Where's Grandma?

Some days I feel like I am getting nowhere with my language studies. One day last week, I went downstairs to eat lunch with my host family and noticed that my abuelita (grandma) wasn't there. This was highly unusual. I asked my host mom where she was and my host mom replied, "She left."
"Oh, you mean she left for the meal and she'll be home later?" I asked.
"No. She left."
This worried me because in my mind, 'she left' meant that she wasn't living at our house anymore so I asked where Grandma had gone and this was the reply I got:
"Lauren, she left. She is free to do what she pleases, she is an adult. If she wants to eat or live somewhere else, it is up to her."
Hm, I thought. Abuelita doesn't go ANYWHERE alone. I started to panic that a) there had been a falling out and Grandma stormed off and b) I really wasn't understanding any Spanish any more so I continued to pursue my line of questioning.
"I don't understand. Where exactly is Grandma?"
and again the reply was:
"She left. She is welcome in this house at any time, but she is free to go if she chooses."

At this point, I gave up. I guess Grandma left. Why not just say, 'She had lunch with her sister.' or 'Grandma decided to go back to Aunt Claudia's house for awhile.' Gee, I think that would be too easy. Instead I got, "She left."

A few minutes later, I thought I would try to strike up a different conversation:
"Will you guys have another student next semester?"
"We have no idea. It's really up to the institute to offer students a 'homestay' and then there's the question of if the institute will have enough students to place with host families."
Alright, I thought, that was fair enough; they answered the question the way I had posed it. But it didn't answer what I really wanted to know, so I tried a different tact:
"Do you guys WANT a student next semester?"
This question was practically greeted with applause. "Now that, Lauren, is a good question." And I preceded to get the information I was seeking.

I guess the moral of the story is I have to stop thinking like an English speaker and start thinking like a Spanish speaker (or Bolivian, in this case) in order to find out exactly what I want to know. I think I might be starting to get the hang of it.

p.s. Grandma reappeared sometime in the afternoon that same day. I didn't bother asking where she had been because I was afraid I would get the same line of answers I had received before. (And I couldn't ask her directly because I can't understand her yet, she had a stroke last year that limits her speech.)
But I guess she didn't leave after all. :)