Mi Casa y Familia de Liberia

Okay, so I finally wrangled my family into letting me take pictures of them!  Just like in the states, nobody wants to get their picture taken and nobody thinks their pictures look good!  I really really like the family that I'm living with here in Liberia!  Everyone is extremely nice, friendly and very funny!  They do a good job of making me feel included and are trying their best to teach me Spanish.  (This is a very difficult task, as they constantly have to try new methods of explaining things so that I understand!  I think it's probably almost as difficult for them as it is for me!  That being said, I can understand a lot more Spanish than I can speak, so I usually get the gist of what they're saying (when they speak slowly), even if I don't know the correct words to respond well!).

I will intermix the pics of the house with the pics of the family so you get a full idea of where I'm living :)


The house is located near the cemetary, which is just a few blocks from the main/downtown area of Liberia; about 6-8 blocks from the central park, so it's pretty conveniently located.  When you drive up to the house, this is what you see:

While Costa Ricans are all very nice, and it is a pretty safe country, theft is probably one of the biggest crimes in the area.  So, as Kristi explained to me, bars/barbed wire in front of houses, on windows, etc. are more of a preventative measure than anything else.  In the U.S., I think we (or at least I), assume bars on windows, etc. indicates an "unsafe" area, but that's not necessarily the case here.  So this is my long way of explaining that the pic above is like the garage/gate to the house :)  Once you open the gate, it's just a car port, little patio area and some greenery.  It's pretty cute :)

When you enter the house, the first thing you see is the living area: the living room, dining room, kitchen are all more or less one large area:

And here's just the kitchen:

Nieves is the mom of the house and she also does all the cooking, so I snapped a picture of her in the kitchen with her daughter, Elba.  Elba and her husband Luis Gerardo live in like a mini house in the back.  Nieves is a very good cook.  I have happily eaten all the food she has prepared for me.  And of course, that includes a lot of "gallo pinto" or a combination of black beans and rice.   You know how much I love my black beans.  I've been eating them every day twice a day for the last week and I'm still not sick of them.  Very good sign :)

When you continue through the kitchen, you end up in this little space. From here, you can continue back to the laundry room, "backyard" and Elba and Luis' house.  This is a picture of Elba and her husband Luis Gerardo.  To the right of Luis is the "boys room" and the bathroom is next to that.

Here is a pic of the little laundry room area...with some laundry hanging to dry :)  I will need to do laundry for the first time this weekend, so hopefully Nieves will show me how it's done.

Here is a picture of the "boy's room."  Cesar is the guy on the left, and he is the nephew of Nieves and her husband Don Hernan.  He has been living with the family for about three years and he is pretty fluent in English.  His ability to translate comes in extremely handy and he has been helping me with my Spanish.  Cesar is extremely nice and very funny and is my first friend in Liberia.  Luis Enrique is on the right.  He is Elba's son and is 19 years old.  He doesn't speak too much Spanish but he says he wants to be in one of my classes so maybe I'll be able to teach him a thing or two.  He's also very nice, but he's not at the house too often as he likes to go hang out with his novia (girlfriend).

Sort of in between the boy's room and my room is the bathroom, which we all share.  It's pretty standard, but here it is nonetheless.  As I think I mentioned in a previous blog, the shower only has cold water, which I was really nervous about at first, but now I love.  It's like jumping in to a nice cool lake on a really hot day.  All the days in Liberia are crazy hot, so so far, this has been extremely welcome!

And here's my bedroom.  It's located on the other side of the kitchen area and has two doors, so I can use it as a hallway from the front of the house to the back of the house.  And I have my own TV, as does everyone in the house.  We actually have about 100 channels including HBO Latin America, which mostly plays shows in English with Spanish subtitles (and it means I might get to watch True Blood..woo hoo! But Praggya, I still expect downloads just in case I miss an episode!).  There are quite a few stations that are just in English, so it's kind of cool that I can watch TV when I want :)  Also, the little stuffed puppy on my bed was a present to me from Elba.  She likes stuffed animals, so she gave me one to have as well.  It's name is pink princess puppy, or "princessa perrito rosada" as I like to call it.

No family would be complete without the family animal, so here is a picture of Lassie chillin in the front yard.  Lassie is very sweet, but I've noticed that while the family loves the dog, they don't interact with him much.  In fact, I think half the purpose of having a dog in CR is for added security, as they bark whenever someone goes by...Nonetheless, Lassie is pretty cute (even if he's no Roxie!)

Here is a picture I snapped of Elba with her father, Don Hernan.  As I mentioned, Hernan is Nieves' husband and the man of the house.  He doesn't speak any English, but I think he's trying to learn.  He does help me with my pronunciation of Spanish words though!

Nieves didn't like the first picture I took of her (in the kitchen, above! hehehe), so she let me take more pictures yesterday, when she was prepared.  We all did the hollywood "side pose" so we would look very cute :)

After picture time, Elba broke out the radio and some Spanish music so we could dance.  Elba really likes to dance I guess because she is always busting out with a song and some dance moves.  Nieves occasionally starts singing too.  I love this about the family, because I also like to hum random songs.  And none of us are great singers, though I definitely take the cake as the worst singer!  Here are some pictures from our "fiesta de bailar" (dance party!):

All right.  Now you've seen where I'm living and met the family I'm staying with.  Nieves comes from a very large family with like ten siblings total, so I've also met a few of her sisters.  One of her sisters, Stacey, lives like 6 blocks away, so we've gone over to her house a few times too.  Everyone is always extremely welcoming and friendly, which is great.  So far, the culture shock has more or less worn off and I'm just getting to know the family better.  Chao!