Hola mis amigos y mi familia!! Today has been a lot of spanish speaking so pardon me if I type in spanglish! I'll begin by introducing my host family experience yesterday. Yesterday was the first day in which we met and stayed with our host family. Our professor has told us all about what we should expect in our home stays and how the mama tica's are so nice and loving and really make you feel part of their family when you arrive. I didn't quite have that experience but I did learn a lot of things in the midst of everything! I was picked up at the school by one other student in my class' papa tica. He dropped me off at my house, walked inside with me and showed me my room. I was expecting my mama tica to be waiting for me with open arms, but I found her sleeping in her bed. The man woke her up to tell her that I was here and she just opened her eyes and said "hola" and closed them again. My papa tica was still at work so I was left alone in the house not knowing what to do. Luckily in Costa Rica, many of the families are very close and usually live right next door or at least very close to their extended family. A girl named Bardin, who is in my class had a mama tica who lived right next door and was actually the mom of my mama tica (sorry if this is kind of confusing). The man told me I could go over to her house so I could let my mama tica sleep. Bardin's mama tica welcomed me and made me dinner and we all talked for most of the night. Her whole family are neighbors so many people stopped by to say hi and chat with us. We had some funny conversations because no one in the entire extended family speaks english and I know very little spanish, so communication was very difficult! After talking for awhile, I went back to my house and my mama tica just had woken up. She showed me where the towels were, where the kitchen was, and my bedroom. She then said that she was going back to bed. I felt a little disappointed but I kept remembering those students who come to school on their first day of school not knowing english and feeling very unwelcome. In the morning, she had breakfast ready for me when I woke up and as soon as I got to the table to eat it, the entire family got up and left me to eat by myself. I am not sure if this is a culture thing or not. The same papa tica who brought me to my house, picked me up to walk me and a few other students to school. Throughout this experience, I learned the importance of family and the culture that many Costa Ricans have.
Today I had four hours of spanish instruction. There are four students in each class with one teacher. The classes are very conversationally based so there is no hiding behind your books! I was exhausted at the end of four hours where we spoke a total of about 10 english words. I can now understand why so many ESL students start putting their heads on their desks at about 10 am when they are just sick of hearing english and having to translate every single word into spanish when the teacher is talking.
After school, I walked back to my house in the rain nervous to go back since I didn't have a lot of conversation the day before with my family. I got there and my mama tica saw that I was wet from the rain. She told me to go put on some dry clothes and she would have dinner ready once I changed! Today I had dinner with my papa tica and my hermana tica (sister). To be honest, I have no idea what I ate today. I didn't recognize anything besides rice, beans, and potatoes. There were about four other things on my plate that I just ate and they actually weren't too bad! I am learning so much here about myself, about ESL students, trying to brush up on my spanish skills, and so much more! I am so thankful for this experience...it's definitely one of a kind! Buenas noches!
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