Theology and The Cycle of Being Homesick

I was told when I first arrived here that I would go through a cycle of missing home and then not missing home and then somewhere in between. I've decided that this idea is crap. I still miss pickles, driving, a choice of what I get to eat, and the feeling of safety I feel almost continuously in the U.S. On the plus side, though, I have definitely grown to love my host family. My host mom is super sweet, and does things for me that I would never ask anyone to do. (Like crawling into the attic space to run an internet cable into my room so I could have internet in my room at all times. I was blown away by this because it was totally awesome and unnecessary.) My little host niece, I guess you would call her, loves to come into my room and hang out with me. She's 6 years old, so we watch a lot of Disney movies and play normal 6-year-old games, lol. I will definitely miss them when I come back to the States. I have met so many wonderful Costa Ricans since I came down here, and it makes me wonder if there are as many people in the United States that would be willing to open their homes and welcome foreigners into their houses. I've decided that I think I would like to be a host family someday. It's just so thoughtful and compassionate.

In other news, I had my weekly Theology class tonight, and normally it's incredibly boring, but tonight was different. Our professor had some of her colleagues come sit on a panel and we got to ask them questions. About halfway through class we were told to get into groups and one of the colleagues came to talk to us. The man that came to talk to us was incredible! I think he is probably one of the most educated men I have ever talked to. He was born in the poor mountains of Costa Rica, and had to walk two hours to school everyday during grammar school and then walk an hour and ride a bus for another half hour during high school. He eventually received his bachelor's degree in Philosophy and obtained a scholarship to the U.S. where he went to a different school to get a different degree. His wife is from New Jersey, and he's lived all over Europe and the U.S. He's fluent in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian, Latin, German, and I think he speaks a little Hebrew, too. Basically, it's ridiculous, lol. He's so well read in all types of religions that he could probably have been raised in any of them. He said that he attends a Christian church, but a lot of times things in the church make him angry, so he just has his own personal beliefs. Pretty much everything he said was extremely thought-provoking and complex. He looks at things so differently than Christians in the States. It was one of the best classes I've had to date in Costa Rica, I think. I definitely learned a lot.

So, as you can tell, things are going well, and I should be headed to the beach this weekend! It's called Cahuita and it's close to a larger beach called Puerto Viejo in the province of Limon. I'm excited. It will be nice to get away for the weekend. Oh, there's a few pics from my parent's visit at the top of my post. I think they had a really good time.

Hope all is well in the U.S. Miss you guys!

Pura vida,
Amelia