Está Feliz en San Luis

It is so weird to say that we have only a month and 6 days left in our program. It’s amazing how time flies… I can’t even believe that we have been in our homestays for almost a week already, and my Spanish is (or seems to be) improving dramatically. I find myself thinking in Spanish all the time. And today when I was working on an essay I looked up to answer a question in Spanish to Isa’s Mamá Tica and when I looked back down at my paper I couldn’t understand what was going on (because it was in English)!

So, a TON has happened since I last wrote. Some things I have learned:
1. if it’s not rice and beans, it’s beans and rice.
2. you feel a little bit left out if you miss the daily conversation about fecal consistency… (sorry for this one)
3. don’t think your toast is ever safe from a cat.
4. while cow fields are good for getting internet reception, they are not good for soccer and will often lead to ankle injuries and cow poop everywhere.

We moved to our homestays. I live on a quaint farm in the San Luis Valley, about 600 meters lower in elevation than the station (that’s well over 1500 ft). My Familia Tica consists of a woman in her 40s, Xinia, her boyfriend, and her son, Eduardito, who is 14. He is really smart and speaks English really well. I live on a road with a lot of other family members though. My mom has two more children who live down the road and they each have students living with them as well. Between the whole family we have maybe 20 cows, though I think just one is for milk. The women go out every day and milk the cow, and as far as I can tell we use the milk to make mantequilla (butter), queso (cheese), yogurt (self explanatory), and para cocinar (to cook). We also have a lot of gallos y gallinas (roosters and hens) and fresh eggs every day. The chickens all just roam about all day long. We have 2 pigs that I guess will be eaten one day, and a ton of random dogs. There is also a garden with a lot of vegetables. So basically, most of what we eat comes from our farm, but my mom also goes into town to buy some fruit and other things every once in a while. At first I wasn’t really sure that my family was going to work out, because I didn’t feel like I was getting to know them very well and everyone else’s families seemed so much more hospitable. However, as I work through the language barrier, I am starting to really like my family. Plus it is a lot of fun to have so much family all around us on the road and stuff.

My house is very small. It has a couch and tv room, a kitchen with a table, 3 bedrooms, and 1 bathroom. The bathroom is a shower and a toilet. With hardly enough space to get dressed. The kitchen has a stove and a sink. And my bedroom has a bed. I also have a small table which is currently being used as my dresser. My room appears to be an add on to the house. I can’t exactly tell what the walls are made of but it’s something not far from dry wall, and you can see outside between the pieces that make up the walls. However I do have a nice large bed.

I’m feeling like it’s time to ditch all of the things I brought with me. It’s hard because there are things I need when I go up to monteverde once a week that I will never need down here. But I can’t keep things at the station… but at the same time I have so little space here that I just want to ditch everything. However, I think I will get over it.

I think this is all I’m going to write for now, as I have a lot of homework and studying I need to do. But expect updates.