I'm baaaccckkkkk!

In case you were all wondering over the break- no I did not disappear.  I was simply taking a hiatus.  But- lots of cool adventures did happen so here’s a brief sample:

El campo.

A couple of days after Christmas I headed out to the campo- for real this time.  A taxi, bus and moto concho (motorcycle concho) ride later found me on top of one of the mountains standing on the north side of the city.  Let just say we went up so far and so fast my ears popped more than once.  I stayed with friends of a friend who were very gracious.  The only real complaint I have is the COLD.  You can tell me all you want about how much colder it is back in MN or CO, but when was the last time you kept your house at 50 degrees and turned fans on (there was a wind and the rooms were not sealed!)?  And all you had to wear were chacos?  Probably not too often.  Needless to say I was glad to get back to the city, even just for some warmer footwear. 

New Years eve was spent with extended family.  As a dress up event (of course), my suspicions about dress-length protocol were confirmed: if the fabric covers your rear end while standing, you’re good to go.  Needless to say, my LBD that reached past my fingertips was far from scandalous.  Neither were my flats when placed next to platform heels. 

Here’s a Dominican New Years tradition: take a piece of luggage to wherever you’re going to be celebrating the new year, and when the clock strikes midnight, run into the new year pulling your suitcase behind you.  This will ensure you travel far in the year to come.  Also- HUGS ALL AROUND!

The new students arrived January 2, so Nea and I (bored as we were over break) went with the program leaders to pick them up.  After a few delayed flights, we finally met 4 of our new peers.  Exciting!  The only catch- some of their luggage had been ‘misplaced’ in transit and the airline was looking for it.  Bummer!  Not one person fall semester had problems with lost suitcases, and at least 4 of the new people had to wait a few days for their stuff to arrive.  Talk about an added layer of stress: new country, new language, new people, and none of the comforts of home.  Luckily, by this point, all possessions have been returned to their proper owner. 

A view of our hotel!

Los Hermanos!  January fourth brought a bus trip down to the capital, a ride out to the airport by a friend of the host family, some waiting around, and a joyous reunion between family.  Hooray!  Jim, Robert and Piere came to visit me for nine days.  Some highlights of our time together include: seeing David Ortiz randomly in Santo Domingo, traversing 27 charcos (‘It felt like I was in a dream’ – Robert), spending 3 glorious days at the ocean with my aunt and uncle (also vacationing from the US), eating lots of delicious food, visiting a cigar factory, playing Jin/Rummy, eating more delicious food- provided by both my host mom and this amazing restaurant, AND just a general good time hanging out.  Phew- it was a lot!  They are now back in the US and I am into my semester here. 

Which brings me to… the line up.  Here are the classes I am taking:

Survey of Latin American Lit (for my Spanish major)

Latin American Culture and Society (also for my Spanish major)

Teaching English as a second language (even though, let’s be honest, it might be someone’s 4^th or 5^th.)

Jesus, the Person (for a potential Religious studies minor)

Social doctrine of the Catholic Church (also for a potential Religious studies minor)

So there you have it.  That’s what I’ll be doing with my time for the next 3 ½ months.  

Christmas time

Merry Christmas everyone!  ¡Feliz Navidad a todos!

Here’s a little bit about the Christmas traditions of the Dominican Republic.  I know I’ve mentioned the decorations before, and here are some pictures from my house.  Almost all available surfaces are decked on in one way or another.  Our tree is gorgeous, although you will note the peacock feathers on top in place of a star or angel.  This is true of the trees in every house I have been in (I think it’s the style this year…). 

We also have lots of Santa’s scattered around our house.  This is one display of three: skier Santa, Noel Santa and accordion Santa.  There are also some small stuffed ones hanging between our Christmas lights and orchid plants on our balcony.

Our coffee table is covered in Christmas treasures.  We have our advent wreath, a snowman that plays music, candles and ornaments, sparkly green flowers and a wrapped up orchid.  The last one is my gift to my host mom- her favorite flower.

Yesterday (Christmas eve) went something like this: my friend and I spent an hour trying to even out the worst haircut I’ve probably ever gotten (seriously, I don’t know how I left with it looking like that).  My host family and I went to mass at 6pm on Campus, then over to my brother-in-law’s parent’s house to have supper.  It was low key for the most part (with the exception of a Santa sighting by my 6 year old host nephew) and the food was really good!  There was turkey and ham (part of a pig that was roasted over a pit- soooo good), pasta salad, green salad, an eggplant dish, lasagna, bread and casabe (sort of like a rice cake but made out of yucca).  And fruit for dessert.  Yum, yum!

From what I gather, yesterday was the big day.  Eduardo opened his presents from Santa this morning, but other than that it’s been pretty low key.  Alba reported to me earlier that our neighbor, my host uncle’s sister-in-law (just in case you were wondering), got in from her family party at 5am.  So maybe, for most people, Christmas is the recovery day. 

I hope you all had/are having a wonderful day!  

The last supper

Last night was our cena despedida, or goodbye dinner.  All the remaining students in our program (some have gone home already), our program directors and 3 visitors from the program office in the US met at a restaurant for one last hoorah. 

My first hamburger in 4 months and a yummy
passion fruit juice!

We walked over, so of course were sweaty by the time we arrived, but 10 minutes in a highly air-conditioned room cured that pretty quickly.  About half of us got dolled up for the event.  Dresses, hair done, the works.  I do love a good excuse to dress up. 

Talk, surprisingly, did not center around people’s going home.  (I think we’ve all hashed that topic out enough in the past month, sheesh).  Nor did we dwell on memories of our time here.  This was also nice- none of us really got sappy.  I think the people returning to the US are just too excited to be completely bummed, and those of us who are staying are already starting to look towards the arrival of the next bunch of students.  

The topics of dinner conversation included: how excited we were to eat, Lady Gaga (of course), picture taking (everyone wanted a group shot), mail (thanks mom and dad!), borrowing clothes from parents, and jokes.  Here’s one I read on FB: ‘Why does the ocean roar?’  ‘Well, if you had crabs crawling all over your bottom, you’d roar too!’  Hehe. 

Picture/shadow fun on the way home.

On the whole, good food and good company.  Am I bummed that many of these people are leaving?  Yes.  Am I excited for next semester?  Yes!  Especially getting to see my family in less than a month?  Heck yes! 

Goodbye and good luck to those who are returning to the States!  

Take me out to the ball game

Last night I got my first taste of Dominican baseball.  Las Aguilas (the Eagles) are the team from Santiago, and from what I understand, they are doing terribly this season.  There are 6 national teams here, all with their own stadiums and loyal fan base. 

The ticket prices range from about 50 – 700 pesos (US$1.50-20), the 50 peso seats being bleachers in the outfield and 700 getting you behind the plate.  We went with the intention of sitting as cheaply as possible but ended up paying RD$400.  The woman at the ticket booth told us that or higher was all that was left.  LIES!  The stadium was less than half full.  Oh, well, they did end up being really good seats between home and first. 

A word on the crowd: LOUD.  Remember those vuvuzelas they sold at the World Cup.  Yep, they have them here too.  Oh, and snacks are great.  Pretty much anything you can think of gets carried around: popcorn (in the microwave popcorn bags- which, when you think about it is probably way easier than boxes), pizza, empanadas, peanuts and fruit.  Wait- fruit?  Yep, a guy walked up and down the isles selling apples, grapes, bananas and raisins.  Gotta love it!

As far as refreshments went, there were 3 women assigned to every section.  There were 3 small bins holding ice and beer, and stacked to the side were bottles of pop.  If you wanted something, you just flagged them down.  These women also danced the Macarena a couple times during the game.  A friend and I agreed the dancing would be a deal breaker for this job.  No way could you get me to do that in front of thousands of people- most of them leering men. 

Security, like in most places in this country, was everywhere.  I mean seriously everywhere.  And not only did you have people in black clothes, utility belt on and ‘Seguridad’ printed on their backs- there were several dozen people in army fatigues.  And I’m pretty sure they weren’t there as spectators.  And let’s just say the guns on their hips were not used to stun.  Does it make us feel safer?  Well, kinda yes, kinda no.  Mostly I think everyone just wishes it wasn’t necessary. 

The game itself was fun to watch.  The last game I went to was at the new Twins stadium, so it was fun to see a game played outdoors with a little less pomp.  When we left in the top of the ninth, Las Aguilas were ahead 3-1.  Yeah!  

Birthday weekend!

And what a great weekend it was!  On Friday night our program put on a Halloween party in which we were all supposed to dress up.  Well, most of us have zero costume worthy clothes with us- there is only so much room in a suit case- so we all got pretty creative.

There were two nerds, one swimmer, a greek goddess, an American (with her passport sticking out of her pocket), a dominican (carrying a flag and dressed in the colors same colors), and two of the Mirabal sisters.  One woman dressed up like one of the guys in our group.    She borrowed his clothes and acted like him the whole night.  It was perfect!

I went as a kite stuck in a tree.  I wore brown pants and a green shirt and made a kite out of cardboard and string.  I even made a paper bird and stuck it in my hair.

After stuffing ourselves with candy and chips and carmel apples (my contribution to the buffet) we held a costume competition.  We had to individually model walk in front of the group, explain our costume to the three Dominican judges and then show off our dance skills.  Oh, my!  After the first round there were five finalist: me, the two nerds, the swimmer and the girl/boy.

Round 2 consisted of a talent show.  Soooo was not expecting this.  We had ten minutes to think of something we could show to the group.  I ended up folding a paper crane and explaining that it was a bird that would live in my branches.  After this judging the winner was picket - the swimmer - and two of us had a dance off for second.  Me and a nerd.  Let's just say he won hands down.  Which I am totally happy about.  He got maracas, I won a Dominican flag pen holder.

Yesterday was beach day!  Yes!  This was my first trip to the beach not planned by our program and it was fun and relaxing.  I got up at 6:20 (yes- on my birthday, which was a Saturday, I got up earlier than I do for classes) to be at the bus station by 8.  A two hour trip later and we were spreading our towels out on the super fine sand of Sosua.  Wonderful!  I ate fried chicken and tostones (fried plantains) for lunch with a yummy (virgin) piña colada.  Yeah, super crazy with the alcohol, I know.

Back to the city and a pizza party and watching Hocus Pocus, that fantastic, cheesy, kids halloween movie about witches.  A good day all around.

Today's been very relaxing too.  Church in the morning, homework and skyping with family and friends.  Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  It's been really wonderful!

Ps- Thanks mom and dad for the camera!  It takes amazing pictures!

Things to do at night

This past week has been a bit of a busy one: jazz nights, prayer groups, Brazilian music and yaroa. 

There is a cultural/history/art center here called Centro Leon.  They’ve got stuff going on all the time, and the past two Fridays they’ve held live music events.  For the first, jazz night, it was raining and so everyone was crowded under an overhang trying to stay dry.  After about an hour though, it stopped raining and we got to see the remaining bands on the big stage that had been hidden under a tarp.  Now I don’t know much about jazz but am always a fan of live music so this was pretty cool.  There were several groups that preformed and each had a different flavor.  

This last Friday was Brazilian music night with not a cloud in the sky.  Another cool thing about going to these events is the dress up factor.  I just didn’t bring enough nice clothes to do it everyday for school like the majority of Dominicans (nor, lets be honest, am I will to put in that kind of effort) but every once in a while it’s nice to put on a dress and sandals and go out. 

In an effort to meet more Dominicans I went to a prayer group this past Wednesday.  There aren’t clubs here in the same way we have them in the US, so it’s been difficult to rustle up things to casually do with local students.  So to the prayer group I went.  Perhaps it wasn’t the best night to get a sense of the average prayer experience- it was the 21^st anniversary of the group and there was a stage and a slide show and cake (score!).  There was singing and several people got up and spoke about how important the group has been for them over the years.  Honestly I wasn’t even sure if I was in the Catholic group or not until the very end when we said the Our Father, a Hail Mary and three Glory Be’s.  It just didn’t have that vibe.  Lets just say this group probably doesn’t base their prayers in liberation theology.  Will I go back?  Yeah, probably.  I really do need to get out and meet people more, and this really isn’t such a bad way to do it. 

A picture of yaroa via google images.

And finally- supper out!  This past Thursday, which is of course the start to our weekend, I went out for a Dominican dinner with a couple of American friends.  Our taxi driver recommended this outdoor stand that sells yaroa, a very traditional Dominican specialty.  Yaroa consists of French fries (or plantain fries) topped with every kind of meat you can imagine (chicken, bacon, beef, pork and who knows what else) all mixed together with ketchup and melted cheese on the top.  It was actually really good. 

Also via google.

Two notable things occurred during our dinner out.  This first is that as we were sitting at out outdoor table, mice kept scurrying about our backpacks and feet.  This just added another element of suspense to our meal- cross your fingers we don’t get sick!  (Not only didn’t we, but other people from our group have eaten there before and been fine- but it’s the principle of the matter).  I am also not particularly freaked out by mice.  So long as they don’t have rabies and try and crawl on me or bite me, I maintain a live and let live kind of attitude.  Spiders?  Whole other story. 

The other notable occurrence was the near constant sexual harassment by boy as young as 5 years old.  As we sat there, this boy was sitting about five feet away and for fifteen minutes straight hissed and catcalled us.  UNBELIEVABLE.  We sat there and tried to ignore him (I’m of the mind that if people are going to act live uneducated children you need to treat them that way- just as I would ignore a tantrum by a child his age, so to I ignore this behavior.  Plus, if you acknowledge it in any way it just encourages them.)  It just goes to show how young boy here learn to sexually harass women.  And once that kid finally gave up and wandered off, about ten minutes later another one the same age started doing the same thing. 

So now I figure I’ve been sexually harassed by men (boys) ranging in age from 5 to about 75.  It happens so frequently and from literally every type of male, are there any good ones left?  Don’t worry; I’ve got an invitation to you fellas coming real soon…