Blenheim Lodge is a house located at Great North Road in East Finchley in London and it’s a place that I have been visiting for almost twenty years now. I went to London as an exchange student to learn English when I was 18 years-old and as a custom at the time, the school placed me with an English host family. It’s a way of interacting with the locals and as a teenager it can be safer and more welcoming than a student dorm.

I was first impressed with the size of the house, three floors, many rooms, beautiful backyard, glass inner garden and so on. The owners are Agri and Roger, my host parents at the time and my friends today. East Finchley is a neighbourhood in the north of London, away from the noise of the city centre, it has calmer streets, parks, markets and of course, pubs. I remember thinking “this is what a real English experience should be”, and so it was.

Agri is a great cook, so she introduced me to the English dishes, beans and toast, fish and chips and also the typical Paraguayan delicacies from her home town. Roger would take us to parks, talk about soccer and we would all hang out outside with Bambam (the family cat). It was more than a house, it became home.

Many years passed, revisits, talks in the balcony, life histories and a friendship that continues. Whenever I am in town, I will keep stopping by.