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LPI Misinformed Us

When I received my information about who my family was going to be, I was told I would have a host mother, father, brother, and two sisters. My actual family, however, is bigger than this. They forgot to mention another brother and another sister. These siblings popped up because of their association with my immediate siblings. The extra brother is the boyfriend of Mariela, my 18-year-old sister, and the extra sister is the girlfriend of Eric, my 17-year-old brother. Over the weekend, they spent most of their time at our house.

Surprisingly, there wasn't that sort of awkward dynamic between the parents and the boyfriend/girlfriend of my siblings. They were treated exactly as family. It was Eric's girlfriend's job to wash down the place mats we used for dinner every day she was here. The parents would ask the boyfriend/girlfriend to go retrieve something from the house and they would know exactly where it was. They would sit at the dinner table with us and help set the table, and were just in general completely integrated into the family.

When we are just all spending time together, they sit on the couch with us and watch television, or just talk to everyone. I don't know how long these relationships have actually been going on, but there just seems to be a much smoother integration into the family which is a bit of a contrast I feel to the United States. Though a relationship may be supported in the U.S. by the family, and the family may approve, there's never fully a sense of “He/She is part of our family,” which is very apparent here.

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Finding Our Way

Julia and I walked to the University for the first time today. It's about a half hour's walk, but this is how long it takes just about everyone to get there. Our oldest sister walked us and there was a large group of our peers both in front and behind us. We agreed that we would walk with a couple of our friends tomorrow morning.

We received a tour of the University today and in general talked about what was going on this week. Today was placement test day. They divided us up first by program. The 2-week students, the Global Impact students, and the Summer 2 students were all divided up. Next, they divided us up by level. Each of us then had to take a placement test to make sure they had guessed correctly where we belonged.

Our classrooms are actually in the mall next to the university, which is a bit strange. Supposedly, those are the best classrooms La Universidad Latina owns, so no complaints there. We take two classes, one in grammar and another in conversation and culture. Our grammar teacher seems to be really laid back, while our Conversation teacher has a very inflexible plan about how the next few weeks will go. My class is made up of five students, and together we've decided to work on the LPI scavenger hunt, where students go around and essentially find out what there is to experience in Costa Rica and then do it. We call it the Reta, or the challenge.

Slowly as the group gets to know each other the pieces are beginning to fall together. We are starting to get the hang of life here. We still have a lot to learn, but we're getting it.

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