It's as American as Apple Pie

So, on Tuesday evening, I decided to try something different and bake an Apple Pie for Ana and Paola. Most evenings are very low key in this house, with Ana and Paola usually watching TV in their bedroom and John and I studying Spanish. So, of course, the evening that I decide to bake a pie is when there is also a birthday party for Ana's neice's son. There were kids and cake and Coca-cola and me baking a pie all in the kitchen. Quite a riot. However, this whole situation thrilled Ana to no end, because she seems to be convinced that Apple Pie is the favorite food of all North Americans. (if you meet her, please don't tell her otherwise- she is very happy thinking this.) She talked on and on about how wonderful apple pie's are and how delicious and how special I am that I can make one and how special she is that she got to eat one. Needless to say, the pie went over well. I think I could blog just about Ana. The other day, she sang the national anthem of Costa Rica to us while we ate lunch. This was entirely self-initiated, because we would not be able to ask her to do this if we tried. She also serenaded us with some song that we gathered was about the national flower of Costa Rica. We never quite made out what she was singing about, but it was precious none the less. This morning there was a CD of knock-off Beatles songs playing, (copyright laws don't seem to really be applicable here) and John and I were trying to translate the words. This also thrilled Ana, who began to sing "Ocho Dias de la Semana" and dance for us in the backyard. Seriously, great fun. Ana and Paola are taking incredibly good care of us. It is such a blessing to have our own little family here who really wants to help us learn Spanish and really wants to fatten us up.
Our Spanish is coming along slowly. I still have the deer in the headlights feeling anytime anyone actually speaks Spanish to me. I go blank. What a learning experience this is. Just trying to speak is more than half of the battle. Tonight John and I went to the mall, which is very nice by all standards and tried to practice some of the things that we learned. John is much better at trying, and we were, in fact, able to find out where the swimsuits are because of his Spanish skills.