Diego de Ocampo

Ok friends, I'm sitting on campus before dance class after taking my first non-open note exam of the semester. 25/25, woohoo! I made up a really BS answer for the first question but somehow got credit for it. I overstudied, that's for sure, but when you're used to studying like I did last semester, a couple hours for one test is surely a relief.

I'm very excited to share my latest adventures with you. This will probably be a long one, so throw some cocoa in the micro and cozy up.

Thursday night we watched "Due Date" at Rose's, in english, with americans, oreos and peanut butter. Sometimes we just gotta escape.

Our group (ISA) spent Friday morning and afternoon at a preschool, moving trash, weeding, painting, and playing with niños. It was cool to experience life from yet another perspective; from the eyes of little kids from lower class families. We painted rocks, fences, bricks, trees, yes, trees... and had a great time!

 

 

The real adventure took place Saturday. I think 30% of the time I've spent laughing here happened in the campo on Saturday. So it all starts with four of us catching a concho (cheaper version of a taxi) ride to the baseball stadium, where Jonathon (our ISA director) told me we'd find a jeep that would take us to a point on a mountain where we could then hike up the mountain with a guide and return before 1pm. We get to the baseball field, ask our concho driver how we get to this said jeep-stop. I showed him our hand-drawn map and he told us to go inside the stadium and ask someone there. Soon after entering the stadium, we found ourselves following three 10-year-old baseball players leading us to a jeep which ended up being about a 10-15 minute walk through a run-down neighborhood, from the stadium. How Jonathon thought we would magically know where this stop was is beyond me. We get there and are told to call a man named Chele. So we call Chele, (in Dominican this means penny...) and he eventually hangs up because he can't understand Megan's accent. We call him back and have the ninos talk to him and explain that we have a piece of paper that says we want to climb a mountainside. We thank our new friends and promise to attend their baseball game the following weekend and are met by Chele who takes us (along with some 2 random guys we picked up on the way) up the hillside in his metal country truck. We peed in the woods, found our guide (eventually), and traipsed up the Diego de Ocampo. At the top we played some games with a giant random group of Dominicans on some sort of retreat and then headed down the hill at 12:20 so we could catch the last bus that leaves for the bottom of the mountain, at 1pm. We get there at 1:05, which SHOULD mean about 12:45 or 50 Dominican time, and two old ladies say that the bus JUST left. So... should we walk for the next five hours down a mountain side to catch a guagua into the city? Our guide walked us down a ways to a colmado where we could hopefully ask around for a ride, and on the way, a white police truck drives by, greets us, and keeps driving. They turn around and we're like, yep, ask them for a ride. They were more than willing. We hopped in the back of their truck and headed down the bumpy mountainside, laughing until our abs hurt. We stopped at a colmado, bought a presidente beer to share, took some pictures with the military policemen, and continued down the mountain. They proceeded to drive across a giant desert-style field of dirt with palm trees and african style huts along the side. (See facebook for video). We caught a guagua back into the city, then a familiar concho, and walked about 20 more minutes to arrive home. Our return took about 2.5 hours, but it's safe to say we enjoyed every uncertain second of it.

helpful ninos

back of the police truck

So after that novel, I'm heading to dance class. Diamond and coal? Diamond: Saturday adventure, also progressing in piano lessons, Coal: spending too much time on facebook instead of studying or talking with my host family.

So much love!

Izzie

New goal: have a dream in Spanish before I leave.

I guess I'm well overdue for an update... The more time that passes, the less I want to update this because so much happens each day that I can't keep up with it all!

Let's see, there have been lots of up and downs, last night and this morning it has been pouring, the first time since the night I got here, which was New Year's. Santiago really feels like home now; I'd like to say my Spanish has improved a lot, but honestly it varies a ton from day to day. Since the last post, I had my first test and big paper; yes, class does require effort but the work load does not come anywhere close to class at Lincoln. That's part of the point of study abroad though, obviously they don't want us to be in the library all the time.

Quick Summary of our day in the campo (2/5)

It’s enough to experience such a different way of life in your own language, or with friends or family. But being completely alone with a native family who speaks a different language is a whole nother story. After returning from the mountainside, I felt really tired but had an interesting day. I was thrilled to be here (and still am) but it also hit me again that everything's different and i have to look at life through a different cultural lens. I learned how sancocho is made in the country- more delicious and time consuming in my opinion.

Victor Jose, yo, y Fifi a la loma

I've spent a few nights at the colmado just talking with friends, walking around randomly, playing card games and watching movies at friend's houses. We're having a ratatouille (the movie), wine, popcorn, and ice cream night this Sunday after I get back from Santiago Carnaval, which I'm so excited for!

Being here constantly reminds me that people are people and deserved to be treated the same. Sometimes I feel like we travel to new places thinking we're going to observe and meet a new species, only to find that we're not really that different from each other. We look different and might speak a different language, but you can easily relate with, learn from, and share passions with people from across the world.

Last weekend a couple of us hung out at the colmado and a friend's rooftop, played soccer with Domincans, basically girls (+ Dillon and David) against boys, rode horses, and visited Carnaval in La Vega. It was one of my favorite weekends so far.

I really try to upload videos on here but it only works about half the time, so my apologies, you may just have to wait till May to experience some of my adventures!

Well I'd say it's about time to do something productive. Hasta Luego!

Musica

I can't think of anything new and unfamiliar that happened this week. I guess that's kind of a cool sign that I'm at home here. Let's see, recap. So I went to the hardware store the other day to get tools for my sculpture class.. but I couldn't remember what they were called and I wasn't 100% sure what they looked like, so that was a fun adventure. I asked five different workers for help, and realized very quickly that my wood sculpting tools vocabulary is extremely limited. Who would have guessed? Ha ha, so the cool part is that I'm carving something out of wood. The uncool thing is that it's going to require lots of time and lots of patience.

Last weekend was our two day excursion to La Romana and Isla Saona. The pictures cannot capture the clarity and gorgeous blue hues of the ocean. I was in shock. We danced on 2 hour catamaran ride to isla Saona from a little city in which we stayed the night before. There are no resorts or stores on the island, just some vendors and tables and stuff like that because it's a protected national park. It was discovered in 1494, on Columbus's second voyage. Filmmakers and Advertisers have used the island for "stereotypical desert island beach" scenes.

 

The bachata we've been learning in dance class ;)

Speaking of music and having fun, a bunch of us also went out for Karaoke night at Fogon on Wednesday after class. I'd never sung karaoke before, and I have no idea why; it's not like you actually have to be a good singer to enjoy it. Haha, Megan, Nea, and I sang "I want it that way" by the Backstreet Boys. Our assignment from the DJ man is to learn a song by Luis Vargas and come back next week to sing it.

 (karaoke videos on facebook if you're interested)

I learned to play Texas Hold-Em and Egyptian Rat Screw last night at the Colmado with friends and my host brother. Like I said, I'm learning things I never expected to learn here. 

It seems I've always got a comment on the food, so I have to say that my host family makes magical oatmeal. I don't know how they do it, but it's like five times better than any oatmeal I've had before.

I love when Fifi sings while she cleans. She probably reads this but oh well. :P

These posts are always a little longer than I expect, but this way I'll have my memories recorded somewhere! Until next time!