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.
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