Pics from La Romana

Me with the crazy fried fish!

All of the girls from ISA on the yacht

Just lounging on a palm tree, NBD!

LA ROMANA!

¡Hola a Todos!

          ¡Espero que todos estén bien y con calor en este tiempo frio en los Estados Unidos! For those of you that don’t speak Spanish, that means “I hope everyone is well and warm in this cold time in the US!” I’ve heard from my parents that it has snowed 21 of the past 25 days! That is just crazy! I continually forget that it is winter because I’m getting used to the warmth and it definitely does not seem like January here in the DR! I’m currently watching some Telemundo with my host mom, I just ate some coconut + milk dessert that was fabulous and now I’m digesting for a while! This past weekend has been an absolute dream and seemingly unreal. We had an excursion to La Romana which is located on the South Eastern end of the country.  It’s crazy to me that we can cross an entire country in like 6/7 hours.  It really is like a state!

          OK! So the trip to La Romana was an overnight and since we don’t ever have class on Fridays we left early Friday morning on our minibus.  ISA has a bus with a permanent driver that we always use for excursions and it’s pretty fun because we have a lot more space this way and we all get to be together. Anyway, we set off and drove for a while until we hit the mall in Santo Domingo (about 2 hours away from Santiago).  There we had lunch and shopped for about an hour and a half.  Luckily for me my mom packed me a sandwich so I saved some cash money! I always love that! There was this really cool border around the mall’s food court that was a painting of a baseball stadium so there were different fans everywhere, it was pretty sweet! From the mall we drove some more to the “Cuevas Maravillas” which were some old caves  These were the old homes of the Tainos, the native inhabitants of the DR.  Thus, there were many traditional drawings on the wall and other cool artifcats from long ago.  They keep the caves dark and have motion sensor lights… this was cool but also somewhat scary because we’d walk from one point to the next and all of the sudden everything behind us would go black. 

          We kept heading South from Santo Domingo and eventually arrived at Altos de Chavon, a beautiful little town modeled after a city in Italy and literally built into the rocks.  It was soooo pretty and there was lush vegetation everywhere! There is an art school there, which happens to be the school my host brother attends! There were also tons of super nice expensive looking homes which apparently belong to famous actors and actresses along with other rich Dominicans.  There was a big ampitheater in the middle of the city where Frank Sinatra apparently sang and now the famous Molly McHenry has also housed a concert from bottom of that beautiful rock pit ;) I sang a little of the Star Spangled Banner to give it some American love.  And, in case you didn’t know, my rendition of the SSB is pretty legit.

          Well after the long day of travel and sightseeing, we finally arrived at our destination, La Romana.  We checked into our hotels and then met up for dinner.  Now, on the bus we were asked to choose between a small list of food for what we wanted for dinner.  I had heard from one of the year students that the fried fish was really good, and personally really liking fish, I decided to go for it. Arriving at the restaurant we were given water and bread to munch on until our main meal. When my fish came out I believe I might have had a slight panic attack. Placed in front of me was not the traditional filet style of fish, but rather a fully scaled, fins, teeth, eyes, and all fish. I might have gone into shock.  In case anyone reading this doesn’t know, I’m VERY afraid of fish. I tried to keep my cool in front of all these people who don’t know my fear, but I couldn’t contain myself. I tried to cut off the skin and the little fin grazed my hand and I lost it. Hahaha I wound up being able to eat it but I had the shivers basically the whole time. At least it didn’t come back to life or start singing to me like those weird mounted bass do.  Either way, I survived, but I now know I have to ask specifically for pescado frito to come in the filet form!

          The next day we woke up early and had a good Dominican breakfast of Mangu, Fried Eggs, and Fried sausage.  I got my café con leche in and was ready to head out to our destination for the day, Isla Saona.  Isla Saona is a national park in the DR that’s about a 40 min boat ride from La Romana. It seriously is like a beach from a Corona commercial.  The whitest sand, the greenest palm trees, and the most clear water I have ever seen all mixed together. If anyone remembers the color Cerulean from the 68 pack of crayons, that’s basically the color of the water. Plus some white-blue and pool color too. We took a yacht-like boat out to the island and the trip took about 2 hours because we were traveling slow to sight see.  It was a party. We had a big deck where we could lay out and I sat with my legs off the front and got slightly splashed by the beautiful sparkling Caribbean Sea! We danced to the music the Dominicans clearly think is American favorites: The YMCA, Stand By Me, and What is Love.  I’d say they were pretty much right on with my favorite party songs (: Haha. We also, of course, did a little Bachata and Merengue, but as I struggle with real dancing, I pretty much sat those ones out. 

          At the island I swam, sun bathed, and took pictures. I also got a cool necklace that I spent about 15 minutes bartering with the vendor to buy.  We left the island on a smaller speed boat in order to get back faster, and on the way we saw some mangroves and a manatee! We also stopped at “La Piscina Natural” or “Natural Pool” which was pretty awesome. It seriously looked like choloinated water, I could see the bottom of the ocean sooo clearly that if I had dropped my blonde bobby pin into the sand, I doubt it would have taken me more than 30 seconds to find.  There were some huge starfish there also, and I got to hold one!

          After we arrived back we changed and then took the 4/5 hour trip back home.  Yesterday I just sat around my house, did some homework, and enjoyed my Sunday! There was a 48 hour iCarly marathon on, so I tuned in for about 3 hours of those… haha.  We now have about 3 weeks probably without a planned ISA excursion, so I guess I will have to make my own fun from now on! This weekend I know I’ll be watching the Superbowl on Sunday- GO PACKERS! But besides that I have no plans.  It’s very different here that I have so much free time, I’m still not really used to it. I’m making progress on HP and I’m guessing that by this weekend I will have met Umbridge and Harry will have “I must not tell lies” etched into his skin. But that’s just a guess.. haha. Ok well sorry for such a long post, there was just so much to tell! I’ll write again soon, but for now, I’m outtie! 

Dominican Life... en general

As it’s been a while since I last wrote, I figured I’d just write a little bit about my life here. I figure I will most likely write a post after every excursion, but seeing as those are spaced out fairly well, I’ll try to do some like this too! Right now I am actually writing this in my room. Although I actually do not have internet at my home (I originally did for about the first 3 days, but then something got messed up with the Wireless and it’s safe to say I will not have it for the rest of my trip- what a tease!) I have a lot of free time at home, so I tend to pre-write things and then send them when I am on campus. It just makes things easier! So today is January 24^th, four days past my Dad’s birthday (happy belated!) and one day before my Uncle Breck’s birthday- happy birthday Gingerbee!

Ok, well one of my favorite times here is lunch. Every day I come home for lunch, which is a really cool part of my routine here. My mom makes all of my meals, so I actually eat breakfast now! At school I’d always be in too much of a hurry to have enough time to go to the caf before class. Anyway, my mom here is quite the cook and I love Dominican food! Lunch is the main meal here, we usually eat between 12-2pm. The typical lunch is actually pretty nationwide- it’s nicknamed “La Bandera Dominicana” which means “the Dominican Flag”. It consists of rice, beans, and some type of meat. They call it the flag because the DR’s national colors are red and white and blue (heeeeyo! Shout out to the US!) and I guess the rice counts as white, beans as read and… meat as blue? Not quite sure about that part, but it’s also considered the flag because everyone eats this. It’s a very very typical DR food. We have it almost every single day for lunch. Usually it’s prepared in different ways, with different meats and side dishes, but all in all it’s pretty typical for me to have arroz, habituelas, y carne for lunch. Dinner is usually anywhere from 7-9 and I usually eat by myself. My host siblings don’t usually eat a dinner or if they do it’s very light. They say it’s because they don’t want to get fat like their dad… :/ Haha people are very very open about that stuff, my dad says almost every day here that he is fat and that he loves to eat. He calls himself a bad student because like a bad student, he always has to repeat things. Like his meals… hahaha it still makes me somewhat uncomfortable when my family talks about stuff like this, but to them it’s very normal. Apparently I will be told if I gain weight here because it is as common to say to someone as “you got your hair cut” is in the U.S.  We’ll see how that goes… All in all I LOVE the food here, and will most likely gain weight, but the fat will be welcomed (: My favorite dishes so far are tostones, empanadas, arroz con leche, the juice/smoothies my family makes, and the coffee! Really, everything is great, but those are my favorites!

I have also been in class for two weeks now. I am taking Domninican-Haitian Relations, Afro-Caribe Culture, Cine y Sociedad (Film Class), a Spanish Grammar class, and Carribean Dance. So far I am really enjoying all of my classes, but I particularily like my Dominican-Haitian Relations class.  The class itself can be boring sometimes, but the conversation it spikes is always very interesting.  In case anyone doesn’t know, the relations between the two countries are not good.  Specifically, there is a large scale distaste towards Haitians in the DR.  I guess distaste maybe isn’t the right word, it’s more like a prejudice.  And these prejudices are strong.  A girl in my class (Dominican) was asked by the Professor what her parents would say if she were to bring home a Haitian to marry.  She said that her parents were Christian and they would not allow it.  Most other girls in the class that were Dominicans agreed, and the one Haitian guy in our class said he understood! Most of us foreingers were just very surprised by this, it’s so different to see such strong prejudices so blantantly practiced and accepted.  I spoke with my family about it, and they seemed to feel the same way.  It seems to be a national feeling from all of the responses I have gotten.  It’s very different for me, and I’m not sure what to think of it all.  Still, it makes for good discussion and even better motivation to do my homework! My dance class is really cool, but my teacher always says “mas suave” to me which means “smoother”… apparently I’m a little robotic.  I need to work on walking less and dancing more.  It’s a process.

One of my favorite stories so far is from the first week that we were here.  During that first week we had a ton of orientations, and they were all very similar, “don’t eat the street food, you’re going to experience culture shock, be careful because you’re American….” The one that was new to me was “don’t throw the toilet paper in the toilet”.  Apparently the pipes here are very small and clog easily, so toilet paper should not be flushed down the toilet, but rather thrown in the waste basket.  Well, that was news for me as I had been clogging up my family’s toilet for about 3 days prior to this talk! Ugh! I felt so bad, but that’s not the part of the story that I like… so the woman that was telling us about this is the coordinator for international students.  She spoke primarily Spanish to us, she is Dominican herself, but then she spoke English for the important things.  She spoke English for the toilet paper part.  She was taking her time to speak, I assume because she was trying to find the right words.  This is what she said… “So, you all need to know that you can’t put anything in the toilet, including toilet paper.  You should put that in the garbage.  The reason you can’t put it in the toilet is because our plums here are very small and toilet paper will clog the plums…”  if you didn’t catch it because you were skimming or just didn’t understand what I was saying, she must not have known the word for “pipes” and I’m guessing assumed “plumbers deal with plums”.  It was the cutest thing ever and she probably said plums about 10 times and none of us corrected her because we all understood what she was going through!! I love this story because I know that I do things like that about 10 times daily.  I’m sure I’ve had my fair share of “plums” myself where my family has just decided to let me go because they felt bad and got the just of what I was saying.  One time my mom had made me coffee and then she said “Disfruta el café!” which means, “enjoy your coffee!”  Well for some reason I heard “y fruta con café?” (fruit with your coffee?) and so I responded with “no, estoy bien”.  Hahaha she just stared at me for a minute, and then I realized what she said and apologized and we had a good laugh.  Ah the language barrier can be crazy sometimes! I have really really really gained appreciation for those who study abroad in the U.S.! I know I talk fast and I’m sure any foreinger just tunes me out.  Well, if that’s you, I completely understand and I am so sorry!!

Another good story is the difference in speech.  It’s often very hard for the Dominicans to pronounce some of our names (the Americans) because they can’t physically make the sounds due to the way their tounge has formed.  It sounds weird I know, but it’s part of the reason why a person will have a tough time dropping an accent, it’s the way you learn to speak.  Anyway, one girl on our trip is named Izzie, and that is probably one of the hardest names to say.  So she has a new saying everytime she introduces herself… “Izzie… como facil”.  Como means like and facil means easy and with the Dominican accent, “eeeessi” is probably the best it’s gonna get! It always works when she says it and it’s so funny!

All is great here, I had a four day weekend this weekend and go back to school tomorrow.  I bought Harry Potter 5 in Spanish and have read 75 pages! It’s not so bad because I know the story well so I can usually guess what foreign vocabulary is (lechuza is owl, varita is wand, Madriguera is Burrow…!) but it’s still difficult! I also watched the Packer game yesterday at this big outdoor complex, GO PACK!! Today I went to the beach… it was beautiful.  The waves were huge and I literally got knocked down twice in a row.  Like seriously knocked down so badly that I was being thrown around.  It was crazy! I also got to ride on my very first banana boat!!! It was so fun and only cost me four dollars!!! Well, the equivalent in pesos.  But it was very fun and I got whipped off once and got a little freaked out that some crazy shark or something was gonna get me, but… I lived. Somehow.  Anyway, tonight I’ve just been working on some homework and typing this! Back to the swing of things! This weekend we are going to La Romana and I will definitely have a blog post after that! Hope all is well with everyone back home, miss you all!

Paz y amor- Molly

The House of Columbus (?)

On Friday we went to Santo Domingo for our second excursion with ISA. Santo Domingo is the capital of the DR and I believe it is the biggest city. We left early that morning and took the tour hour bus ride down to the city.  Once we actually got into Santo Domingo, I noticed the poverty.  Along the way there was also plenty of spots on the side of the road that were just covered in litter. Seriously looked like something you’d see on the adopt a child commercials where they show kids in Africa hunting for food in a pile of trash. It’s sad that it’s actually a reality here. There isn’t much of that in Santiago, and it definitely wasn’t all of Santo Domingo, but the outskirts seemed very poor. Well, once we got into the city, we picked up our guide for the day. Oddly enough, we were just stopped at a stop light and all of the sudden our bus driver opens the door and this man climbs on. I was very confused and a little scared… then he starts in on telling us all about the city and I sorta figured it out. We toured around by bus first, saw some of the biggest most beautiful houses in SD, and stopped at the President’s Palace! It took me a little while to realize that this was actually the president of the whole country… sometimes I feel as though the DR is just a state, then I remember it’s a country! We took lots of pictures there and it was fun to see- my first time visiting any nation’s capital!

After the Palace we drove into town and got out for a walking tour.  We pretty much did the boring, somewhat interesting tourist thing for the rest of the morning… we looked through different museums and got the low-down on everything. Most of the places we went to were beautiful, but sometimes it just got a little old because it seemed as though we were always waiting for someone to catch up.  We saw the first Catholic church built in the new world (or so I thought he said), we went to the house of Christopher Columbus, and we got to see some of the large Fortresses. We also went to this big morgue where someone said that Christopher Columbus was buried, but I’m not sure if that was true… I’m not even sure we went to his house! I had thought we were at the house of Diego Columbus (who he is I have no idea) until later Friday night when I was back home and my host family told me it was Cristobols.. haha so who knows. But we went to some cool old house! We then broke off for lunch and I ate the sandwich Bienvenida packed for me.  The sandwiches here are very different, and when I saw one for the first time I thought I was going to hate it. They usually have ham and cheese, a big hunk of tomato, and mustard, ketchup, and mayo. I LOVE THEM! Haha, so lunch was good. Then I tried some of their frozen yogurt which was great; I got to choose three fresh toppings and they mixed them for me!

After lunch we went to “las cuevas de los ojos” which means “Caves of the Eyes”. This was my favorite part of the day by far. The caves weren’t super far into the ground, but still low enough were it was darker. There were 4 beautiful lakes in 4 different parts and we got to go right down into the water! The water was crystal clear and so beautiful. The only bad thing was the like million fish in them… gross. To get to one of the caves, we had to cross one of the lakes by boat, which was fun except there were probably 10 bats flying around, and the ceiling got pretty low at one point! A man was cliff diving in this cave and it looked pretty crazy! The final cave we went to was called “Lago de las Damas” which means “Lake of the Women”. Apparently there is a legend that if a woman touches the water, she will have twins. Not instantly, I don’t think, although they did tell us this part in Spanish… haha. Well most of us just touched it, and we got pictures! But the first one of mine didn’t turn out so I had to touch it again! Not sure if that means I will be having two sets of twins or rather quadruplets. We’ll see I guess… talk to me in 10 years.

Our final stop of the day was the zoo, which was actually pretty small. I guess I’m used to the Minnesota zoo, but I think even the Como Zoo is bigger than this one! My favorite animal was the Hippo, they had  one baby hippo! Most of us were really tired at this point, so it was kind of a slow part of the day. Anyway, after that we headed home and I had my first empanada as a snack! They are delicious! It’s basically a big fried thing filled with anything you like, different kinds of meat and cheese usually. They are to die for.

I tried doing some of my homework, I started classes last week! I don’t have much, but the stuff that I do have is basically history reading, and it’s somewhat tough. I’m trying to take it bit by bit. Well that’s about it for now, hope everyone back home is well!

MY FIRST BURN!

Helloooo!

Let’s see, much has happened in these past few days! Well, as the title indicates, I have gotten my first sunburn of the season! Ocean Potion is currently my best friend, and I'm having trouble putting on tank tops because my back is so burnt... whoops! It's a love-hate thing I have going on.. primarly love! We went to Puerto Plata as an excursion on Saturday, which is a beach on the northern end. It is about a 2 hour bus ride, but definitely worth it. The beach was GORGEOUS! Before we got to the beach, though, we took a "teleferico" which is like a cable car up suuuper high and it was so beautiful. We were in the midst of mountains and ocean, and it was breathtaking. I was situated near the window in the cable car and I got to stick my head out and take pictures, which was great!

I didn't actually burn on Saturday, I was lathered with SPF 30 (thanks mom!) But, yesterday me and three other girls took a bus back to the beach and spent the day there, thus my burn! It's crazy that I'm getting around the country on my own... speaking Spanish and living the life!

I had my first class today, Afro Caribe culture. I'm actually very excited for it, it should be interesting and I think fun! I'm heading back to my house soon for the Domican "bandera" (flag) lunch which consists of beans, rice, and meat. Yum! Then, after lunch, I have my dance class- woo!

Things are already getting better, slowly. It is becoming easier to understand people here, even though I still ask them to slow down from time to time. The Dominicans seem to slur things together (or maybe it’s not so much the Dominicans as it is people outside of Spanish class) which can be tough for me at times. But, I really am starting to get better at understanding. Speaking is still tough, but when I try to just talk, and not think, I can do better. Although, that rarely happens… usually I plan out every sentence before I say it! Haha. SO! Where to begin.. ok I think I left off at the part where I had the disaster at the store… let’s see, since then I have learned to dance! Bachata and Merengue… and I tried Salsa, but it’s pretty complicated! Ha, for the Dominicans it seems to come naturally, but for many of us Americans, it’s difficult. Anyway, I’ve tried! And will continue to as I am taking a dance class here in the University, as noted above.

 We also have gotten a tour of the university, it is SO beautiful! There are millions of beautiful trees and plants, and everything is green! It’s such a nice sight after being in the snow! (For all of you still struggling with it, sorry to bring it up!) Anyway, I have met many Domnincan people, but so far my favorites besides my family are some of the friends of my host brother, Luis! There is also a group of students from PUCMM who are Dominicans that attend the school, but want to work especially with the international students (so weird that I am an international student!) Most all of the students in this group are very nice and I’m excited to get to know them better! Also I love my small neighbors who live in an apartment across from ours… Theres a girl who maybe is anyway from 10-15, and then there is a baby boy, Israel, who is 1 and SO CUTE!

One thing that has really helped my Spanish is watching TV! Haha I have watched a lot of Tv, be it with Maite or Bienvenida… I think I might be getting hooked on this telenovela called “Aurora”. Its about a girl who died when she was 20 after having a baby, but then science preserved her body, and they were able to bring her back 20 years after…. Or so I think? Haha, from what I’ve picked up that’s the general story line… it has a very catchy story line and reminds me of my Rubi days J

Something crazy about the Dominicans is their driving! They are CRAZY! The “pedestrians have the right of way” rule is definitely not in existence here. It’s more like the drivers have a right to get where they are going, and pedestrians have the right to get a taxi! Haha, it’s crazy. People drive sooo fast and rarely follow traffic rules. I’ve literally been scared every time I have gotten a car ride somewhere. The thing is though, because of the craziness, all of the drivers pay very good attention, and are skilled at handling stress and the unknown.

Also, every single man/boy here makes some type of comment or gesture to women, especially Americans. “Mi visa, mi amor, mi rubia, mami…” the list goes on and on. My favorite is “mi visa” which literally means, “my visa”. The Dominicans say that to Americans because they want to go to the US and if the American girl gets with them, then… you get the picture. It’s crazy. Haha… also, something common for the men to do is hiss at you. It sounds kind of like a cat/snake and they do it as another form of a compliment. I’m curious what they would do if someone actually responded to them (we just ignore them and keep walking). I’m sure they expect us to ignore them, so if we actually gave them a response I think it would be funny to see what they did! Of course, I’d never actually do that… too scary!

The internet in my house is no longer working for some strange reason, so I’ll now only be using internet at the university. Therefore, I will probably update less, but will try to keep people posted as often as I can!

Ok well I’m gonna go, hasta luego! Love to everyone!! Sorry this one was so long!

Fish Out of Water

Bienvenidos de la Republica Dominicana!

                Well, por fin, I’m here. I arrived late Sunday night, around 10:45 Dominican time.  I was pretty tired, scared, sad, and overwhelmed at this point, but also excited to meet my family.  Like the title says, so far I have been feeling like a "fish out of water".  So much is happening... culture shock maybe? Haha we had a talk about that today... and they said it'll go away with time. ALready I can tell I am getting acclimated... but it's gonna still take some time.

               When I arrived, only my “younger sister”, Maite, y my “mom”, Bienvenida, were home.  Maite is about 15 and reminds me a lot of Abby.  We have watched Disney channel together a couple of times and it’s interesting to see that Hannah Montana still gets the best of both worlds in the DR. “El mejoooor de ambos mundos”.  Turns out my family also has WIFI, which was a surprise for me, a pleasant surprise.  However, it’s also somewhat tough because my connections with the US almost make it harder for me sometimes.  I’ve definitely been on an emotional roller coaster here. The first day, yesterday, I slept in, then had a nice breakfast of fresh squeezed juice (so good) and a breakfast sandwich type of thing.  Some ladies from the church came over then and had coffee with me, Bienvenida, and Luis- my “father”. My family also consists of an older brother, Luicito- he is actually Luis Jr., but they call him Luicito (little Luis) to distinguish between the papi- and there is an older sister who lives in Tampa with her husband.  I can’t remember her name… My family also has a small chiuaua (?) named Coco.  He is pretty cute and very playful.  He plays with a Styrofoam ball and dances around on his hind legs when you hold it up. Yesterday I also met two girls who are here for the entire year, thus they have been here for abou4 ½ months so far.  They spoke English with me, which I was sooo happy to do, and they gave me the low down on the ISA program, classes, Santiago the city, the excursions, and just life in general.  I also had an orientation yesterday where we learned that we could take a “concho” (a small bus) to the beach, which is about an hour away, for 100 DR pesos, which is equivalent to about 3 dollars. Needless to say, I’m ready to go!! It’s weird here because my family is currently still on their break so Maite and Luicito usually are just lounging watching TV or on their computers, and I’m ready to explore the city and enjoy the sun! I am going to Puerto Plata- a beach- on Saturday though with the ISA group, so I’m looking forward to that. 

                Other than the two other girls from my neighborhood, there are about 10 other ISA students here who I have been getting to know. Everyone seems nice. I still cannot believe I will be here for an entire 4 months… Last night I freaked out after going to the “farmacia” (pharmacy) with Nea and Rose, the two girls who live nearby, because when I was there, I couldn’t understand anything. It was very crowded, they had everything from Barbies to purses to dandruff shampoo.  And all of this was in probably a 15x 15 ft. room.  When I brought my purchases to the counter, the cashier was yelling at me in very fast Spanish that I couldn’t understand.  Turns out he was saying “cash or credit!” but it could have easily been “you are stupid!” and I wouldn’t have known the difference. Luckily I was with Nea and Rose because they told me to give 700 pesos and that was that.  Stil… how am I supposed to live here if I cant even go to the store? Ugh… well hopefully it only can get better! I’m going to take eat now so nos vemos!