Hola, ¿Como esta? Buena suerte.

For any of you that know Spanish, you know that the title of this post means, “Hello, how are you? Good luck.”  Sounds like a little bit of an odd sentence……but not too odd.  Unless of course you are meeting your host mother for the first time.  Yes, that’s right, out of nervousness, excitement, and partly my language level (even though I got placed at Intermediate Middle and know better than to greet someone with ´Buena suerte´), I mumbled those exact words as I leaned in to greet my new host mother with a kiss on the right cheek (the official greeting of Costa Rica).  I hoped she didn’t hear it, as I sort of mumbled it under my breath once I realized what was coming out of my mouth.  I tried to brush it off with repeated “Buenas Dias” and lots of smiling.  Thankfully, after that encounter they still decided to keep me.   

 And so it began…three months of living with my new Tico family during Peace Corps training.  And by ‘living with’ I mean sitting with, smiling at, awkwardly laughing with, unknowingly nodding at, and enjoying new cultural situations and language barriers galore.  Though I still continue to make language mistakes and say things like, “yesterday we will go to the grocery store and bought roosters,” or ´Is this the soup I use to wash the dishes?´   I try and remind myself that I’ve only been here a week, and I have much to learn.  My family is wonderful though.  I have my own entrance, bedroom and bathroom.  We have a big back yard with a common area for parties (most of their family lives on the same street) with an outdoor bar, ping-pong table, and lots of couches and chairs.  The backyard is filled with new and interesting fauna and flora including many wild orchids.  Today while in the yard, my host dad pointed out a flower that I apparently ate in a meal the day before.  Huh, not sure what it was but I must have liked it.  Anyway, we have two roosters (that wake me up at 4 am right outside my window), many birds, a large green parrot, and a golden retriever named Bruno.  I am lucky for sure, being the animal-lover I am.  I live with Ana and Jorge, and two of their three 30-something-year-old sons. 

My training community is semi-urban, but a bit more semi-rural.  I have Spanish class three days a week, six hours a day with two other trainees.  It is about a 25-minute walk to the classroom, which strangely enough is located in a funeral home next to a cemetery.  Today we had a lovely picnic in front of the cemetery under the intense Costa Rican sun.  My SPF 20 sunscreen that I brought has proven useless, as my skin is already red.  One day I week I meet with my entire program training group (18) in a nearby training community, and the last day I travel to the capitol of San Jose to meet with the entire group of volunteers (52) for safety and health training.  Days are long, and they don’t end when we come home…..we have to continue to stretch our brains to say simple things like, today I did this or that.  I usually retire to my bedroom around 8 or so, as it’s nice to have some alone time and rest the brain.  Getting used to a new culture is extremely mentally exhausting.  Now I see why I am here two years.  I’m hoping just living will become more natural/secondhand/easy.

All in all, I am loving things so far.  I couldn’t be happier with my Tico family, my training community, and of course, the amazing food I am fed more than three times a day (not to mention my host father owns a fruiteria, thus every meal is filled with bowls of fresh tropical fruit).  And for all those who know how much I hate coffee and swore I would not become a coffee drinker here……well, there’s a small chance that may become a reality.  I had my first cafecito the first day with my family, and I enjoyed it.  Of course it was chock-full of milk and sugar, but less bitter and more pure than in Los Estados Unidos.  For now, I will stick with my té, but time can do so much.

Algunas fotos para ustedes: 

Our retreat center where we spent the first five days:

A few new Peace Corps friends: Morgan (very serious), Brigitte, Lindsay, y Joshua at retreat:

Some ruins of an old church destroyed in an earthquake in Cartago near San Jose:

Getting ice cream en Cartago:

On the bus to our new host families, Me, Josh and Lindsay:

A church of Our Lady of Los Angeles in Cartago, and a pilgrimage site for Costa Ricans:

Te y cafe time!!!!

In my bedroom at my new host family with my gorgeous mosquito net: