Fireworks punctuate the day celebrating a hidden holiday only by those close enough to know the meaning of lighting the fuse. Cheerful chirping disrupts the night making it so that if one were to close their eyes educated guesses of night or day would surely fail. I take my warm milk with two spoonfuls of instant coffee and three of sugar at every meal. Sugar milk. The bananas are better here, so is the juice. Toilet paper goes into the wastebasket next to the toilet least it clog the fragile plumbing. Silence is unknown in this household. I killed a spider yesterday. I am serenaded to sleep by the deep baritone of the neighbor dog; sometimes he does a duet with the shrieking car alarms. Everyone always wears shoes in the house. I discovered I have been using my clothes hamper as a wastebasket, but my host parents are too polite to correct my mistake. We have a cook/maid, she has a son. I am always served before my mother, the men and children are always served before my mother. We had a birthday party yesterday; they sang one round of “Feliz Cumpleaños,” one round of “Happy Birthday” and one round of something to the tune of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” My room has white walls accented with bright yellow curtains. A Justin Beiber song is playing downstairs.
