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!