Bowl number one

It has been a long day. I got to the Atlanta airport at about 7:45 this morning, that is 5:45 local Costa Rica time. We arrived in San Jose at 11:40 local time and arrived at the UGA eco-lodge at 6:00. I had a good time traveling. I met a lot of people from the other groups that are studying here for a few weeks. I talked to many people about San Luis and Costa Rica. I answered their questions and fueled their enthusiasm and as the day went on, I started to get more and more excited about going back. It was not until the very last leg of the journey however that it really started to sink in. When we started slowly curving up the mountain and I began to recognize familiar homes or landmarks, my stomach started to turn. When we stepped off the bus after a long day of traveling and nine months of preparation, I felt like I had swallowed a flock of birds. Everyone else was tired, excited, looking around, getting oriented, and I was just standing there not quite sure what to do. Nine months of build up and I was standing there. The same smells, the same sounds, the same people… but now what? Everyone I had spent the last 10 hours with was ready to be herded to their rooms, listen to orientation, eat together at dinner before getting the run down of their schedule for the next three weeks. I however, was just standing there, a little dumbstruck. How do I get to the house? Do I call first? How are they going to react? Will it be awkward? What do you even say to a foreign family that you spent a few weeks with almost a year ago and who you are going to be living with now for the next three months?
Lindsay drove me and my giant bag up to the house. It was about 6:30 now and completely dark. We drove up the little familiar dirt roads and pulled up the barbed wire fence at the bottom of the hill. I got out to open the gate and as I stepped out of the car, Geovanny, drove up on his motorcycle. My stomach dropped. I thought that I would have at least to the top of the hill to ponder the situation a little bit longer, but there I was, barbed wire fence in hand, smiling and greeting my home-stay brother as if maybe a couple of days had passed since we had seen each other. After smiling and asking how I was, Geovanny drove past and I got back in the car with Lindsay. We drove up the hill, she unloaded my bag and told Otoniel and Alicia, who had walked outside, “Tengo una chica para ustedes.” I gave them both a hug, we all smiled and greeted each other and went inside. A few things had changed but it was the same ‘ol house. The kitchen smelled the same, the bathroom smelled the same, the bedroom smelled the same, everything felt so familiar it was strange. I sat down and chatted for a little while, Lilian came out and we hugged, then it was over. It was like I had never left. We talked, joked, watched horrible T.V. and ate our rice and beans. It was so unceremonious that I might have been disappointed, but it was perfect. There was nothing awkward about it. There were no fake or over the top reactions. We hugged, smiled and ate dinner and everyone was happy and it was normal. This is where I left Costa Rica last summer after nine weeks there. I cannot wait to see where I leave it in three more months. One bowl of rice and beans down, two hundred and fifty-one to go.