Adultos de Tercera Edad

In my last class, we went on a field trip to a Retirement home. It was a conversation class so we could literally do whatever we wanted so long as we were talking. We went on the last Friday of class that we had. I´m so glad that´s what we decided to do.

We arrived at the home at about 9 am with our fruit and yogurt we brought as gifts. Our teacher introduced us to a few people and then basically set us free. I began speaking with one woman that used to have exchange students also. She told me how much she loved the students that she had from the US and Europe. She told me how they impacted her and that now she missed them so much. As I was speaking with her, a man came over and introduced himself. After flashing the biggest smile I have ever seen, he told me that he knew someone that would love to meet me. I followed him over to a man that was drinking coffee in the eating area. This man took one look at me, finished his coffee, and decided to take me on a walk. We walked around the home and saw the men working and the garden. He paraded me around, showing me off to all of the other men. He told me how beautiful I was and always laughed at whatever I said. He kidnapped me from the rest of the group for about 40 minutes. My favorite part of talking with him was when his face lit up when I told him he had the same name as my tico friend, Manuel.

After my walk with him, I convinced him to come play cards with the other people and me. We played ¨Ron¨ or what I´m pretty sure was gin rummy.  We played that and dominoes for a good chuck of time. Manuel was right next to me laughing at everything I said for the entire time. There was also a man that my teacher befriended. He was the jokester of the group. He told us that he was a ballerina and singer but then denied it when we asked him for a song. He eventually sang to us, with his mouth that only had one tooth left. He also surprised me when he came up behind me to sing to me and I didn´t see him until he was right behind my face. My scream almost gave him a heart attack, or "ataque de corazón" according to him.

These people were the cutest. They loved talking and telling us about everything that they knew. They were so happy to have people to talk to that they spoke so quickly that they were almost impossible to understand at times. It was cool to see that they were happy to receive us, even if we didn't speak the language all of the time.