Regreso del Bosque Nubioso y Vivo con Mi Familia Nueva

So its around 6:30 am and I'm sitting in my brnad new bed in my very own brand new bedroom in my brand new home in the house of the Castillo Moreira family. Its amazing to have a little space for myself but also a little strange and sad after living with a big group of people for so long. I met my family yesterday after returning from the cloud forest via an epic rainy uphill 10 mile hike (I'll get to that later). I was able to take a quick shower at the institute, get dressed and was then shipped off to my family's house after a few goodbyes. To be honest I was terrified. This has been the part of this EAP experience that I've had by far the most anxiety about, mostly because my spanish is awful, and because I'm awkward enough meeting new people when we speak the same language. When the van pulled away, it was literally the first time I'd been alone, without at least one of the same 30 people I've been used to seeing every day, and it was a weird, weird feeling, but it subsided a little when I met my parents. Marianela and Tarcicio are artists and have their own gallery down the street from their BEAUTIFUL home. Marianela only speaks Spanish and Tarcicio speaks a tiny bit of English-enough to help me out sometimes- but prefers Spanish at all times. They are very sweet and welcoming. Upon inviting me in, I was offered some amazing pineapple tea, sat down and began my first very awkward conversation/charades show with my new parents. For some reason, even after 3 weeks of Spanish classes, it was nearly impossible for me to string together a real sentence. It might have been a combination of nerves and exhaustion, but I still felt pretty stupid. My brother and two sisters filtered in from school and were all very sweet. Huayra is fourteen, Ipsilan is twelve, and Gudari is ten. I've done an excellent job of butchering all of their names so far but they've been extremely patient with me. All three of them speak English, and Huayra definitely prefers it, which is a little bit of a relief, but Tarcicio prefers that everyone speak Spanish to help me learn-which is also good. After introductions and some more attempts at conversation, I was able to unpack and settle into my new room for a little while. My room is probably the most amazing part of this set up. I have two giant windows that look out over the family's garden and can see into Monteverde. The sunsets are incredible and sitting at my desk for a time period of about thirty minutes I saw an emerald toucanet and three bird species I'd never even seen before. After settling in, I went downstairs and watched TeleTico with my brother and sisters for a while. I don't understand Wizards of Waverly Place in English so watching it dubbed in Spanish was even more interesting. We then had dinner, which was amazing-with more great tea, potatoes, rice, and a kind of vegetable stew, and coconut bread. I've loved the food on this whole trip, but this change of dinner staples was a welcome one. Dinner conversation was much less awkward and afterwards I played chess for about an hour with Ipsi and Gudari. Both of them are much better than I am, and after being completely shown up by the giggling chessmasters I went to bed. I'm very excited to get to know the family better. Since being back, I've chatted with a few of my friends about their homestays and they're all having amazing times. I'm still missing everyone a little, and curious about how everyone from the Penas group's first night went. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon. I dont have access to a camera usb cord right now but I should be able to get one from someone...eventually. Today the goal is to get in some more preliminary research on the manakins and to spend some more time with my family. I dont have quite enough energy or time right now to write about Penas (I can hear my family awake downstairs) but I will try to devote my next post to it because it was an incredible, incredible trip. Its good to be on my own but its giving me more time to miss everyone -from home as well as here. Love you all