School - Day 2 - Animal Diversity

(From left to right) Aurora,
Kara, me, & Jenny

Today at the school was soo much fun!  I was with these two girls named Dayana and Melony.  They are seriously the sweetest!  They each picked an animal and I taught them how to say it and they wrote “Fish” on their paper and then Dayana looks at me and goes okay you’re turn!  Write it in Spanish!! I just thought that was adorable and really cool that they caught onto the activities we were doing.  And the games we did they caught onto what they would have to do to cheat… even though that’s something we don’t want to encourage it was cool that they understood how the games were played.  To be honest I enjoyed it more today because the kids acted towards me better and communicated.


Melony (right) and Dayana (left)

 After lunch we had class and I found out about my homestay!!  I’m soooo excited!  I move in with them on Friday which means I will have to pack up everything in my bungalow and put it in a storage area on campus and then bring a travel bag with clothes in it for the homestays… not looking forward to packing up!  I just gotta hope it’ll all fit!  But aside from the packing…. I’m really looking forward to staying with a Costa Rican family.  I think it will really help with my Spanish and my look on the culture here.  The family I am staying with is also in Finca la Bella.. - which let me clarify.  Finca la Bella is a farm which is really really big and people “rent out” the land.  They call it renting but they don’t actually pay a rental fee every month.  They mainly just pay to buy the land and then keep up with their plants.  -  But anyways their names are Alvaro Vega (father) and Elizabeth Mata (mother) and their two daughters Adriana (18) and Laura (7).  I’m excited to help out with the farm and everything and I’m really interested in helping out to cook a Costa Rican dinner and everything.  I think it would be really fun and maybe it could be a recipe to bring back home.  They also don’t speak much English that I know of.  Apparently the parents do but they are very shy about it. 

On a side note… you might be confused about why they don’t have the same last name even though they’re married.  Well…. They do names differently here.  The boys are the same where their names are their father’s last name.  But with girls, they take their father’s last name and their mother’s maiden name.  Meaning my name is Alexis Hodges, but if I was Costa Rican I would be Alexis Hodges Gross.  Gross is… unfortunately… my mother’s maiden name.  But that’s how the naming system works here.  And whatever your name is sticks with you all your life – even once you’re married. 

After class we had dinner and then I got to skype with Emily which was really nice because I feel like I haven’t talked to her in forever and I’m getting best friend withdrawal!! 

After skyping I played cards with the middle schoolers that are somewhat in my group and that was pretty fun because they are all so different!!  And they act so differently outside of the classroom of course!  They each have such different personalities… and yes I do realize I just wrote the word different in four consecutive sentences but oh well.  It’s really interesting to see how much they each have to say.. especially in the classroom.  Although they may not have as many experiences as us, it just goes to show that there are different cultures just in school.  For example, there’s the artsy group, the jock group, the cheerleaders, and so on, but if I went and talked how I usually interact with my friends with each one of these groups I would get a different reaction from all of them because everyone has their own way of using language.

Today in class we talked about how the use of language has changed over the years, for example, men are more known for cussing on a regular basis, yet when women cuss it is almost shocking because women are known to be more polite.  But nowadays, women are starting to talk more like men by saying “shit,” and “damn it,” etc.  But girls especially are starting to use words that are meant to hurt people as words to talk to their friends.  For example, instead of a girl saying, “hey girl,” they will say, “hey bitch” or “hey slut.”  And the thing is if you’re calling each other that then why can’t the guys around you call you that as well?  This is just another way that gender plays a role in the language that people use. 

Anyways… we have our last day with the kids tomorrow!! I’ll miss them for sure.  They’re sooo cute!! Good night everyone!

Que duerma con los angelitos.

   Sleep with the {little} angels.