Now, three days into our home stay experience, I have a lot of thoughts swirling in my head. To live with someone else that you don’t know for a week is a serious undertaking. Becoming acclimated to a family of a different culture & language is another story. (What did I expect when coming on a language and culture immersion program?) By being patient with myself and others, I am learning to find the finer points of this experience and accept it for its value. Throughout this process, there has been a natural progression to a more comfortable place in my line of thinking, but when we first arrived, I cannot say that was the reality.
Let’s start from the beginning. When I found out that Lauren (my roommate at the UGA campus) and I were going to be placed in the same home, I was excited to know that I wouldn’t have to endure such an experience alone. From the start, I can see the value of this experience and how it could impact my life. The opportunity to improve my Spanish was the principal reasoning for deciding to begin this excursion, and living with an actual family is a great way to improve upon this. I realize the importance of developing my fluency as a means to communicate with the parents of my future students, their parents, and my own (future) children. However, the value of this experience is sometimes outshined by the authenticity of the situation around me.
The house we’re staying would be considered modest by standards in the states as far as size goes. But when looking at the actual components, a North American would say that it is unclean and full of bugs. Everyday, Lauren and I discover new bug bites. This isn’t solely a result of the conditions of the house but also of the shear nature of the place we are living. Costa Rica is the jungle and therefore there are tons of bugs. My problem only lies in the fact that there are tons of bugs in the house. When I first got there, I couldn't stop looking out for all of them and having the feeling of being very itchy. During our stay here, we have often been informed that there is only a small number of bugs that are actually dangerous. All the others are just there for the party. In keeping with this mentality, I try to ignore them. It's working somewhat.
I had heard from Dallas (a student in this program last year) about the sometimes awkward pauses and such when there was nothing else to say. Of course these also exist in my own house, but they don’t seem to be as awkward of course because there is no need to fill them with mindless chatter. Everyone else knows the intentions of the inhabitants and their personalities, but here, there is much to learn about one another. Our family is very nice to us and we converse quite often. Both of our parents and friends that stop by tell us that we speak very good Spanish, so that's encouraging. Also, much of our time together is spent around cooking and meals. Both our father, William, and mother, Damaris, cook for us but they each prefer to do it in different ways. I thought this was an interesting factoid since I had always heard such typical stereotypes as are often described in the machismo culture. However, he told us that he used to be a cook at a restaurant and quite enjoys it. As well, our mother cooks in the local school for the teachers and some students. Since I am on a constant quest for recipes, I shared with them that I am very excited that they both cook well because I would love to learn some of their traditional dishes. I’m noticing that food is a way for us to bond and provides more discussion for us. For me, this is one of the things that helps me to relate to my own culture since the same holds true for my family. This will be something that I can definitely take back with me to the States.
No comments:
Post a Comment