Aero: Stephanie Strassner – Costa Rica 2013 – Family Life
Aero: Stephanie Strassner – Costa Rica 2013 – Family Life
Aero: Stephanie Strassner – Costa Rica 2013 – Family Life
It was definitely an experience living with a host family. I come from a household of six people. There is always something going on and it is usually noisy and we are always on the go. This is the environment that I grew up in. When I was preparing for this trip I did not really know what to expect from my host family or the situation as a whole, other than me hoping for the best. Looking back on the experience, though, there were definite differences I noticed between life in Costa Rica versus life in the United States, at least differences between my life.
For starters, my host mother, every morning, was up and had breakfast ready by the time we got up. She was not even ready to go to work most mornings when she was cooking breakfast for us. It was not until after she cooked and served us that she would go get ready herself. So my roommate and I would eat, and sometimes our host dad would join us, while she got ready. I know in my household at home, breakfast is on us. If we are hungry then we eat, if not, then we don’t eat. On special occasions, like holidays or birthdays, my mom might cook a big breakfast, but other than that we usually do our own thing. I, myself, rarely eat a big breakfast at home anyways, if I eat anything; so being served a big breakfast everyday was different than my home.
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When it came to dinner, again, each night our host mom would cook for everyone. We didn’t normally eat until 7:30, give or take a few minutes, which was different because back home we normally eat between five and six, but this wasn’t a huge deal. Again, though, she was the one who served us. I remember the first night we were there we tried to help clear the table and bring things to the kitchen and both her and her husband told us not to. I felt bad leaving my plate on the table and just walking away, but that it how things went. I know my mom would not let that slide, when we eat we are responsible for cleaning up after ourselves. We also don’t always eat as a family. Some nights we fend for ourselves depending on people’s schedules.
Then there was the communication barrier. Both my roommate and I had some Spanish background, if minimal. Our host father, though, was actually the owner of the school we were taking classes at so he spoke pretty good English. He did tell us when we first met him at the airport, though, that he would speak in Spanish first and then if we needed help he would speak some English. As nerve-racking as this thought was, I was looking forward to trying to really communicate in Spanish. I knew it would be tough, and it was at some points, but I also knew that it would only help me to improve my communication and conversation skills, which is one of the biggest reasons I came on this trip. So we did try to speak mostly in Spanish and our host dad was good about helping us with our Spanish. He encouraged questions and trying. He never got frustrated if we didn’t know how to say something or said it wrong, he would simply correct us and have us repeat him and try and explain why what we said wrong so we knew. His wife, on the other hand, had a much more limited English knowledge. She did tell us, though, not to be afraid of trying to speak and to not tense up and get nervous. She told us that she is learning English just like we are learning Spanish and you just need to try and people will help you through and that is how you will learn.
So when it came to the language barrier in our house, it never became a huge issue. We would try to practice our Spanish but also had the ability to use some English if we needed it. Even our host brother spoke some English so we were able to communicate pretty well with him also. Our 3 year old host sister did not speak any English, but I’m still not 100% sure if she knew we didn’t speak any Spanish; so with her as long as we played dolls with her she was happy. The family life, though, was definitely different from the way I grew up; from the roles of spouses, to meals, and even the pace of their way of life. Like mentioned before, it seems like my family is always on the go, and I noticed that wasn’t really the case with my host family in Costa Rica. Family life was another aspect of Costa Rican living that I hoped to make note of and experience, and I definitely did.
– Stephanie Strassner
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