7 Enero
This morning we had the same breakfast as yesterday, fresh pineapple and strawberries and toast with jelly. Today we got to go to the university (PUCMM.. Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra is the name of my school) to learn about what school would be like. The campus is gorgeous, it has green grass all around and a lot of plants and trees. We had to take a placement test today along with an oral interview with one of the teachers, hopefully that went ok. I got to talk to more of the ISA people in my group and its fun to hear where they’re from and get to know kids, it’ll be especially fun when we get to spend more time than just orientation together this weekend when we go to La Romana. We came back to our house for lunch (on the drive home we saw a man selling puppies.. literally the size of beanie babies, Victor’s aunt had one that small too, adorable) and had a different kind of rice and beans combo, avocado, different vegetables, and a dish with meat, cheese, and platanos amarillos (yellow plantains) that was similar to goulash, lasagna, and tacos mixed together.. fabulous. Also, I find it interesting that at meals everyone gets up after we pray and walks around the table to get everything they want and then sit back down to eat. Just different. After lunch I read and did a little more yoga on the roof and just relaxed until our afternoon orientation session. We got more information about PUCMM and took a tour with some students. Me encanta la Universidad, it feels like going to school in a jungle or a huge garden. When we got back Rosie and I worked on our vocab a little more and then went with mama, Stephanie, y Jennifer to the church where they had two bands that were soo good. The first had a piano, guitar, bass, drums, and two singers and the second was more like typical Spanish music with different types of drums and other instruments (I don’t know what they’re called, but I’m sure I’ll find out as we learn more about the musica.) It was so fun, everyone dances and sings and claps and it was way fun to do something with “the locals” (paige, ha). The singers were great too and I tried to understand what they were saying and could some of the time but songs are even harder than normal conversations so hopefully that will improve too. We just got back around ten and now we’re going to eat dinner.. mucho mas tarde que los estados unidos. Tomorrow we have a bus tour of the city and get to pick our classes so that should be fun! I’m getting better at initiating conversations with my padres y hermanas which helps me practice and have more confidence when I talk to people who can actually speak Spanish because it’s already flowing pretty well when I talk to other students. I’m completely exhausted by 10 because I’ve been thinking so much but I’m glad that Rosie’s really dedicated to really learning too so hopefully we can be real people. Woo!