To my family in Costa Rica,

I was only a guest in your home for nine days, but that is all that it took for me to feel like a member of the family. From the moment when I walked off of the bus and up the hill, suitcase in hand, to your home, I was embraced with beautifully unconditional love. I could never repay you for that in any other way than to, one day, welcome you to my own home. For now, "Thank you."

Thank you for helping me improve my Spanish and for making me feel more confident about what Spanish I already knew.

Thank you for asking me when I planned on waking up in the morning so that you could wake up with me and enjoy breakfast with me.

Thank you for offering me the best coffee that I have ever drank in my life and for getting me addicted to coffee.

Thank you for never letting me go hungry.

Thank you for accommodating my strange dietary restrictions as a pescatarian and for only questioning me for the purposes of understanding.

Thank you for taking me to that pizza place on the top of the valley that I kept asking about.

Thank you for caring for me when I was sick as if you were my own family. I felt as though the entire community wanted me to feel better.

To Esteban, thank you for bringing me medicine from the local pharmacy. I was back on my feet the next day.

Thank you for making me a loaf of bread's worth of toast while I was sick because that was all that I could eat.

Thank you for making me apple flavored tea and homemade alka seltzer.

Thank you for asking me how I felt every day afterward, even though I insisted that I felt fine.

Thank you for welcoming my friends as visitors to your home.

Thank you for taking me to local events.

Thank you for taking me to San Ramón for Jocsan's soccer game, for Tirsa's new shoes, and for encouraging me to try local cuisine.

Thank you for buying me dinners.

Thank you for taking me on the coolest ATV ride for a view of the valley and then rushing back so that I could get to class on time.

Thank you for taking me on a day trip to Puntarenas to visit the beach.

Thank you for letting me join in on the family pillow fight in the living room.

Thank you for washing my clothes and cleaning my sneakers after I stepped in the mud during my hike.

Thank you for helping me discuss each of these events in Spanish.

Thank you for answering interview questions for my homework.

More than anything, thank you for telling me that I will always have a home in Costa Rica. I truly feel like I have a second family. I could never repay you for everything that you have done for me.

Pura Vida.

Love,

Devin