Dia 7- Ya ha pasado una semana! (Already a week has passed)

Wow. One week already??? 14 more to go! I hope they all don't go this fast. Today I realized how difficult it will be to leave my host family in May. I came home from school early, around 3:30. I was sitting in my room relaxing when Mari asked me to straighten her hair for her. So this is what having a sister is like I thought. I enjoyed being able to chat with her about my day and tell her the stories and help her with her hair. It didn't bother me at all to spend my time doing that-I enjoyed spending time with her. She gets my personality and has so much patience with my Spanish. It's a true gift to have her in my life.

My mama and papa arrived home from a visit to San Jose with my cousin, Kevin and his friend from work. As soon as I got home my mama was like, (in rapidly-spoken spanish) "I have a gift to give you!!" Come here!" I followed her into my room where she took a pair of shoes out of a box. "For me?" I asked. "Si!!!" she replied. I told her I couldn't, that she was being too generous. Of course she didn't listen. "You like them?" she asked. "Of course! I love them!" I told her. She said when she saw them she thought of me and thought I would like them. She also remembered that I didn't bring tennis shoes so I couldn't really play sports and now I will be able to. Her kindness almost brought tears to my eyes. This woman has known me for one week. One week and she treats me as if I've been her daughter for 20 years.

My mama and I in the la cocina (kitchen). Take note of my awesome pink, purple, and blue plaid shoes!


I sat at the kitchen table and chatted with Kevin and his friend (I forgot her name, oops). They both work at a Comcast call center here in San Josecito so they know English because their customers are from the U.S. I was surprised how much I actually knew (Spanish-wise). I was cracking jokes and responding to their questions about my stay here. My mom told them (again in Spanish, we only speak Spanish at home) something along the lines of 'She knows so much spanish, no?' It surprised me because even though I feel like I'm improving drastically, I don't think I speak well. I take forever to think of the right verbs and half the time walk around with my dictionary and a translator they let me use to look up words I don't know. Nevertheless, I was happy to hear they are impressed with my pronunciation and speaking ability.

As we were sipping coffee, eating postres (pastries), and chatting I asked my papa "Did you make the postres?" (I asked this because he sells bread and other goods for a living) He was like "Yes, yes of course. I made it this morning" I said back, "You lie" My whole family burst out laughing because they thought it was hilarious I was able to catch my papa in his pranks. I thoroughly enjoyed the time with my family. It was so relaxed-just chatting and laughing and cracking jokes to each other. I'm so thankful to be with this family!

Tonight, as tradition has it, the entire program (including staff and professors) are going to a place called Los Potreros which I roughly translated from what my mama told me as "a place where cows go" No idea if that's right but I know its a bar with karaoke, dancing, and good food. I look forward to getting to know my classmates better and hopefully make some Tico friends.

Hasta luego!

Love, Kristin