Wisconsinopoly

I played “Wisconsinopoly” with Horacio and Edgard for a good hour last night. The situation was funny in a number of ways. First, it was incredibly cute watching them add the die together, as they’re still learning their addition and multiplication rules (I was quizzing them the day before). Also, they have little sense of strategy, buying everything they land on until Horacio was left with only a dollar and I had to teach him how to mortgage his properties. 

The second was that the game wasn’t just regular Monopoly, it was Wisconsinopoly, clearly a gift from a previous home stay guest who had come from the University of Wisconsin. In place of the utilities were properties called things like “Fraternity and Sorority Row” which Horacio an Edgard unwittingly snapped up. The cultural gap between the two boys and the game they were playing - they had no idea what they were buying or what the names meant - was hilarious. 

The family also got a new dog, named Rocco, who is this adorable but quite ferocious labrador pup. Actually, it’s Maria’s, a cousin, but she left the pup at our house to take care of it. Voltio is very affectionately, surprisingly, but sometimes is overly caring and overbearing, causing Rocco to snap at him and make frighteningly loud growling noises. Rocco just kind of wanders around the house, even though he’s all of eight inches, making it difficult to avoid stepping on him. He’s too small to clear the gap between the difference in height between two floors, so he whimpers until someone can pick him up. I feel terrible that I accidentally kicked him in the dark...oh well. Horacio kind of manhandles the poor puppy anyways.

We also went to “Miss Nicaragua,” where the finalists from each of the cities paraded their stuff in front of a small crowd at Encuentros. Very strange occasion, and it attracted very strange people. I’ll leave it at that.