So far so good. I got to my homestay at 4 this afternoon and I was kind of freaking out. On the ride over I quizzed Lindsay on the names of all my family members and asked what the heck I was supposed to do in the 2 hours before we ate dinner. Fortunately for Lindsay, I was the first to be dropped off in our truckload of estudiantes so I only had time for a few stupid questions. She hopped out of the truck, said hey to Marta  and Marielos, then got back in the truck and peaced out. Marta was on her way out when I got there because she has classes tomorrow morning at university. So she and Olivier, mi tico padre, left and it was just Marielos and I for the afternoon. It was surprisingly not awkward at all. We talked for the first hour and a half straight. Like legit conversation. She understood all of my broken Spanish and even some of my misplaced French, and I understood most all of what she was saying. I think that I am going to love being here. Marielos is a fabulous cook and says she will teach me how to cook some things. She mentioned tortillas.. She also told me she will teach me how to dance because she LOVES to dance. She also does a lot of embroidery and painting and jewelry-making, and is really good at all of it. She has two birds that she loves. They are named El and Ella (he and she). At some point in our conversation, she took me to the backyard to see their chickens. They sell chickens to the community. They have like 500 out there. It's crazy. There are different sections for each age group in the shed. There's a little room with a heat lamp for the babies (which are currently mia), then four caged-in areas: one for two weeks old, one for three weeks old, one for four weeks old, and one for the ones ripe for the pickin. Marielos let me help feed them. I didn't want to feed the oldest ones because they are psychotic and violent, but I fed the two-week old babies. They're cute. Marielos picked one up for me to hold while she went and got their water. Then she explained the process of preparing the pollo for sale. They have three plastic milk jug-looking things stapled upside-down on the fence with the bottoms and necks cut out, and she explained to me that you shove the chicken in there face-first so you can chop their heads off. Bah! Then they stick the headless chickens in a vat of boiling water to loosen the feathers slash make sure they're good and dead. Then they pluck all the feathers off and clean it up. It's a whole family affair and they do this every Saturday. Unfortunately for me, I am not around on Saturdays, but Marielos said we might can do it during the week this week because she has a woman wanting to buy some on Thursday. Woo woo!

So I think I might have fleas. Mi familia has two dogs and a cat. I didn't touch the cat because cats are gross, but I did play with the dogs a bunch. The cat's name is Missy and the dogs are Sassy and Boni (like bonita). The dogs are adorable, but there's going to be hell to pay if I have freaking fleas.

Olivier's dad came around at one point. He was there to get las drogas from Marielos (nothing sketchy, it was packaged medicine). I tried talking to him but could not understand a word he said for the life of me. He spoke really quietly and barely moved his lips like his teeth would fall out if he opened is mouth too wide. He didn't stay long, but he lives just down the road so I'm sure I'll see mi abuelo again soon.

Marielos showed me some pictures of the fam and what her future house is going to look like, and I showed her pictures of my family. She couldn't get over how young and beautiful my momma is :) Oh, and they have a picture on the wall of the three kids and two of the guys I danced with at Bar Amigo! Marielos said Leo is her bff. It's a very small community, getting smaller each and every day.

My brothers came home a little after 6 from collegio. Kevin is 18 and Kaylor is 13. Yeah definitely a boy.. oops. When they came in we did the kiss thing. I love the kiss thing. They were both really nice to me but we didn't talk all that much. Olivier came home shortly thereafter. I know that this family has had so many students pass through, but I totally felt like I made them feel awkward at dinner. I don't know why, but no one was really talking. And as much as I enjoyed my convo with Marielos, I was not about to lead a dinner conversation. I was kind of worn out. But, whatever, dinner was delicious. Rice, beans, salad with lots of tomatoes, and plantains. And salsa lizano, mi favorito. We drank this disgusting thing that was like water with this weird dairy-esque powder stirred in. Ew. I hope no one saw the faces I was making each time I swallowed. They didn't offer me anything else and that's what everyone else was drinking, plus Marielos said it's good for the stomach, so I just suffered through it. Tomorrow night I may have to go back to my new love, though: tico tap water. After dinner we watched a little TV before I excused myself to go study. Which is what I should be doing now. Ugh. Dean, why all the reading?!

Tomorrow morning I will be making my first walk to campus. By myself. I know I am going to get lost. It doesn't matter how simple the walk is, it is a thirty-minute walk involving more than one road. Thank you, Gunters, for my fabulous sense of direction.

Wish me luck. I will most definitely be needing it.

hasta manana.

peace love and the kiss thing.

buenos tardes, muchachos.

Katie Yang has suggested that I write too much about myself and not enough about mis amigas. So here's an update on my peeps:

Cayman dropped creative writing today because she was taking more classes than the rest of us were and it was crazy stressful for her. So she discovered a downfall of the small classes: the awkward situation that presents itself when you have to go up to your teacher and tell him that his class of three is now a class of two, and then have lunch with him an hour later. Yikes. But she already seems happier so yay for her. Our homestays start today, and the advice she received was if the oldest son, Ronald, tries to molest her, kick him. So that's exciting. Also she posted pictures on facebook. It took her like 2 hours to upload an album so you should check it out.

This morning Abby woke to find her clothes under siege. An entire colony of ants made their way into her laundry bag last night and literally ate her clothes. I am talking full-on holes. Shirts, pants, sports bras, you name it. Eaten. She is our volunteer superstar, of course. She has taken on more projects than anyone else combined I think. We won't be roomies for the next two weeks, which is sad. I will miss waking up to her beautiful shining face. And I'm sure she will miss me keeping her up at night with my coughing fits.

Tess thinks she has the flu. She gets nauseated whenever she tries to eat anything and is tired all the time. Poor Tess. She even skipped out on our waterfall adventure. I love her just the same, though.

Ann is super stressed out about starting homestays in addition to everything we already have going on, but she will be fine. She's so sweet.

Tia is crazy as ever. I love her very much. I think she has been included in my blog a fair amount lately so that is all. She's awesome.

This morning I woke up and FREAKED because I had a bug bite on my lip. Bad news. My first thought was the kissing bug, which Zack talked to us about at the butterfly garden. If it had been the kissing bug, though, it would have looked like a fat cigarette burn and would have killed me in 30 years.

Okay I am leaving for my homestay now. Wish me luck!!