I survived the first night of my home stay!! :) There are 12 students total in the UGA program so yesterday, we were driven in shifts to our houses. 7 of us were in the first shift and to say we were all nervous would be a huge understatement. As people kept getting dropped off and introduced to their new Costa Rican families, we were pretending like it was Survivor or something. And then there were 2... my friend Lauren and me were the only ones left in the van until we pulled up to mi casa nueva. As we pulled up, I could see my new padre waiting for me in the driveway. Alexa, a naturalist who volunteers on campus, introduced me to Marcos and then I was on my own from there. Marcos seemed very friendly and laid back so my nerves settled and from there, I met his 16 year old daughter, Marianna (who I didn't know existed) and his 18 year old daughter in law (whose name I can't remember at the moment). We began to make small talk in espanol and they told me about everyone in their family as we went through a huge shoebox full of pictures. Marcos and Lorena are the parents (Loren works in the kitchen at UGA), Jorge is the oldest son, Vennicio and Arnaldo are the 20 year old twins and Neivy is the youngest and the only girl. I then pulled out my laptop and showed them pictures of my family, grandparents, cousins, friends and Chris (Daddy- you would be happy because Marcos said: "Su padre parece muy joven" Translation: Your dad looks very young). They were all very understanding of my broken Spanish and taught me new words and corrected me when I conjugated a verb wrong or mispronounced something.
Later, Marcos showed me around outside. They have a ton of animals: 3 dogs, a cat, a bunch of chickens and the 2 biggest pigs I have ever seen in my life. They use the chickens for eggs for just about every meal and sell the piglets when they are born. Marianna and Neivy were inside cooking dinner, so I asked to help and snapped some beans and scrambled eggs. Dinners are so different here; They are delicious, just different. We had white rice with black beans and tomatoes on top, and then snap green beans that were cooked into a scrambled egg. The girls had made a cake with m&m's on top so we had that as well...so good! Lorena came home from work at about 8:30 and helped me with my Spanish homework and told me we were going to a wedding on Saturday, which I am excited about. Every time I see her in the kitchen, she comes up and hugs me...she is very sweet.
I feel like a giant in their house. I am about a head taller than everyone in their family. I am also taller than the refrigerator and a little bit too long for the bed. More about the house... the walls don't quite reach the ceiling (I think to keep the house cool) so you can see when people's lights are on or hear people talk really well...good thing I don't snore! The bathroom is technically outside, but there is a slight roof over it. There is one toilet, one shower and one sink for everyone in the house. Their house and this whole rural part of Costa Rica in general reminds me a lot of my Papou's house and village in Greece. Everybody knows everybody and the scenery all around is just beautiful. Most people grow their own food and are very self sufficient.
We all went to bed around 9:30 and because I was using my reading light to read, all the bugs congregated in my room, so I just turned it off and fell asleep. This morning, I woke up around 7 to eat breakfast...rice and beans shockingly enough ;) and then left around 7:50 to walk to campus. The walk took about 25 minutes, but it was a beautiful morning and like I said, the scenery is all you need to keep you occupied. When we all met for class at 8:30, everybody had stories to share about what they had done with their families last night and what they were like and what they had eaten for dinner...etc. So now, most of the nerves are gone and we are all excited about going back tonight. I'm sure I will have plenty of stories to share these next couple of days and I will be sure to take plenty of pictures of my Costa Rican family.
Pura Vida
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