I don’t really know how to start this, but I just I’ll just go ahead and start by saying I really think this trip is going to change me. I can’t even describe how awesome things are going so far. Not even 48 hours ago was I freaking out, but now I’m just so calm and loving Santiago. Man I can’t even tell you how odd being at the airport was waiting for the other people to show up. I was waiting like an idiot for any kind of sign for another student and that didn’t even happen till 12. I waited 2 hours and thought nobody was going to be on the flight! But of course people came and it was really awesome getting to know everybody; Jenn, Stacy and Mollie from Wisconsin; Kelly from OSU; Cristina from Washington of St. Louis; David from Illinois; and eventually meeting Jen from Minnesota. I can tell already we’re all going to be really good friends. We spent that night in Puerto Plata enjoying the beach and just having the best time with our only beach time! We all ended up wanting to stay even longer but we knew the next day we would be heading out to Santiago.
Santiago is just incredible. Its in the middle of the Cibao valley and makes it interesting a city as big as Santiago could be here; but here I am! We all were so nervous when we finally arrived in Santiago at PUCMM. I absolutely loved the campus, the parts that I saw anyway, but we get a more in depth look at it tomorrow! Then the moment I was honestly most worried about; meeting our host families! I was so excited and nervous at the same time but I can say confidently I am really going to enjoy living here with them. They are the nicest people. There’s Rosanna, Juan José and Maria José, their 5 year old daughter! They are just the nicest people! They were so welcoming and made me feel so much more at ease. I was just so happy when I finally meet them and realized they are the nicest, easygoing and courteous people. We went the supermercado today and that was really cool seeing actually Dominicans grocery shopping! I really excited to get know this city well and other Dominican students. But I’m just so psyched about being here right now that I forget sometimes about sleeping. But its about time I got some right now. Thanks for reading, and I’ll post something up soon! Ciao guys, miss ya all!
Viernes 21 de Agosto
Hola chavos! I hope everything is going well back home with all of you. Just thought I might wanna share some more info about the trip so far. I think the reason I’m writing so much right now is cause I don’t have any homework yet, and we don’t start classes until next weeks Thursday the 27 (how weird, start classes on a Thursday!) Anyway, yesterday was really awesome cause we got to experience the Santiago experience; we went throughout all of Santiago using conchas (taxis here) that are basically buses because they take you a route and only cost 13 pesos which is about 36 cents for a ride throughout the city! Anyways Jen Long and I were together with a Dominican student, Leó, who was originally born in the states and moved to DR to study at PUCMM. He was fun to have walking around Santiago to see the city, like the busy parts of Calle de Sol and El Mercado Moderno. I still wanna go see the Monumento de los Heróes, but I think my family said they’ll take me there soon!
Yesterday we also had the Placement Exam for Spanish! I felt pretty confident on most of the material, but the oral exam had me a bit nervous, but we’ll see how the results turn out next Monday! But what was really fun was when after we had the Santiago tour with our Dominican students from the Grupo de Apoyo, they invited all of us to go out with them to a club called Camus. We all decided we wanted to go and try and learn some Merengue and some Bachata, but in the end all we could do was some salsa! Which Jen was so eager to learn! :) The club was fun, and we meet other Dominican chicas who are also members of the Grupo de Apoyo and we were able to dance together and just have a really good time. All of them were very nice, and its good to know we’ll have good friends who are actually Dominicans! After the night was over we all were just so exhausted and ready for sleep, but nonetheless it was fun to see everybody let loose.
Anyways today is a pretty easy day. We already had the tour of campus which is just amazing and Leó was our guide (again) and showed us the whole of PUCMM. Its going to be a lot of fun to studying over there and Leó told us it’ll be a lot more interesting once classes start and we start seeing PUCMM in action. Later today we have more orientation at the house of our Director. Its really amazing our program cause we really do get individual attention from Lilly and from the Dominican students; they know us personally, they love hanging out and just are so helpful with questions or concerns. And like I said before I can tell already our group of friends, all from different colleges, we’re going to be good friends even after we leave here. We all get along great and we’re getting to know each other very well, I’m sure by the end of these 4 amazing months we’ll all stay in touch! Well guys, I should get going and learn how to cook some Dominican food with our family’s maid! Well thanks for reading and check back soon, cause tomorrow we’re leaving for Jarabacoa which is a city in the mountains where we’ll be visiting Stacy’s and Jen’s families and then doing some hiking and maybe water rafting, which Stacy said was really intense! Well check back soon guys and I’ll have more to say most likely! Thanks for reading, and I’ll talk to you guys later!
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