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!  

Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving, and what better time of year than now to reflect on what I am thankful for.  Here’s a list of 10 things I am grateful for this season:

1. My family in the United States.

2. My family here in the Dominican Republic.

3. This opportunity to live and study in another country.

4. My health (knock on wood).

5. ISA- a great, supportive program.

6. The AMAZING Thanksgiving lunch we had today.

7. My computer, the Internet and my camera.

8. Spanish/English dictionaries. 

9. Cool nights (as opposed to scorching days).

10. Fresh sheets, like mine that just got changed this morning.

So that’s what comes to mind right now.  There’s more, believe it, but these are at the forefront.  Have a great weekend everyone!  

'Tis the season

I'm always a little disappointed in the US about how short the Christmas season is.  Lucky for me, in the DR it starts a whole lot sooner.  Without the constraints of Thanksgiving, or even really Halloween, the preparations have hit the ground running.  Christmas lights have gone up in several balconies in my neighborhood.  Santa Claus door hangers and nativity images can be seen walking up the stairs.  Restaurants have artificial trees, fully decorated with lights, tinsel and ornaments by the door when you walk in.  

And the house cleaning has begun too.  My host mom has broken the house into sections and tackles one at a time.  First it was the floor- deep scrubbing the tile.  Next washing the curtains.  Our living room furniture is currently being reupholstered and the walls have been painted.  Our kitchen has been sterilized and now it is on to the bed rooms.  She even mentioned maybe rearranging my furniture, so I guess we'll see.

She explained this cleaning kick to me earlier this week.  Christmas is a time for renewal- emphasis on the new.  It's less about the presents on the actual day and more about family, so everyone makes sure their house is in tip-top shape for when the relatives arrive.  If nothing else it's one time a year where you know your whole house will get clean, clean, clean.

Also, these pictures where taken on October 29th.  Just saying.

La Romana and other news

So I've been a slacker blogger of late.  Here's a general update about a lot of things:

Last weekend we took a group trip to La Romana, a beautiful spot on the south east side of the island.  The drive took about 5 hours, literally cross-country, but I love looking at the country side here.  Half was spent going through the lush mountains, half traveling along the coast, getting to see the incredible Caribbean.

On Friday we visited the 'Caves of Wonder' which are these natural underground caves that contain drawings left from the Taina (the indigenous people who lived on the island before Columbus depopulated it).  Basically this means the drawings are well over 500 years old.  There was also tons of stalagmites and stalactites which, our guild explained, grew about 1 centimeter every century.

Next stop was a village that had been built only about 30 years ago, but was meant to look like an Italian town of old.  There was an amphitheater, a fountain, several gift shops and an amazing view.  The village is built on a bluff over looking a river that feeds into the sea.

The next morning is was off to the beach.  We took a boat to another, bigger boat and sailed about two hours to and island off the southern coast.  I cannot emphasis enough the spectacular beauty of the water, the palm trees and the sand.  Wow!  We swam, we ate, we lounged in the sun.  (The sun part, in retrospect, was a terrible idea as I and many others got horrible sun burns.  I need to just except I am not a person who has the ability to lay in the sun for hours on end.  A week later I still have red spots on my feet.)

This size pot makes six cups.

In other news, I love Dominican coffee!  My host mom makes me a cup every morning and this is quite a jump start to my day.  A cup is really more like a shot, it's less than half a normal mug, but whenever she adds the sugar for me I'm pretty sure she adds about a tablespoon.  Bitter-SWEET!

Today is a national holiday here, Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.  Catholicism is the national religion of the Dominican Republic so many of the holidays are related to the Church.  Most people are off of work and there is no school, which is great, but doesn't actually affect the international students very much because we don't have class on Fridays anyway.  But as I was walking home from the university yesterday everyone one I passed looked really happy so that counts for something.