My time in Costa Rica has nearly come to an end. This Friday the group leaves for Granada, Nicaragua and will be meeting our new host families there on Sunday (or maybe Saturday?). Anyway since I haven’t blogged in such a while, and since Costa Rica time is coming to an end, I think I’ll treat you all to a nice sappy conclusiony type blog post.
While going to another country and meeting a new family will be awesome, I don’t want to leave my Bagaces family. We’ve reached a level of accustomedness that I don’t want to have to start all over again. What I mean is that I know the ins and outs of how things work around here. I know how the shower works, the quirks about the toilet, what time we have dinner each night, where things are kept, the way they talk, etc.
More importantly I truly feel as part of the family. A few weeks ago I was feeling a little sick and apparently everyone in the family was worried about me: aunts, cousins, grandparents. They all also chipped in with advice on how to get better; most recommendations were to take a shot of whiskey.
I don’t know how many times my host mom and dad have told me “estás en su casa.” You’re in your home. They say it so often it’s almost an annoyance. Almost all plans are made with respect to whether or not I can attend. Once they were planning on going to go to another city to go to the movie theater. When I got home from school that day I said I couldn’t go because I had too much homework but told them they should go without me. They refused to go. If I don’t go they don’t go they told me. However my little brother was pretty upset which reminds me I have to buy him a movie as a gift before I go. A couple of times we were all going to go to some other part of the country on a couple of different Sunday morning. Actually I would never know that these were plans because they wouldn’t tell me about it until I woke up and it was too late to go. I would ask “why didn’t you wake me up?” Oh no, you were sleeping, but don’t worry no pasa nada, todo bien, suave, tranquilo. Tranquilo (tranquil), by the way, is everyone’s favorite word here. Everything is always tranquilo.
They have continuously made sure that I know that I am part of their family. In return I’ve tried to tell them how gracious I am for everything in my broken Spanish. It is definitely frustrating at times not being able to express exactly what you want to say especially in the more serious moments. But the other night I tried to let my actions speak for me by buying them a round of beers. My host mom told me that her house is always open for me anytime I want to come back. I asked her if I could borrow her house for my honeymoon one day. Ho ho! we had a good chuckle at that one. The other day, referring to the 9 straight days of rain we’ve had, I said “pronto necesitamos un barco!” I’m getting a ton better at making witty remarks in Spanish.
Quick side note since I’m speaking of jokes: Andy, I’ve told the “jump frog jump” joke here several times. My family loves it and they make me tell it to everyone. It works perfectly in Spanish.
Below are some pictures of a party we all threw for the host families this past Saturday. We all chipped in with different tasks. Some people cooked and others decorated.
My departure on Friday will not be a final goodbye to my host family. Once Nicaragua is over, I'll be coming back to stay with them again for another week. They've also invited me to come on a family beach weekend.
