I theoretically got here close to ten years ago, back in June of 2002. As a sixteen-year-old I became friends with two boys from my high school class- one who had just completed a semester abroad in Chile and another who was about to depart. As I listened to their stories, my intuition suddenly shouted at me, ¨you should do that!¨, despite the fact no one in my family was particularly fond of international travel and the extense of my own experience at the time had merely been a week long humanitarian trip to Juarez, Mexico as a child. I still to this day marvel at how fearlessly I listened to my heart and forged the application process to become a high school exchange student. Several months later, I found myself boarding a plane to become immersed in Costa Rican culture for the next six months. It was one of the most terrifying things I had done with my life thus far but the thought of the adventure that lay ahead of me was too addictive to back out of.
It is quite amazing how my time spent in Costa Rica was the stepping stone for so many aspects of my future life. Costa Rica infected me with the travel bug, the only remedy being to experience twelve different countries since. I feel confident in saying I would not have had the courage to sign up for Peace Corps without having experienced first the training wheels of cultural immersion in this gorgeous country. Even today I work at a job in which Spanish communication skills are essential (and one of my favorite aspects of the work).
I feel that I owe so much of my Spanish speaking abilities to the Quirós Avila family who took me in as one of their own ten years ago. There are so many other reasons I am forever grateful to them. My mind keeps discovering fond memories and dusting them off as my host sister, Daniela, and I reminiss about our time spent together.
I remember the first night Daniela and her mother Irma picked me up from the exchange coordinator´s house and seemed to be speaking a mile a minute to me in Spanish as they brought me to a party at their house full of extended family. How everyone present had English speaking abilities similar to my beginning Spanish at the time but how patient and welcoming they all were with me- offering me as much arroz con pollo and tres leches as I could fill myself with.
Several months later they threw me a surprise birthday party, complete with shoving my face into the cake in true Costa Rican fashion and then giving me a Costa Rican makeover before I went out dancing for the night with my host brother Alvaro and other friends from high school.
My most favorite memory occurred a few weeks after I had arrived to live with them. Daniela and I shared a room and even though I had yet to become anywhere close to fluent in her language, we somehow one night found ourselves staying up late gossipping about boys despite the language barrier. We laughed until our stomachs hurt and corners of lips ached. In that moment I marveled at how beautiful it was that I was in such a unique position to form an unlikely friendship with this girl from a completely different culture and country than my own. This moment was key in stealing my heart.
Months later came the tearful goodbye at the airport as my first semester abroad had come to an end. I had not escaped homesickeness throughout my six months abroad and a lot of me was excited to be heading back to comfort, familiarity and loved ones. But leaving was not easy. Not only did my immediate host family- Daniela, Irma, Alvarito (host brother), Alvaro (host father)- accomany me to the airport to bid goodbye, but a large group of cousins, aunts and uncles also formed a circle around me as I gave kisses on the cheek to each and every one. Daniela was the final goodbye and I can still feel the pull on my heart as we grasped fists before I turned away from her as well as the tears that streamed down my cheeks on the airplane as I read a letter from her saying I would always be her hermanita (little sister) and how much she loved me.
I was able to return to Costa Rica six months later in order to show three of my closest childhood friends how beautiful the country was. Afterwards, Daniela and I exchanged snail mail letters back and forth and gradually the gap between the envelopes arriving became longer and longer. I completely lost touch with Costa Rica during my time in Zambia but one day was ecstatic to see that Daniela Quirós Avila had added me as a friend on facebook. (I often am convinced Facebook is unhealthy for me but it is for reasons such as reconnecting with friends from around the world that I inisist on maintaining a profile). We began to chat little by little and one day I found myself promising her that Costa Rica would be the next place on my list to visit.
I realized back in November that in 2012 it would somehow be the ten year anniversary since I first met Costa Rica. This made me work hard to discover an affordable plane ticket here. Before I knew it, I was flying over the rolling, green hills of the outskirts of San Jose in the early morning hours of yesterday. Butterflies in my stomach flapped away as I wondered what it would be like to once again meet these foreigners I consider my family.
Part two to come. I am in Costa Rica after all and don´t want to spend too much time on a computer! ;)
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