new bestfriend!!

so i have a new best friend. My cabaña-mate. He lives in my cabaña with me and he is this 19 year old dude from France. He studies agro-engineering and has to do a 5 month placement. He is doing it in the cloud forest with me. He is a pretty wicked guy and is obsessed with african, carribean, and rastafarian culture. I have met some of his rastafarian friends in Quito and we spent the day playing soccer in the streets. It was super bacán (cool).

He has a very thick french accent when he speaks Spanish, and some of he twists some of his words around but i don´t have the heart to correct him. The best part about his speaking spanish is that he calls his girlfriend his enamorada, which translates directly into lover. Once i dared ask him about his novia (girlfriend) and he gave me a really strange look. I was not sure if he didn´t know the word for girlfriend or if he was truly insulted that i called his lover his girlfriend.

I guess in the english language people my age often use "lover" with a bit of tongue-and-cheek as if the person is a sexi love affair. "i spent the night with my lover," or "i have an italian lover." I find those kinds of phrases a lot more common than, "Yes, my lover is also an agro-engineer" or "My parents think my lover is a wonderful girl." The latter frases have a lot less tongue and a lot less cheek. It is as if you are labeling your relationship with someone as merely a love affair, which could be fun if it didn´t come with all the responsibilities of a parner.

I think i need to be more open to different uses of the english language. Lovers with commitment.