The Plan

Okay, so... I'm taking a break from Pennsylvania for a year. Instead I'm spending the first half of the school year in the Dominican Republic and the second half in France.

Let's start with the DR. I'll be in Santiago from mid-August to mid-December through ISA.



Santiago:

2nd largest city in the DR

Northwestern part of the island

Founded in 1495

1 million inhabitants

It's a couple hours south of Monte Cristi, where I spent 10 days volunteering last summer.

I'll be taking classes at La Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (or PUCMM, they pronounce it "Pucamaima"). I don't know my schedule yet- but I did send in a list of the classes (all en Español) that I was interested in taking. These include...

Latin American Culture + Society

Hispanic + Caribbean Culture and Society

Teaching English as a Second Language

Gender + Society in the Hispanic Caribbean

Swimming

Sculpture

Latin American Film + Society

Artistic Drawing
I'm obviously not taking all of those... I can only take 2 upper-level classes for my Spanish minor, my school has an "In-Residence Rule" that prevents me from taking too many of my classes for my major/minor outside of the university.

In addition to taking classes and living with a host family (did I not mention that yet? I'm living with a host family), I'm also going to be volunteering through ELAP. Or maybe I'm interning. I don't really know, but it cost me money so maybe I'll say that I'm interning, just for the sake of the title.
ANYWAY, I will be helping lead English classes for kids? teens? adults? I don't know? up to 20 hours a week. So that'll be interesting/different.

I'm leaving in a bit over a month, so I don't really have much more to write about for now... but I'll leave you with some lovely photos of la República Dominicana.


The Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration