Week 7/17—Almost halfway!

Hello! I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine’s Day filled with lots of love and candy!! We had a really fun Valentine’s exchange at the ISA office yesterday and the girl that had me got me some super cute earrings and made me an awesome card! We had pizza for lunch, which actually had corn on it which was pretty weird, but still good. They also had a million suckers for us, so I definitely got my fill on sweets!

This weekend was very very awesome! First off, on Friday I taught a bunch of girls how to play Hand and Foot so I that was really fun. You know I had my game face on, but unfortunately I took second. GR- it was beginners luck for the girl who beat me (: Ha, then I spent the night with my family and my host mom and I had a very nice long discussion about relationships and the “disgrace” of cougars. Haha she was very against a woman being older in a relationship and it was funny to talk with her about it. Saturday was an AWESOME day. I went to this clinic with some of my friends and got to be a medical translator for the day!! My friend Jacque volunteers here regularly through a program called ILAC- International Latin American Concern.  It is an organization that brings in doctors with different specialities from the US to work with Dominicans for, I believe, free. The groups come in for about a week at a time and work from 7am-7pm with different people all day. Since most of the doctors cannot speak Spanish, they need any volunteers that they can get to help them out. Usually they have people from the Peace Corps come in or Dominicans that also know English.

SO! Jacque and I, along with another friend went out to ILAC early Saturday morning and spent all day there! At first I just watched a couple of the appointments, and was so nervous to finally work on my own. This group of doctors was ENTs and I was working with a 4^th year Med student from Loyola.  The first person I worked with was a 13 year old boy who had a fragment of bone in his cheek that was detached from his nose.  He was really cute and was patient with me when I needed to look up a specific medical word- thank goodness my friend had a medical translation book! All in all it went really well and I had so much fun! The entire day was just a thrill and I was so interested in everything. If I had any doubt about being a Bio major or working in the medical field, it was wiped away.  I’m so excited because I feel like I’m in the right place!

Anyway, after the day at ILAC, about 10 ISA kids went to play soccer with me.  We originally were just gonna kick it around amongst ourselves, but then some Dominicans near us asked us to play against them.  They were a team that was mixed with dads, teens, and little 8 year olds who were pulling out scissors right and left.  It was so fun and we played for about 2 hours.  In the end I believe the score was something like 5-4 them, but we did a pretty good job of catching up! And I think we might try to play every weekend now which makes me very excited because I have missed soccer!

Sunday we had an excursion to Jarabacoa, a mountain town about 30 minutes from Santiago.  Here we rode horses up a mountain and got to swim in a waterfall! My horse’s name was Brandy and he did not seem to like me very much. He was not having anything I tried to make him do, be it slow down or speed up; he only wanted to trot. Which was very frustrating, not to mention EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Haha. No running, no walking, trotting. Apparently trotting is the easiest for horses, according to my dad, but ugh, I don’t know, everyone else’s horse seemed perfectly fine with walking and running!  Haha, anyway, I rode on my own and some others rode with little “niños” who were basically little mountain kids who knew a bunch about horses/the trail.  The waterfall at the top was very picturesque and the water was freeeezing but also slightly refreshing.  After the trail ride we had lunch and then spent the afternoon by the pool.  Around 3 we left and went to another neighboring town, La Vega.  In La Vega we went to their Carnival celebration… Crazy.  It was insane. I didn’t really know what to expect from Carnival, but I knew that it was a big party with people in Devil costumes… that’s pretty much exactly what it was, except it was basically just a big drunken parade.  The devils were able to spank/whip people in the butt if they were in the street and I got hit a couple of times. It hurt sooo bad. Everyone in our group was like up against the wall of the sidewalk covering our butts trembling in fear the entire time. It was a little much for us I think. Still, a lot of the costumes were really cool and it was fun to see the celebration.  I don’t think I will be going back to the Carnival in La Vega, though.  Santiago does have their own celebration and apparently it’s much more tame, so maybe I will do that next Sunday.  We’ll see…

We now have about 3 weeks until our next excursion, so life’s going to be a little more boring around here, but that’s ok. As I have friends now and am much more comfortable with my family, it’s not too much of a problem or bore to not always have something going on. Well, that’s about it for now, I’ll update if something exciting happens!

Just an Update :)

¡Hola!

Ok so this is getting dangerous... I'm really starting to enjoy blogging. Yikes. I watched this Grey's Anatomy episode yesterday where this chick got all obsessed with blogging and it consumed her life. I think I like sharing my thoughts too much. Maybe I should try for a talk show when I'm older. It can't be that hard to get one right? ;) Ha... ok anyway....

Mosquitos… that’s been my biggest problem lately. They are everywhere! My legs are covered in bites because I decide to follow my heart (or rather  the temperature) and wear shorts instead of the typical Dominican skinny jean. And of course those little blood suckers can smell fresh meat from a mile away… or maybe they can just see the luminescence of my white skin.  One or the other. Probably both. Hah, although, I am making decent progress on my tan these days… that’s what wearing shorts and a tank top gets you! It’s a give and take kinda thing; get tan and look good, but also look horrible because I have thousands of very large red dots all over the place and extreme scratch marks all over my legs.  And for those of you who know me well and know my erm… condition haha, you know that when I scratch I mean business!  I feel like if I were to get chicken pox now I would really need to wear those oven mits to keep from scratching… although I guess I’m old enough where I know that they can be taken off? Haha… ok enough ranting onto the news!

Well! First off I am very excited to say that I believe Jenna, my roommate from Luther, will be coming to visit me for five or so days in mid March! I’m very very pumped about this and cannot wait to see her! I even asked the ISA staff if I could possibly miss one of the days of school to spend with her and they said it was ok! But shhh… I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, so keep it quiet everyone. Yeah, smart thinking on my part throwing it out there on the internet for all to see. Oh well! Anyway, yes this makes me very happy and very very excited! Yay Jenna! She’s going to stay with me in my room and I’m so excited to show her everything and have her try my mom’s awesome cooking!  Haha I feel like I always rave about the food on here, but seriously it’s so good I can’t help myself!

Secondly, I am really starting to love my family. My mom here told me to tell Jenna that I have a family here and she can always stay with “my family”.  It was very sweet.  Bienvenida and I also had a long conversation today about life and love over lunch (wow there’s a huge alliteration/tounge twister!) which was very nice. I learned about how her and my host dad met and she gave me some good advice.  Ha she said I was on the right track in my life because I was in school and I was working toward my future…  let’s hope so!  Not too much has been going on in my life lately besides school and my family… although my host uncle has kidney stones right now so that is quite the bummer and my family has been going to visit him a lot lately so I’ve been home alone some.  This is very unusual because Bienvenida almost never leaves the house and if she does usually my dad or sister are home.  Luicito left for school on Sunday so the house is a little more empty; no more awesome drawings lying around nor any of his friends.  It’s quieter now. 

Oh, something I forgot to mention… YAYYYY PACKERS!! I got to watch the game at TGI Fridays and that was quite the experience! Haha they had the game playing on 4 screens but had the commentary, clearly, in Spanish.  I mean, it wasn’t too difficult to understand- incompleto, Aaaarn Rogerrrs, etc- but I was bummed I didn’t get to see all of the commercials. Though, I heard from Erin that they weren’t even that good so that’s ok. And the BEPeas were in English so that was good. Haha. I went with a bunch of other ISA kids and we sat up at the bar. They had two small statues that sat on the bar and they were of Clinton and Nixon. Haha it’s always funny to see the impressions people have of America.  Clearly Clinton and Nixon are the best representations of our country.  Ha. I also ate some wings while there, and of course, used my hands. Well apparently people eat wings with forks and knives here (something I still cannot believe nor even understand how it is possible) and all of the Dominicans around us kind of looked at me with disgust.  My waiter brought me like 10 more napkins and hand wipes. I got the hint, but I still used my hands! (: So much for assimilation! I also ate the celery sticks which is for sure poo poo’ed here as it probably is in the U.S. as well seeing as it is a garnish, but hey, I wanted my money’s worth!

Well not much else to report, this Sunday we are going horseback riding through the mountains in Jarabacoa and then we are going to La Vega for Carnival! I am very excited to experience Carnival, and La Vega has the biggest celebration in all of the DR! It should be really fun, but I’m a little nervous because people go after you with sticks and whips.  I’m not sure I’m ready to be whipped by some crazy Dominican in a pig mask. Vamos a ver. Welllll I believe that’s it for now, I’ll for sure give an update post-Carnival trip!

XOXO,

Chisme Chica 

Haha wow I hope someone understands that and gets my reference. My best bet is on Shannon. Pull through for me little guy! Or maybe Durnin with her impeccable Spanish skills. Hopefully someone.

Chicken fly...??

Today I saw a chicken fly. Like, he really FLEW. I don’t believe I had ever witnessed that in my life until today. Chicken roam free here, they’re kind of like stray cats… they don’t appear to have any real owners, they just walk the streets like Tomas O’Malley. I sometimes wonder if I could catch one, they sure aren’t afraid of humans, they’re very domesticated.  However, like the Luther squirrels, these gusys scatter as soon as you get close enough to touch.  Anyway, so on my way home from school today I was kind of following this one naked neck chicken. I’m pretty sure that’s what it’s called… I remember Sam Klimas had one in 4^th grade when we all got chickens in Mrs. Landis’s class.  It’s a pretty ugly breed.  So yeah, this naked neck (I’m just gonna go with it) was weaving in and out of the sidewalk and swiveling that little bald neck of his back at me. He was watching me, I swear! Then that paranoid little guy started half running (as much as chickens can run) and I kinda played with him and started speeding up my walk. Then the incredible thing happened… he flew about 10 feet in the air over this super tall fence! I seriously stopped dead in my tracks I was so blown away! I tell ya, the things you seen while abroad!

Besides the chicken’s miraculous fence hop, I also had an interesting day in class yesterday. In my Afro-Caribe Culture class we talked about the history of social structure in the Caribbean. Now from what I got out of class, which is only probably half correct due to the language thing, the people in the Dominican do not want to stay here.  I suppose I could have gotten that from all of the “mi visa”s I’ve had shouted at me since I’ve been here, but I was very shocked when my professor told us that young children were routinely asked what their future plans were regarding residency.  He said that over 50% of Dominicans under 15 plan to leave the Dominican after they are old enough to be on their own. This means that the corrupt nature of the country will never change because everyone that has potential to change it is leaving.  The future of the country is stuck in the hands of those who already control it; the saying the rich get richer seems to be very true here. This was very unsettling to me as growing up in the U.S. we rarely think about living somewhere else for a period of time (even a different state is often a stretch for many!) let alone permanently leaving the country.  We would never be asked in school whether we plan to stay in the U.S. as adults because it is something that is assumed.  I asked my host dad over lunch yesterday what his point of view was on this subject and he had a lot to say.  He started off telling me that my professor was wrong; in his point of view at least 85% of today’s generation wants to/will leave the DR for a richer nation.  My dad also said that he hopes all of his children leave because there is no future in this country.  This really surprised me because my family seems to have a lot of national pride.  I asked my dad if he thought things would ever change and his answer was interesting.  He said “Even though I’d love to say that about my country, I know it’s not true.  There is so much corruption here and no one here is rich enough to try to run for office and if they did someone else would buy them out in order to get them to do what they want.”  It is really crazy for me to think about things like this… I guess I never really follow the U.S. news all that well, but I’m beginning to become interested in it.  World affairs seem much more interesting now that I’m seeing them from a point of view that is outside of the states.  Ever since I’ve been out of the “Luther bubble” I feel as though I am more aware and am getting a better understanding of the world around me.  Wow look at me all philosophical, this is crazy!

Today I have been here for a month; that is so strange to say! Good luck to everyone back home starting second semester today… I’m not jealous of you. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to go back to being a Bio major… I’m really enjoying the little to no homework life of only Spanish classes. I’m in for a rough awakening come September.

Anyway, just wanted to share some thoughts… sorry this isn’t quite as interesting as the beautiful beaches of Isla Saona, but I still think the chicken story is pretty crazy! Haha! Hope all is well back home, I’ve heard about the crazy snow storm that’s raging through the Midwest… bundle up and be safe everyone! I’ll catch some sun for you (: