We're in a cloud forest!

Just as a side note: Today is May 25th, but I'll have to post my blogs at a later time because I have safely arrived at my new host home, but I don't have wifi here. It's been a bit of an adjustment to not have internet access or be able to use good old Google translate to help me communicate with my family, but I'm surviving. 

The road to Monteverde

We arrived in Monteverde last night and my host family for the next two weeks picked me up. It wasn't quite as scary this time, because now I have a little more of an idea of what to expect living with a host family. I was still a little nervous though. After getting in the car with the mama, papa, and baby I realized that they don't speak any English. None. I really should have paid more attention in Spanish class last week. When we got home, I met the little boy and girl and got to enjoy watching Scooby Doo in Spanish with them. They asked me to play hide and seek with them like eight times before I finally understood what they were saying. (There's something new I can add to my Spanish vocabulary now!) Playing a game with them kind of broke the ice and got us all talking... too bad I only understood about half of what they said. After them trying to teach me some other games and me not really understanding, everyone went to bed. When I finally laid down in my (new) room, I kind of had a freak out moment. It hit me that I am living at the top of a mountain with complete strangers, they only speak Spanish, I speak English, and I don't have wifi, or a phone, or any means of communication or translation. Can I please just go back to my nice first host family where I am comfortable and they speak slowly so I can understand?

Walking up this hill is no joke!

This morning I was kind of stressed about my family walking me to our group's meeting spot because everyone went to bed pretty abruptly last night and we don't speak the same language so I had no idea what time we were supposed to leave (it seemed like the car ride home last night was eternal, so the walk must be really far). I woke up at 4:30 to get ready and by 5:30, there were still no signs of anyone else being awake. Were they going to walk me? Was I going to be late? Would the bus leave me? Should I wake somebody up?
Eventually everyone got up and showered (I think we're going to be late). Then they started cooking breakfast (the gallo pinto was delicious, but now I just KNOW we are going to be late). Oh, and the baby is sick (at this point, I assume we are driving, but I think we will still be late). Finally we got out the door and as I started to veer off towards the car, I realized that we are totally walking (I'm freaking out because we are going to be SO late... can you tell I hate being late?). After breaking into a sweat during a 20 minute trek up the side of a mountain, I realized that we were almost to the meeting point-- and what do you know-- we're right on time (thank goodness). All that panicking was for nothing... I learning to be a little more laid back on this trip, but it's taking time.
We went on a hike in the cloud forest this morning and saw a tarantula,

A tarantula!

 millipedes, centipedes, stick bugs, and a squeaky door bird. Then we took the van to Santa Elena (the town here) and ate fried chicken at Super Pollo-- I just really needed a little taste of home and fried chicken is my favorite! We got assigned a new Spanish teacher at the CPI in Monteverde and she won't let us speak any English at all. I really miss speaking English!

There's nothing quite like fried chicken

Somehow I found the way back to my house all by myself in the rain (I really have no idea how), so I was quite proud... but then I couldn't get the key to work. The locks are different here. After my mama tica let me in, my sister Daniella helped me with my Spanish homework and I helped her with her English homework. It was a nice tradeoff in my opinion. I'm starting to like this family now. Dinner was quiet, but afterwards Daniella and my mama tica proofread my Spanish homework, a 1 page essay about my favorite family vacation. They helped me fix a few errors with conjugation and I was able to ask them about some vocabulary that I didn't know, so I'm getting closer with them.