inflection that they use with this word is more along the lines of  "Whoaaa. Righteous. Rock on, man. Peace and Blessings." Real mellow.  And this is the life everyone strives to live.  La vida chevere.  No problemas. Chill out. This group of students speaks Spanish better than the last one, so we're more chevere. You want to go out with friends your parents have never met? Chevere. You want to leave the house randomly and text your parents that you're at fiestas and you'll be back sometime before tomorrow? Chevere.  Not advisable at home, but I didn't actually believe I could have more freedom than I did at Butler.  My host parents told my roommate and I about a pair of students they had from Texas, and that these were the worst kids they ever had and they requested to have no more kids from Texas.  I honestly don't know what these girls must have done because these parents are fine with just about anything as long as they know the gist of what we're doing and that it is in our plans to come back eventually. They've been doing this for 15 years.