Well, as my mom informed me yesterday, I haven’t written in almost a month and thus, it’s about time for an update on my life in the DR!! Well, one reason I haven’t written in quite some time is because we had two weeks of no excursions, and for this reason, my life was less like a vacation and more like real life. I got into the routine of just hanging around my house and finding things to do in Santiago. Some friends and I decided to play soccer a couple of Saturdays ago and since then we have played every Saturday with some local Dominicans! I’ve also perfected my Domino skills and am going to need to purchase some before heading home! More than soccer and dominos, I have been playing cards with friends and working on homework. I’ve also been reading quite a bit, as I received the Valentine’s package my parents sent me a couple of weeks ago. It was sent end of January and still appreciated when I got it in March! Chocolate and books are good any time of year (: Homework settled in a couple of weeks ago for midterms, and I’m happy to report things are still going very well in the academic aspect!!
On Friday we had an excursion to 27 Charcos, which was a day trip to these 27 waterfalls! We basically climbed up all of the waterfalls and then turned around and jumped off of them! It was really fun and so beautiful! There weren’t any that were too high, I believe the highest was maybe 40/50 feet at most. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t a little nervous… it was still high! Sometimes we had to swim through little canals to get to the next area, and often times the guides had to lift us up on the rocks. They were unbelievably strong, I felt like a teeny little cheerleader being whipped up to the top of the pyramid! We were told that we could rent “water shoes” from them for cheap, but when I saw their selection, I instantly regretted not bringing my tennis shoes as all they had for us were some old, wet wannabe Keds. Mine were white and had holes in the sides. Hahaha they provided for some good laughs, but not really for the best adventure. They weren’t quite conducive to running around on slippery rocks. Luckily for me my weak ankles decided to be nice and all the Keds did to me were give me a couple blisters. I’d say it was worth the pain…
We also had a service activity a couple of weeks ago where we went to a preschool/comedor and helped with some “reforestation”. Hah, basically we planted some trees, weeded, and painted some rocks! And then we ate lunch with the kids- a comedor is a place where children of the local village can come and eat for free. So we ate with the kids and then I got my tag on which was very fun. Chase and run is apparently a universal language. This was right before the DR’s independence day too, so all of the kids had paper flags that they were to take home. Those things were all over the place and it was really cute because anytime anyone said “bandera” (flag), the kids would yet “subela a la arriba!” which means raise them up! I saw a lot of national pride that day!
Unfortunately for me the DR’s independence day will forever live in my memory as a sour one; I went to the last day of Carnival with some friends and had a rough patch of luck. First my flip flop broke, but luckily for me some nice Dominicans helped me put something together with a bobby pin. So, on my way with a jimmy-rigged shoe, I get some confetti thrown at me and one piece sticks in my eye. Well I spent about 10 minutes with some other Dominicans and my friends trying to get that sucker out while continuously being shoved by the massive number of drunk Dominicans… we eventually succeeded and were FINALLY on our way home when someone ran up from behind me and yanked my camera out of my hand and off of its string that was tied around my wrist. I whipped around to try to stop him and screamed out, but he was really fast and had immediately sprinted away. I was instantly in tears as my new camera that I had gotten for Christmas was now gone. Talking about it now I’m not as upset as I was at first, but it still pains me a little. Luckily I didn’t have too many pictures on it, and I didn’t get hurt, but it was still very scary and quite the bummer. I do thank God that I’m ok though, because when another girl from my program got robbed (unfortunately I’m not alone), she was also punched in the stomach and the face. So luckily I’m fine. I guess I probably had gotten a little too comfortable here and maybe had forgotten that I am clearly a foreigner in this country… well needless to say, my guard has been raised!
Despite the camera experience everything here has been really great lately and about to get much much better! My roommate Jenna comes to visit me THIS Thursday!! She’s staying with me at my house for a couple of days and we are also going to go play tourists at an All-Inclusive on the beach about an hour from my house. I’m so excited to have her come; some friends have had boyfriends and parents visit, and I’m so happy I have someone coming to see me!! She also is going to bring my old camera so I’ll have something to use for the last month and a half! It’s really crazy to me that I’ve almost been here for 3 ½ months! I can and cannot believe it. A mixture of the two, for sure!! Sometimes I think about how overwhelmed and homesick I was the first couple of weeks and I’m so proud that I stuck it out!! This is definitely an experience I will never ever forget and I would totally recommend to anyone who is considering studying abroad to do it! You find out so much about yourself: what you’re capable of, what you like, who is important to you, that kind of thing! It’s also so fun to learn about another culture! Some of the other girls and I sometimes joke about starting a Dominican restaurant back in the States because we love the food so much!
Well this week I have some homework to get done as I’m trying to get ahead for when Jenna is here, but other than that, not much going on! We are heading to the Museo de las Hermanas Mirabal next Friday and we’re going to be watching the movie “In the Time of the Butterflies” to get us ready. That should be interesting! I believe the following week we have a two-day excursion to Samana, which is on the East coast of the DR. From there we are in April and then I’m finishing up classes and heading home!! Time is just flying!
Ok well I don’t have much else to say, I will try to update more often from now on, I’m sure I’ll have loads to say about the coming weeks! Hope all is well back home, love and miss you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment