Hey American family!
I´m really sorry this is the first time I´ve taken to sit down and write a legit update about what´s been going on... I´m both very busy--there are sooooo many opportunities here!!-- and I often feel overwhelmed when I try to put everything I´m experiencing into words, and especially English words...
I´m extremely proud to say I´m solidly proficient at Spanish. Most of the people who talk to me are extremely complementary and helpful. They realize I get the structure of the language and that my brain is like a sponge. The majority of the Ticos are excited to help me on my spanish journey and supplement my vocabulary with new words and phrazes. My accent isn´t perfect, but my pronunciation isn´t wrong... just strange. I really can´t believe I didn´t do this earlier.... Spanish is completely different for me now! It´s not some confusing and foreign domain, it´s mine now too. I feel like I have a Spanish speaking personality that is very very positive, partially because most of the words I know are positive haha.
To paint you a picture of my life, let me begin with my family and casa. My family is totally Tico, but they are Arabic in origin. Everyone is incredibly accomodating, open, and loving. The daughters lie all over the mom and the family is pretty much always together, it´s very different than the average American family, where meals unite the family temporarily....
My bedroom is less than half the size of my dorm room... but I LOVE it. I don´t need more space here. The simplicity of life here, as well as the more relaxed pace, totally resonates for me and I love fully embracing it. The living situations are both comfortable and accessible by bus and taxi... Roda is an AWESOME cook, the girls are just great people and help us learn how to make jokes and stuff, and abuelito is consisent comic relief (I´m going to send you this picture of Michelle and I with him, SOOOOOOO FUNNY. You´ll be able to see his personality in a nutshell). Plus, all of the extended family and friends of Roda are obviously really kind and chill too.... PURA VIDA makes so much sense here/now.
A few interesting differences: extended family members who aren´t blood relatives aren´t integrated into the family the same way that they are in the States... Like Kelly would be Kelly and we would treat her nicely, like they treat everyone here, but by no means would I be expected to call her aunt or think of her as my family. Plus, when you enter or leave a room, you kiss every single person on the cheek. I really appreciate how it makes everyone feel significant... it just makes me wonder if junior high is easier here?? haha Also, there aren´t addresses here. Locations are expressed relative to other locations, which is extremely inconvenient if you don´t have a solid spatial orientation of the land.... And no one has their own mailbox by their house, they have to go into the city and get their mail from p.o. boxes.
Anyway, I take the bus to and from school, which is super convenient and easy. Roda loves how Michelle and I are interested in interacting with them and participating in their family, but she also is very proud of how independent we are. She says there are many girls who won´t go out unless she finds one of her boy Tico friends to take them... Obviously I don´t go out alone, I go with Michelle and we usually meet other people out, but I´m glad that Roda likes that we want to move around this space confidently. You need to know I´m being very cautious, alwayssss aware and proactive, but at the same time, I haven´t felt paranoid or actually endangered at all.
ULACIT is pretty small. It´s a private university that´s super big on English and there are a tonnnnn of students studying to be dentists. I´ve made a bunch of friends that take me to cool places in the city or give me tips about things to do or my speech. Most of the days, I go into el centro, which is an approx. 7 min walk from ULACIT, and get lunch at a Soda, which is the word for a little, local cuisine restaurant. They´re well priced and you get huge portions!
So this last weekend, we went to Tamarindo. WOW. The only word to really describe that place is PARADISE. En serio. For example, I was sitting on my balcony outside my hotel room, meditating and watching the world. Across the pool, there were these two huuuuge yellow butterflies fluttering and playing with each other... I was amazed. They were so big I actually spent 5 minutes trying to discern if they were really butterflies or actually birds....
Friday night we got there after dark, so we went to dinner and a lot of the kids went to a bar/club. I opted to go swimming. BEST IDEA. About 30 min into our swim, it started pouring.... never have I experience tropical rain like that!!! So refreshing and crazy... so charged with energy... I couldn´t help but laugh and marvel at it all. Seriously, my brain has to chew on this place. It barely believes it´s true.
Saturday morning we got up at 5:30 to go on a mangrove tour. It rained most of the day and was overcast all day, but it wasn´t too big of a deal to me since I didnt pay for any of the extra tours. I spent the day meditating, relaxing in the ocean and the pool, watching soccer in a bar, and chilling with the surf instructors of one of the americans.... That kid and I spent the evening with the surfers, playing pool, drinking and dancing... It was magical. They are so chill I just can´t really say anything more than Pura Vida for you guys since you wouldn´t understand the spanish and the english doesnt sound right.... i just really like how the energies of the people and the language here mix and meld.
Sunday, I had the most delicious smoothie of my life. It had fresh pineapple, passionfruit and mango.... GAHHHHH. Wish you could try it too.
Classes are awesome, although it´s kinda strange because I feel like I´m the best student, especially because I´m the only one from the San José group who actually talks to Ticos every day and really really tries to learn and better myself.... I don´t really get how they are here and they don´t want to put themselves out there, but at the same time I see it´s scary. I´m just really grateful that I´m confident enough to just fake it til I make it because I´m deffff already making it. It´s gratifying.
That´s a pretty solid summary of what´s been going on, but if you have any specific questions, please ask!! Hope you can sense how happy and grateful I am.
Bueno, con amorrrrrr
C
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