Listen to Lydia's stories from living in Costa Rica and Seville. She also talks about her interest in a career in hospitality and agriculture.
Alessandra: Hello everyone! Welcome to another episode of Madre Mía! I’m Alessandra.
Veronica: Hello, I’m Verónica.
Evelyn: And I’m Evelyn, Alessandra’s grandma.
Alessandra: Yes, and today we have a guest, my friend Lydia!
Lydia: Hi everyone! It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me, seriously.
Alessandra: Thank you for asking me that you want to be a guest!
Lydia: Yes.
Alessandra: Okay, thank you. And tell us a little bit about yourself: what-- well, you’ve-- you’ve already told me your name, I know your name, but where are you from, where do you live now…
Lydia: Yes, of course. Well like I told you, my name is Lydia, I'm 22 years old, like you, I think, right?
Alessandra: Yes.
Lydia: And when is your birthday?
Alessandra: March 31st, and you?
Lydia: Ah okay. Mine is June 5th, so I just had a birthday.
Alessandra: My-- my mom's birthday is the day before.
Veronica: June 4th.
Lydia: Really? Oh, how cool! Cool. Ok then, yes I am the youngest of eight children in my family from the same parents. And well I have a little brother and we are super close, but I am the little princess to make it clear to you. And what else? Well I'm from-- I say I'm from New Mexico even though I was born in Pennsylvania, but in 2008 we moved-- my family moved to New Mexico for many, many reasons. Well, like four years ago, I went to college, to Cornell University, which is in Ithaca, New York, and Ithaca is like a very small town upstate. And I studied hotel management there, that is, hotel management because well, the hospitality industry caught my attention for many reasons but more than anything, I knew it would give me many opportunities to travel, and I love traveling, and also to meet interesting people. And I believe that like we make our best moments, or very beautiful moments in our lives, in hospitality environments, let's say, I mean in restaurants, hotels during our vacations, and I want to help people to make those moments, or I want to be part of those memories, and that's why I studied hospitality. Okay, I graduated from university last December, so I graduated about a semester earlier and had already got a job in a hotel which was going to start on May 1 of this year but--
Alessandra: A job on the farm?
Lydia: No, the job I had gotten was in a hotel, at the Four Seasons in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Evelyn: Wow!
Lydia: Yes, and I still have that job, but it's not going to start until October. And so, well, I'm going to say a little more about the time between leaving university and entering my job, because after university I said to myself like << You have been working very hard for the last three years because you don't take like a rest, >> something like that, so I decided to go live in Costa Rica for three months. Well, I was going to stay longer but due to the situation with the virus, I had to return to the United States. And then I lived with my sister in Maryland, and her husband, for two months, and although I love my sister very, very much, I was going crazy not doing anything or not having many things to do every day for two months because I am used to always being busy, always doing things. So at the end of May of this year, because I already knew I wasn't going to start work on the hotel until October, I decided to send a message to a boss who had a farm the-- I think the summer before. And she answered me, she said that we do have a position for you if you want it and that you come as quickly as possible to New York where the farm is, where I am now, and yes, that's like the whole story.
Alessandra: How impressive! And your accent too. Ah, what do you do on the farm?
Lydia: Good question. Well, it is a fairly small farm, more or less, compared to many farms in the United States. But it is organic and the owners are a father and son from Long Island, New York, and on the farm we grow vegetables and fruits and sell them to people in the community who like to order things on our website, and we also have a store that is open on weekends. And what else do we do? Well, I got my hands dirty like every day. We have to work with a lot of land and we have to move the soil to make beds, which are like lines of land on which we plant the little plants. And we harvest things almost every day, and yeah, it's super fun, I really like it.
Alessandra: How cool!
Veronica: Do they have animals on the farm?
Lydia: No, unfortunately, we do not have animals. I wish, but no.
Alessandra: Yes, one day!
Veronica: Lydia, how did you and Alessandra meet?
Lydia: How did we meet, Alessandra? Okay, well, it's that we decided to study as foreigners in Seville, Spain with the same program, in CIEE, and I'm not going to lie to you, I don't even understand, or not that I don't understand, but I have no idea what CIEE means.
Alessandra: Me neither, really!
Lydia: It’s an abbreviation, right?
Alessandra: Yes, I don’t know, I don’t know, really!
Lydia: I don't know either, but yes, we met there and I think it was the first day of orientation, right?
Alessandra: I think so, yes yes yes. With the director and everyone-
Lydia: In the hotel.
Alessandra: Yes yes yes.
Lydia: And do you remember, what did you think when we met, about me?
Alessandra: No, the only thing was that you told us that you practice flamenco.
Lydia: Yes, aha, exactly. Yes, true, and that was literally the only reason for going to Spain, or for me. That is why I decided, I decided to go to study in Seville, it was flamenco. It's that, well, the only thing I remember about you was, I don't know, like, I said to myself like << Oh wow, who is this beautiful, very sweet and shy butterfly? >>
Alessandra: No!
Lydia: But, and no, we didn't get to know each other very well but I think we had the opportunity to get to know each other more deeply during our class with Clara, right, at UPO?
Alessandra: Yes, right, Conversation in Spanish, advanced!
Lydia: Yes, advanced!
Alessandra: Yes.
Lydia: Very impressive.
Alessandra: Also in Morocco, our--
Lydia: Mm hm! In Morocco!
Alessandra: Morocco! Yes yes yes.
Lydia: Yes, during that trip, if you remember "Women in STEM?" or "Ladies in STEM?" I do not remember.
Alessandra: Yes, our group.
Lydia: Yes, because there are like those bathrooms, I don't know, in Morocco people go to, well, women go to like clean themselves or, I don't know, like to wash themselves. Our whole group of women went to that place. It was, I don't know, probably one of the weirdest things but the most, I don't know, like cool thing I've ever done in my life.
Alessandra: It was very different. What are they called-- hammam?
Lydia: Ooh, hannan? Hammam? I don’t remember.
Alessandra: I don't remember, I'm going to find out.
Lydia: It’s like an Arabic word.
Veronica: Arabic.
Lydia: An Arabic word.
Alessandra: How was your experience in Seville? In your house with the family...
Lydia: Yes, well, good question. Seville, my time in Seville was like the best, I don't know, the best time I've spent in my life, it was incredible and I recommend to everyone that, if they can, go to study or live in another country because it taught me so much. But yeah, I lived in a house in Nervión, I think a lot of those-- of the students in our program lived in Nervión.
Alessandra: Yes.
Lydia: And I lived with a beautiful, beautiful family and I love them, and I still keep in touch with them. Well, I had a second mother as I say, and her name is Ana and her husband Luis. And the only thing that I remember about Luis, or well, is his bright smile and he always made me feel super comfortable and happy and I also had two beautiful sisters like models, super intelligent--
Alessandra: How old were they?
Lydia: Two, I had two.
Alessandra: Oh no, how old are they?
Lydia: Oh, Anabel is the oldest and is about the same age as me, and you and me, about 22 years old, I think, and the little girl is Laura and Laura is I think 18 years old. And yes, I had my own little room upstairs next to Laura's room, and Anabel lived like on the ground floor, I don't know if that's how you say it, but. Yes, and we ate all our meals together every day and it was really nice.
Alessandra: I always-- or there were no children in my house there but I did the babysitting, the babysitting.
Lydia: Woah, really? But you didn't have little siblings or anything in your house?
Alessandra: No, no no no. There was only a women, but--
Lydia: But how, how did you do the babysitting?
Alessandra: Through CIEE, and the university, from UPO.
Lydia: Okay.
Alessandra: I don’t know, I don’t know, it was an email that…
Lydia: Yes, I also worked as a tutor.
Alessandra: Yes, that’s it.
Lydia: In a family.
Evelyn: And after Seville, Lydia, you also spent time in Costa Rica, right?
Lydia: Yes.
Evelyn: When was that?
Alessandra: And what did you do there?
Lydia: Well, I went, as I said, I went to Costa Rica like at the beginning of this year in January and I went for many reasons but more than anything I went because I wanted to improve my Spanish, I didn't want to lose it and I also have an uncle, let's say, but we're not really related-- related. But he is like a friend of my family and has known my mother for almost all his life, and he has a Spanish school in San José, the capital of Costa Rica. So I went to stay with him for a month and I got into his school, and I was the only student in my class because, well, all students have to take an entrance exam and, I don't know, I was in like the third level and there were no other students in this this level, so I was-- I was the only student. And thanks to my teacher, Ana Lorena, you are amazing, thanks for your patience with me, but it helped me a lot because no, I don't know - I had no choice but to speak or sit quietly, but it helped me so much. And after a month in San José, I went to live with a family in a very, very small town in the south of the country and the town is called Longo Mai, and it was started by volunteers from yes, Germany and Austria, in the eighties for refugees-- how do you say refugees?
Veronica: Refugees.
Lydia: Refugees from El Salvador and Nicaragua, and today the town is, I don't know, it's very pretty. There are like children of refugees who live there and also some Germans and Austrians, and, but, it is very small. There is only one main street, two rivers, two churches, and a school, and one as a general store and that was it. And I went there to work in agriculture because there is a group of women in that town, they are called the "Amazons" and they do things for the community. But they had received funds, I mean, like money from the-- I don't remember what, but like the government or an organization to build a greenhouse and make beds in which they were going to grow medicinal plants, they were going to sell those little plants to people in general, and also to a cosmetics, an organic cosmetics factory which is in the village. And I went to help them. And there is also an organic farm there and the owner of that farm-- or of that farm is American, or yes, from the United States. And this farm is super impressive and very, very remote-- remote if you say that it is far from--
Evelyn: Far.
Alessandra: Yes!
Lydia: -- cities, yes. And I worked there for a few days. And it was difficult, I am not going to lie to you, it was super difficult, but it helped me a lot with my Spanish and I am very grateful to the family I stayed with. I had my mother, Tica, let's say, because there they say "Tico" or "Tica" for Costa Rican and-- or instead of Costa Rican. And she has a very-- a very cute son, super adorable, and he loves dinosaurs, and she also has a husband. But Jamie, Brian and Derek are their names.
Alessandra: And do you still keep in touch with them too?
Lydia: Yes, almost every week, we send audios on WhatsApp. And you can say that WhatsApp is like the most--
Alessandra: Used?
Lydia: Yes, used or more useful! When you have Spanish-speaking friends, or friends from Europe, WhatsApp is amazing.
Alessandra: Yes, I have a very large chat with our family in Colombia, and of course in Spain as well, yes.
Veronica: That’s good. That sounds very interesting, in Costa Rica.
Alessandra: Yes, that's what you have to do, is to go to a smaller place to learn the language, yes.
Lydia: Agreed, agreed. Because, well, it's-- that's like the most helpful thing you can do to improve your Spanish is to go to a place where people speak Spanish, and I mean a Spanish-speaking country, but you have to go to the smaller places. Because in big cities, those places, even if they are beautiful, there are more things to do, people may know English. So you have to go to a place where, to survive, you have to use Spanish.
Alessandra: I agree.
Veronica: Yes, where they don’t speak English.
Lydia: Yes.
Alessandra: Don't miss the second part of the episode with Lydia here on Madre Mía! We await you.
Comments