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!!

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...