La Gente

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.

La Capital

Saturday morning at about 645am, we left for Santo Domingo (the capital). The bus ride is about 2, 2.5 hours long, so it wasn’t that bad.

The first thing we did (after getting through immense amounts of traffic) was take a walking tour of the city.


Where the president works, but not lives


Honestly, I don’t remember what this was but it’s really old


Palacjo Virreninal de Diego Colón (where Columbus’s son lived)


The Caribbean, outside the aquarium

We visited Los Tres Ojos (the Three Eyes), which are a series of underground caves about 20 minutes from the city.


Caves


Columbus’s “Lighthouse”

After checking into the hotel, we had a ton of time to walk around the city. Our hotel was right on El Conde, which is a long road full of shops and food and street vendors. It used to be accessible by car, but now it’s a pedestrian zone.


Limoncillos bought on the street


Street chess game


El Conde

On our way out of the city on Sunday we stopped at Krispy Kreme! It’s the first one in the country, and it just opened on Tuesday. Needless to say, the line was awful- 50 minutes.

We also stopped at the zoo (why not? We were already running 3 hours behind schedule).


Tiger. Obviously.

I liked Santo Domingo a lot, and I’m actually going to try and go back on Friday for the afternoon to talk to someone, anyone at the French Embassy.
I’ve tried calling the embassy from my cell here, but I just keep getting sent around in circles by menu. Santo Domingo is considered long distance, so it also really eats up the pesos on my cell phone. However, it only costs about $7 each way to take a bus there. And I don’t have classes Fridays, so it’s a perfect time to go. Keep your fingers crossed.

Clases y Comida

I’ve resorted to writing blogs in advance on my laptop in Word, then posting them once I have internet. So far, I’ve found only a few places to get online:

The ISA Office on one of their PCs

Square One, which is a café in the Shell gas station. However, I always feel bad for just going in there and sitting down with my computer.

El Fogón, a bar right by my apartment. But… it’s always really busy and loud.

The university. Which is right across the street, but the wifi can be kind of spotty. There is a library, but it’s on the other end of campus and there’s a dress code.

It’s not like the lack-of-internet is really getting to me. For some reasons, I’m pretty glad that I don’t have it in my apartment. Otherwise, I’d be online all the time instead of exploring the city with people, reading the newspaper everyday, or watching E! and MTV in Spanish (hey, it’s still practice). However, it would definitely be so much easier to stay in touch with friends and family if I had wifi here.

Yesterday I chose my classes. I already had a bunch pre-approved at school, but I had no idea when they’d be, etc. Fortunately, no students in the study abroad programs ever have classes on Fridays. Which is awesome, and it’ll make it much easier to travel (and possibly work). As of now, I’m taking 6 classes:

Latin American Film and Society

Teaching English as a Second Language

Advanced Spanish Writing (this is the only one that has yet to be approved by my home university. I hope to hear from the coordinator soon)

Latin American Culture and Society

Dance

Swimming

Unlike most (if not all?) universities in the US, the class schedule is pretty random. I have most of them twice a week, but they’re at different times. Example: one of my classes is at 2pm on Tuesdays for 2 hours, and then at noon for an hour on Thursdays. I start classes on Thursday, and then this weekend we’re all going to Santo Domingo (the capital) for a night.

The food here is pretty different too. While there are McDonalds, Chilis, Burger Kings, etc, I’ve yet to go. Lunch is the main meal of the day here, and usually is composed of 4 or 5 dishes. It’s eaten between 12-1, and dinner (which is considerably smaller) is usually between 730-830.

I’ve liked pretty much all of the food here, so far. Two main things that need mentioned, however, are:
Empanadas- My DR book describes them as “ground beef filled pastries” (yeah I know it sounds nasty) but I’ve mostly seen them “pizza flavored” and filled with chicken. And when they say “pastries”, they mean flaky-goodness not unlike pie crust. And fried. Mm mmm…
Yaroa- Composed of multiple layers, including: French fries. A mix of chicken/onion/peppers. Barbeque sauce? Ketchup? Cheese. Then put in an oven for a minute so that the cheese is all melty. SO terrible for you but also SO AMAZING. I went to get some with one of my host brothers on Monday, then I dragged two of my friends for some more last night.


Yaroa

These two are mainly sold at food carts and stands, kind of like you’d see at a fair.

Other foods that I’ve had a lot for lunch:
Crema de Habichuelas Rojos- Creamed red bean soup (usually on top of rice)
Bistec encebollado- Beefsteak with onions
Aguacate- Avocado. Cut up into pieces with onion and covered in salt.
Plántanos- Usually sliced, fried, and covered in salt.
Yucca?- Like a potato, but not. It’s hard to explain. It’s good though.

Also, there’s also at least one salad with lunch, and rice. Rice is big here. Unsurprisingly.

That’s all for now… I don’t really know when I’ll have the chance to post this, but hopefully relatively soon.

Hola Mi Visa

Okay this has to be quick because I'm eating lunch if a few minutes-

Saturday, our group went up to Puerta Plata and Cabarete. Puerta Plata is kind of a touristy town in the north- on the way, we stopped at this incline-type thing that brought us up the side of a hugeeeee mountain. I forgot to bring my camera, so I'll steal a few pics from online-


Longggg ride up. /terrifying

After that, we passed through Sosúa and ended up in Cabarete.


It actually IS as nice as it looks

We hung out for a few hours there- the water is so warm- before getting back on the bus for a bumpy 1.5 hour ride back to Santiago.

Yesterday, I went with my host mother to her mothers house, which is close to La Vega (about 30 minutes away). Every Sunday their family gets together for lunch. It varies, but yesterday there were 30 people- my host mother is 1 of 10.

This morning I took a tour of the city in the conchos. How to describe conchos... they're cars that drive certain routes (labelled by letters) and, for about 15 pesos (.50 USD) you're stuffed into a car with 5 other people and driven down the route. And it's hot in the car. And the best drivers are about the same as the worst drivers in the US. But it's cheap, and the best way to get around.

Later, I pick out my classes- school starts Thursday!

¡Aquí Estoy!

Excuse the potentially corny entry title- there will probably be many to come.

Well, let me recap:
I got to Hancock “International” (read: USA/Canada) Airport at about 5am yesterday
morning. My flight to JFK left at 6am, and was pretty short. Flying over Manhattan at sunrise was pretty cool though. I killed a few hours in JFK, lugging around my bags and checking every 30 seconds to make sure I still had my passport with me. We were supposed to leave at 920am, but it was more like 950 because there were some Emergency Exit Row issues.

I can say with a good amount of certainty that I was the only person on that 60, 70-person flight who wasn’t at least part Dominincano. I sat next to a guy named Fernando, who lives in the Bronx but was born in the DR, and he was returning to DJ at a friend’s wedding. He was pretty cool, and him and his girlfriend (who actually works for JetBlue) helped me through the airport once we got off the flight.

First thing that surprised me about the DR (besides the heat. Oh, my God, the heat): the free rum upon arrival. Right past immigration, there was a woman at a stand with a bunch of little Styrofoam cups filled with rum & Coke and rum & Sprite. I had part of one- not bad- but then needed to go get my luggage before anything happened to them (I spent most of yesterday with a heightened sense of paranoia).


Airport in Santiago

I got picked up by ISA after a few minutes, and was driven to my family’s apartment, which is very, very close to the university. My host mother is very nice, and had prepared a large late-lunch for me. When I applied to the program, I was a vegetarian (and therefore indicated that I didn’t eat meat/fish on my housing app). However, once I started eating meat again, I emailed ISA to tell them, but they apparently didn’t pass it on the to family. Anyway, anyway, my host mother was ecstatic once I told her that I could eat more than salad while I was here.

Her son lives in the house too, and we went for a run around the university once he got home from work. Despite running roughly 12 miles a week (it’s not a lot, but it’s something) all spring/summer, I was NOT prepared to run full speed in 90-degree heat. Especially on 5 hours of sleep. But I did my best.

Side note- I have a TV in my room, and as I unpacked I watched some Project Runway and E! True Hollywood Stories. These shows were in English with Spanish subtítulos, but most stations are in Spanish.

This morning I got up at 730, read the paper (which is swear is easier to understand than most of the passages in my Spanish textbooks)… (did anyone know that Wyclef Jean is running for president of Haïti?!), and explored a bit the area around the apartment. There’s a Shell gas station nearby with a café inside, so I was able to use the internet for a bit there before my computer started to run out of battery. There’s also wifi on the university campus, so I’ll probably end up spending a lot of time blogging/Facebooking/emailing/etc from there.

It’s only noon- it’s crazy to think that exactly a week ago, I was still making chicken/tuna/albacore tuna/egg/crab meat/fruit/fruited chicken pasta/vegetable pasta/Asian chicken salad at the café. (Not all of those ingredients were in one salad, claro, I just made a lot of salads). At 3, I have orientation at ISA’s office and I’ll meet all the other American students.

I'll post some photos another time- I think I have to head back for lunch soon-

It’s really, really hot here.

Un petit problème...

...qui, en fait, est assez grand.

Well, okay I'll actually get to that later. First of all, let me start by saying that I'm leaving in a week. I fly to NYC at some ungodly hour next Wednesday morning, and then hang out in JFK before hopping on my flight to the DR. I've got all my housing info, and I've found out about my fam. I'm not going to share too much right now, because I don't know how comfortable they'd feel with that. Call me paranoid, whatever.

I live literally 2 minutes from the university, which is awesome, because I'm always running late. I still don't know anything about my classes... or when classes actually start. I also haven't really started packing.



I also need to start really reviewing for my Spanish placement exam. I'm currently watching Juno in Spanish, which I'm telling myself actually counts as practice.

Okay well that's it for the DR, but yesterday I realized a possible HUGE problem with my study abroad-ing in France. Let me break it down.

I need a visa to study for more than 3 months in France

I can't apply for this visa until I've been accepted into my French program

I won't be accepted until sometime this fall, while I'm in the DR
and, here's the kicker,

I almost most most most almost definitely need to apply for my visa in the United States <---problem

So what are my options? Well, right now I'm been calling and trying to contact pretty much everyone in the country who might have an idea of how to go about this. One my my friends has an In with a guy who works for the consulate, and I left him a message today, so I'm hoping he'll call me back tomorrow... if not, I will continue to spam his voicemail box (or is it voice mailbox? I never really knew). I've also left many half-in-hysterics messages to my university's study abroad office, CIEE (the company doing my France program) and ISA (the company doing my DR program).

So I'm really really really hoping I figure this out before I leave, or at least have a better idea of what I need to do, as to prevent myself from going absolutely insane. But for this moment in time, I'm just going to continue enjoying two of my favorite things- Ellen Page, and movies in different languages.