As the baby of my family, I’ve never had the opportunity to live with someone younger than me. That is, until I came to Spain. Now I have a three year old brother and life is definitely a lot different. I remember filling out the housing information and it asked if I minded living with kids and I was like “Of course not, I love kids!” My roommate Sarah also wanted to live with a kid so when we found out that we were living with Delek, we were ecstatic.
Living with Delek has been one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in Spain. I still remember how nervous and shy he was around us for the first couple of days. Then, one night after dinner, he started running around with a plastic stick using it as a sword. We were supposed to be cleaning off the table, but instead I went over to his bucket of toys and found another “sword” and started chasing him around the living/dining room. Sarah and Kristine were left to clean up (not that we actually clean anything, we just carry stuff from the table to the kitchen) while I had the first of many sword fights.
Sarah came and joined after everything was picked up and Delek gave her his “sword”, pointed to me and then pointed to her and said “Bale!” We had no idea what he was saying so we just looked at each other and laughed. After repeating himself many times, Delek finally just came and showed us what he wanted us to do. Once we realized he wanted us to fight each other, we started acting like five year olds running around and pretending to kill each other. Delek just sat on the couch watching us and giggling. Then all of a sudden he came running at us and joined the fight.
Now that Delek knows we like to play, he is relentless. As soon as we walk in the door he grabs our hands and asks us to play. But Sarah and I love it so we don’t mind. We love playing in “Casa de Delek” (his pop out tent) or telling him what we want to buy at the Super Mercado or hiding under the table while the other one is the Pirata (Pirate). He keeps promising us that we will get to play Princesa (Princess) but we haven’t yet. The hard part comes when we can’t play. We will tell him that we have to study or that we are about to leave and he will just burst into tears or run through the house screaming. It always makes us feel really bad, but we can’t play with him all the time.
He is really fun at the dinner table. In school he is learning some English so he knows all of his colors and some basic words. One day Sarah asked what “rico” meant in English and Delek just screamed at the top of his lungs “DELICIOUS!!!!” His mom and his grandma were so proud of him, it was adorable. Another time we asked his mom what was the difference in “pocito” and “pequeño”. In trying to explain it, she said “Delek es pequeño” and Delek screamed, again at the top of his lungs, “NO ESTOY PEQUENO, ESTOY GRANDE!!!!” Which means, “I am not small, I am big!” He was so upset that she would even think to call him small.
Though it can be annoying when he throws a fit, I absolutely love living with a little brother. He keeps us laughing at the dinner table and is so much fun to play with. It doesn’t matter to him that we can’t speak Spanish; all he cares is that we take the time to play Pirata or Super Mercado.
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