The biggest cultural difference that I’ve found so far is the treatment that teenagers/women receive walking down the street (I don’t think that sentence was grammatically correct, but just go with it. I’m not an English major, claro).
It starts with the stares. Dios, the stares. Okay, yes, I’m quite noticeably pale, even by American standards. I don’t think I’ve heard an original joke in years (“You’re a ghost!” “Look, underwater you glow” “Are you allergic to the sun?” “Do you ever leave your house?”) but I’ve gotten used to it.
However, there are other girls in my program who are white (but still “tan”, by American standards) and they get stared at too. And then called out to. I’ll be walking down the road and I’ll hear someone on the other side of the road call out “Ayyyy Americanaaaa”. They’re actually also pretty unoriginal, most of the things that are called out to us girls are along the lines of…
”Haylo Americana ‘ow are ‘ou?”
”’ou are very preety, bring me to America?”
”Hola mi visa!” (Marrying an American is one of the easier ways to get a visa)
There’s even a little song that some guys sing: “Quiero una Americana pa’mangar mi visa, pa’mangar, pa’mangar, pa'mangar mi visa” (loosely, “I want an American girl so I can scheme? my way into a visa” yeah, okay too many words but that’s pretty much what it means)
Of course, we’ve been told millions of times just to ignore the guys. It’s hard though, because we usually just end up laughing at them. It’s all talk, and I’ve never actually been approached by someone in a creepy way. I don’t know anyone else who has been either. Just to give all the family out there a piece of mind.
While the university students don’t treat us girls like this, we still get stared at all the time. By boys and girls. Honestly, sometimes it makes me wonder if they’ve ever seen a white person before. Which I know isn’t the case, but it’s kind of hard not to think that when you’re walking through campus and every guy and girl locks their eyes onto you for an uncomfortable amount of time. You would think that I had like, blue skin. Or was wearing a giant sombrero. Or something of that sort. (Oddly, I've been doing the same thing when I see other Americans. So I guess I'm not really helping the situation much)
Most of the students that I’ve talked to have been nice. When I ask for directions I always end up in the right place, even though I sometimes seem to catch students by surprise when I just pop up next to them and say something along the lines of ”…Hola…uhh…tengo una pregunta…dónde está ____?” But for the most part, it’s been cool.
There’s also a large group of student volunteers who help us extranjeros get used to the city and the school. They’re a dynamic group and pretty cool.
When I was here last summer, I heard a lot about the racism that a lot of the Haitian people in the Dominican Republic have to deal with. I saw a little it of it firsthand, but not a lot. Maybe it was because I was so close to the border last time, but here in Santiago I don’t see much of it at all. In fact, many many many of the people that I’ve met here outside of school are Haitian. My friends and I somehow end up frequenting the same places as a group of Haitian musicians, and I’ve really enjoyed speaking in French with them. Most of the guys in this group speak four languages- French, Spanish, Creole, and English.
I actually just ran into a Haitian guy a few minutes ago while I was sitting here in this café. I heard him speaking French, so I looked over at him for a second. He said “We’re not talking about you, hun” and I told him that I just heard someone speaking in French and that caught me by surprise. We then had a 15 minute conversation in a mix of French, Spanish, and English.
It’s been pouring here all day. Unfortunately, I did not think to bring an umbrella to this country, and the one umbrella that my host fam has is with my mom. And my 7pm class is far, far away. I had swim class at 10 this morning at the absolutely farthest part of campus from my apartment. It started to rain really hard while I was there, and I was definitely not looking forward to the 20 minute walk home in a tank top and skirt. However, a group of 3 students from my class drove by me as I was leaving and gave me a ride home. Turns out they were freshmen, and it was their 3rd day too.
Apparently there's a hurricane running around the Caribbean someplace, but no one here seems to be that concerned. Which is also so different from the states- we get warnings on our TV when there's a minor storm 200 miles away.
So yeah, I guess to sum up: some of the guys are creepy but you need to ignore it, most of the students are cool, the Haitians are very gifted in the language-learning department, and I wish I had A. an umbrella and B. a car.
It starts with the stares. Dios, the stares. Okay, yes, I’m quite noticeably pale, even by American standards. I don’t think I’ve heard an original joke in years (“You’re a ghost!” “Look, underwater you glow” “Are you allergic to the sun?” “Do you ever leave your house?”) but I’ve gotten used to it.
However, there are other girls in my program who are white (but still “tan”, by American standards) and they get stared at too. And then called out to. I’ll be walking down the road and I’ll hear someone on the other side of the road call out “Ayyyy Americanaaaa”. They’re actually also pretty unoriginal, most of the things that are called out to us girls are along the lines of…
There’s even a little song that some guys sing: “Quiero una Americana pa’mangar mi visa, pa’mangar, pa’mangar, pa'mangar mi visa” (loosely, “I want an American girl so I can scheme? my way into a visa” yeah, okay too many words but that’s pretty much what it means)
Of course, we’ve been told millions of times just to ignore the guys. It’s hard though, because we usually just end up laughing at them. It’s all talk, and I’ve never actually been approached by someone in a creepy way. I don’t know anyone else who has been either. Just to give all the family out there a piece of mind.
While the university students don’t treat us girls like this, we still get stared at all the time. By boys and girls. Honestly, sometimes it makes me wonder if they’ve ever seen a white person before. Which I know isn’t the case, but it’s kind of hard not to think that when you’re walking through campus and every guy and girl locks their eyes onto you for an uncomfortable amount of time. You would think that I had like, blue skin. Or was wearing a giant sombrero. Or something of that sort. (Oddly, I've been doing the same thing when I see other Americans. So I guess I'm not really helping the situation much)
Most of the students that I’ve talked to have been nice. When I ask for directions I always end up in the right place, even though I sometimes seem to catch students by surprise when I just pop up next to them and say something along the lines of ”…Hola…uhh…tengo una pregunta…dónde está ____?” But for the most part, it’s been cool.
There’s also a large group of student volunteers who help us extranjeros get used to the city and the school. They’re a dynamic group and pretty cool.
When I was here last summer, I heard a lot about the racism that a lot of the Haitian people in the Dominican Republic have to deal with. I saw a little it of it firsthand, but not a lot. Maybe it was because I was so close to the border last time, but here in Santiago I don’t see much of it at all. In fact, many many many of the people that I’ve met here outside of school are Haitian. My friends and I somehow end up frequenting the same places as a group of Haitian musicians, and I’ve really enjoyed speaking in French with them. Most of the guys in this group speak four languages- French, Spanish, Creole, and English.
I actually just ran into a Haitian guy a few minutes ago while I was sitting here in this café. I heard him speaking French, so I looked over at him for a second. He said “We’re not talking about you, hun” and I told him that I just heard someone speaking in French and that caught me by surprise. We then had a 15 minute conversation in a mix of French, Spanish, and English.
It’s been pouring here all day. Unfortunately, I did not think to bring an umbrella to this country, and the one umbrella that my host fam has is with my mom. And my 7pm class is far, far away. I had swim class at 10 this morning at the absolutely farthest part of campus from my apartment. It started to rain really hard while I was there, and I was definitely not looking forward to the 20 minute walk home in a tank top and skirt. However, a group of 3 students from my class drove by me as I was leaving and gave me a ride home. Turns out they were freshmen, and it was their 3rd day too.
Apparently there's a hurricane running around the Caribbean someplace, but no one here seems to be that concerned. Which is also so different from the states- we get warnings on our TV when there's a minor storm 200 miles away.
So yeah, I guess to sum up: some of the guys are creepy but you need to ignore it, most of the students are cool, the Haitians are very gifted in the language-learning department, and I wish I had A. an umbrella and B. a car.
