Meeting mi familia

I was incredibly nervous to meet my host family. Thousands of worries were running through my head when we went outside CPI to meet our families:

What if I couldn't communicate with them? What if they eat strange foods? Would they like me? What if they didn't understand anything I said? Would I get lost trying to find my home? Would they speak any English? Would I remember how to speak any Spanish or just got into some crazy culture-shock and forget how to speak all together? Would they have any pets who I could hang out with to avoid having to speak Spanish?

CPI

Thankfully, my name was called first of the whole group, so I didn't have time to have a nervous breakdown. My mamá, papá, and hermana tica were anxiously waiting for me. We all smiled at each other and the translator from CPI asked if there was anything I wanted her to tell them before I got in their car. I simply said, "Can you tell them I don't like mayonnaise?" Really?! I blew my one shot on having something translated on a topic as trivial as mayo?! I had just arrived in a foreign country and was about to get into a car full of strangers who I didn't know how to communicate with and all I mentioned my disdain for a popular condiment. That just goes to show how nervous I really was. I came into this without many expectations. Staying with a host family was a concept so foreign to me that I didn't know what to expect at all, but I had no idea how nervous I would be when the time came to meet them. As they loaded up my bags and I got into the backseat of their car, I was wondering how I got myself into this. As the car pulled away from the safety of CPI and my family was speaking amongst themselves in Spanish, I felt almost certain that I was in way over my head. Luckily for me, my tico family overlooked what I know must have been the most terrified look on my face and my ridiculous mayo exclamation, and began to ask me a few simple questions about myself in Spanish. After answering how old I am and where I am from, I felt a little more confident in my ability to communicate.

My hermana tica Brendolyn

Much like an English Language Learner in America, I was overwhelmed with tons of new information: a new country, a language I'm not familiar with, new people, and phrases I've never heard, but when I was able to understand what they were asking and formulate a response, I was proud of myself and felt a little more comfortable. Sadly, this didn't last long because the questions got harder and all the words began to run together as we drove down the long dirt road home. This was probably the first time I was able to truly empathize with an English Language Learner.