Que Rapido

The time has flown here. I have 12 days of class left, +1 to present a couple final projects. I love piano lessons and am amazed that I can actually play [little kid beginner] songs with BOTH HANDS! How cool, riiight? I'm excited. It's really difficult, repetitive and frustrating but I love it; I can't wait to practice at Timaree's house this summer.

This past week was really calm. Thinking back to January, I'm definitely tons more confident with my Spanish, even though I know every time I speak I'm gonna make plenty of mistakes. Who cares? We're learning! I don't want to leave the people I've met here! I love my family more each day; they're seriously awesome and it's really fun to have "siblings" close to my age. Here's the play-by-play.

Thursday night we played skipbo at the colmado. 

Friday, our ISA program ventured to the house of the Mirabal Sisters. There were four of them; Dede is the only one still living because the other three were killed by the DR government during Trujillo's rule, upon their return after visiting their husbands in jail. Who's Trujillo? Think Hitler, only instead of killing Jewish people and putting them in concentration camps, Trujillo ordered a genocide of thousands of Haitians (with knifes and machetes so it seemed more local, less like war) to "whiten" the Dominican race. This was in the 1930s. If you're curious, just ask; I've learned tons about his regime. Minverva, one of the Mirabal sisters, studied law in Santo Domingo in [i think] the 50s, however, after years of studying, Trujillo withheld her degree because she was a woman. If you're curious, here's the history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabal_sisters

After the Mirabal Museum, we hiked around a cocoa farm/ rain forest.

ISA w/ Dona Dede, surviving Mirabal sister

cacao bean

The same night some ISA girls (+Lina) came over to bake delicious banana nutella cookies and watch Black Swan, which if you haven't seen it, you must. It's super intense, insane, and scary but also mindbogglingly awesome. Mindbogglingly is a word but mindblowingly isn't? Our language is crazy.

soo the ovens cook differently and we had to improvise a few ingredients..

...but they were delicious!

Yesterday Megan, Stacy, Rose and I went to Centro Leon for a Folklore Dance exhibit thing... We talked about weird freaky diseases and research. Haha I love learning from people; did you know? Later we hung out at Leo's. We watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", listened to Leo play guitar, and exchanged depressing yet funny stories. Really my favorite moments here are the ones in which we don't do much. Simply being with people and enjoying their company is the best.

Folklore Dancers

Church this morning with Denis, then Haitian lunch (don't worry roomies, I got the sauce recipe), salsa dancing, and chilling at his house till a little bit ago. 

Almuerzo!

That's all for now! We've got about a month left in the program then I'm off to Monte Christi for a week, then home sweet home! Miss you and love you all. God bless.

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24

No possible way to describe how this country makes me feel. Thankful and calm, excited and ecstatic, downtrodden and exhausted all at the same time. That's a story much too vast and detailed for blogging. Just ask me when I get home for a better account.

This is my main thought for the day: We have the gift of love, why on earth don’t we take advantage of it? Why aren't we making the most of every opportunity to care about other people as much as we do ourselves? Just some food for thought. So simple, yet so overlooked.


Definitely definitely had a blast with Michael last week; I'm so fortunate he got to come! I gave up speaking English during the week (with people here) and not gonna lie, it's a little tiring and definitely challenging but well worth it because that's kind of why I came here. So really it only makes sense.

baseball game! (10-year-old players)

Michael and I did lots of Santiago things like: chill at the ISA office, dominoes and beer at the colmado, taught Lina and Victor Jose how to play skipbo, ate lots of bolas de yuca, made friends with random people, explored downtown.. watched a pirated $50 peso (less than $2) DVD (The Social Network), played soccer, class, etc.
We had so much fun and like I said, I'm so blessed to have him as a friend and that he got to visit! 5 months is a super long time to not see someone you really care about, which I'm sure most of you already realize.
We also stayed at a resort for a night in Sosua and spent lots of time on the beach. 

dominoes and cerveza at the colmado

at the beach

27 charco

The latest ISA excursion was to 27 Charcos- 27 waterfalls that we climbed, hiked around, and jumped off last Friday. That was gorrggeeeoouss; we had a great time. 

Well it's easy to forget about homework when I often feel like I'm on vacation, but considering it's already 3:30pm, I think maybe I'll get to that now :) Thanks for reading, take care!

PS I've decided to volunteer in an orphanage in either Monte Cristi or Jaibon during my last week here- can't wait!