(Last night)
Tonight was so much fun. We went to a bar that was close to the University, so in walking distance, and it’s the first time Rosie and I have walked anywhere for real so it was pretty exciting. Joe, a guy from our group, lives on our way to school/only about two blocks from our house so we walked with him to the bar to meet almost everyone from our group. The bar was really cool, it was all open (aka just like a roof, you don’t go inside to the bar) and had a dj—who played a lot of American music so we knew probably more than half of the songs—but it was really fun to listen to the Spanish music too because it has hoppin beats. (and yes, it was yet another place where we were definitely Americans, but that seems like it will happen everywhere so we just had a good time anyway) Me gusta presidente mucho, we have to get up tomorrow to meet the group so I only had three but it was way fun to hang out with everyone on a non-academic basis. (and I think we figured out that the beers were about $2ish each.. which is much better than the $10 beers in Europe last year at this time). The people in our group seem really cool and up for doing a lot of stuff and going out a lot and trying new things and dancing even though we’re the whitest people in the bar. There’s one girl, Marta, from Guadalajara, Mexico who can actually dance and we all look ridiculous but the music is so much more fun than club scoes or other stuff at home (oh the roscoes, probs will be a major let down after this trip but esta bien). We went between 8:30 and 9 and most people go out much later so it was pretty slow at first but as we were leaving it was starting to pick up and people were starting to dance more. I’m suuper excited for our dance class just so I can pretend to know what im doing a little bit because I just look suuper white and out of place, and a lot of people from my group are taking the class so we can all learn together. Time to go to bed so I can wake up for our tour, les amo!

(y hoy!)
Today we had fruit loops (cereal de fruta) and fruit for breakfast before we went to the ISA office for our tour. Los estudiantes de apollo (students from the university that volunteer to teach exchange students about the school and the city) took us out in small groups to learn how to use the public transportation. There are taxis, guaguas (Dominican word for bus), and conchos (which are kind of like taxis but have specific roads that they always drive on, so more like a bus but in a small car). We took a concho into the city and quickly found out how popular they are.. they drive six people besides the driver (so seven total people in a small car.. driver, two in front, four in back) which is crazy tight when its so hot but it only costs 13 pesos, aka about 15 cents. We went to two different bus stations and our guide Pamela showed us how to use the buses to travel to other cities on the weekend. We took another concho to the calle del sol, a busy street with lots of shops and vendors. We went into La Sirena which is essentially a wal-mart and has everything. Next we went to the Secretaria de Estado de Cultura, basically a museum that brings in different exhibits to reflect Dominican and Santiago culture. It was right next to this really beautiful garden, we didn’t want to feel like tourists with our guide so we’re going to go back to look around and take pictures. It was really fun and interesting to go to the more downtown section of Santiago, there’s definitely a lot of poverty but it’s still really cool to see everything. We took a concho back to the ISA office then walked home for lunch. Mama made tostones and rice with tuna, so good.
After lunch Rosie took a nap and I went and met up with some people from our group to go to the supermercado. We took a concho (even though my group almost got lost, luckily we saw the other kids because the city takes a huge loop and I still wasn’t sure where we were going but it worked out) there and people bought various things, I mostly just went for the experience and bought more lotion in case I burn at the playa tomorrow. (don’t worry ma, my sunblock is packed). OHHH and you’re never going to believe what they have a ton of at the supermercado.. CLOSE UP TOOTHPASTE!!!!!1!!1ONE!!! I’ve never seen more than four tubes at once and only at Rochester target and there were at least 20 tubes of it.. so if the three tubes I brought runs out I can still brush my teeth as much as I want. (People judged me when I got so excited.. but they’ll learn about my cinnamon/toothbrushing addiction soon enough). We took the conchos back to school and Joe, the boy I walked there with, went to buy a phone so I was just going to walk back by myself. I assumed I’d be fine finding my way since I’d walked it a few times.. semi-wrong about that one. I wandered around for probably 20 minutes until I finally figured out that I didn’t walk far enough on one of the streets. It’s hard enough being lost when everything looks the same, but trying to walk fast when you’re sweating profusely and the same people yelling “gringa gringa!” (means white, blond girl) and hissing and whistling and yelling and honking at me because I was taking literal laps in the neighbor hood, made me a little nervous. But, no worries, I made it home alright and now I’ll be able to make it every time.
After I got back and cooled off, Rosie and I watched the discovery channel con madre y padre (about the apocalypse.. I could actually understand quite a bit of it) and then madre, Rosie, and I watched Hanging Up (or something like that) with meg ryan and lisa kudrow which was dubbed over in Spanish but also had Spanish subtitles so I actually did really well understanding it. We’re going to try to watch more tv (never have I said that in my life..) because it’s actually really good practice to try to understand people when they talk fast and try to learn vocab.
I just got done doing yoga on the roof while the sun was setting.. soo gorgeous and relaxing. I still can’t believe that I’m actually here and doing all of this. Tomorrow we leave for La Romana at 7:00 am (blehh) and we’re stopping in Santo Domingo for lunch then getting there in the early afternoon. Padre told us today that the water is super clear and clean and gorgeous.. literally can’t wait. We get back late Sunday night so I’ll write more then or on Monday after classes. I hope the weather isn’t too cold, I’ll take lots of pictures of the beach for you :).