Friday, January 3rd, 2014
I started off my trip to the DR in a fashion that I
doubt I will forget. I came out of my apartment to find everything
covered in 5 inches of fluff! Not something you can drag your suitcase
through… So I carried my suitcase above the snow. At the end of my
street, I turned onto 3rd and had two more blocks to the metro stop
at W 4th street. The snow was making my 5 minute walk much
more difficult than normal. As it was 5h15am, I marched straight out to
the middle of the street and walked in the car-packed snow tracks. I
wasn’t the only one who had thought of this solution. Never having grown
up in a snowy area – the idea of a storm warning and the problems it could
cause boggled me. Once my fingers thawed from this walk – I immediately
found this memory amusing.
Sabada, el 11
ereno, 2014
Saturday breakfast blew my
mind. The food was delicious and
abundant! I literally ate breakfast for
an hour. Best free upgrade ever.
The first thing we did on Saturday
was go on our tour of Santo Domingo. Nos guía es muy bueno. We
started off at the Columbus house.
Columbus never lived here, but his son built it and four generations of
his family lived in the house. It was
restored by Trujillo with a few modifications, such as an added balcony. Next we learned about the Calle de las Damas
on which we were staying. It was fun to
learn about the 30 women who used to stroll along the street in the evenings
and in honor of whom the street is named.
We also learned a fun tale about one of the favorite Saints of the DR. I missed her name, but the story said that a
merchant’s daughter asked him to bring her a picture of a certain saint and he
searched and searched be to no avail. On
his way home, a man gave him a rolled picture and told him to give it to his
daughter, but not to open it himself.
When the daughter opened the scroll, it was a picture of the saint. They built a chapel for the picture, but the picture kept disappearing and reappearing by an orange tree, so they relocated the
chapel. I missed some of the information
in the Pantheon, but found the metal plaque in front very interesting. During his reign, Trujillo renamed the city
after himself. It was very interesting
to hear about the little egotistical things Trujillo did during this
dictatorship beyond just terrorizing people.
We visited the fort and the cathedral in the city as well during the
tour and learned a lot about them.
13 de erenos, 2014
After class, we had a dance
class! This was fun, though it could
have been better with the addition of guys to dance with rather than having to
learn to lead another inexperienced dancer – a role I wouldn’t be in on the
dance floor. We learned the machata, the
merengue, and salsa. They were all
fairly basic steps, but it was fun. We
did a game in which we closed our eyes and music started; we had to choose
which type of music it was and start doing the correct steps. I can’t dance in place with my eyes closed… I
ran in to ppl more than once! I got two
out of four dance-guesses correct and am quite happy about that.
15 de ereno, 2014
In the afternoon, Norah, Kaitlyn,
and I went for a walk down Calle el Sol.
We were heading to the Santiago Market; we never made it there. We were walking right through downtown and
stand out like a sore thumb. I didn’t
really care and didn’t think much of it either.
As we got closer and closer to the market, the stores got less and less
respectable. Everything seemed to be
lowering in quality. This was really
only 10 minutes away from our houses here.
We had never stepped foot off the pathway that was laid out before
us. It was surprising to see how rundown
everything seemed so quickly. I am
disappointed that we didn’t make it to the market, but happy that we at least
went out on our own to a new area.
Today I
also had some language breakthroughs. I
managed to have a few mini conversations with my homestay family! She even made a comment about how I am
learning a little bit of Spanish and that is how it all starts. When I was eating, I succeeded in
understanding a few things she said like “comida” or meal/food. I think my “si” was in a very different tone
that must have shown that I had understood and was excited about it. I can’t repeat what she said, but it was
something about me liking Dominican food.
Throughout the afternoon and evening, we managed a few little
conversations and exchanges. This is a
big deal because this is the first time she and I have managed to really
communicate much.
18 de ereno, 2014
Today was our trip to los Haitises
National Park. It was pretty neat once
we got started. The national park is 53
tropical islands covered in greenery and full of wildlife. We drove a boat through the small islands and
stopped at two to visit caves. The first
cave was particularly fun because we got to climb around a bit. The second cave had native cave paintings.
We had lunch on the isla Caya
Levantardo and then relaxed on la playa for a little over an hour. It seemed too short, especially since it was
such a gorgeous beach.
20 de ereno, 2014
When I got home, thanks to Chris, I
was able to ask my homestay mom two questions for my hw about the altagracia
holiday tomorrow. I understood the gist
of what my homestay mom said in response, though I’m not sure she answered my
first question at all. Then I told her
that : Manana, yo voy a la playa. Then
she had lots to say about la playa and how muy belinda the beach is. She talked about a previous student who loved
going to the beach. It is really nice to
be able to communicate with her in Spanish and has encouraged one of the
daughters to speak to me more in Spanish as well. I feel much more at ease being able to
communicate basic things.
As I filled
out my homestay evaluation today, I got a small wave of nostalgia. I’m ready to go back to the US, but it’s just
amazing that this family has opened up their home and their lives to me. They really have been wonderful and so
welcoming. They kept an eye on me while
I was not feeling my best and were genuinely happy for me when I started making
a little progress in Spanish. They
include me in things, but also give me space.
I have felt very welcome my whole stay here. As ready as I’ve been to leave, it will be
hard to make the 60+ degree drop in temperature…
22 de ereno, 2014
After lunch
we went and visited the orphanage. We
learned about the children there and how the orphanage is run. We toured the house and got to see the
bedrooms. All the beds were bunk beds to
increase space and the small rooms all had two, if not more bunk beds in
them. It seemed crowded, but what
matters is everyone having a safe place to sleep. We got to color with the children in the
end. I was with a 9-year-old named
Diana. She was very bossy and would tell
me what to draw. She was very impressed
with my flowers and had me draw and color many of them. I tried asking her questions but often needed
someone else to ask them, even if I almost had them right. I enjoy coloring and drawing in general and
was happy to have met her. It was sad to
find out that none of the children there had a chance at adoption where they
could be incorporated into a loving family; however, the environment at the
orphanage seemed very caring.
Rather than
going straight home after the orphanage, Kaitlyn showed me, Norah, and Linda
(Gina) how to take a concho! (A concho
is a car that drives a specified route and ppl wave it down and hop in, asking
the driver to stop wherever they want to leave along the route.) It was very exciting. We went to La Sirena to buy snacks for our
flight to NYC. It was neat to see how
this mode of transportation worked and I’m very happy that I got the chance to
try it once. It wasn’t the full concho
experience since there were so many of us – each time we only had one person
outside of our party in the car, though the driver would have squeezed one more
in the back with us. Kaitlyn did all the
communications, but I tried to observe closely so I’d be able to try it on my
own if the need ever presented itself.
The concho transport is a steal – just 20 pesos no matter how far along
the route you are going!
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