Familia y Galletas

Little by little, I’m starting to get more accustomed to life here in Costa Rica.  I still look and sound like a gringa, but at least I know how to comfortably get myself to school and back.  School so far has been great.   It’s nice to have some structure to my days and feel like I’m learning something academically, but the professors understand that it’s also important for us to take advantage of the opportunities we have for new and exciting experiences in a different country so they haven’t given us huge amounts of homework (yet).

I will have to learn how to build some homework time into my days, though, because by the end of February I have to turn in a formal research proposal including background research and an estimated budget, and give an oral presentation about my project… I’m not exactly on a four month vacation!  It’s going to be difficult when my schoolwork gets tougher, because my host mom is always taking me to family events, or cooking some delicious Costa Rican food that I want to learn to make.  In this first week, the cultural experience of getting to know my host family has been more important to me than academics, but eventually I’ll need to have more balance between the two.

                For now, though, spending lots of time with my host family has given me an interesting perspective of the Costa Rican culture.  It’s wonderful to see how close-knit Vicky’s family is.  Last night, we went to my host-aunt’s home nearby to say the rosary, and there must have been 20 family members there!  The kids were running wild through the house and the adults were oohing and aahing over the babies.  It reminded me a lot of my family getting together for Christmas or Easter in Verona.  After reciting the rosary, everyone drank eggnog (it’s not just for the holidays anymore, apparently) and served themselves dinner.  I was struck by how informal and stress-free the whole event was; it was apparent that they spend a lot of time together as an extended family by how relaxed and content everyone was together.  I’m sure not all families in Costa Rica are like that, but I think that in general members of extended families live closer together than in the United States, and that spending time with family is valued more highly.  

Vicky, my host mom, and me

                We have another family event coming up tomorrow (Friday).  This time Vicky is hosting it at her house, so I get to help with the preparation.  She expects around 30 people to come tomorrow evening to recite the rosary again, and we have to prepare food for everyone!  We started cooking today, and I did my part by making some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  Apparently chocolate chips are very expensive here, but I had brought some from home, so Vicky, Julián and María (my host-nephew and niece) were very excited to have chocolate chip cookies.  I made a double batch of cookies, so it was quite the production!  María was a great helper, though.  We both wore plaid aprons and scooped out dough to make pan after pan of cookies.  I had to do some estimating because Vicky doesn’t have measuring spoons, and the temperature on the oven was in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, but I was relieved when the cookies came out well.  Julián was calling them “galletas santas,” or holy cookies, so I think I done good.  We also started preparing some dessert tamales made with ground corn, sugar, dried coconut, and the tico version of sour cream (natilla)… I’m excited to try those tomorrow!

"Las cooks", as María Ines called us, with our sweet aprons

Julián helping me make cookies

                There’s much more to tell, but it’s time for me to go to sleep, so I’ll stop for now.  I’m looking forward to traveling to downtown San José with ACM tomorrow, the Rosario at our house tomorrow, and going to the beach in Manuel Antonio with my classmates this weekend.  ¡Buenas noches!