I headed to school early this morning so that I could prepare for our graduation presentation. Each conversation class (there are five) had to perform something for the ceremony. My class played a game with the audience. We asked them questions in Spanish, describing an animal sound, and they had to figure out which animal it was and make the appropriate sound. We had three volunteers, and whoever made the right sound first, got one point. The person at the end of the game to win the most points won a bag of skittles. Then we taught them how to make a giraffe out of balloon animals. To do this, I demonstrated while Esther used mandatos in Spanish to explain each step along the way (mandatos are spanish commands). I came early to school so that I could blow-up a balloon for each person who would be at the ceremony so that everyone would have one to make.
During class, we practiced our gig as well as more subjuntivo
(uggggg… those of you who have ever studied Spanish know what a pain subjuntivo is! The past few weeks, we learned a different form of subjuntivo every single day in my grammar class! Now it’s all jumbled up in my brain and I need to figure out how to actually use it!). 
I know that I’ve talked about this before on my blog, but I LOVE my conversation class. My sweet sweet teacher, Laura, is my favorite Spanish teacher that I’ve ever had! I’ll be sad to no longer be her student! The graduation ceremony was great! It was so fun to watch each class do their performance! Two of the classes performed a skit together. One class sang a song, and for another class, a girl read the Cinderella story in Spanish and had volunteers from the audience act it out as she was reading (I was one of the evil step sisters).
Our gig went great! It was actually pretty fun! The audience had difficulties constructing balloon animals,
but luckily we had practiced it enough that the other girls in my class knew how to do it and we were all able to help the audience with theirs. During class, I had made balloon hats for the four of us from my class to wear during our gig. They were quite extravagant. See for yourself in the picture! I’m so thankful for the friends that God blessed me with this summer! The cool part is that most of them will be back at the institute this fall to take a
four-month class until December! Although I’ll be at a university and no longer within walking distance of their houses, I’ll still be in the same city and only a bus ride away! Saying goodbye wasn’t sad because we’ll all be coming back and I’m looking forward to hanging out with them in the fall! After school I got to skype con mi mejor amiga, Ellie! We talked for two hours! I LOVE talking to Ellie; talking to her turns a good day into a fantastic day. We hadn’t been able to catch-up in awhile so the two hours felt like two minutes. ☺
The highlight of my day occurred after dinner. It was my last dinner with celcy and Willy and they went out and got Chinese food to celebrate (this is a big deal! We never ever do that! This was the first time in the whole eight weeks that I have been here that we have eaten food that was purchased from a restaurant!)! I was so excited because after dinner I was going to give them the gift that I’ve been waiting for MONTHS to give them! Before coming to Costa Rica, I bought a serving tray with four picture slots from Target to give to my host family as a parting gift. I brought this heavy tray with me all the way here and have been hiding it in my suitcase all summer. Celcy and Willy don’t have a camera, but Celcy loves photography. All summer they have enjoyed having me take pictures. Everywhere that we went, they always made sure that I brought my camera. And when we were out and about, Celcy would look for opportunities for me to take pictures. She was constantly having me pose in front of flowers and trees and with her friends etc. That’s been something fun that has bonded us this summer.
Early this week I went to the market and got fifteen of my favorite pictures from this summer printed out. Then when no one was home, I brought out the tray and put four pictures inside of it and wrapped it up with wrapping paper. This morning I finished the preparations by writing a card for them and placing the rest of the pictures inside the card. Tonight after dinner, I finally gave them the gift! I was SO excited to give it to them; I could hardly wait! To my surprise! They also had a gift for me! They have me a necklace with a locket shaped like a heart! Celcy actually made it for me! They said it’s for me to always remember them… and then Willy added: at least until you get a boyfriend and he gives you a new one. – Ha!
I wish that I could have video taped Celcy and Willy opening their gift. I’d watch it over and over and over again. In my list of top ten gifts that I’ve ever given, this is certainly on the list. I can’t even describe their reaction when they opened it. First of all, Celcy read my card out loud and we looked through the pictures. They LOVED the pictures! We looked at them for a long time before they opened the gift. She was so excited about the pictures that I thought she was going to cry. Then she finally opened the gift; however, she opened it very… very slowly, carefully pulling the wrapping paper off to preserve it for a later use.
The large shape made them very curious, as they had no idea what it could be. When celcy finally lifted the paper off, revealing the photo tray, she gasped and her eyes instantly filled with tears. She couldn’t stop exclaiming praises and gratitude. Willy was equally shocked and thrilled. They had never seen anything like it. They kept turning it over and feeling the wood and looking at the pictures. Celcy’s voice was emotional as she kept repeating how much she loved it while blinking away the tears. They both gave me a great big hug. This whole thing also made me emotional and I had to push back some tears as well. God has been so incredibly good to place me in their home this summer. I didn’t just rent a room from them this summer, they adopted me into their family and I did life with them for two months! They took me everywhere that they went this summer and included me in everything; so much so that they introduced me to people as their daughter. Every night we would eat dinner together and I cherish that time. We would talk about everything from the food we were eating to their past lives, my life, politics and the list goes on! They are my Tico family and I’ll always treasure my time with them. I’m thankful that tomorrow I won’t be saying goodbye, but rather: see you soon. Things will be different when I come back since I won’t be living with them anymore and won’t even be in the same neighborhood; however, that won’t stop me from visiting them.
Looking back, it’s been a challenging summer in so many ways, but wonderful all at the same time. Once again, God has provided for me and blessed me in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. This is His project and I’m so thankful that He’s got it all figured-out and that I just get to join Him in this adventure! And now, I'm elated to be going back to my real home for a few short weeks. Bring it on. :]
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