Saturday, May 18, 2013
REFLECTION #2 - Homestays
Our students are participating in a 2-day homestay with local families in the Monteverde/San Luis area. Some are in pairs while others are going solo. The families vary by size and age. Take a moment to read and share about your homestay experience. What were your initial thoughts? How did the transition take place? How did you feel? Describe your experience through the members of the family and their daily life.
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Homestays are always my favorite part about visiting a country. I have been to Argentina and Ethiopia before and got to stay in local homes in both places, so I quickly learned that I love spending time learning about culture in that way. When I heard we were going to get to do that here in Costa Rica, I was ecstatic. It turns out I had good reason to be. My family is very much like my family at home: crazy, active, talkative, and exciting. I am staying with another girl on my trip and as soon as we got to our home, the girl took us on a walk. It was actually a hike up a mountain to see a sloth, eat wild strawberries, play with a cow skeleton, climb under barbed wire, and see beautiful views. When we got back to the house, we had a quick little snack and then helped our mom make dinner. We cut vegetables for her while she made the dinner delicious. Right after that, we went up the hill to do Zumba, but since we got there early, we went and played soccer: Mom, daughter, Mitchell (my partner) and me. It was really fun but we were already getting tired and we hadn't even started Zumba! After that, we went back to have the most delicious dinner I've had in a while, mind you I am a college student on a college budget so I was on my own there for a while, and then showered. Now, all of that was in a 3 hour period, and the entire time I was translating for Mitchell who hasn't done anything with Spanish in over four years. You may be tired from just reading it, but it is exactly what living my life feels like every day and I loved it. We did get to relax a little after dinner before going to bed but we were pretty tired by that point so we went to bed pretty early.
ReplyDeleteI have also been reminded of how much I love Spanish in this experience, and of how much I love communication. I have learned lots of stories about the family, shared many jokes with them, and laughed a lot. I am also glad that I get to translate for Mitchell because she seems to be having a better experience being able to communicate with them than some of our other friends are who don't have enough Spanish to communicate. Overall, it has been a fabulous, although exhausting experience, and that was just the first day! We are heading back for another night of fun in about ten minutes and so I'm looking forward to getting back on here to share what else we get to experience tonight!
Margaret
Homestay was awesome! Cristina (mom) was an excellent cook and Geovanny (dad) was a farmer. They had a 16yr old son who was excellent at futbol. Miguel was their other son of 6yr of age. He was always funny and fun to play with. I was with Wally and we had a blast. We did chores, played futbol, cooked donughts and watched movie! It was very fun hanging out with their family. I did not feel awkward at all. I am very glad I was able to have this experience. Thanks UGA y NCSU!
ReplyDeleteGarrett
This is the first time that I have ever had the opportunity to experience the homestay environment and I absolutely loved it! My family was absolutely wonderful in everything they did, and it reminded me so much of my family at home. They were so loving and caring towards one another and myself. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I hate that it was for only two days.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the weekend the biggest challenge was the language barrier. Me, nor my homestay partner Tasey, had ever had any formal Spanish language training so the first night was basically us trying to learn new words to help communicate with our family. By the end of the trip most everyone had said that we had become muy bueno at Spanish, although I know it was still difficult to express our thoughts. Also, Marlon, our homestay father, was asking me to translate some words into English for him to use while he worked at UGA. It was pretty amazing to see the two worlds combined.
Yuriel and Melany were the two children of the family and they were wonderful. They helped us communicate with Ana (mother) and Marlon more than anything. They were also balls of energy. They were constantly wanting to play soccer or frisbee, or with the camera or the phone.
After this trip I want to participate in another homestay experience. I absolutely have fallen in love with the culture here in Costa Rica and the language too. Everything is so family oriented and reminds me so much of my hometown. I am so glad that I was able to join in on this opportunity.
-Sarah Anderson
So after the second day, I found myself thinking in Spanish, speaking in Spanish to my American friends, and dreaming in Spanish. In fact, I even wrote that first sentence in Spanish before realizing that our readers probably don't speak Spanish, or only a little. It was so much fun to become a part of a family here in Costa Rica...I feel like I am just expanding my family as I travel across the world.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, as we were walking back to our house, all the way down the mountain, we stopped in to say hello to some friends along the way. They had the view of a lifetime! It was mountains, valleys, and ocean all in one. It was incredible. Also, we got to go swing in their back yard down a little trail, and it was just like we were swinging out over a valley from the side of a mountain! Then, when we arrived back at our home, we were asked to go play but since we looked so tired (and were so tired) our dad told us to rest some and let the children play on their own. It was nice to get to talk to him some and rest with some coffee since we had been going nonstop since arriving in Costa Rica. Then, after a little snack and a long break, we played some with the kids. They play the same games as us! First we played hide and seek, then we played freeze tag, and then we played the blindfold game where you try to find people while you can't see. It was very fun for us to partake in familiar games in a different language.
Then, after another delicious dinner full of laughter and stories, we watched a race that took place last week through the mountains. That was so cool for me since I love to run and I was able to take that opportunity to tell them about how much I run and how I did a triathlon a couple of weeks ago. Then we started seeing people we knew from the university on the tv finishing their race! It was really cool to recognize people we have met over the course of the week.
My favorite part of the experience in their home was how they embraced us as their own. Our mom called her our children to all of her friends, our brother kissed us hello and goodnight every time, and our sister hugged us all the time (well, between the times when she was chasing us with bugs and animals in her hands). It was so nice and so sad to leave them, but they told us to come visit them again and we all exchanged contact information so you can be assured that they will remain a part of my extended global family (and hopefully get to meet my students as I begin to teach!) It was one of the best experiences of my life.
Margaret
Caroline Gautreau
ReplyDeleteReflection #2- Home Stay
For my home stay I was with Dona Eliza and Don Alvaro. Before I arrived I was really nervous about the communication barrier. I was worried that we would not be able to talk to each other well and that I would not be able to tell them what I needed or thank them properly. I was afraid of coming off rude. The first day was a little awkward. We did not talk that much but the eight year old girl, Laura, was a really big help. She helped to pass the time at first because I would just follow her around like a puppy dog. After the first day and night I was able to return with a better understanding of how to interact and I was better acquainted with their routine as a family. I loved having the experience of a home stay because it really let me see how other cultures live and interact. Even though it was only two days I feel like I learned "mucho mas" than I would in any classroom. Also, being with a child of another culture for an extended amount of time allowed me to think of strategies of how to teach them. Overall the home stay was an awesome experience and I would love to do it again! I learned so much and am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in it.
Maddi Abrams- Home Stay Reflection
ReplyDeleteFor my home stay, I was placed with Don Rafael, Doña Lilliam, and Randy. Before my home stay, I was both nervous and excited. I was nervous that I had overestimated my abilities to understand and speak Spanish, and would have problems with a language barrier. However, I was also very excited to practice my Spanish as well as learn about what life is really like in Costa Rica outside of the city. In my case, I had absolutely no reason to be nervous because they were very welcoming and tried to help me. Once Rafa and Randy realized that I could speak Spanish, they made me feel like part of the family by making jokes and teasing me. At first, it was a bit awkward because we were strangers, but that changed pretty quickly.
After I got back to UGA, I realized that I was not really nervous anymore. I mostly was just excited at the prospect of getting back to my family and maximizing my time with them. Even though they did not exactly do anything special because I was there, I just enjoyed being with them and doing chores or whatever they were doing. I was slightly concerned about making errors in my speaking or being unable to explain exactly what I would have said in English. However overall I was much more excited and happy to get back to their house than I was nervous or concerned about what I might do or say whether correct or incorrect.
As a whole, the only way I could have enjoyed my home stay experience more was if I had been able to stay longer. My family opened their home to me the way I hope to open my classroom up to my students one day. Although we did not understand one another 100% of the time, we found ways to communicate and enjoy each other's company. I did a good bit of talking while I was there, but I also did a lot of listening and doing. One thing it reminded me of was that there are times for speaking and there are times for experiencing and learning. This is highly relevant as a future educator because we must remember that the students are teaching us while we teach them. I also reflected about the experiences of ELLs in the classroom. Especially since I will be teaching younger grades where the children are hardly even fluent in their own native language. It is at times difficult to communicate with someone who does not speak the same language as I do, but it is possible and being on the other side of the language barrier is quite a rewarding experience. I loved the home stay experience and would highly recommend it to anyone who comes. It is a way to step outside your comfort zone and learn what life is like as more than just a tourist.
Niether me nor my homestay buddy, Sara, had any kind of formal Spanish training, and now we were going to stay with a family of four that only spoke Spanish. As we were riding the bus down, Sara and I are trying to cram as many "common phrases" as we can before we actually are on our own. Our family consisted of a mom and dad, Ana and Marlon, a 12 year-old girl, Melany, and a 7 year old boy, Yureil. We arrived to what appeared to be a regular day in this Spanish household; the dad and son were watching a soccer game while the mom and daughter were in the kitchen, giggling over something. The next hour we spent at the house were probably the most frustrating and awkward time spent. The family was trying to ask Sara and I some very basic questions, such as how old we were, and it took forever for us to translate and then respond. Finally, Ana gets up and brings us a book of common words and phrases in both Spanish and English. This book broke the ice. We were finally able to communicate the bare minimum, which satisfied both the family and us. After the awkward first couple hours, we figured each other out. The rest of the night and morning was spent working on our Spanish, either by looking in the book or by asking questions.
ReplyDeleteThe following day, after debriefing and learning that mostly everyone else had the same struggles as Sara and I did, we were ready to go back to our Homestay family. Much to our surprise, we seemed to have learned and remembered quite a bit of Spanish, allowing Sara and I to have a mini conversation with Melany and Yuriel at dinner. It was awesome to finally be able to communicate! After dinner, we went outside again to play with the soccer ball/frisbee that I had brought. (sidenote: games don't require a lot of communication which allowed us to bond with the kids without heavily relying on Spanish) (second sidenote: Ana and Marlon's house is located right across the street from a convenient store, meaning that there were always a ton of people outside of their house) As we were kicking the soccer ball around, Ana and some of her friends decided to make a pick up soccer game for us and the local kids to play. So we moved some big rocks for "goals", made teams, and started playing. ALL IN SPANISH! We continued playing 3 vs 3 soccer for hours, all in Spanish, when Mitchell, Margaret, and their family came over to join in. After several hours of soccer and Spanish, Sara and I were exhausted. Overall, the second day of our homestay was a great success. I was nervous at first, but very happy with how well it went. You don't necessarily have to speak the language to play a game.
The home stay was a very, very new experience. I was not very sure of it before coming. I was actually extremely nervous about doing the home stay because I speak very little Spanish. Even in America I feel like staying a peoples home can become a burden and I was worried that this was going to feel that way but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was luckily blessed with a partnered with Margaret. She did very well with making me feel included in the conversations while also pushing me to try and pick up some of the words before just telling me what they said. I had a lot of fun speaking with the dad because I felt like he really wanted to help me. Our little "sister" was very funny and liked to scare me. She would chase me with bugs and make us hike everyday...we got our work outs in. Our little sister really enjoyed talking to us and showing us around. We were blessed to see a sloth and monkeys during our home stay. One fun thing that we did that reminded me of America was the Zumba class we took with our home stay mom and daughter. That was a sight to see all the women dancing along with us. Another fun thing we did was help prepare dinner both nights...we had rice and beans with every meal...duh! I also caught my finger the first night cutting tomatoes. Our "mom" didn't really want me holding a knife the rest of the weekend! Overall, I had a really fun time and a really new experience. It pushed me out of my comfort zone but now I'm ok with that and I would do it again. Next time I would know a lot more Spanish!
ReplyDeleteMitchell Chrismon
This homestay experience was really just a cool life moment. I have never stayed with a family from another country before and it was so interesting to see how other families that belong to other cultures live. I stayed with another girl, Lauren, from our group and we were pretty nervous because with both of our skills combined, we only spoke a little Spanish when our host mom spoke absolutely no English. At first it was a little awkward because we didn't know what to say since our language skills were limited but then her 7 year old daughter came out to meet us and she was about fluent in English! Compared to the other families I heard about, we were super lucky that our host sister was able to relay our words back to her mom and vice versa. In a way it was kind of unfair because Lauren and I didn't have to try and understand the mom, we just had Johanna saying everything back to us. But in a way I think we were extremely lucky because if Johanna hadn't been translating, we would have never gotten to hear some of Edith's stories about living in Costa Rica. It was a very small house and the layout wasn't at all what I was used to but it definitely helped me to understand how people that lead a simple life, also lead a happy one. Edith treated her children with so much love and tenderness and they also treated her the same. The good she made us was amazing and always so fresh... She was even accommodating to the fact that we wanted nothing to do with rice and beans after we had had so much of that at UGA. Even though we didn't get to stay long, I felt like Lauren and I definitely created a relationship with this family even though our cultures have so many differences. But that's the thing about meeting new people in different cultures... If you can learn to communicate in the same way, then you create a bond that no amount of country boundaries can separate.
ReplyDeleteInitially, I was really nervous about my homestay because my Spanish is less than impressive and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to communicate with my family. I found out that I was paired with Heather and she knew more Spanish than I so that calmed my nerves a little. I arrived at my host family's house and at first I felt extremely awkward. My host mom was really sweet but couldn't speak any English and talked really fast. Heather was able to translate a lot for me and I was grateful for that! When my host brother, Jorje Mario showed up, I was much more relaxed. I feel like he was extremely accepting and being able to play legos with him helped us make a connection. He was also learning some English and I helped him some with that as he helped me with my Spanish. My host father spoke a little English as well. My mom asked if we wanted to go to Zumba with her at the community center and I really enjoyed that time that we didn't have to talk. Dinner was amazing but afterwards, I felt a little uncomfortable because I couldn't hold an intelligent, adult conversation with my host mom or dad. The sleeping situation wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! My bed was pretty comfortable and although the room had a lot of bugs, it could have been much worse! Unfortunately, I was unable to get any hot water so my showers were taken at UGA. Breakfast was delicious both mornings and I also was able to attend Jorje Mario's soccer practice on Saturday and game on Sunday! I also helped my family build a biodigester on Saturday evening which helped pass the time. Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to be completely submerged in the culture of Costa Rican people. Even though I was out of my comfort zone, I feel I learned more about them and myself through the experience.
ReplyDeleteTiffany Hales
I had no idea how eye-opening my homestay would be. For starters, I was especially happy to be staying with another student...but not so excited when I walked inside and the family did not speak English. All I could think was "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I know VERY little Spanish...what am I going to do?" It was then that their six year old daughter walked out and started speaking to us in proper English that I sighed a breathe of relief.
ReplyDeleteMy family lived in a little house in Monteverde. There was a gated fence at the entrance and flowers everywhere. Their home was very beautiful. However, it was still a bit different than homes in America. There was no air conditioning, no hot water, and spiders climbing on the wall was apparently no big deal. As a gift, I gave my homestay family one of my favorite childhood games, Chutes and Ladders, and I got especially lucky since the kids were only four and six. We played that a few times and it broke some of the initial awkwardness.
For dinner, the mom had me in the kitchen cutting up tomatoes, onions, avocado, cilantro, and limons for pico de gallo and we ate that on top of a homemade tortilla with refried beans and chicken. We also had chocolate cake for dessert and coffee.
After dinner I was really surprised when the mom told me her older son was in college in Tennessee and that he would be graduating next year. For some reason it just said a lot to me that a Costa Rican kid from the countryside had made the necessary steps to travel to the US to study.
That night was rough, though. I couldn't sleep because all I could imagine was spiders or beetles crawling on me or my pillows...
The next morning at breakfast we had a feast of french toast, eggs, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, and coffee. The mom took us out to the farm and had me digging up onions and picking up apples that had fallen from a tree. It made me feel like I was at my grandma's house, outside in the garden sweating while digging and picking.
After earning our keep, the mom gave us her house key and told us that while we were gone to UGA for lunch and our meeting, she was going to her mom's and wouldn't be back until later...and by later she meant 7pm as I learned.
The second night was much easier on all of us, the mom had friends over and we ate a type of spaghetti with cheese sauce and played with the kids.
Saying bye was really hard. In just two days I had already gotten attached to the family. We took tons of pictures and exchanged email addresses so we could add each other on Facebook.
My homestay made me realize so many things that Americans take for granted. Costa Ricans don't run to Food Lion when they need something, they grow it; they don't complain about the heat and not having air conditioning; they enjoy the simpler things in life, things that Americans have long since forgotten.
I'm glad that this experience was a part of our Study Abroad Program, if anything it definitely contributed to the "cultural immersion" aspect of the trip.