¡Hola, Costa Rica!

Sorry I haven´t written in so long, but it was hard to get internet access at the AFS orientation in San Jose.  Well, anyway... I´m with my host family!  I´m sitting in my house in Puriscal, CR, and I just can´t believe it!  The goodbyes with my friends and family on Thursday morning were hard, but now they´ve been replaced by plenty of hellos. Hellos, hugs, and kisses. 

First at the orientation in Miami, where I met all of the American students going to Costa Rica. 

The twelve Americans in the Miami airport.

Then at the camp where all the AFS students stayed for two nights.  I met students from all over, heard languages from all over, got in pictures with people from all over.  It was an amazing experience! 

Me (far right) with the three Hungarians.

But the best hellos were the ones just a few hours ago, when I finally met my host family!

Meeting my host mom and sister.

I can already tell they´re all so nice and so helpful with my Spanish! I can´t wait to get to know them better!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

I just realized I never posted pictures of my host family!  Sorry about that.  The suspense must have been killing you (Please note the sarcasm here; I'm sure you all had far better things to think about).  But anyway, I was waiting to post pictures until I received my official placement email from AFS, expecting that it would contain pictures.  It did not.  So instead I selected a few pictures from facebook and I'm just hoping my family approves of them.

From left to right: My host mother Angie, host father 

Rodrigo, Rodrigo's younger brother  Berny, host sister 

Melany, and Berny's girlfriend Cris.

My host father's parents (who will live very close to me) with Melany.

My beautiful little host sister, Melany.

Skype: An AFSer's Best Friend

I officially have a new best friend: Skype!

Two days ago, I skyped with my host father's younger brother's girlfriend.  If you need to go back and reread that, please do so because I know it sounds a little confusing at first.  It's really not though.  You see, my host parents are very young, and they live really close to my host father's family, which consists of his younger brother, Berny, and his parents.  His brother Berny has a girlfriend named Cris who's 18, so we've been talking a lot on facebook and (as of 2 days ago) on skype.  It was my first time ever skyping in Spanish, so it was a little hard for me, but I actually understood a lot more than I thought I would!  Cris is really nice and I'm really looking forward to spending time with her in Costa Rica!  She was very good about speaking slowly and not getting frustrated when I didn't understand.  It felt great to get to practice my speaking before I even arrive.  She told me that my Spanish was good, so even though I didn't feel like I was speaking well, I was still really happy when she said that!  She also told me that Berny's family is going to be hosting a girl from Italy for the whole year, starting the exact same day as me.  Her name is Erica.  They also hosted an American girl named Taylor last year.  She's returning to Costa Rica this year as a gap year before she starts college, so Berny's family will be hosting Erica and Taylor at the same time.  I'm thrilled that I'll have so many people my age living near me!  Cris told me both of their full names so I could friend them on facebook, and guess what? It turns out that Taylor is from not just the same state, but the same county as me!  What are the odds?!

Then yesterday I skyped with my host mother, Angie.  I also saw my host father, both of his parents, my baby sister Melany, and Angie's sister.  It was pretty hard for me to understand them, maybe in part because the UEFA Finals were playing in the background, but it was still so cool to get to talk to my future family.  I asked about their jobs (they used to both work at a bank, but now Angie is staying home with Melany), how old Melany is (3 months), which school I will attend (Liceo de Puriscal), and other general small talk.  Even though the call was hard for me, Angie was very nice, and I was left feeling even more anxious for my trip to begin!