Only the end of ONE extravagent adventure

Here is my last blog update about my amazing and rewarding experience in the Dominican Republic. Starting about two weeks before I left I threw a small, little pizza party for the orphanage I helped out with while I vacationed...... oh wait *studied* in the Dominican Republic. One friday night I lugged a few pizzas over to the orphanage and while they were in the mist of unlocking the gate for me to enter I made it clear that all the pizza was only for the pregnant dog. After we all chowed down on some dominos pizza I played a little game with them that I did not understand at all. It was fun to be apart of their family for a night. I then had to make my way home but before I left I was attacked by the biggest, most loving group hug that almost knocked me off my feet many times. It made me so sad to leave all the kids I had been lucky enough to get to know over the few months I had lived in the DR.

Of course when my mom came to visit me she brought up a bunch of gifts for my host family. After my pizza party a little later in the week I told my host family that I had a small, early christmas for the family. A Red Socks jacket for my host dad, because baseball is a huge sport down there that most dominicans love to play and or watch. For my host mom I had a lobster claw bracelet from silver lining. For both of my host sisters a pair of silver lining earrings and of course a Johns Lawns t-shirt. Then for the family to share my mom had brought up  a box of chocolates, real maple syrup from our cousins in Vermont, and some lobster gummies. My host mom found a lot of amusement in the gummies, even taking a picture of one of the "lobsters". They all loved their presents and I'm so glad I could give them a little christmas before I left.

Our final extravaganza in the DR was spending our last week in a campo. Its an area out in the country side. The campo we spent our time at was very impoverished and everyone living there were squatters. None of the families could afford to buy land or pay taxes so they nailed together some misfit pieces of wood or metal to set up a place to reside. Many of the houses had dirt floors and if a family was lucky they had one bed that they would all squeeze onto for a nights sleep. They may not have had money there but what they didn't have in money they replaced with love and care. I absolutely loved the time I was able to spend in the campo because I was welcomed with open arms. We were taken care of like part of the family and treated like part of the family by all the residence of the campo. While spending time there I helped out with the school that they had there for kids around the age of five. When I was thrown in charge of teaching I found it impossible to get all the kids attention at once. It was very difficult to get their attention and teach them anything. It was okay because they were all the cutest, most friendly kids so that part made up for it. The structure of the school in the campo was none existent. The first day I went over to help one of the teachers and he said "okay you can teach them" when I asked what to teach them he just shrugged and walked away. Something that made me very sad was that because the campo was so poor and couldn't afford teachers they had 16 year olds as the teachers. These "teachers" would only went to school on sundays. I may not have been the biggest fan of school but am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to attend school and gain an education and have the ability to eventually gain a higher education. One of the scariest parts of the campo was that for a "school bus" they used a falling apart, rusty truck that only had a drivers seat. The kids that were picked up for school then filled up the back of the truck. It was so unsafe but they cant afford to buy a bus and have it sent over the DR form the States. If you could afford to help out the kids that are lucky to having any form of schooling it would mean so much to them and keep them all safe so that they would have one less worry on their minds. One day instead of spending all day at the school I went down to where we ate and helped cook up a lunch. I spent a good two hours pealing a cutting up some potatoes. Then helped cook over a wood fire outside. When the food was all ready it was then put in half of a baking pan because it was too big but it was the only one they had. The pan was then slid into the oven, but of course the pan was to big for the oven so the oven was left open while our lunch finished cooking up. There was no fan or source of cooling so we were engulfed by the heat of the wood fire, the open oven, and of course the sun that burned bright almost everyday. It was extremely hot there during the day. Well for me it sure was hot. We were lucky enough to be spending time at a campo that had a great pool. I could go for a quick, or ver long, renewing plunge everyday. Then it would cool off at night and be completely opposite than during the day. Even though it was way too hot for me during the day when it started to cool down on the brink of dark I attempted to play a little basketball with one of the boys of the campo. Of course I haven't been playing any sports for a while but it was about time to test out my ankle in a little basketball competition. The hardest part wasn't finding the pain in running but the ruts and ditches throughout the court made it a little hard to get around. For the last day of being in the campo we helped set up some houses with a more solid floor and better roofing then we took a trip down to a beach. Of course we rode in the falling apart truck, down the high way, at high speed, it was only a little terrifying. I had a great time at the beach with all my new friends from the campo. Swimming in the warm, clear water and of course taking lots of pictures made me sad to think that I would be leaving the next day. We then headed back to the campo but stopped to grab some foods for a last night cook out. We got back and grilled up some meets that the guy in charge had put in the most delicious marinade. At the campo the kids that we hung out with everyday were Ian, Miguel Angel, and Samuel. Ian was 10 and was such a funny, loving kid. Then there was Miguel Angel who was 6. He was the cutest little boy and I feel in love with him so hard that I wanted to adopt him and take him home with me even though he had a family. Then there was Samuel who was 17 and he was a great friend and was very good at speaking slowly in spanish so I would be able to understand. Also he was so understanding with my spanish and how I still needed some help and wasn't able to speak perfect spanish. A great part of the campo was that everyone besides the guy in charge only spoke spanish. It gave me a week to test out how well I could get along with only speaking spanish and no english. I may not have been the best but I was still able to make new friends so it couldn't have been that bad. The only bad part about the campo was that on the second day that we were there I got sick. The one time I got sick during my trip to the DR. I had the worst stomach pain and my head was all congested and ready to explode. It got better by the end of our campo trip and having a little sickness while I was there didn't take away from how much I loved my stay there. One night there was a news crew that came to the campo for some interviews so the area around where we spent the night was filled with many people of the campo. When I came out of my room and walked over I was swarmed by one group of dominicans that all wanted a picture. I then jokingly said "It's only because I'm American, right?" then the girl responded with an easy "oh yeah, of course". I didn't minde but I found it very comical that they had to get a picture with one of the only "Americans" around because they only see our kind every so often. The time soon rolled around for goodbyes. It was so sad for me and I hated that I would be leaving friends from my week in the campo. It may have only been one week but they all had made such a big impact on me. I miss them so much and hope I can see them soon in the future.

The day after I got back to Santiago after the campo I ventured off to a Romeo Santos concert with two of my friends from the study abroad program. Romeo Santos was the favorite singer of many of the residence of the campo. I couldn't understand the music but I had spent the days of my journey in the DR loving his music. We arrived at the concert about an hour early so we could grab some good seats. We then sat in the off an on rain for three hours after the concert was supposed to start waiting for Romeo to make his debut on the stage. The concert was a great experience and I am so glad I could end my trip with one last big thing. After the concert we went outside looking for a taxi along with most of the other people that had attended the concert. We finally found a taxi and jumped in. Soon after he took off we found out that the driver was most likely drunk. The driving through the DR was scary enough but this made it even worse. We had to yell at him where to turn and where to go and he barely understood us. I made it home safe and sound so I was lucky enough to jump out of that cab without a scratch.

During my last few days when I was packing up my suitcase my host mom came up to my room to give me little christmas presents for everyone in my family. She gave me a coffee mug for my mom and I, a magnet for my dad and a key chain for my brother and I. It was so sweet of her and I love that I have a token from my loving, host family.

I then had to sadly part away from my new found home in the DR and make my way to the airport. I made it safe and sound on to my flight to Miami but then wasn't as lucky once I landed in Miami. I then had to rush around getting stuck in custom lines and such. I then missed my flight to Boston but was lucky enough to be able to catch a flight that was only one hour later. I made it to Boston around 12 and had my Uncle there ready to grab my suitcase and make our way back to Boothbay. We waited where the luggage came out for a while and it turned out that my luggage had been  left in Miami but they would have it to my the next morning. I then traveled home with my wonderful Uncle that had been sweet enough to gather me up from the airport. We mad it back to my house in Boothbay around three. I slept a few hours then got up and made my way to Hyde to visit my old friends and teachers. It was so great to see old friends and the best to see Miss. Moorse my old spanish teacher.

Being home has been so nice. I've been able to see all my friends and family and be back in a familiar place. It is absolutely freezing though and I wish the heat was something I could have brought back with me. I love being home to normality but I miss the new life that I had made in the DR and I hope that I will be able to go back very soon and see all the new friends I had made.

This is my last blog until I venture off to Spain in January. I hope you all have a very merry christmas and a happy new year! Feliz navidad, prospero ano!

yesterday wasnt september?

First things first, my computer stopped working for me so I'm typing this on my phone so most likely there will be a lot of errors but I will edit them all when I'm home with a working computer.
For the past few blog updates I have kept notes of what I've been doing. When I looked at my notes for this blog the first thing seemed like 3 months ago not 3 weeks ago. Anyways so a couple of weekends ago the entire CIEE program travled down to el Dajabon which is the border of the DR and Haiti. There is a huge market there that we had time to look through. You could bargain for what you wanted and everything was surprisingly inexpensive. I ended up getting a lot of my christmas shopping done and found an mp3 player for about $10 that looked exactly like one of the mini iPods. I made the vendor test it and everything to be safe and it was great. After our trip to el Dajabon we made a pit stop at a gorgeous, jaw dropping beach. The only thing was that the mosquitos there were huge and in large quantities but the view was worth it. I think the longest ive gone during my trip without a new bug bite has been 2 days. Thats a pretty good record for here.
The next weekend I took a trip down to Cabarete with 5 of the study abroad girls. Its a lovely tourist destination right on the beach. We spent the night in a hostel. When we got there we were surprised to see how nice the hostel was, having a pool and a trampoline and a pool table. We filled up the he room with bunk beds and only had to pay $12 per person for the night.  We all had a great time, we went in to town and snaked on some Chinese food then took a stroll down the beach. On our way back we crossed paths with these two boys from the states and one of them did not like the culture here. He was saying how everyone needs to speek english and how it was so stupid that people kept trying to sell him things over and over again. It was very hard to be around because obviously you're in a different place where people dont have as much money as you and do whatever they can to make money to feed their families and themselves. The next morning was planned to be our beach day but when we woke up it was pouring rain. We walked to town in the rain and after we had gotten some breakfast the rain had cleared out and welcomed the bright shinning sun. We had a perfect 3 hours of sun to lay out in and then the rain started again. I had such a fun weekend away from all of the gap year kids and the CIEE program on the beach in the sun. "Beautiful girls on a beautiful beach in beautiful weather" -Addis perfect quote for the day. We then went home saturday and got back to Santiago around 7pm. The next day I got up and headed in to town from some walking exercise and some prowling for a pair of pants. On my way home I was crossing the street about 100 steps from my door when a motorcyclist drove by and swiped my purse on the pass by. I had no words at first and stood there in shock. The worst part was when he stole a glance back at me so I threw my hands up and yelled "HEY" because I was not able to think of anything else. My bag consisted of my DR $20 phone, 1000 pesos, and my ancient cracked ipod. That all didn't matter to me but it was so scary. I walked to my house and had to ring the bell because my keys were also in my bag. I then told my host dad what happened and he went out looking for him with no luck in the end. My family ended up changing one of the 3 locks to enter into the hours so I know need three keys to get into my house instead of two which is weird coming from a house where we don't even know where a kay is and where we leave our car keys on the car.
Speaking of keys about a week later I was sitting down with dinner and looked up at the table and caught sight of a set of car keys. looking a little closer the Maine key chain my mom had sent over to the DR was latched onto the keys and it made me really happy. Around that time it was my older sisters 21 birthday. My family had many family members over but my sister Jennifer was sick all night and couldn't even enjoy a slice of her very own birthday cake.
The next weekend I was privileged to have my mom come up and visit. When I went to get her from the plane the moment I said her I couldn't wipe the smile from my face. We went down to Sosua for the weekend. Sosua is another place like Cabarete. We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool and ocean view. We spent the day relaxing on the beach. We ordered delicious pina coladas that were served in a pineapple and half of the beverage you need to eat with a spoon because it was a lot of chopped pineapple throughout the drink from heaven. We also tried a casino one night which neither of us really understood ot liked. Another night of her visit I took her out to a discoteca so she could see some more of my life here. during her visit we also stopped to get a mani and pedi. They scrubbed my moms hands and feet so hard she had trouble walking after that. Her nails were a gorgeous red with an artistic white and gold design. She then had to leave after only 5 days. I missed her after the fist day she departed and cant wait to see my whole family when I'm home. Wish I could have made the trip perfect for he but we had a great time spending time at the beach and it was just nice to see her after a solid 3 months.
The orphanage is still going great as usual. My mom was also able to stop by the orphanage on her visit and was generous enough to bring along a bunch of little gifts for the kids. One of the funniest parts of visiting the orphanage lately is that all the little kids chant my name for me to chase them around. Its still a little hard running with my ankle but its so much fun and I love it. One day when I was sitting down one of the girls started playing with my hair and a minute later the owner, Rosa came over and braided my hair so nicely and it was so sweat of her I loved that part to. This is my last week of being able to visit the orphanage so I asked if I could throw a pizza party for them and of course that was okay. So tonight I will bring over some dominos and let the kids feast on one of their favorite foods I'm sure they don't get to eat very often.
A couple days ago when I was on my normal walk to school I came to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk with a cat laying in front of me. The fur was very dirty but it didn't look like there was anything wrong with the cat, no blood or cuts, just the fact that it didn't have a home. Also that it was motionless without breath.
last night we had our fiesta de despised which was the farewell dinner for the entire CIEE group. It was sad but I had a lot of fun. I was assigned the challenge of writing a thank you for a teachers of the semester...in spanish. I then had to read it on front of everyone and my spanish pronunciation really isn't the best not even close to being okay. It was okay, it went fine but I'm going to miss my teachers soo soo much. The gap year kids then had to preform a little dance. The boys started it off then Nikki and I cut them off and did a little dancing then our teachers cut us off and we all danced together lastly we had another song come on and invited the whole audience to come up and dance. It was a great time. After dinner there were a bunch of us that stayed there late dancing, well I was attempting to dance but it wasn't the best.
So lately I've  come up with a few more differences of the DR from the states. One I hate is that they have no recycling here. I wish they did because then there would be a little less trash strewn thought the streets. Another difference is when you walk down the street be prepared to hear many whistles of rubia and Americana calls. We are told that here when men see women they think look good it would be rude for them to not call out to them and let them know. But really I think its because I'm a white young american girl that they think has a lot of money. It doesn't seem to bother me though because I just ignore it and keep on with my walk.
This Sunday I will be leaving for a campo out on the middle of no where. Im really excited to see what its like. We won't have any running water and will be away from the city, mostly all the cook will be done outside and the life style is very different. I think this is my last post until I'm home but once I'm home I'll edit this and give you all an update on the last adventure of my expedition in the DR. Its crazy to think I only have 12 days left.

So grateful for this opportunity

Everything is going by way to fast and I just want to stay here for a long time. Yes it may be scorching hot and thunderstorm most nights but the people here are extremely caring and I’m treated like part of the family everywhere. Never before have I experienced a different culture and am extremely thankful that I have been able to. It’s very eye opening to see how a different part of the world lives and what they cherish and find important compared to what we, in the states, find important. 

Along with the culture of the Dominicans, this past weekend I was able to experience the Haitian culture. It is extremely different there. I traveled with a small group and we hit a small problem when we came up to the border. The price of crossing over into Haiti was 800 pesos 5 days before we had gone over but when we got there they had changed the price to 2500 pesos. Crossing the border on foot was a first time experience for me because before my trip to Haiti I had only ventured to different countries by plane. Our first experience in Haiti was climbing up to the citadel. It was this old building that was used for protection. When we visited we were able to see all of the old cannons and explore the ginormous stature of the building. Once we got back down to the bus we headed to lunch. We were served plates pilled with food. What was on the plates? oh just the normal serving of goat. It was a little hard for me to eat because I was thinking of how we had seen so many goats throughout the streets that day and it wasn't sitting well with me. The next day we journeyed off to a beautiful beach. Had a whole fish for lunch there, head and all. Our last day in Haiti we visited a museum and a Haitian market where I picked up a few christmas presents. 

We also stopped by a monument on monday, our last day. It was of a couple men two women and a horse. We all walked up there and were taking pictures intertwined with the monument. Then a man started yelling, in creole, so only our guid could understand what he was saying. The only part I understood was when the f bomb was thrown out there. We then left the monument the opposite direction to get out of the mans way. Back on the bus I asked what that was all about. The man was yelling because he wanted money from us. There is much more behind it that though. Many people in Haiti, and other parts of the world, believe that U.S. Americans have everything. We have money and jobs and food and houses so that means we have the ability to share. A huge part of the culture in Haiti and in the DR is that everyone helps everyone when they can. So when we aren’t sharing and they think we have the ability to then there must be something wrong with us. There are many people in Haiti that cant afford to think long term about food or anything else and they only can think about what they need right now. Which goes to show that us U.S. Americans aren’t actually helping by just giving a shirt that will last for 2 years or a bag of rice that will last for a couple months. What we really need to do is give them our time and teach them how to be sustainable and give them the education that will lead in to jobs and the ability to know how to plan into the future. As we traveled around I was able to see many big bags of rice with the american flag plastered on them. We gave Haiti food aid with all of this free rice we handed over and yes it’s nice to help them eat but it took all the rice farmers out of business. The people were getting all this free rice so why would they go and buy some. This led into the rice farmers not being able to sell any rice so they had no source of income. It also added to the fact of short term help, rice isn't going to last forever so eventually, yes, they will be hungry again and have nowhere to turn.

Being able to venture to different countries such as the DR and Haiti has really opened my eyes. I have never traveled and been immersed into a new culture before and am so glad I was given the opportunity to do so. Now I know more than what I’m surrounded by in the U.S. Every day I see people begging on the street and vendors making a living off of what items they are able to sell on the sidewalks. Theres more to life than people that can make a living easily and have no problems except for the fact that they cant get the next best phone. Of course I knew that around the world there was many needy people but it didn’t actually sink in until I was emerged into a country that showed it to me first hand. 

On a lighter side a couple more cultural differences have popped into my head and I’ve had the ability to jot them down before they depart from my memory. One difference between the DR and all of the places I have visited in the states is that the red lights here are long enough for the driver to take a nap. Some of the lights here have count downs on them and the longest time for a red light I’ve seen is about 150 seconds. It may not seem that long, only about 2 1/2 minutes, but sitting there in traffic when you're trying to get some place quickly makes it a little difficult to be on time. Not being on time here is okay though, we call it “Dominican time”. Here in the DR people find it more important to stop and talk to friends and other people than to be on time. Along with the long red lights another traffic difference is that pedestrians don't have the right away. Crossing the road here scares me a bit but you just have to wait for red lights when the cars have stopped or make a speedy jolt across the road when you don’t see any cars coming your way. Also one last one for this blog, lunches here are big and later on dinners are very small. It's like lunch and dinner are switched compared to in the states. Its like that in many places around the world and is much healthier for you. The only problem with this is that I'm always hungry after dinner because they are usually a simple sandwich or a bowl of cereal. Maybe next blog ill capture a few more differences but thats all for this blog update.

November 5 was my younger sister 15 birthday. My host family had some of their family come over and we sat in the living room, talked and devoured cake and ice cream. It was great to meat more of the family and chat some more with my host family. I bought my sister two pairs of studs and made her a little card which she loved. I might have missed my real mom, dad and bothers birthdays but here I experienced my host mom and sisters birthday and my others sisters birthday is soon to come on the 25. 

Last weekend was our long weekend so some of the kids parents came up for a visit. It was great to meet them and they were so wonderful in helping getting our visa process for Spain ready. Its all so confusing and I don’t understand a lot of it but hopefully Ill end up in Spain this January. On friday we were running around, printing out things, signing papers, and trying to figure out how to fill out the application. I tried to fill it all out but gave up and just sent home my signature so hopefully my lovely mother can figure it out for me:)

Our last excursion in spanish class was to el mercado pueblo nuevo. To me it looked like a HUGE year sale. They have it every thursday and its a place where there are tons of people selling tons of different things at very low prices. There was all types of clothes, cell phones, underwear, nail polish, makeup, food, shoes and so much more. The whole market is huge and packed with so many people. All the vendors are yelling prices and using whistles to get your attention. Also its so big, I have no idea how big it actually is but it seemed as big as the town of Boothbay. It may have been a mad house but I would love to go back and buy some cloths there because thats the cheapest you'll find.

I am so excited to come home and see all of the faces I have missed so much but it kills me that I’m going to have to leave the place I have come to love. The thought of only 35 more days here makes me so sad. I’ve come to love the family I’m staying with, love the warm water, love my little darlings at the orphanage, love the Dominican food, love the friendly atmosphere, love my teachers, love learning spanish and there’s so much more that I love here and will miss so much. Don’t get me wrong I already miss my home town and my great family and can’t wait to see them again. When I come home I’m going to take a bunch of weird habits with me that I have picked up here. I’ll probably cross the road a little more dangerously, want to eat a lot of rice, talk in spanish on accident, always look for the fan to turn on, always ask for when I want hot water, only drink “safe” water and never drink out of the tap, and wariest one, I’ll probably still throw all my toilet paper into the trash instead of the toilet. 

I’m excited to come home for a bit and can’t wait to explore Spain but the cold is going to be a strong slap in the face. Also one of the boys from Hyde, that graduated two years ago passed away on sunday. He was a great guy, always putting a smile on everyones face, being the constant jokester, lightening each day, reaching out to everyone, being so kind, never taking a day for granted and always being a very dear friend. He didn’t deserve this and he will be greatly missed by all of the hearts that he touched with so much love. I may not have been Bens closest friend but his warm attitude was one that engulfed me and I still can’t comprehend that he is no longer here with us to make each day one of laughter and love. This incident makes me want to come and give everyone I care about the longest, biggest, bear hug and let them know how much I care about them because honestly, we never know when someones going to be taken from us. My accident made me think of this as well, we need to live each day like it really is our last and treat everyone we know like it is the last day we will be able to show them our love. I am so grateful that I was given a second chance after my brain injury and it kills me that Ben passed away because of brain trauma. Love you Ben Burlock, you touched so many hearts and will never be forgotten. Rest in peace Ben, my prayers are with you, all of your family members and all of your close friends <3 I know you're the life of the party up there in heaven right now.

Where has the time gone

For Jacobs birthday I tried to be a good sister and send a little card. It didn't go threw so well because he didn't receive the letter until a month after his birthday. My favorite part was when he told me he loved the envelop the card was in so much he hung it up on his wall. Don’t worry Jacob I’ll bring you home a little bit better of a gift than that. I have missed the birthdays of every member in my family  but will try and make it up when I come home. I’ve started collecting little gifts for everyone so it can be a christmas/something from far away present.

I am a bit convinced my Spanish hasn't gotten as good as it should have by now. I think I need to put in more work on my skills but the one positive is my host dad did tell me I was speaking more fluently. My spanish may not be coming along as well as I hoped but my knowledge of this country is coming along great. I learn a great deal from our director Lynn during our culture class along with day to day activities. From Lynn I have taken in a lot about the the history between the Haitians and Spaniards and all the conflicts that went on between all of the different groups. From my day to day activities I take in my surroundings and discover all the little differences between the environment here and in the United States. An easy thing to pick up on here is that every street you walk down you wont be surprised to see so many strays wandering around. I hate it so much, it makes me sad and want to take them all home with me. Another little difference is that the gas stations here are actually only gas, they don't have a little market full of foods, drinks, and other items. Colmados are used for that here, they are commonly scattered throughout each area filled with snacks, drinks and other little commodities. Then there is one last thing I can think of right now and it is a bit dangerous. Only the person driving the car is required to wear a seatbelt. I can’t remember one time I wore a seatbelt here. Most of the time people are squeezing as many people as they can into the car without the worry of getting pulled over or having to use seat belts. It sounds bad enough but with the type of driving around here its even worse. I don’t think I would ever be able to or even want to drive around here. So much honking and close calls of collisions and it’s not nearly like driving any where in the States. The worst personal difference here is that I’m not able to wear perfume because ill get even more bug bites than I do now, I have to drench myself in wonderful smelling bug spray every day and the heat makes me drip in sweat. I’ve always had a fear of smelling bad and usually drench myself in perfume not bug spray so that part is not my favorite and is a bit f a struggle.

The weekend before this one for our culture class we took a weekend long trip to Santo Domingo. The son of the driver that takes us around was in a sever motorcycle accident, but Rafael, our driver still ventured to Santo Domingo with us so that he could have the money that he needed. One time during our trip I was telling him how sorry I was and how I had gone through a car accident as well. He went on to say how it was so hard for him in his heart and I responded with saying how much harder my accident was for my mom than me. When we entered Santo Domingo we stayed in a very clean, nice Hostel. Our first lunch there was at this very nice restaurant, where you sat outside over looking the ocean. The owner was a man that had started it all with a little cart on the side of the road. I hear he made the best sandwiches and always had many people coming to grab a bite of his masterpieces. A rich man once stopped by for a sandwich and raved about how he should open a restaurant. The man made it clear he didn’t have money for that and was rewarded with financial help from the man that suggested it. I had a great burger and an amazing glass of the juice of a bunch of different fruits mixed together. The trip went on and we visited a chocolate factory with delectable treats, a market where we could bargain for what we wanted to take home with us and an old sugar cane factory. We had little bits of history thrown in every where we went during that weekend. The sugar can factories were very historical and interesting. I would never have wanted to slave over that process like the slaves of that time were forced to. We also visited a place called tres ojos, which was a collapsed cave. There were three little lake areas inside, one was blue another was green and the last one was teal. The last day on the way home we visited this very important church of the virgin in white. It was a place up a mountain and there is a certain day where catholics will ask for something they need. In return for what they ask for they they climb up the mountain, on their knees and reach the top dripping in blood. We also got to take strolls around along the water and we could see the trash strewn throughout the water and along the beach. Lynn told us how the west side was good for going for a swim and the east side was where you would want to stay away from.  

This past weekend there was a trip to a destination named Los Charcos de Los Indinos. This place takes a little hiking to get to and is commonly unknown to the people of the Dominican Republic. When we got there we had a lunch of the food we carried in with us. I chowed down on some backed chicken and fried plantains. We then went for a little dip in the cold water, that looked very dirty. I plunged in because Lynn said it only looked dirty because of the rain we've had lately but it usually was crystal clear. By the water when you looked up you would see a huge face in a towering rock. It was the face of the god that the Haitians believed helped them when they took a hallucinogenic at certain time throughout their life. It was a great history story and a refreshing plunge into chilly water. 

Yesterday was Halloween, which is not celebrated here so I just sat in the living room watching baseball with my dad and sister. Tonight me and the other Gap year kids were invited to our teachers halloween party. Nikki and I will be going to that. I never thought that I would be venturing to my teachers house for a party, but hey she’s only 21 and like a friend. 

The adventures are never ending

I am so in love with helping out at the orphanage. The kids there will always run over to the gate to let me in each one will come say hi and give me a hug and I love being able to sit and talk with them. Well at least I try and talk to them, my spanish still isn't that great. Part of the time I’ll sit with some of the girls that are between 10-20 years old and talk with them, let them play with my hair, and relax a little. One time when I went a girl even came over to paint my nails, it may have been bright green but I left it on for as long as it would last. Other parts of my visit I will have some fun with all the younger kids. I’ll play with them on the swing set, they love getting pushed and going really high. We play going down the slide and the girls love taking photo shoots up on the top of the swing set. Along with the orphanage I help out with an after school program once a week. All the kids will first have to do their homework, which I help with. They always refer to me as teacher and I like it because it makes me feel all grown up:). After they do all their homework they hangout in side in the lounge area or go play games out side. They love futbol (soccer), passing the ball back and forth, 4square a bunch more.

Classes are still going very well for me. I don't really think that my spanish is immensely improving but I think it may be a tiny bit better than when I got here. When I think really hard of what I want to say I can make a little sense but when the Dominicans talk I never understand it. There was one time though I was telling this girl about what this food was and I was trying to say french fries and could only think of the word papas fritas, which is french fries in spanish. With class we've gone on a bunch of little excursions lately to places like the Hospedaje, which is a huge very un-clean out door market, the fire station, and the grocery store. Visiting the Hospedaje made me went to be a vegetarian and I have a hard time eating any meet now. While there we watched a man, whiteout gloves or a hairnet or a clean space, slit a chickens throat and toss him into boiling water to rid him of his feathers. He was then thrown in the grinder, taken out and cut into pieces. The scariest part is thats what could be in the supermarket as well.

This saturday night was the first time I went to church here. My mom came to tell me they were going and I jumped at the chance to ask if I could come. We got there took a seat and church soon started up. It was a little longer than I was used to about an hour and a half but it was so nice to be able to experience church here. I may not of understood what the gospel was about that night but everything besides the language was the same as church in  Boothbay. 

This past weekend on sunday I met up with Laura, our family friend, Evelyn’s, niece. She came by my house and picked me up with her mom and three of her friends. We took a trip down to the town Jarabacoa and had a lot of fun. When we first got there we all went to church, this was my second day in a row going to church which I didn't mind at all. After church we took a little hike down to a waterfall that was right behind the church. This was the first freezing water I have been in here in the DR. It was so much fun playing around in the water in the middle of this beautiful location. We then left and stopped by a resort area where we got to go for a swim in their pools. The water was just as cold there too, but cold water here is always a godsend in the heat here. We were all getting a little hungry and headed to this little place to eat on the street. I had rice, chicken, a fried plantain, and some potato salad, it was all delicious. Our last stop was at a little hangout spot they owned. Im not sure exactly what it was called but they had a big speaker for music and some outdoor stairs up to a little out door loft with a pool table. We hung out there for a little bit playing pool and dominos. After that they brought me home. I had such a great day. Laura and her mom were very loving and extremely friendly, her friends were extremely friendly as well. I had been talking to Laura ever since I had gotten to the DR and it was so great to finally meet her! I can’t wait for the next time I get to see her. 

For the past week it has rained everyday sometime after 3. No just a little drizzle but the loudest thunder storms I've ever heard. Theres always crazy amounts of crashing thunder that are so loud it makes me jump a little. There was recently a hurricane in Puerto Rico so we are getting a little of the after math from that storm. I don’t mind it though I've always loved thunder storms and they do make it a tiny bit cooler at night. 

Next weekend we will be taking a trip down to Santo Domingo for the weekend and exploring everything down there and it will be considered our culture class of the week. 

Time Is Flying By

Wow at the beginning of my trip the homesickness hit me pretty hard and I would always count the number of days until I would get to go home. Now when I count the days I cant believe how fast so many of them have flown by. As of today I only have 67 days left. Yes it seems like a lot of time but times seems to be speed up here. Now instead of wanting the days to pass by quickly I want them to slow down. I can’t imagine going home and not drinking juice that was freshly, hand squeezed the day before, not eating fried plantain chips, not eating rice everyday, not going on the amazing adventures to beaches, waterfalls and mountains, and not being in 90 degree weather everyday. I am looking forward to going home and seeing all my family and friends again but when I think about what ill be leaving behind it makes me want to stay. My family can just come to the Dominican Repubic for christmas instead of me coming home.

Last weekend was pretty amazing. Saturday I left for the Presidente festival at 2 pm. Me and a bunch of the other CIEE kids took a tour bus down to Santo Domingo where the festival would be. We got there around 6, the time it was starting. I have never been somewhere where they check your ticket so many times, at this place it must have been at least 5. It was worth it though we got in there, grabbed some fro yo and enjoyed the music. Mostly the entire night it was just songs in spanish, which I loved even though I didn't understand much. There were two I knew of, Daddy Yankee and Prince Royce. Then at about 11:30 Bruno Mars came on stage. I’m not the biggest fan of Bruno Mars but it was really awesome to see him in person and our tickets to this with the bus included were only about $67. Crazy, I know! The bus left about 2:30am and I was finally in bed ready to pass out at about 5 in the morning. 

Spanish class has been going well. I may not be very good at spanish but I really hope i’m getting better. Iv’e been here for a little over a month but I can’t tell how my spanish is coming along. Starting last week in spanish class we started getting essays assigned to us. Not my favourite but they are helping my spanish writing and my knowledge of the history here. 

Yesterday, Friday the CIEE kids that chose to took a trip to 27 charcos. Also known as 27 waterfalls. It was so amazing to be able to be apart of that trip. We took a good hike up to where we would find the waterfalls on a path of never ending stairs. By the time we were about to slide down the first water fall I was so ready to be fully emerged in the refreshing water. I was terrified at the first waterfall. I slid down and plunged into the water. I had this thrill and was all jittery from what I had just donw. We slid down or jumped off of 8 waterfalls. It was so amazing, I only got water up my nose about three times, no big deal it was definitely worth it. The  second to last one was the biggest one and we got to slide down once then climb back up to jump off. It was such rush, I can’t even explain how incredible it was. We hiked back and had a great Dominican lunch and got on the bus to head back. 

Us Gap year students then had a double session of culture class with Lynn our director. I did bring a set of dry clothes to wear but I did not remember that I would need some dry shoes as well. Sopping wet sneakers were what got me threw our entire afternoon of class. For part of our class we ventured to a museum of a lot of the history and it was great. We were assigned some homework on culture and have to watch a Ted video which made me think of Mr. Grant and my AP environmental science class because we would watch Ted talks so often in his class, which I loved! 

Compared to last weekend this one base been very relaxing. No more 5am bed times. It feels like I’ll be home tomorrow they way time flies here. There are so many adventures ahead of me and I’m excited to come home to share more about them. 

Best weekend of my life

So many great things have been happening and I think I am finally over being homesick. Yes, I admit it I was a little home sick for a while, everything was just so different and I missed what I was used to and all of the people from home. Lately I have been able to jump into the culture more and it has been so rewarding. 

One of my first big steps into the Dominican culture was going to a class called Social Club. It was an english class for dominicans and they would have social club every once in a while. They would do different activities in english all the time and it happened to be time for some karaoke when I stopped by. If you know me you know this is not my place to shine, my vocals would never win me any prizes, or friends for that matter. I had a blast though, it was for about an hour and the teacher would hand the microphone to “the next victim” after each song. Of course Nikki and I were picked to show them how people from the U.S. do karaoke. We sang Vamos Ala Playa and didn’t do so well with that, but it didn’t matter because everyone was singing along with us. 

My favourite emersion into the culture so far was this past weekend. El mejor fin de semana en mi vida or the best weekend of my life. This past weekend the whole CIEE group traveled to La semana on friday. So all of the study abroad students as well as us five gap year kids. It was a long four hour bus ride there but was well worth it. We got to stay at this very nice resort place located right across from the beach, where we got to eat most of our meals. The rooms were nice equipped with a little kitchen area with a fridge, little table, blender, big sink, plenty of bedding, and everything you would need. Taking a shower here was the first time I had some really nice water pressure, you really start to appreciate the little things here. Anyways, we had left early in the morning so we got there around 11:30, had a great lunch and got ready for our endeavour up a mountain. I’m not able to hike yet because I have problems with my ankle so I was able to ride a horse up the mountain. It may seem like a relief at first that no hiking would be involved but it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done! It was a very steep mountain and had a lot of ups and downs on the way up. The horse kept slipping in the mud and I thought for sure he was going to crash and burn in a nice wipeout.  It seemed very hard for the horse but when I asked the man going along next to the horse he said it was harder for him and easy for the horse because he had two legs and the horse got four. We finally reached and ending point for the horse and went on a short walk to the most beautiful waterfall. It was giant and gorgeous and it was amazing to swim in the water at the bottom. At one point I climbed up the side a little with our intern Grey and took a leap of faith off. I was so nervous I had everyone count down from 5 for me so I could make myself jump in. I braved the two scariest things of my life that one day; riding the horse and jumping off a waterfall. They may have been scary but they were so rewarding and I would have hated myself if I hadn’t given them a try. Near the end of our trip to the waterfall I sat of the rocks at the edge of the water with my feet dangling in. I got a little pedicure from all the tiny fish that liked to eat the dead skin off of you. It was the most ticklish thing ever but it was so cool. The horse ride back I had lost a little bit of my nerves and could relax a little more. I may have ridden a horse most of the way but did walk a little, through a lot of mud, wearing my vans, the birthday present from my mom. Sorry mum I’ll clean them as best I can:) We got back to our resort and had a great dinner. After dinner I took a nice long walk on the beach with a bunch of the study abroad girls and Grey, then a lovely dive into the warm ocean water. It was so nice walking with my feet in the VERY warm water. Compared to Maine the water here is like bath water. Then the next morning we all got up had a quick breakfast and headed off to a boat we would be taking. We all climbed aboard this very nice, big boat that would take us to a cave where we would explore and then take a kayak ride weaving through gorgeous mangrove trees. The tour of the cave was all in spanish so I didn’t pick up much of what the guy was saying, but it was still amazing. There were bats flying around everywhere and it was such an amazing thing to be able to experience. After we escaped from the cave we had a delicious lunch on the boat and I went for a quick swim before the kayak trip. There were little jellyfish swimming around us, but don’t worry non of them would sting you, it did creep me out a lot though. Everyone was picking them up and I even took a turn holding one, it was so squishy and see through. After that I hopped into a double person kayak with our intern Grey, who had ever kayaked before. We took off through the maze of mangroves and she was doing very well for her first time. The trees were so cool to observe. We headed back a little before everyone else and stopped at one point to just sit in the nature of it all and observe all of natures beauty. We did hear a very scary sound from the huge rock wall that scared us a little and started to paddle very quickly running into some trees and the rock wall. There were so many crabs on the trees roots if you got to close and it was very creepy. We got to some very open water though and enjoyed a little more of our relaxing time just sitting within the beauty of it all. We got back to the boat and dried off a little, at this point I was ready for a nice, long nap. After a little bit the boat took off and I was up front with a bunch of people feeling the warm(weirdly warm) breeze as the boat moved along. It was weird seeing all these huge patches of litter throughout the water and I wanted to jump in and clean it all up. I got to know some of the girls from the study abroad program very well and they are all so nice even though my spanish is much worse than theirs. Once we disembarked the boat we headed back to our resort and had a great dinner. That night I then hung out with a bunch of the study abroad kids on the beach. We were all dancing (well I was trying to dance, I'm not very good yet.) to lovely spanish music and went for a late night swim at like two in the morning. The water was still just as warm as it was during the day and I loved it. The next morning was our last time eating breakfast on the beach. We had a free day this sunday and got to enjoy everything around us however we wanted. I ended up taking the bus trip into town and walking around. I then went to buy a painting with this one girl, Olivia, and we missed the bus back by five minutes. We could have walked back to the hotel, it would have only been twenty minutes but we took a motor concho instead. A regular concho is like taking a cab but a motor concho is on a motorcycle. I was very scared because there would be three of us on this one motorcycle but near the end I didn’t even have to hold on and was completely fine. We got back to the resort and I had a nice lunch, packed up all my stuff and took one last dip into the pool. We then had to head back to Santiago, another four hour bus ride. It had been a perfect weekend and I will never forget the memories I was able to make on that trip. I had gotten to do so many things that weekend that I had never dreamed of. 

On monday we headed off to school again and had a review for the quiz we would be taking the next day. Just like in the U.S….. gross. Quizzes and tests are never my favourite thing. The only difference here is our grades don’t matter like they did in a high school class. If we do bad we will just have to go over what we had already learned these first three weeks. Today (tuesday) we took the quiz and when I handed mine in when I thought I was done, she gave it back to me saying I needed to fix somethings, which most teachers usually don’t do. I don’t think I did very well on the whole thing but tomorrow we have an oral quiz. Hopefully I will be able to do a little better on the oral quiz than the written one. 

Monday was the first day I started to participate in my community service work. I started at an after school program for kids. I helped them with there homework, it was in english thank goodness. If I ever tried to talk to the kids in Spanish they would always say they could speak english. This was not the place for practicing my spanish. It was a great jump into more of the culture here though.

 Today I headed off to a place called Rosa’s orphanage where no one speaks English, so it was a great place for me to get some spanish practice. This is an orphanage founded by an amazing lady that started it all without a penny or peso to her name. She had been working at a different orphanage but they wouldn’t take in kids with special needs so Rosa knew that the lord would help her with starting her one place because it was what was the right thing to do. Now she takes in all the children including ones that have disabilities and is such a caring, compassionate women.Some of the kids there took English class but non of them really spoke English and it was very fun and a little hard to have a conversation with them. All the kids there were very cute and easy to get along with because here in the DR there is no such thing as stinger danger.  II was a little nervous to help there because my spanish is not that great yet but it was no problem once I got there I was asking all the basic questions and talking a little more than that. I only had a little trouble when the kids would ask me questions. It was a great place to help out with, nothing was expected of me and I got to spend time with such great kids. I was talking to a couple girls about there favourite music and one of them had a favourite band from the U.S., of course it was One Direction. A bunch of the girls knew there songs and would start singing them. It was a day maker for sure, except for when I had a close call with my camera. One little girl decided it would be fun to play with my camera and when I tried to get it back she thought there was nothing better to do than throw it. When I picked it up it wouldn’t turn on and I was freaking out a little inside but telling all the kids that it was no problem and there was another one I could use. Finally I got it to come back on, thank goodness for that because all the pictures I had taken from that weekend and the selfies the kids had been taking were not yet uploaded onto my computer. That just goes to show that I shouldn’t let the kids play with things that I really need on this trip. That was only one little bump in the road there and wasn’t a huge deal, so many good things were there and out weighed the bad by SOOO much.

Next weekend I will be going down to Santo Domingo for a huge music festival. There’s going to so many people there and I am so excited and yes a little scared.  I’ll be going down on saturday so I can see Bruno Mars, Daddy Yankee and a bunch of other great singers. I’m planing on it being a super exciting, fun jump into more of the culture down here!

Everything on this trip had been amazing this far and I know that there is more to come and can’t wait for it all to crash over me.