Last weekend: most awkward of my life but also a great learning experience

Alright, I finally have time to tell you about my homestay weekend:

I stayed with a family in a town called Barrio Jesús, which is on the other side of Atenas then we are. The neighborhood I was in, which consisted of members of their extended family, was fairly rural, having an organic farm down the road that was owned by the family. It was kinda confusing when I got there who I was staying with, but I ended up mostly staying with this woman named Lucia and her 2 children Luis Pedro (10) and Camila (7). Then, just down the street was her sister Rocio and her childen Alicio (21) and Gerardo (15) who lived with her and then her daughter Mary lived with her husband Mike and baby Isabella right next to Rocio’s house. So in a way I was “raised” by all three families that weekend. (I sadly don’t have any pictures of the people, but they took pictures and I have their emails to get them and I will see them at the host family dinner this Wednesday, so hopefully I can get a picture with them to put up)

The front of my host family's house. Ping pong seems to be a big thing here in Costa Rica, but I guess it is in the US too

I quickly learned that my Spanish was worse than I thought it was, at least when it comes to understanding what everyone is saying. At first I thought Rocio didn’t like me because I was so bad at Spanish compared to her. And there were awkward moments at first when I was meeting everyone, I am bad at small talk in English and so switching that to Spanish was difficult. It made me come out of my box, which I think studying away is supposed to do, but I was very uncomfortable at moments. It was good though, when I got there Alicio showed me his butterfly garden that he is making in the backyard. He has eggs of the Morpho butterfly along with some other ones. Rocio made me breakfast and I forgot to ask for just a little, since I had been sick the day before, so she made me a big plate of food and I ate as much as I could but couldn’t finish. I think that made her a bit upset too, so I felt like I hadn’t made a very good first impression on the family, but I tried to make up for it by trying to talk with her about various things. Then, Mary, Mike, and Isabella came over for a bit and it was fun to talk to them. Mary teaches basic English to children and she had studied in the USA, so she knew quite a bit of English. She helped me when I didn’t understand what her mother was saying. We went for a walk through the farm and ate some tangerines, and they asked me about what I was studying, etc. I had to think of different ways to say things because my vocab is obviously not as good as it is in English.

The family farm: looks very different from the fields of MN! Its organic because they didn't clear cut the entire place, but left trees in along with the crops of oranges, tangerines, lemons, sugar cane, plantains, and other crops.

Then began the huge mix-up. I let it slip that I had 4 tests that coming week, and they thought that meant that I needed to study. I had brought one of my books just in case I had time to study, but I wanted to spend time with the family so I wasn’t planning on it. However, and I found this out later, they thought I was planning on it, so decided to leave me alone so I could study. Lucia and Camila went to a party for someone who was getting married, and since they thought I needed to study they left me in the house by myself for 3 hours. I was very confused by what was going on, it was a huge miscommunication/language barrier. So I thought my family didn’t like me and that was why they left me by myself. I was pretty miserable. But, things got better, and at least now I know it was a mix-up and not that they didn’t like me. Once they got back, I gave them a present: a book of pictures of MN. They loved it!! They asked me all about the snow and how big the Mississippi river was and how many lakes, etc. They all really want to see snow, they told me there is really no where in Costa Rica that snows. Even in the mountains it is usually just rain. We went out for pizza that evening and I asked Lucia about customs in Costa Rica. I felt like my Spanish was getting a little better, or at least I was more comfortable in looking like an idiot with my poor Spanish J

The side of my host family's house. Everyone had a table to eat outside. I suppose it is nice to have in this warm weather, its less stuffy than being inside

So the next day I woke late, had breakfast with the family (they made fresh tortillas – sooo good!!!), and went over to Mary’s house for a bit to help her translate a work-out video from English to Spanish. It was my first time ever being a translator, it was hard because there were some expressions like “Bring it on” that I had to translate, but it was also kinda fun! Then Gerardo wanted to show me the waterfall that was at the end of their farm: so pretty! I had fun talking to him and Camila on the walk. Gerardo was usually pretty patient with me and would explain what was going on or correct me if I said something not quite grammatically correct. After we got back, I played variations of the basketball game of 21 with the extended family, one version was where there were teams and you could help your teammate make the basket. That one got fun, they are not scared of horseplay, both the guys and girls. Then it was time to go to church, of which I understood very little. My host mom told me right before the sermon that it was alright if I didn’t understand it, because they pastor doesn’t annunciate very well and sometimes she doesn’t even understand what he is saying! So that made me feel better. And she also said it was ok that I go up to communion with her, even though I wasn’t Catholic. She said it didn’t matter her, which was very nice. Then after this they took me back to the university.

So even though the weekend had a rough start, I really came to like my family and want to visit them again. There will always be cultural clashes and I’m sure there were many things we didn’t understand about each other, but it was such a short amount of time to get to know each other. It was difficult speaking Spanish all the time, but it was also a very good experience. I think the number one thing I learned was to accept that there will be awkward situations but the important thing is to keep trying, keep speaking Spanish, keep engaging them and asking questions. I feel like I grew a lot that weekend.