Sunday June 1, 2014
Nine hours and 1,591 miles later...
I finally made it to my new home for the next 6 weeks. So far... all I can say is that I am exhausted, hot and I am pretty sure my brain is in culture shock from all of the Spanish already, but I couldn't be more excited for the journey ahead.
Hasta Mañana
Monday June 2, 2014
Now that I am fully rested let me tell you about my host family. I am living with a lady named Keyla Gomez. She has two kids Louis, who is 6, and Sheyla, who is 4. Along with the kids, Keyla's madre y padre live with us too, Argentina ("como el pais" said abuela) and Renan. They all seem to be really nice so far. Abuela is absolutely adorable... she gave us a big hug and like 20 besos (kisses) when we arrived. Abuela is a little hard to understand just because the Dominican dialect is so different from what I have learned in school. Abuelo... now he is another story. He is the cutest most precious looking old man, but I cannot understand anything he says. Britt and I just smile and nod and laugh occasionally when he tries to talk to us, hopefully it will get better. The kids haven't said much to us yet really I think they are shy, but Keyla seems really cool she is already planning stuff for us this weekend.
The city and house are a lot different than what I expected. For those of you at home that thought we would be living in a hut... Taylor Prater... I am happy to inform you that we are not. We are living in a cute apartment complex.
It is pretty modern and they have a lot of great paintings all over the house. There are three tv's in the house, but no air conditioning... DEATH. Oh and we don't have wifi yet, but Keyla said we will have it by Wednesday. The city is also a lot more developed than I thought it would be... They have cars, they have cell phones, and they wear normal clothes... shocking I know. Now onto the food.
Today we had cereal for breakfast... seems normal right? NO! The cereal was pretty bland and mushy not to mention she served us room temperature milk... gross! Anyways... I have had a stomach ache since this morning so that's good.
Lunch was pretty good though we had fried plantains, chicken, rice, beans and salad... which is actually plain lettuce lol. For dinner we had salami and yucca... google it cause I don't even know how to explain it lol... i just know the texture is kinda weird.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We had our orientation this afternoon and met the other students in the program. There is one guy and the rest girls... I think like 12 or 13. Anyways... everyone seems to be pretty cool. So basically today was just getting a lot of information thrown at us about the do's and the don't's of the culture:
- Ladies where long skirts or jeans... shorts are frowned upon
- Bookbags mean you are american
- Don't take a concho at night
- Don't drink the water
- Don't eat fruits or veggies unless they are cooked or have a peel, if they have a peel, don't eat the peel
- Asking a guy to meet for coffee to help with your Spanish may not only mean a "meeting for coffee"
- Dominicans are always 5-15 minutes late
Okay... you get the idea it is very different here.
Tuesday June 3, 2014
Today local students gave us a tour of the university. It's a really nice school and everything has big signs which I will need when I get lost. The students were so cute and helpful. Also we took our placement test today to see what level of classes we will be taking while we are here... lets just say it was a really, really, really hard test. I don't think that I placed into advanced, which I will need for the credits to transfer. The test was made up of several different components: listening, grammar, comprehension, writing and an interview... so pretty overwhelming especially since my brain kind of shut off after my last final in April... But I am hoping by some miracle I will place into the high level classes... so I guess we will see what happens.
Wednesday June 4, 2014
Today we had our second orientation and then we went to the school to pick the classes we wanted to take based on the scores we got on the test. Bad news... I did not place advanced like I needed to and neither did three other girls... Britt got advanced though, YAY BRITT! Anyways... the day was just frustrating because now I am not going to get credit because I am taking a class I already have credit for... I guess it just gives me more time to enjoy this wonderful country and not stress about class... positive thinking.
Thursday June 5, 2014
Okay so after a pretty annoying day yesterday, today was pretty interesting. This morning I went on my first concho... What is a concho you ask... a concho is a form of public transportation here. They have set routes that they run all the time similar to our bus system, but conchos are cars... How many people can ride in a concho you ask? The answer is 6 not including the driver, keep in mind this is a small car. They squish four in the back and two in the front. The cost to ride one of these lovely things is 25 pesos so that is like 50 cents. I can only think of one word to describe traffic here... LOCO! They do not have road rules here... everything is more of a "guideline," and if you think pedestrians have the right of way... they don't. One of my friends got hit by a car... don't worry it was more of a tap and she and the car are perfectly okay.
We took the conchos to downtown Santiago and toured the city. The city was very pretty, but very populated and some parts were very run down.
Everywhere you go everyone stairs at you. The men also enjoy yelling things at us. Some things they say to us are:
- Hello beautiful ladies
- Gringos
- For you almost free because you are beautiful
- Hola mami
- Que linda
- Hola mujeres que lo que
These are then followed by winking, cat calls, blowing kisses and waving. They really have no filter and apparently this is completely normal here.
After we toured downtown we took a bus with some of the local students and our advisers to a private pool and had a fiesta. The students gave us dance lessons where we learned how to do the merengue, salsa and bachata. Britt and I learned that we suck at dancing and we are super awkward and have no rhythm, but it was still so much fun!
