Day 11-New Tico Family

I am already having a very different experience with my new family I am staying with in Monteverde. My Tico family here consists of my mama tica, papa tico, and a little baby hermano tico (baby brother). The little boy is one and a half years old and the cutest little kid you could ever meet. Right when I arrived on Sunday night, it only took him about ten minutes to warm up to me before we played together for a couple of hours. He cannot speak many words so the language barrier between him and I is not a huge problem. It makes me realize the connections you can make with people even if they cannot speak or speak a different language than you. Mathias is his name and he loves birds. This also made me remember the importance of getting to know all your students and their interests so you can make learning relatable to them and more engaging by using examples of things they are interested in. My mama tica is very nice used to be a guide at the butterfly reserve, so she knows a little English from different tour groups that have come to her work. She also speaks slowly and annunciates her words a lot so I am able to understand what she is saying. It also really helps when she uses actions to go along with her story in case I get a little confused, I am able to use clues from her actions to understand what she is telling me. Sometimes I get a little frustrated because I can understand her whole 5 minute story she is telling me in Spanish, but I can't come up with the words to respond to keep the conversation going, so I end up just saying "Si" or "Yes". My papa tico works as a cashier of a restaurant so he knows a lot of food names in English when I ask what is on my plate for dinner.

Today in school, we made chalupas as a group! It was really fun and they tasted delicious at the end! It was quite the "typical" day that we having been having on this trip with Spanish class, where we met our new teacher for the week, Carlos Luis, left to go back home, hang out with my family, eat dinner and go to bed! I am quite exhausted at the end of today from all of our new schedule and routine in Monteverde! Buenos Noches!