Hey everyone! I'm Kristian Espinoza, and I'm a new freshie in Mercator. I love partying, smoking shisha, playing foosball (even if I’m not great at it), my International Economics class, and languages in general (though German and I still don’t get along). My mother is Bulgarian, and my father is Nicaraguan, although I’m told that I pass for Arab as well.

I was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and lived there for five years. My parents and I left for Costa Rica just before Bulgaria made 4th place in the World Cup(!), after I turned five years old. My father was hoping to find more job opportunities in Costa Rica and he had some relatives in San Jose as well. Before going there I didn't know anything about Spanish or Latin America for that matter…after all I was just a wee toddler. So as you can imagine it was quite a drastic change to undergo, with everything from the language to the weather being foreign to me.

Fortunately for me, at such a young age picking up a language wasn’t such a problem, although the same wasn’t true for the weather. I adapted a liking for cooler weather, so if you notice me complaining about the sun at the servery, well…you’ll know why.

Less than a year later my family and I moved to Managua, Nicaragua where I began the 1st grade in a German school: Colegio Aleman Nicaraguense (http://schulwebs1.dasan.de/ds_managua/), which is a complete coincidence with my being in Germany now. Although I did become fluent in Spanish, I do not speak it anymore as I haven’t used it in many years.

In 1996 we moved once again, this time to Boston, USA. My mother continued her studies in Romance Languages and Literatures and received her Masters and PhD from Boston College over the following years. Now fast forward 6 years…and after several years in the notorious Boston public school system, I found my way into a decent (private) high school where I remained as a boarding student while my mother moved to Dallas, Texas to work as a Spanish professor there. At this point we had pretty much settled in the States, but I should also mention that I was first able to return to Bulgaria just before I turned 15, in the summer 2004, and I have been going back ever since for the summer. My other significant adventure was during my junior year when I went abroad Viterbo, Italy to live with a host family and experience the Italian way of life.

So if you hadn’t guessed already, I love traveling, and not just traveling, but really getting to know the country/people with whom I live. Some people ask me if it’s difficult not having a place I can really call home…well having a “permanent home” is not something that’s really been an issue for me. As human beings we are incredibly able to adapt and live, and the world and all of our wonderful culture in it, as I see it, is just waiting to be explored, discovered, and rediscovered.

Go out, have fun, learn something new! Or as one of my former teachers would say Have Happy, Be Fun! :D