Buenas todos! If you remember from my last blog post, I had a weekend (Friday and Saturday) with the program (ICDS), and then we went home. Well, when I went home I had plans to bring my real parents to my host family’s house for dinner. My parents are fantastic people who love to travel, so when I signed up for this program, they were already planning to visit me. This past weekend, they finally did! They were able to enjoy a week in Costa Rica while I had classes, but on Saturday they came to San Jose to meet me!
They came over for dinner with my host family, which I was very nervous for because I was scared I would mess up the translations. Thankfully, my host aunt, uncle, and cousin had dinner with us, and they all speak English very well, so they were able to help me out. I think it went very well! My parents were excited to have an authentic/traditional meal with my host family, and I think my host family was excited to see what my family was like in the United States. My dad and my host uncle really vibed well which made me laugh. My parents also don’t speak a lick of Spanish so it was fun when I could translate. Afterward, I went to the hotel my parents were staying at to spend some time with them and we caught up on everything. However, I noticed around the hotel there were so many gringos and everyone spoke English, which kind of made me laugh because if I was visiting Costa Rica, that would be my experience. But because I’m on this program, I get to experience the real Costa Rican culture in a Spanish-speaking household with homemade food. It made me very grateful for being a part of this program.
The next day, I took my family around San Jose to show them the town! I even had them take a bus with me instead of an Uber to really get the experience of traveling in San Jose. I was going to take them to the Central Mercado (the place like Reading Terminal), but it is closed on Sundays. So we kind of just walked all over the city and found an art market, some pop-up tents with toys and jewelry and clothes, and we found some cool parks and what not. We just really spent the day walking around the town and I tried to show them as many things as I could.
While I really enjoy everyone on this program and I love this opportunity, it was very nice just to spend some time with family and just leisurely stroll through the city. We finished the day visiting the Futbol stadium, and we got dinner. Then I sadly departed from my parents, and prepared for the week ahead. We are officially more than halfway through the program, so it’s grind time. I can’t believe it’s already been seven weeks, like what?! But I will continue updating y’all on our adventures here! I have to go study for an exam (Drexel is currently in Midterms right now? Week 7? Well, when aren’t we in midterms!) Adios!