Hurricane Gaston: Every last inch of him's covered in hair!

Oh boy do I have a lot to catch up on! Basically, the last I told you all about was the Jardín de los Niños and the tarantula in my closet. Luckily, there has not been a tarantula relative seeking revenge.

So two weeks ago, my CIEE group and I went to the Mirabel Sisters museum. Here is the story of the Mirabel sisters. From 1930-1960, the Dominican Republic was under the control of a dictator named Rafael Trujillo. He did a lot of bad things, including killing 18,000 Haitians and Haitian descendants living in the Dominican Republic, and then giving Haiti money so that the country would not look into it. Basically, he was super corrupt. And the problem was that very few people in the country knew it, because Trujillo often had his enemies killed in a way that looked like an accident. Even enemies who had fled to different countries, including the US. The Mirabel sisters were four sisters who started to publicly talk about the corruption of Trujillo. They are responsible for the spread of knowledge about Trujillo's corruption in the Dominican Republic. Well, this, as you can probably guess, did not make Trujillo happy. Two of the Mirabel sisters had husbands that were in jail, and they had a lot of trouble getting permission to visit them. One day, they were informed that they could visit their husbands, so three of the sisters, including the two who had husbands in jail, went to go visit them. On the way, their car was stopped, and they were strangled and beaten to death. Then they were put back in the car, which was driven off of a cliff, in order to make it look like an accident. However, the truth about Trujillo was widely known, and when the bodies were found, it was obvious that more than just driving off a cliff had killed them. They became symbols against Trujillo, and a little while later Trujillo was assassinated (supposedly). The fourth sister is still alive today, and we actually got to meet her when we went to the museum! The museum is the house where the four sisters lived for about 10 months, until three of them were killed. It was amazing to get to see a living legend, and hear the story of her sisters straight from her mouth! After the museum, we went to the house of the fourth sister, which is the house that all four of the sisters grew up in. There is a giant monument across the street dedicated to the sisters, as well as the chassis of the car that was driven off of the cliff. It was a fantastic opportunity, and a real chance to learn about the history of this amazing country. The Mirabel sisters are considered national heroines, and are now symbols for ending violence against women.

The next day, I went with some of my group to Sosua for the day. The day had a lot of false starts, though. First, three of us were not able to get on the 8:00 bus and had to wait and take the 9:00 bus. So we are sitting, waiting for the bus, and Brittany, one of the three of us, decided to buy Pringles. Well, the Pringles ended up being mostly crumbs, and were crazy smashed. We finally got on the bus, and after an hour (it takes 2 hours to get to Sosua from Santiago), the bus stopped. We looked out the window, and there was traffic as far as we could see! Basically, there was a protest at a university near there, and the students had filled the street and were refusing to leave until someone from the government came to talk to them about building a crosswalk. But finally we made it to Sosua, and the beach was fantastic! Although the waves were a lot more intense because there were two hurricanes in the Caribbean, it was still a lot of fun to play in the waves.

Then came the week, with crazy amounts of presentations and homework. By the time the weekend came around, I was exhausted, so I decided to just spend the weekend with my family at home. I got a lot of rest, which was ridiculously nice. On Saturday, I had an audition for a musical group on campus. The best I can describe it is a Dominican jazz band/Glee club combination. There are approximated 20 singers, plus about 10 people playing instruments. But the audition process was one of the most intimidating things I have ever done! So I'm in this room with 30 members of the band, the professor, and about 10 other people that were auditioning. And the professor points to me, says "Violin, you're up." I had to play my piece in front of a bunch of Dominicans, and I was the only American there. Plus, I had to go first. But I guess it went pretty well, because although I don't know whether or not I am in the band (Dominicans don't always give you details like that), I was told to come back on Thursday to meet with the professor and another violinist, and possibly other members of the band. I take that as a good sign!

Today, I am going to Bellas Artes in Santiago, to see about helping teach violin lessons. If it all pans out, I would be doing this every Wednesday from 2-5, but today I am just meeting with the person in charge and I'm not exactly sure what is going to happen. I'm excited, though.

This weekend I am going with CIEE to Constanza, where it is as cold as 50 degrees in the evening!!! Finally a break from this heat! Although I am starting to get used to it. Still, it will be nice to not be sweating at all hours of the day. Constanza is the location of Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Caribbean. I'm excited to see the mountains, and possibly hike. Maybe. Don't get your hopes up! Tune in soon to hear about Constanza.

On a final note, I found out today that the "G" hurricane of this hurricane season is named Gaston. Really? Whose idea was it to name a hurricane after a Disney villain? I hope that it goes after the beast and falls off of the West Wing. It's only fair...

Happy Banned Books Week!!

Sorry about the delay between posts, but I promise another one this week as this is just a quick post to let you know I'm alive.

Happy Banned Books Week everyone! For those of you who are unaware, Banned Books Week has been the last week in September since 1982. It was started by the American Library Association to celebrate the freedom we have in the US. It also helps to shed light on the types of books most often challenged. Some of the most challenged books of 2009 include:

So go to your local library and see what events they are offering, spread the word about Banned Books Week, or just read a banned book! As I said at the beginning, a real post is coming later this week, I promise. But for now I will end with everyone's favorite reading dog.

Cohabitating with a tarantula

Hey! So it's been a little while since I have last blogged, and there is a lot to catch up on! First of all, although this has nothing to do with my trip in the Dominican Republic, I officially have a new baby cousin!!! All the papers finally came through at the Embassy, and now my cousins Shelley and Craig have her for good! Now she just needs to come home, which should happen this weekend! So everybody, meet baby Naomi!!!!

Isn't she the cutest baby in the world??? I am so excited to meet her, and for that reason December can't come fast enough! However, I don't want to think about leaving the DR just yet...

Anyway, this past weekend I went to the Jardín de los Niños, or the Garden of the Children. The story behind it is this: This French Canadian woman visited the Dominican Republic in the late 70s/early 80s, and loved it so much that she moved here for good. Soon after she was in the DR, a lady asked her to watch her daughter for the weekend while she went to find work. Basically, the lady never came back, and Paulina adopted the girl. She has since adopted about 20 children, and they live up in the mountains in this awesome area that can only be described as Swiss Family Robinson-like. It has got to be an amazing place to grow up. There are trees everywhere, they raise chickens and pigs, and there is a river at the edge of the property. There is also a schoolhouse there, where Paulina has a free school for both her children and the other children that live near. Basically, it was how I always imagined Neverland to be. It has got to be an amazing place to grow up.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, and met the kids and went to the river. These kids love to play baseball, and they play with a stick as a baseball bat and a tennis ball as a baseball. We broke up into teams and started playing with them, and I would just like to say that I scored several runs over the course of the weekend. Impressive, considering the last time I played baseball was back in my Pathfinder days. We also played dominoes and cards with them later that night, and ate delicious food. I know that I normally steer clear of any food containing baked fruit, but Paulina made this apple strudel-like thing (that was mostly bread and little apple, which was ok by me!) and it was delicious! The next day, we started work. Some people went up a mountain to pick avocados and oranges, some people painted a mural in one of the classrooms, and some people painted the bathroom and the bars on the windows of the school. I was one of the lucky ones who painted the bathroom and the bars, and, surprise surprise, got paint all over me. We ate a delicious lunch, and then played with the kids some more. I jumped rope, played Frisbee, and played volleyball, and then we all went swimming in the river. The river has these rocks that the kids like to jump off of, not very high, only about five feet or so, and I joined them in jumping off the rocks! And then I got into a water fight with one of the boys that live there. Since I am taller and bigger than him, I had a bit of an advantage. My favorite move was when he would grab me around my waist, so I would just fall on top of him, taking him down. That night, we made a GIANT bonfire, and ate a dinner consisting of only fried foods: fried eggplant, fried plantains (my new obsession), and fried cheese (my newest and unhealthiest obsession). It was DELICIOUS!! We had coconuts and sugar cane for dessert, yum. And then it started to rain. I have never before stood under an umbrella in front of a fire, so I can check that one off my list! 

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast of coffee and bread with some sort of jelly, I helped make pizza. I kneaded the dough, spread it out in a pizza shape, and put sauce, cheese, and pepperoni on it. Basically, my sweat and blood went into that pizza. And I don't know how Paulina made the dough, but it was like eating a pizza on a biscuit. It was amazing. Also, some sort of animal fat was used to grease the pan (I have stopped asking questions and just eating) and it made all the difference. Then we, unfortunately, had to leave. Even though we were only there for a couple of days, it was so sad leaving! They are the sweetest kids ever, and I had a great time! Plus I got to know people in the CIEE group better.

Yesterday, I went on a field trip with my spanish class to the Museo Folklórico, or the Folklore Museum. It was really awesome. It is basically a museum about Santiago and the Cibao, the region of the Dominican Republic Santiago is located in. There was information about the Tainos, or the native people who originally lived in the DR, as well as these crazy giant masks that are used during Carnaval. Carnaval is basically like Marti Gras. In Santiago, people wear these pig masks, which are used to represent devils, and just run around acting crazy. And unlike Marti Gras, Carnaval lasts pretty much the entire month of February. I'm a little bummed to be missing out on the amazingness that is Carnaval, but alas, at some point I need to get back to my math-fueled life.

Now on to the tarantula. I got back home on Sunday, and there was a tarantula in my closet. A legit tarantula. A live one. At first I thought it was dead. It was in the corner of my closet, and I may not have noticed it before, so I decided to give it a night. I woke up Monday morning, and it had moved to the other side of my closet. Unfortunately, my mom was at her mom's house, and there was no way I was going to deal with the tarantula on my own. So I come home at lunch, and the tarantula has moved. Now  it is in my shoe. I told my mom, and she showed up with a mop. She hit it with the mop, and it ran across the room quickly, so of course I screamed and jumped on my bed (quite a feat when you have a mosquito net over your bed). My mom laughed, and chased it outside, and then the tarantula crawled up the handle. So my mom decided to kill the tarantula. It is dead, I feel safe, and my windows are shut. I am not opening them again. Even though my room is like a sauna with the windows open...

Anyway, that's all for now! This weekend I am going to the Mirabel sisters museum, and possibly to another beach. Keep you posted!

The part of the story where I flee to the beach

This weekend, I made my first journey to a Dominican beach. And I am including a picture so you can jealous that you missed it. On Friday, eight of my fellow exchange students and myself went to Sosua to spend a couple of days at the beach. We took a guagua, also known as a bus, from Santiago, and two hours later we were in Sosua. During my time at the beach, I went to three different beaches: Chiquita, Alicia, and one whose name I never learned. It was a lot of fun, and I got to swim in the ocean to my heart’s content. It was nice and sunny during the day, and although it rained on Friday night, it felt good in the heat. The Caribbean ocean, at least where I was swimming, was warm. Like Arizona-pool-at-noon-in-July warm! I don’t think I have ever been in an ocean that warm! But it wasn’t uncomfortably warm. Just warm enough that, for the first time in my life, I didn’t leave the ocean because I was freezing. Also, the water is crazy clear and blue. All in all, it was a good time.

After the beach, we went decided to go out to eat, and this guy came up to us on the street, showed us a menu, and asked us to follow him. For some reason, most of our group followed, although he was taking us away from the crowds at night, and I was getting worried that he was setting us up. I was also glad that I hadn’t taken any of my cards with me. But we ended up at this super nice restaurant that, I think, had just opened. The food was delicious! I had passion fruit chicken, which was crazy tasty. We spent the night on Friday, and then went to the beach again on Saturday before leaving at about 2. All in all, a very fun trip.

Sosua, apparently, is a huge sex tourism city in the Dominican Republic, which I did not know until I got there. It’s not really a problem for the casual beach-goer, as we all were, but during the night there were hookers everywhere. It was kind of funny, because normally us girls are stared at as we walk down the street, but here everyone stared at the boys. They got to experience what we feel every day in Santiago!

Today I ventured yet again to find La Sirena, and yet again I failed. I have no idea what I am doing wrong, but I vow to find it tomorrow! I need hangers still!!!! Plus, my watch broke while I was at the beach, and I feel naked without one. It’s so pathetic, I keep looking at my wrist to see what time it is, and there is nothing there. I’m even afraid my watch tan will fade! But although I failed to find La Sirena, I successfully made it to Plaza Internacional, which is a Dominican mall. This was kind of a bittersweet victory, because I went for school supplies and the school supply store was closed. Then I made my way to Square One, which is a café across the street from PUCMM where they have internet. It is a really nice place, and I can see me spending way too much time there. Although my family is currently in the process of getting wifi!

Tomorrow marks week 3 technically, week 2 actually, of classes at PUCMM. I’m just started to get in the swing of things. It’s still overwhelming, but not nearly as bad as it was when I first started. Although I still haven’t had a real ping-pong class yet because last week none of us were dressed properly. I know, I don’t understand either. Oh well.

I love watching things that I watch in English on TV in Spanish. For example, at the moment I am watching “The Princess Diaries” in Spanish. It works really well, since I already know all of the lines. Execept for some reason the middle third of the movie was skipped. There was no “outing” of her, and no Baker Beach Party. And now the final scene was just skipped. It went from Mia running away to them all dancing! I’m really confused, and babbling a little because I’m so confused. So far, I have watched “Up”, part of “LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring”, and a couple of episodes of “Friends” and “Big Bang Theory” in Spanish. As well as a lot of MTV, but that is in English with Spanish subtitles.

My mom has decided that shrimp cocktail sauce is the same thing as salsa in the US, so she keeps putting it on my sandwiches and tacos. I don’t know why, because I don’t put salsa on my sandwiches back home. She asked me if I liked “picante” and I said yes, and then she brought me out cocktail sauce and now puts it on everything. I had never had cocktail sauce before, and I can say that I will not miss it back in the states.

Anyway, hopefully this week goes smoothly as I continue to get used to life in the Dominican Republic and slowly but surely learn my way around Santiago. Who knows what this week will hold!