Snorkel with the Fishies!!

Happy December, everybody! Here is my attempt to catch up with my ever-so-behind poor, dejected blog. Bear with me.

So on November 12, we had a trip to Playa Ensenada. Playa Ensenada is a beach in the Dominican Republic that, as far as I can tell, is not a huge tourist destination, and the beach is not the best beach I have visited in this country, but you can take a boat to this sandbar that is about a 10 minute boat ride away from the beach, where you can snorkel with all of the little fishies in the deep blue sea! We left early in the morning, and drove a couple of hours to Playa Ensenada. We spent the morning on the beach, swimming and sunbathing, and then everyone who wanted to went on the boat to the sandbar, and we all snorkeled to our hearts content. It was a lot of fun, and since the sandbar is next to a coral reef, there were tons of beautiful fish! Then we all piled back in the car, and drove back to Santiago. It was a long day, but totally worth it!

Fishies!!!

The coral reef next to the sandbar

The sandbar!

On the way back from the sandbar!

The next day, I just lounged around Santiago, and that evening I went to see "Eat, Pray, Love" with some friends of mine from the program. I had fun, although that is not really my type of movie. The next day was devoted to homework, as most Sundays, unfortunately, are, although I made time to go and see "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." I really enjoyed that! It made me wish I had the economic skills and prowess of Gordon Gekko!

The next weekend, November 19-21, we had our last excursion to Samaná! Samaná is a beach town in the Dominican Republic, and a lot of tourists go there. It was a 5 hour bus ride to Samaná, which is a LONG time to spend in a crowded bus! Part of the reason it was so long was because on the way, we had to stop and wait for a truck that had 540 wheels on it to go by. And you may think I am exaggerating, because I thought the workers who told us the truck with 540 wheels was coming was exaggerating, but after seeing it, I honestly believe it had 540 wheels. It was RIDICULOUS!!! I wish I had taken a picture!

After we finally made it to Samaná, we had lunch and then I went to this native English speaking community in Samaná. This native English speaking community exists because back in the early 1800s, when Haiti and the Dominican Republic were one country, the president, who was Haitian, told free slaves in the US that if they came to the island, they would get large amounts of land per person. The reason he wanted free US slaves is because the free slaves were the same skin color as the Haitian people, and since the president was Haitian, he wanted to outnumber the Dominicans on the island. This community was very isolated for a long time, and until the early 20th century, the people in this community had virtually no contact with the Dominican or Haitian people. They even sent their children to the US for college instead of sending them to college on the island. We had a lady talk to us for a while about the history of the community and what it was like living in the community. Now, a lot of the people there do not speak English because they want to blend in to the Dominicans living in Samaná, but she told us that she did not speak a word of Spanish until she started kindergarten. Also, the food they make is not Dominican food, but Southern food, such as grits. It was really interesting to listen to her.

The woman who spoke to us

The food she served us

That evening, we had a delicious dinner that started out on the beach, but then it started raining, so we had to run inside and eat under a roof, unfortunately. It was still a lot of fun, and the food was fabulous! After, I went and chilled with some of my friends, listening to music before I went to sleep.

The next day was a very busy one. It started with a wonderful breakfast of bread, jam, fruit, and Frosted Mini Wheats (yay!). Then we piled in the bus to go to the Parque Nacional de los Haities, which is a place with a lot of birds and other animals and is only accessible by boat. The boat trip out was a lot of fun, and I got to sit in the front of the boat, and then on the second level, where the driver was. And I love being on a boat in the middle of open water, so I had a great time!

Me and the ocean!

Parque Nacional de los Haities

When we got to the national park, we anchored the boat, and broke up into two groups. My group started out kayaking! I had been looking forward to the kayaking for weeks, and was super excited, and it did not disappoint! We went kayaking through the mangroves, which was amazing and beautiful. There were all these little crabs on the mangroves, and they went scurrying whenever the kayaks went by. I shared a kayak with my friend Carina, and she had never been kayaking before, but by the end, we were world class kayakers. I think we earned a gold medal in kayaking, if there is such a thing. After the kayaking, we ate lunch on the boat, and then I went swimming off of the side of the boat. After my swim, the two groups switched activities, and it was our turn to go explore the cave! The cave was enormous, and I had such a good time. And we only had to crawl through one tight spot! I even found a fossilized shell in the cave, which I brought home as a souvenir. Then we went back to the boat, and sadly it was time to go back to the hotel.

World class kayakers

The cave!

That night, we once again went to eat on the beach, and once again it started raining and we had to run for cover! However, this night the power was also out. I had ordered pasta, and so I had to eat it without seeing what I was looking at. But the pasta was DELICIOUS!! And about halfway through the meal, the lights turned back on, but by that time, I was mostly done eating. It felt like a game show: Eating in the Dark! After dinner, I was really tired (hey, it had been a really long day. See above) so I went back to my room, and started watching "Prince Caspian." It's cool, I know you're jealous. Anyway, three of my awesome friends came and joined me, and we all curled up on the bed to watch Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian. It was a lot of fun! And it got me in the mood for "Voyage of the Dawn Treader," which opens Thursday here, and Friday back in the good 'ole USA.

My delicious pasta

The next day was our last day, sadly, in Samaná. I once again had a delicious breakfast that included Frosted Mini Wheats. I had some homework to do, but I decided to go downtown for about an hour to look around and see if I saw any good souvenirs. Unfortunately, it started to rain as soon as we got downtown, so we spent most of the hour running from store to store, avoiding the rain. But it was still a lot of fun. And, in keeping with Murphy's Law, as soon as we returned back to the hotel, the rain stopped. I then had a homework party with some of my friends (hey, it can't all be fun), but after about an hour, we decided it was time to take a walk on the beach and eat lunch. I had a cheese sandwich with amazing chinola, or passion fruit, juice. That is one thing I am definitely going to miss once I go back home: fresh chinola juice! After lunch, we all piled back into the bus for the 4 hour drive back to Santiago. All in all, a fantastic weekend!

Now, I know this has nothing to do with my weekend, but it is something that is very important in my life here. As you may or may not know, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" opened in the US (and most everywhere in the world) on November 19. But that movie has STILL not made it to la República Dominicana. However, next week "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" opens in both the US AND the DR. Someone needs to explain this to me. Why does the newest Narnia movie open the same day here, but Harry Potter opens way later?? Because Harry Potter isn't opening here next weekend, either. I think this means that I need to go convert the people of the Dominican Republic into fanatic Harry Potter fans.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Beating Harry Potter in the Caribbean

Aooh, Werewolves of London!

First of all, 20 cool points to whoever knew where the title of this blog post came from, without using Google!

Once again, I have fallen behind on my blog posts. I know, shocker! So here it is, my first November blog.

On Saturday, October 30, I went with CIEE to Los Charcos de los Indios. A charco is a natural swimming pool, and this one was used by the Tainos. They carved a giant face in the rock, and it is right above the swimming pools. Half of the face has collapsed, in various earthquakes over the years, and personally, I had trouble making out the face, but the before picture is pretty impressive! We hiked a short way to the charcos, and swam and jumped into them for a while, before eating lunch. The place was beautiful and peaceful and paradise-like. It was really nice to relax in such a gorgeous place!

What the face used to look like. And some random Dominican

Me jumping into one of the charcos

CIEE students on the face. See the eye?

After our visit to the charcos, we journeyed to this place near there where there are 50 million-year-old clam fossils, and went looking for fossils of our own. It was easy to find the clams, they were everywhere! Everyone found at least one, and some even found awesome shells. We got to take home our finds, and I am proud to say that I came away with my very own 50 million-year-old clam fossil. Then we went to the house of a friend of Lynne's. The friend makes this type of yuca bread, and we learned how that is made. It was very interesting, because the type of yuca they use is poisonous, so they have to soak it in water to remove the toxins, and then dry it completely to make sure all of the now-toxic water is gone. The bread was delicious!

 We finally made it back to Santiago after a long day, but as it was the Saturday before Halloween, I wanted to do something that night! My friend Kim and I decided to go to TGI Friday's, and ended up meeting up with one of the Estudiantes de Apoyo. We ate a delicious Halloween brownie. TGI Friday's was all decorated up for Halloween, and the waiters and waitresses were in costume. Our's was some sort of zombie creature. Also, one of the TGI Friday's Halloween decorations was a Richard Nixon bobble-head.  Then we went to H2O, another hot spot in Santiago, and saw some crazy costumes. All in all, it was a fun Halloween adventure!

TGI Friday's delicious brownie!!

The next day was actually Halloween, but as it was Sunday, I spent it mostly doing homework. However, I ended my Halloween by watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and eating tons of Sour Patch Kids, so I consider it a win.

My Halloween-ified room

My pretty Halloween toes!

Another tasty Halloween treat! Look, it's a pumpkin!

Last weekend we were supposed to go to Playa Ensenada, but unfortunately Hurricane Tómas had to come and ruin our plans, so I stayed in Santiago. Friday I had a lazy day, and then Friday night I went out with Kim to see a movie. We saw "Easy A," and if you haven't seen it, you should. Because it rocked my socks. And made me reminisce about those good 'ole John Hughes movies. Saturday and Sunday were pretty boring, with group projects and homework taking up most of my time, but on Sunday evening I went to a baseball game!

Me at the Águilas game, showing my spirit!

The Santiago team is called Los Águilas Cibeañas, or the Eagles from the Cibao. Baseball is very big here, and I was excited to get to see the game! At the game, everyone gets free bam-bams, or those plastic tubes filled with air that people hit together to make noise, and horns and whistles are sold, so the games are crazy loud. And food is sold, which is to be expected, but the food sold here is very cheap, such as 50 pesos for a slice of really good pizza or 30 pesos for a bag of popped microwave popcorn, and some of the food is a little strange, such as blocks of cheese and salted meat. The game was good, although sadly we lost. But the game was close, 6-5. I bought myself an Águila shirt, so I guess that makes me a true fan!

One of my little chickadees!! Cute, no?

On Wednesday, I decided to bring a camera and take pictures of my little chickadees. They are so cute, and try to play the violin so hard. Some of them concentrate more than I thought 7 year-olds could! I also took a couple of videos. Enjoy! Also, I found out that three of my little chickadees go to Adventurers after the lesson every week, which reminded me of my childhood!! Adorableness!

Here is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hgBCAKV3mk

Parents! Parents! Parents!

My parents came to visit! It was super exciting, and I was glad that I had a chance to hang out with someone I knew before I came here. It was a nice chance to relax and take a break from my everyday life here. Unfortunately, they got to go back to the US, and I would love to have gone with them. But just for a couple of days, and then I would come back.

The first day my parents got here, I met them for breakfast at a restaurant across the street from PUCMM, where I spend a good chunk of my free time between classes. While we were eating, there was some excitement! This girl and her boyfriend got in a fight in the parking lot, and when he came in to buy coffee, she took his car and drove it into a pole and a sign! Everyone was ok, but it was pretty jarring first thing in the morning! Then we went across the street, and my parents joined me on a CIEE outing to a batey. A batey is a community of Haitian workers, so bateys are very poor. Most of them grow sugar, although the batey we went to, Batey Libertad, grows rice. All of the kids at the batey knew that Americans would give them attention, so as soon as we arrived, they glued themselves to us! This one little girl ran up to me like she knew me, and wouldn't let me put her down the entire time we were there! It was really cute.

After the batey, my parents came over to my host family's house so they could meet. My host mom doesn't speak any English, and my parents don't speak any Spanish, so I had to be a translator, which was a crazy experience.  But I think both sets of parents liked the other, and my dad took a picture of me with Melissa and my host mom, so now I can finally show you all what they look like!

After that we went to Jarabacoa for the weekend. Jarabacoa is in the mountains, although not as high as Constanza. It is quite a bit cooler than Santiago, and we took advantage of that. On Saturday, we rode horses to a waterfall, and on Sunday we hiked to a different waterfall. And we basically relaxed for the weekend. We went to this amazing restaurant that was on the mountain overlooking Jarabacoa, and the view was fantastic! The food was really good, too.

Mom needed a small boy named Ali to guide her horse

Dad and I are both old enough to have our own horses.

Look at that view! The view from the restaurant in Jarabacoa

My parents brought me all kinds of American food, including Sour Patch Kids and pretzels, so I think they are trying to fatten me up. I'm glad they brought the food, though, because it reminds me of home. During the week, I had classes and my parents went to explore the country. They had some interesting adventures, including being pulled over by a policeman and having to bribe him in order to escape a ticket, but hey, you can't say they missed a true Dominican experience! They came back to Santiago on Wednesday night, so on Thursday, after my class ended, I showed them around PUCMM and we went to Chili's to eat. What can I say, I was craving a good American meal! That afternoon we went to the mall and La Sirena, and then went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Now, before you judge our place of dinner, here Pizza Hut is a nice, sit down restaurant with non-paper plates and laminated menus! We had a waitress and everything! And the food was good, too. It was the first pizza I had eaten since I went to the Jardin de los Niños. This morning, my parents left the country, and are, as I type, journeying back to the city of the sun. Although I am sad that they are gone, I'm glad they came!

Me at PUCMM

This weekend is Halloween, and I am very excited. Hopefully, my next post will be all about my Halloween adventures in la Republica Dominicana!!

Also, this is my fourth, yes, fourth post of the day. So keep reading to hear about my previous adventures!!

And now it's time for Silly Songs with Larry. The part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a Silly Song

Well, it happened. I have reached the middle of my time here, so I thought I might list some of the things that have happened here that I never expected to. So here goes...

I never thought I would:
-ride on the back of a motoconcho
-jump off of a 20 foot waterfall
-eat avocados at almost every meal
-be able to sing along to many popular Dominican songs
-prefer to ride a concho than walk to the store
-decide air conditioning really isn't the best option in the Caribbean
-be told that since I don't sound like a Dominican, I must be from Spain
-get completely used to people walking around with machetes and big guns
-not mind piropos
-rather eat mangu than mashed potatoes
-have a burning desire to eat Chipotle, Jamba Juice, and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
-be sad that I only have 2 more months here

There is more, but this is what comes to the top of my mind. This doesn't include things I thought would happen, such as feeling much more confident with my Spanish, missing things that are happening at LC, eating a plethora of delicious Dominican food, improving my ping-pong abilities, make friends, go to the beach, and adjust to the crazy heat and humidity.

So there you have it. This has been Silly Songs with Larry. Tune in next time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjhjvLO4f4

Off to Explore a Cave!

So the next week was full of more homework and projects and group presentations, as, unfortunately, usual. But that weekend, I went with Lynne, the director of our program, to her cave, which is a few miles outside of Santo Domingo, although it takes about an hour to get from Santo Domingo to the cave and her house next to the cave, due to the stereotypically bad Dominican roads. Lynne's cave is in Las Piedras, which is in the campo and is a very poor area of the Dominican Republic. Her house at the cave is next door to Leidy's family. Leidy also works for CIEE, is a student at PUCMM, and she and her son live with Lynne in Santiago. The first night we got there, Lynne and I went over to Leidy's sister's house for dinner, and I met some of the kids that live there. They are some of the cutest kids I have ever seen! One girl, Cristina, decided to fix my hair for me, so she gave me many braids, similar to how many Dominican children wear their hair.

Attractive, no? That night, I also played games with the boys, including a Dominican version of "Down By the Banks", which is called Mickey Mouse. Unfortunately, I taught them the English version, and they kept asking me to sing it all night long! The only part of the song they picked up on was "hanky panky," so they kept walking around singing that. It was adorable!

The next day, we went exploring in Lynne's cave. The cave is enormous, with 17 rooms that we know of, although there are branches that have not been explored yet. There are also Taino pictographs in the cave, which is pretty awesome! One of the rooms has a lake in it, and you can swim, although we didn't this trip. But the entire CIEE group is going back in December, so hopefully we will swim then! The cave is gorgeous, and I had a lot of fun exploring it. There were bats in the cave, which I thought was pretty exciting!

(This is where I gave up posting photos. It was taking AGES and I got bored. My apologies)

The next day, we took the kids to the beach! It was a lot of fun to go to the beach, and I never turn down a chance to swim in those warm Caribbean waves! There was a jetty that people were jumping off of into the ocean, so of course I had to get in on that. It was so much fun!! Unfortunately, after the beach we had to head back to Santiago and the real world. But it was a great weekend full of fun, games, and caves! I am so excited to go back in December!!!

Waterfalling

I know I'm really behind, so I'm going to try and marathon a couple of posts to catch up.

So last I blogged, I had just been to Constanza. Well, the next weekend we had a co-pay trip to the 27 Charcos de Damajagua. A co-pay trip, in case you are wondering, is where CIEE pays for transportation, and we pay for everything else. A really good deal, since most of the trips go to places we would have trouble getting transportation to! Anyway, 27 Charcos is a series of 27 natural waterfalls that people hike up and then jump/slide down. So anyway, I got on the bus at 8 in the morning, ready for an exhilarating day of jumping and sliding down waterfalls, and I was not disappointed. However, I did not realize that these waterfalls I would be jumping off of into the water below were as tall as 20 ft. We all had to wear life jackets and helmets, but that is still high, especially since I do not enjoy jumping off of the high diving board! So that was a bit of a shock, but I am proud to say that I bravely jumped off every single waterfall, and slide down them as well. All in all, it was a fun day!

The rest of my weekend was spent doing homework (fun, right?), and the week was likewise full of projects, papers, and presentations, oh my! And although I complain about the workload here, it is considerably smaller than it would be back in the states. And even though I have been here for over two months, it still feels like I'm not actually in school, which makes the motivation for work nonexistent. 

I took a waterproof disposable camera with me to the 27 Charcos, but at the moment the pictures are being developed, so instead, here is a video of other people at the 27 Charcos. Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POH35drrmuY&feature=player_embedded

Constanza!!

So I haven't written in a week, but, as usual, a lot has happened. I don't think I am going to get an uneventful week until I am back in the states. Even then, probably not...

Anyway, so last Wednesday after I blogged, I went to La Escuela de Bellas Artes in Santiago to see about helping them teach violin lessons. And they really wanted me to help! I am working with Alberto, who is actually in charge of the lessons, and we have 12 7-8 year olds who have never played the violin before. It's so much fun, but it's exhausting at the same time! And Alberto has never done this before and doesn't really know how to keep the kids attention for the full 3 hours (Can I just say, who in their right minds makes a kid's violin class 3 hours?!?!?!) but we are both getting better. I now know the parts of the violin in Spanish, as well as the notes on a do-re-mi type scale. Yes, I do go around singing that song. The first week, we just went over the notes and the parts of a violin, and I tuned all of the violins. For some reason, these makers of little kid violins decided that it was a good idea to not have fine tuners. Makes life fun. Yesterday, the kids started playing their very first song! They are learning "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and some of them are naturals! But they are all very cute, and try really hard during class to get it right.

Last Thursday, I went a Dominican movie theater for the first time. And while it was a lot like American movie theaters, it was still different. First of all, they don't have Junior Mints. I know, I'm shocked too. Second of all, the trailers and the commercials are interspersed. But the movie, "Dinner for Schmucks," was in English with Spanish subtitles, and the theater gave us free posters, so it was a big win in my book! The movie was crazy, and Jemaine from "Flight of the Conchords" had possibly the best part ever.

Last weekend, my whole group went to Constanza. It is up in the mountains, and has the highest elevation in the Caribbean. Also, it is the coldest spot on the island, which means that at night, I had to wear a sweater. The first day, I went with a group of people to tour a flower factory. Basically, they grow all of the flowers that are sold in bouquets. It was really interesting, but unfortunately our tour got cut short because it started raining. So then Lynne, our fearless leader, said we should go check out this old hotel called Nueva Suiza. It was a hotel during the reign of Trujillo that was for the upper echelon of society, but is now in ruins. So it's raining, and we pull up in our bus to this locked fence and all get out, and then watch in shock as Lynne crawls through a hole in the fence. Someone said, "Are we allowed to be here?" and Lynne replied, "Nope. Come on!" It was such a creepy-cool experience. It reminded me so much of Scooby-Doo!! Plus, what I think is the super-creepy part is that Trujillo's room is locked and no one can get in. Personally, I think his ghost is haunting that room.

The next day, we all woke up and piled into these safari-like jeeps and rode up to a waterfall. It was a two hour journey in the jeeps, and so much fun! It was like a real-life Indiana Jones ride, without the poison arrows and snakes. When we got to the waterfall, we had the choice to swim in the water at the base of the falls, so of course I jumped right in! The water was freezing. I seriously don't think I have been in colder water. It was crazy cold, and I'm surprised that it wasn't frozen! It was funny, because we all jumped in off of a rock, and no one was expecting it to be as cold as it was, so everyone was screaming when they came back up in the water. It was a lot of fun, and I am really glad I went swimming. But since I had forgotten my swim suit, I went in a sports bra and shorts, which meant that I had nothing to change into afterward. I was FREEZING the entire way back to the hotel, which is crazy to think since normally in the DR I am sweating my butt off. That afternoon we had free time, so three of my friends and I went on the zip line at the hotel. It was fun, but it was pretty tame compared to other zip lines I have done in my life. However, I was the only one who had done a zip line before, so the others thought it was terrifying. It was still fun, though! That night, we had a barbeque and an impromptu dance party, which was great. The food was wonderful, and a nice change from the usual Dominican mangu (mashed plantains) and rice and beans, and everyone joined in the dance party. I know many of the popular Dominican songs now! One of them is called "I want an American so I can get a visa." That one I'm not to crazy about, since people sing it to me on the street when they see me. But I like most of the other songs I have heard! All of the music here is so happy and it is hard not to dance when you hear it!

On Sunday, we went to downtown Constanza for about an hour, which was a great experience. There was a church parade, which included a church ambulance! Here, most of the hospitals and ambulances are privately owned, and they wanted to show the town of Constanza that they had an ambulance. It is used to encourage people to join the church, or at least hear what the church has to say. While I was downtown, I bought a box of strawberries! They were really good, and I realized how much I miss a lot of the fruit that I eat in the US. Here, most of my fruit is avocados, tomatoes, and juices. I know that I am getting enough fruit, but it is still nice to be able to eat berries! Then we went back home to Santiago, and I spent the remainder of my Sunday doing homework. Super exciting, I know!

Another post is coming either later today or tomorrow, I promise! Sorry about my slacking with the blog!!