Casa Puente

I was going to wait to write more about where I'm living until I took some pictures, but today was such a perfect one to talk about to explain my life in El Paso.

When I went downstairs this morning, there was a random guy sitting at the kitchen table.  No one else in the house is ever up at 6:15am, so I don't find it strange to shower downstairs next to the kitchen and then walk back upstairs in my towel (there are two bathrooms next to my bedroom, but the water pressure isn't as good as the downstairs bathrooms).  Needless to say, I was super confused.  Anyway, when I got out of the bathroom a few minutes later, another random guy yelled "Boo!" until he realized that we hadn't met yet.  I awkwardly walked back upstairs to get dressed, and then I ended up eating breakfast with those two guys and one other.  It turns out that Casa Puente is listed on warmshowers.org, which is a hospitality website for touring cyclists.  The guys were all really cool- they're all traveling across the country on their bikes and were just spending the night in El Paso.  We talked about their experiences in very rural America over the past few weeks while drinking our coffee- it was such a nice way to begin my Monday morning!

Then, today after work, I decided to make a big pot of pasta with veggies before going for a run.  Two of the other people that live here, Katy and Eric, joined me for dinner; they added homemade garlic bread, Greek yogurt popsicles, and beer to the meal.  We sat around the kitchen table for well over an hour chatting and then moved outside to the front porch.  They've been in El Paso for a few years now and shared some of their experiences and recommendations with me.  Katy and I continued our plática while Eric played "washers" with our next door neighbor in our front yard.  Two of the other people that live next door came over to watch, and our landlord, West, joined in the game as well.  We stayed outside until darkness fell and then moved the conversation into the landing inside our front door.  Needless to say, the run never happened.  But I am SO into living in a neighborhood where every family speaks Spanish and people are super friendly.  And I'm loving the generosity and hospitality that I've found here.  I already feel like I'm part of a community, even though I haven't spent a full week here yet. :)

As a side note, I transcribed interview #2 today! And interview #3 is set up for Thursday morning! Woo!