This is a Costa Rican saying I learned in class one day last week. It translates to “Practice makes the teacher,” and it came up in a conversation about how the best and most meaningful learning comes though practice and experience. This is something I have always believed in and hope to use as a driving force in my teaching in the future, but I’ve been realizing its truth here beyond academic settings more and more every day. A clear example would be how quickly I’m coming to be able to communicate with my family in Spanish; practicing all day every day definitely does the trick for learning a language! I’ve also learned that being with people is the main way I pass my time. It’s been strange here not having a stable group of friends, since people come to and go from CPI every week and the other CEC interns don’t arrive for another two weeks. I’ve been able to befriend people to go on hikes and things, but it’s odd to know how temporary it is. I’ve realized I’m not one to want to go exploring on my own, because the part of exploring that is fun for me is sharing it with other people.

Another not exactly direct example comes from a conversation I had last week with my afternoon Spanish teacher, José. We were talking about the importance of family in both of our lives and up came the topic of homesickness. He had a lot of really interesting things to say about it, and we ended up having a conversation that gave me a completely new perspective on this experience of being in a new place by myself. Basically: It is a beautiful thing to feel homesick because that feeling of missing is proof of how much you love your family and friends and how important they are to you. It proves to you your ties to the places and people that make you who you are, and it shows you the strength of these ties, pulling at you even from afar. I was walking home after this conversation and stopped to check out this Macrobiotics store, which sells some pottery (from an artist who is all about recycled materials and ceramics, and for whom I might be volunteering in the future…), natural medicines, and natural peanut butter (!!). Outside, there was a sign expressing “Tips for Beauty.” So applicable to my earlier conversation, the last tip read, translated, “For good posture, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.” So even though this experience of being away from home and most of what is familiar to me has been strange and uncomfortable at times (but overwhelmingly positive, exciting, and happy!), I feel like I’ve got a new perspective on any loneliness and homesickness I might feel. I’ve been missing you all terribly, and I’ve so appreciated all the Skype conversation and emails you’ve all sent to check up on me and let me know what’s going on in your lives. Keep them coming!

Now for some highlights from my past two weeks:

• I met Beverly, the teacher I’ll be working under at the CEC. The fact that I’ll be in a classroom teaching in just a few weeks is becoming more and more real (and nerve-racking) every day! It was so great to hear about the students, though, and some of the things we’ll be doing.
• My sisters started up school again, and now every night they ask for my help with their homework- fractions, writing, and vocabulary… I’m getting lots of good practice in! The benefits of being the “teacher” in the house? It’s also fun to be the big sister, a relationship I’ve always been on the other side of!
• Last weekend, I went into Monteverde with one of my classmates from CPI. We went to this place called CASEM, a cooperative that sells that artwork of local women; it’s an incredible place. We also went to the Monteverde Cheese Factory, which was established by the Quakers when they came to Monteverde in the 1950s (I’ll hopefully be writing a post about the history of the area in the future, because it’s really interesting!) It was fun to see where almost all of Costa Rica’s cheese is produced, and of course to taste it :) 
• Last week, I introduced a new recipe to Dixia- “Tortas de Frijoles Negros con Vegetales” (black bean burgers). It was fun to teach her how to cook them, and they were a big hit with my family!! I’m hoping now to learn some of her recipes…  
• Speaking of food, which I have surprisingly failed to talk much about until now and a topic to which I still will not do justice (Colonnese/Manteiga family and fellow fat kids, you know how important food is), it’s GREAT here. Dixia is an incredible cook; she is so creative with beans and veggies. Also the bananas are delicious. 
• This past weekend, I went to La Catarata de San Luis with two friends from CPI. It was about a 14 km hike from Santa Elena and we had a perfect day for it. Along the way, we stopped at this guy’s art gallery, where he also had a huge collection of local miniature orchids, which were beautiful and incredibly small (we didn’t even realize they were in bloom until he started talking to us about them!). We had a picnic lunch on the rocks around the waterfall (pictures are coming) and then called a taxi to bring us back to Monteverde because we couldn’t hack a four-hour walk back up the mountain to town…
  
• I just had a great conversation about vegetarianism with my afternoon Spanish teacher. She is the first person here who hasn’t look at me like I’m insane for not eating meat- because she is a vegetarian too! The first one I’ve met here (they are few and far between). I have seriously been so lucky with all of my afternoon conversation teachers- we always seem to have so much in common, making conversations incredibly fun and interesting. It’s pretty much to the point where, instead of taking notes on Spanish words and grammar rules, I’m recording the ideas and theories and stories we’re sharing with each other!
  

Aside from getting to see all of these incredible places and meeting people from all over, one of the biggest highlights (and frustrations) of my time here so far has been learning Spanish. Overlooking the struggles and fact that every time I learn one thing, I realize ten other things I have no idea how to say, I love the tangibility of my gradually increasing language skills. One of the best parts of it is, as I can speak more and more, I’m also growing more comfortable here. Yesterday morning, I had a conversation with Dixia about how I’m feeling about the change to being here. When I asked her a similar question, how she feels about the change of having me in the house, she said, “It’s always good to have more family around.” This place is feeling more and more like a home to me every day. I seriously can’t say enough how lucky I am to be with such an incredible family here! Coming from a really close and loving family of my own, it feels amazing to be building similar relationships here.

I hope all is well with everyone! And to those of you who are at Swat, I hope the first week back was fun!

Lots and lots of love <3

p.s. I promise in the future I’ll try not to write such novels! I’ve never really been one for concise writing…

My trip to Costa Rica started on Sunday morning. After a really hard "see you later" to my parents (which was preceded by many, many hard "hasta luegos" to the rest of my family and friends- I miss you all a ton!!), I got on my plane and was on my way. After seeing a beautiful sunrise from thousands of feet in the air (a wonderful way to start this trip), I slept pretty much the whole flight. I landed in San Jose at around one in the afternoon and met up with a father from the CEC, who drove me the three hours to Monteverde. After the long ride, I met my host family, watched some bull riding on TV, had dinner, and went to sleep EARLY. My feelings that afternoon/night included: absolute amazement of the beautiful countryside and forests I was driving by, extreme tiredness, a bit of discomfort about embarking on this journey by myself, homesickness, and immense guilt for not knowing Spanish and thus not really being able to talk much with my family at first. I knew I had to be patient, though, and things would get better in the language and comfort departments. Sure enough, speaking from a week later, they have!

My classes at CPI started on Monday morning. To help me get my bearings of the area, my host father took me to school on his moto- quite a fun experience on these bumpy dirt roads! Since then, I’ve been walking the forty-five, very hilly (but beautiful and enjoyable) minutes to and from school. My house is in Cañitas, which is the beginning of the countryside of Monteverde, beyond my house are a ton of farms (which I’ll be talking about later) and the houses are very spread out. Walking towards CPI, I go past the road that goes up the mountain where CEC is located and through Santa Elena, a small town, mostly overrun by touristy restaurants, shops, and cafes. About thirty minutes past CPI is the reserve for which Monteverde is so famous. I’m sorry if that is a confusing explanation! It’s a bit difficult to put into words- I’ll be posting some pictures on my blog for sure!

Anyhow, last week at CPI, I met a slew of people from all over the US who were also taking classes. From eight to noon, last week, I was in a class with Jana and Peter, a couple from California who also knew no Spanish. It turns out our teacher, Isaura, is the Spanish as a second language teacher at the CEC, so that was really nice to already develop a connection with the school! The morning classes are focused mostly on grammar and vocab, kind of the nuts and bolts of the language taught though a lot of conversation and fun exercises and games. This week (our classes change every week because people come to study for all different lengths of time), I’m in a class with a girl named Stephani, who works on an organic farm in Arizona. She used to be a vegetarian, she speaks French, she has only been studying Spanish for one week (at one of CPI’s other locations), and she loves all things outdoors and garden related. I swear it’s like we’re long lost friends of something! Also, our teacher really likes all things garden and outdoors related. So, I’m really excited for classes this week. Yesterday we spent a lot of class talking about gardening, organic food, and the plague of factory farms and over-processing that is the dominant source of food in America. Today we talked about urban gardening, food access, and health issues. What better way to learn Spanish than through talking about topics I’m really interested in?!

After an hour lunch break, I have an hour and a half more of class, one-on-one with the teacher. We just get started on talking about something, like how I play field hockey or what I’m going to be doing at the CEC, and I struggle through my explanations with my dictionary, verb sheets, and lots of “Cómo se dice…” to my teacher. The hardest day was when I was telling my teacher about some summer jobs I’ve had- both camps where I taught tennis, one in relatively affluent Eason, CT and the other in inner-city Bridgeport, CT. I was essentially trying to talk with her about the socioeconomic difference that exist in the US, which was a draining and frustrating experience because not only are these difficult things to talk about in English, but I had to water down what I was saying so much in order to be able to explain it in Spanish! But, I really like the model of teaching at CPI- I learn by talking about things that are important to me. Like yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon talking about education and the achievement gap and learning about the Costa Rican education system. Today, I talked about environmental issues in the States, ecotourism in Costa Rica, and the issue of greenwashing (when products are marketed as being environmentally friendly, when, in practice, they aren’t). How amazing is that?? I’m also happy to say that my use of the dictionary and referencing my notes has significantly decreased!

It’s really incredible to me how quickly you can learn a language when you’re immersed in it. I definitely had the benefit of knowing a good amount of French before coming here, which helped out a TON (and was also frustrating when things come out in the wrong language), but I can now speak and understand what I think is a relatively good amount of Spanish for only having been here for just over a week! I’m excited to see where I am after six months!

Thanks to the Spanish I’m learning and getting to practice every day, I have been growing closer and closer to my incredible family here. I have two sisters, Alejandra, who is ten, and Angelica, who is eleven, my mom, Dixia, and my dad, Geovanny. They have been nothing but patient and welcoming with me, and it is so nice to slowly feel as though I am becoming a part of the family. I think we were all shy with each other at first, understandably, but now my sisters are at the point where they will come into my room and tell me to stop doing my homework so I can play with them, Dixia will make fun of me, and Geovanny will follow me on his moto on a rainy day and tell me he can’t let me walk to school because it’s too cold out and insist on giving me a ride. I’ve gotten to the point where I was dishes, help fold laundry, and just sit around and talk with them (a great way to practice my Spanish!). Also, Dixia is a wonderful cook, and I’m excited to be able to learn some of the delicious things she makes and to help her in the kitchen. This morning she asked me what my favorite things to cook are, and I think I’ll be making my black bean burgers for them sometime this week! I wish I could express to them how happy and thankful I am to have them bring me into their family so fully and welcomed.

This Saturday, Dixia, Alejandra, and Angleica gave me a full tour of the CEC. We had to install two beautiful cabinets Geovanny had made for a lunch/recreation room. Since Dixia works at the school, she has keys to all the buildings; she opened up every room for me and told me about each class and teacher and interesting facts about the school. I will be uploading some pictures soon- the view from the school, at the top of a mountain and with quite a few acres of rainforest on its property, is incredible. You can see some towns, mountains- endless green-, the Nicoya gulf, and more of Costa Rica in the distance. I could actually sit there and look at it all day- and this is where I get to work! It was generally just a fun morning of bonding with my sisters (we danced to Beyonce, played tag, and went on a walk in the woods), and getting to know where I’ll be for the next four months.

Afterwards, I went ziplining with a group of volunteers from Oberlin who are at the CEC for three weeks working on some outdoor maintenance, probably my one and only blatantly touristy adventure for this trip. It was fun ziplining through the gorgeous forest. I even did the Tarzan drop, which was a thirty meter drop followed by huge pendulum swinging back and forth. Overall, it was enjoyable and exciting, but it just proved to me that I’m not all that interested in those extreme touristy adventures!

On Sunday, Dixia, Alejandra, Angelica and I went to visit Dixia’s abuela’s farm, about a two hour walk from Cañitas. We left really early in the morning since it was so far. The countryside is beyond beautiful. I wish I could transport each of you here to see it. I took some pictures that I’ll send around soon, but they do not do it any justice (which I’ve been finding to be true of all the pictures I’ve been taking!). After the walk up and down and through the mountains on an endless dirt road, we arrived at the farm, surrounded by pastures, cows, horses (I couldn’t get any good pictures for you, Jen!), coffee plants, and a ton of different vegetables. I mostly just sat around with my sisters and played with a three-month-old baby while Dixia visited with her family. After lunch time, they all decided they wanted to go visit Dixia’s other grandparents, so we all piled into one of her cousin’s pick up trucks (Alejandra, Angelica, and I got to ride the whole way in the truck bed- SO fun), and embarked on the hour long drive back on the path we had walked and even further into the countryside.

Once at the other farm, everyone just sat around and talked and visited. I mostly just sat in the corner- I was exhausted because it had already been a long day and it is SO tiring to constantly be trying to figure out what people around me are talking about. Also, I think any feelings of homesickness that had been kind of pushed aside throughout the week by my business with classes and homework came flooding onto me. Since I couldn’t hold any meaningful conversations with anyone, I had all the time to think. Everyone was visiting and having a great time together, and all I wanted was to have my family and friends with me too. Also, it was strange to me that nobody really introduced themselves to me or questioned why I was there, and when they did they didn’t both to try to talk to me because my Spanish is still so relatively minimal. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people talk about me through other people, rather than talking to me when they’re able to (I could understand everything they were questioning and saying about me, and I could have easily explained it myself!). Then again, this was probably primarily my fault because I didn’t make the hugest effort to put myself out there, as I felt kind of strange and intrusive being a part of this big family reunion. Things got better, though, when I decided to sit down at the table with Dixia’s abuelo and cousin and I talked with them for a bit. I spent the rest of the time relaxing with Dixia, watching the sunset, and reading. Around seven thirty, we rode back to Cañitas in the truck; I went to bed soon after we returned. Despite the emotional bump in the middle and not having anyone to decompress about it with, it was all in all a good day and I got to see a beautiful part of the country.

Needless to say, I am having an incredible time in Costa Rica so far. The weather this weekend and so far this week has been particularly amazing. January is the transition period between the rainy and dry seasons, so, like all of last week, it is often very rainy and windy (which actually isn’t totally bad- rain here is a fun but heavy mist, and there are always multiple rainbows in sight), but it has been clear and sunny the past few days! Every day I can feel myself becoming more and more accustomed to my life here and with my family. Now that I’m pretty much settled in, it feels so comfortable and natural to be here. Plus, learning Spanish in this environment is so fun and rewarding. No matter how tired I am after classes and constantly trying to understand what is happening around me, the end of every day feels so good because I can actually feel and hear my language skills improving, and because I’m so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people. My sisters, who both speak English because they go to the CEC, keep telling me how impressed they are by how little they have to translate for me at home now! I really, really love this place and am beyond excited to have over five more months ahead of me!!!