Aero: Tiffany Bane – Costa Rica 2016 – Life at Home

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

My host family was amazing, and very loving. Our host mother was always asking the four of us in the house if we needed anything to be more comfortable and were always trying to feed us. Of course we were always ready for food. By the time we got up in the morning, there was breakfast ready, and even when we got back after long days of exploring the city she would have food ready.

Tiffany Bane

Tiffany Bane

The four of our students always had our breakfast and dinner together at the table, which allowed us to get to know each other, but we never ate meals with our host family, probably because we were either sleeping or not here when they had dinner.

Because our host mother did not speak English, at times it was like we were playing charades about certain things. One thing was we were taking cold showers, and it took us all a week to communicate with our host mother what was going on. By the end of the trip we had finally gotten warm showers.

Pablo, the son of our host mother was very helpful in translating what we were saying and telling us some Spanish words so that we would know for later on. The host family is very close and it was so amazing to see, they would just sit outside some nights with some friends and just hang out. They treat everyone like family and once you got to know them you truly felt that way.

The last day we were there was Pablo’s birthday and we were able to celebrate his birthday with him. It was a small get-together friends and family and it was a fun way to end the trip. In the home there are 2 dogs, Chleo, and Blakey. For me not having dogs at home, finally having a dog around was a fun time. Chleo was the dog that was around most of the time, and she is an older dog but she was fun to have around. The major time the dogs came around us when we were eating, like most dogs they sat around the table the entire time we were there and most of the time both of the dogs ended up getting some table scraps. Being in a host family home was strange at first, but by the time we had to leave we had become a family and I didn’t want to leave.

Tiffany Bane
LEAF Contributor
ML@FLCC: Costa Rica 2016

Modern Languages @ FLCC: Costa Rica Study Abroad 2016