Primera Semana de Clases, etc.

September 2

Hey guys! Hope everything is going well for you guys back home, if you’re starting classes, I feel your pain; we just started this week as well. (Technically we started last Thursday but classes are in full swing now). Classes have been really interesting so far. I’ve been all to my classes and so far I’m excited for all of them. My first class on Monday was Medical Sociology, which is going to be a really thought provoking since we’ve already been given our first topics for our presentations. I will be giving a presentation on the social implications of Euthanasia and how it would be received here in DR, using examples of other countries that have legalized it. Should be an intense paper/presentation, but since my Bioethics class I feel more comfortable discussing these tough issues (in Spanish maybe not…we’ll see haha). Then I had my Independent study class. For those of you who do not know I basically have to write a 30 page undergraduate thesis of a public health study. I’ve been thinking about comparing the medical technologies of vaccinations and how they’re allocated throughout rural and urban areas throughout clinics and hospitals. Basically vaccinations and its relationship with the public health programs here in DR. It was pretty hard to explain to the professor, considering it was more of a sociological study than an epidemiological study (considering that’s her profession). Still I’ll figure that out later.

Then I had my first dance class!!! First time since doing choreographed dance since the musicals in High School! To be truthfully I kinda of enjoy it. Haha, just getting to learn the dances is a lot of fun, there’s only 3 guys in the class, so whenever we need to do pairs, we get to dance with all girls in the class. Always dancing. Jenny tells me she jealous of me, but at times I wouldn’t mind not embarrassing myself all the time. :( I totally got called out today, the prof of the dance class showed us something with one the girls in the class then told me to come and do the same thing. Its not that I wasn’t paying attention, I was just a bit embarrassed and not really knowing how to dance like he did. But whatever, I’m over it. I’ll come back an awesome dancer (hopefully we’ll see). Then I had my lit class with only 3 people. I like the class, the prof is nice, the books seem really interesting, we just have to talk a lot, since there’s only 3 of us. But from what Jenn (1 of the girls in the class) there might be only 2 of us left. Eek. How crazy would that be! We’ll see if that happens or not though.

Then we had our Medical Community class which should be really intense. We learned how to take blood pressures on the first day, since that’s what we’ll be doing once we have class in the community we’ll be working in. We get to shadow doctors, nurses and public health officials to interview people of the community in order to give them the services they need. Should be a really awesome class. I’m really excited to take it and really better understand how things work as a beaucracy. Since that’s what I want get into, that or research for a PH.D or something so. I’m excited to see how that goes next week. Otherwise things have been slow, just enjoying this week of freedom considering I’ll be busy as hell next week. But I’ll try and update as much as I can for you guys. Hope all is well and I’ll talk to you guys later! Hablamos pronto! :)


September 6

Hey guys! I suppose its time for another entry. So nothing really excited happened till this past Friday! Friday we went out of with some friends of Jenn M from her psychology class. We went bowling! Yeah, I know kinda odd, but we went bowling here in DR. I sucked up the first game but I won the second game! Thanks Alex and Steph for your teachings (not to mention making me watch bowling every now and then). Anyways after that we went to a Hookah bar. The Hookah here was a lot stronger than any I’ve had in the states, I wasn’t really sure why. But we just chilled and talked had some beers and just got to know the Dominican students we were hanging out with. That was just a really chilled night; I think the Hookah and beer helped. Haha.

Saturday we had more action. Saturday we went to Salcedo, the town where the Mirabal family lived. For those of you who don’t know the Mirabal sisters are known as martyrs down here because they fought against Trujillo, a infamous dictator who created an era of terror here in DR. There were four sisters: Patrica, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Debé. Patrica, Minerva, Maria Teresa were murdered by Trujillo because of their roles as the leaders of revolutionary organizations. Debé was the one who survived, and said herself; she was the one who survived so she could tell the story. Once we arrived in Salcedo, we went to the museum/house of the Mirabal family. It was gorgeous; it had a bunch of flowers, fountains and butterflies. (If you remember the symbol for freedom here was the butterflies-if you’re interested read or watch “In the Time of Butterflies”, that movie is all about the Mirabal sisters). We got the tour of the house, which had not changed too much in order to keep the history alive. After the tour we meet Debé Mirabal and were able to ask questions about her story. We began to tell us her story about her sisters and what they did to fight tyranny. It was incredibly interesting to hear everything she said. She’s very outspoken and brave to talk about the things that happened to her. That was very admirable. Afterwards at the gift shop, I saw that she wrote a book, and I decided to buy it and get her to sign it. So now I own a copy of her book signed! That was really cool, and I’ve been starting to read the book and its just her telling her story of what happened. That was a definitely cool experience and I hope to read more about it and better understand what happened.

Later that night we were invited to a concert at a bar here in Santiago. The bands were pretty awesome, the first one sung like cover songs of Modest Mouse, just pretty cool music. The second band was a bit better known, but was a mix of funk, rock and alternative. Two Dominican guys also join us, and they remind of a couple of my friends back home. They’re just crazy awesome funny guys. Luis and Rafi hung out with us enjoying the music and well of course drinking. But nothing too crazy. The bar had test tube shots that literally tasted liked rubbing alcohol. Maybe it was, but the Presidente helped get that taste out of my mouth. Later we were supposed to go to an afterparty, but the bar was shut down. We were planning on going to Rafi’s house to continue the party, but that fell through as well, so what we just ended up doing was going to the McDonalds and hanging out in the parking lot! Whooooo, what a crazy experience I know! We ended the night there, but I just kinda funny how that’s how it ended but eh, whatever.

Today I helped cook lunch for my family. We made tacos de carne Molina. For those of you who don’t know, its tacos with ground beef. Simple as that. But they loved it; the grandparents of my host mom came as well so it was like a little family get together. Kinda aching for some American food. Kinda getting sick of rice and beans completely, but I’d better get use to it; I’m only in 3 weeks so far. Still can’t believe at times that I’m really here. But I’m sure everybody has the feeling when away from home. But I’m ready for the next 3 months. I’m getting use to the culture, the routine and pace of the city, which are really the most important parts of the trip itself. Actually last night, we went to go to a movie. We saw Public Enemies with some of the girls in the Grupo de Apoyo and that was really fun. Getting to know the malls I guess is important. Not really for me, but haha, it was different but similar to a mall back home. I just felt pretty confident because I’m finally getting in a groove within using the taxis and talking to Dominicans here. So things are going pretty good so far, feeling a lot better about moving around the city after these 3 weeks. I hope things are good back home or wherever you might be reading this blog. Email me if you have any questions or just wanna chat. Good luck with school everybody! Hablamos pronto!