11-17 de febrero
Sorry for the long break in between posts, I’ve started to be really busy lately and got way behind so here’s last week and I’ll post the rest soon! I also apologize in advance.. this is going to be an extremely long post.. it happens. Last Wednesday was my second day of volunteering in the hogar (hogar = home). After more than a week of constant rain, I finally saw sunlight at my house about half an hour before I was supposed to leave. So, naturally I assumed the rain was done (also I decided I didn’t need my umbrella).. completely wrong. I got in the concho and halfway there it started pouring again. There are two different conchos that run on the route that I needed to take so when I got in I asked the driver if they were going past the hogar emiliano tardiff and he said yes. When we got to the road that he told me it was on I got out, in the pouring rain, and walked up the street to discover he had dropped me off at the colegio (high school) emiliano tardiff. I walked around the neighborhood for awhile because I knew I was close, but got real discouraged real quick with the rain so I called Jonathan and he didn’t know where I was so I just went back to the main road and had to explain to another concho driver (there were about 5 other Dominicans in the car too) that I was lost (and completely drenched) so he took me to the place and didn’t make me pay because I was so pathetic. Finally I got to the hogar but you have to ring the buzzer to have someone come let you in. However, no one came to answer the buzzer and after about 10 minutes of more rain I was about to leave because I didn’t know what to do and finally some kids came to get me. The kids who are there in the afternoon are the older ones and they just looked at me like “how is this girl supposed to teach us anything” but because of the rain we couldn’t go outside to do sports so I played with the little babies for about half an hour and then left. Better luck next time.
That night we went out to Fogon to watch karaoke night (like Spanish love song karaoke.. hilarious) because Randi’s mom was getting married so she was leaving for four days and we had to get out of the house after all the rain. I saw a ton of my Haitian friends and it was just really refreshing to just hang out with a bunch of people. Angelica even sang which was hilarious but so much fun.
Thursday was absolutely gorgeous and the worst day to have class from 8am to 6pm but on the way to school after lunch Rosie videotaped the walk to campus and I made fun of her because anyone who watches it will probably get motion sickness. That night we went over to JB’s apartment to do a power hour (take a shot of beer every minute for an hour) but we only got through about 20 minutes before all of the beer was gone because instead of using shot glasses we just had little plastic cups and everyone got a little too excited. The guys went to go buy more and we never really resumed but did have a very successful dance party that lasted for a really long time. Afterwards on our way home at 2am we decided to stop and get burritos at this restaurant that was still open which seemed like a good choice until mine tasted like it had cream cheese in it and did not sit well with me. After walking everyone home (Joe and I live the farthest away so we walked all the girls home), I texted Rosie to come back (she had stayed to hang out with the guys but getting up at 8am and cocktailing doesn’t mix well for me so I wanted to go to bed) but she had fallen asleep waiting for me and didn’t actually end up getting my texts until the morning so I had to wait up until like 4:30 until I called her from the home phone (which you are not supposed to do bc calling a cell phone is like calling long distance but I didn’t have any minutes left on my cell phone, which never even happens but it was just an unlucky event) and we kind of got in trouble for leaving the alarm off for such a long time in the middle of the night but we got everything straightened out and now always both bring our keys.
Friday Rosie and I laid out all morning, did homework, napped, and ran in the afternoon, and then I went out with Brie, Angelica, Joe, Charlotte, Sally, and their language buddies from the university (you can sign up to have a ‘buddy’ so you help them with English and they help you with Spanish.. I don’t have one yet but just kind of latched on with their group). They were such nice guys and my first friends that weren’t Haitians that I’ve actually hung out with and haven’t just had a class with so that was fun. We went to a bar to get drinks before going out dancing, but while we were at the first bar someone stole one of the guy’s batteries out of his car. While trying to figure out what to do, a taxi drove by and was like “hey what do you guys need.. well hey I have a battery right here in my trunk if you want to buy it for 900 pesos..” sketchy so we think the taxi guy was the one who stole it and then just sold it back to him, but there was nothing else we really could have done. Once that mess was over we finally got to the club which was so much fun. It was super packed (which we were excited about, finally we got to go to a place where there were more people than just us) and it was like people our age up to people who were in their 60s. It was a really classy looking club, I wasn’t drinking at all so I don’t know how expensive the drinks were but there were like lounge rooms off of the dance floor and cool lights and I just felt really classy. They played reggaeton and techno but also bachata and meringue so I got to practice the moves I learned in class! We danced with the guys we went with and with a few random guys but it was really hard to try to talk to anyone because the music was so loud but it was still such a fun time to actually be able to dance. I got creeped on by a guy who was clearly older than 30 but it’s all part of the experience.
Saturday was Valentines Day and our mom set the table for lunch with red candles little teddy bears and gave us heart-shaped lollipops on our plates with a little valentine that the girls made us. In the afternoon Rosie and I walked around on Calle del Sol (there are a lot of shops and people and stuff) and didn’t buy anything but it was fun to just walk around and see more of the city. When we came back we helped Stephanie clean her room (she has soo many toys and Rosie and I ended up reliving our childhoods and playing with the toys rather than actually cleaning.. she had a skip-it and a million barbies) and it was actually really fun because for the first time both her and Jenny kind of opened up to us and acted like themselves around us so we were really excited. Although there were parties and stuff for Valentines day, Rosie and I decided to hang out with the fam and we watched Harry Potter 4 and go to bed at 11:30 which was probably the best vday I’ve ever had.
Sunday we left for Jarabacoa at 8:30 to go ride horses to a waterfall. The ranch was absolutely gorgeous, it was set like right in the mountains and all of the trees and plants were just amazing. We each got assigned a horse and a little boy who actually drove the horse and we just had to try not to fall off. These little boys were so cute and even though they were like 8 years old could just run and jump on the horses like a vault.. nuts. It was so fun to ride, we went through the woods a little bit and crossed a river (my orthodics got a little wet) and around on these trails until we got to the waterfall. The little boy just stripped down to their underwear and dove in off the cliffs.. we were a little more cautious because the water was freeezing but we walked across the pool thing the waterfall made to a smaller waterfall and the big falls were too strong and when we tried to walk up to them we just got pushed down the river. After swimming/playing at the falls for awhile we rode back to the ranch for lunch and pool time. It was really nice to finally have a pool to swim in after sweating every day for the last two months. In the afternoon we to La Vega for carnival. It was absolute madness, like a state fair/tgiving parade on drugs. Everyone wears these extreme costumes that are really bright colors and these giant masks that all look scary but are really cool. Different groups of people have different costumes and they get judged in Santo Domingo, Santiago, and La Vega and the best ones get to go to Santo Domingo for the final competition and they pick first, second, and third place. There were tons of people there to watch because La Vega is the place where it’s the biggest in the country. It was really cool, but the downside was getting literally hit by the guys in costumes.. they all have ropes connected to bags of sand or something and swing them and hit people in the ass and hips. Like really hard. I have a giant bruise the size of a softball on my hip still a week later. I still don’t understand why they do it but whenever I ask anyone they just say it’s tradition. They aren’t supposed to hit you while you’re on the sidewalk, but they would trick us into telling us they wouldn’t hit us so we could take a picture with them and then one of their friends would come up from the back during the picture and hit us really hard. Or little kids would just come onto the sidewalk and hit you where you just got hit.. it was ridiculous but quite an experience. Ha and one guy came over to Rosie to take a picture with her and afterwards he took her hand and pulled her into the street and was like ‘let’s you and me get out of here’ but in his mask and everything. Hilarious. And I think we didn’t make it any easier for ourselves because Rosie, Brie, and I stood together so they would come up to us and yell ‘rubia’ (blonde) and try to hit us on the sidewalk. I think we’re going to go back next weekend (it’s like 15 minutes from Santiago) because Randi had to go home for her mom’s wedding and it’s the last weekend so should be crazy so I’m pretty excited. Maybe a few presidentes with ease the pain next time. Ok sorry again for being a slacker and not writing, but I miss you all very much! BESOS.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
3 – 9 Febrero
This was our first real routine week of school with out holidays or random trips. It finally feels like this is where I go to school and that I’m not just some tourist wandering around (people still stare all the time but I don’t think there’s a chance for that to stop so oh well). Wednesday was Dimitri’s birthday so Brie and I went over to JB’s apartment to hang out with the guys. I tried Haitian rum.. I hate rum so it was terrible but not as bad as other kinds I’ve had. And Dimitri’s mom had made this like super sweet/thick as syrup/rum drink that I only had a sip of but was really good but I felt like I should have put it on pancakes. Thursday it rained all day and after a full day of class Rosie and I did not feel like going out so we watched Sex in the City for about three hours and went to bed early. Oh and for dinner that night mama made pancakes and the Dominican equivalent to oatmeal.. it’s a lot thinner and a lot sweeter and you drink it out of a coffee mug (Rosie didn’t understand this at first and put water in her oatmeal mug and mama laughed at us). It was good but too sweet to drink a lot of.
Friday it was still raining so we didn’t do much during the day, just homework and watched the Office for most of the day. That night we went to this Haitian boy Clement’s apartment to have a few cocktails and play spin the bottle like middle schoolers before we went to this house party where we met up with Brie, Joe, Charlotte, and Randi. There were a ton of people but it was all outside in the backyard this time but still had like a bunch of different DJs so that was cool. The police came I guess, which meant nothing except they had to stop playing the music so after lingering there for a little bit we all went back to JB’s apartment to hang out. Oh and we were just talking about cultural differences with them and they said that almost all guys lose their virginity between 11 and 13. I could not believe it but sex is just way more casual here which is just so weird and different for me. But, before we knew it it was 4am and we came home.. mama laughed at us the next day but was ok with it because usually parties don’t start until so late here.
Saturday was even more worthless than Friday.. since we went to bed at like 5am we didn’t wake up until like noon. After lunch we were still recovering from the evening before and tried to watch a movie in Rosie’s room but we both fell asleep for like three hours. Amazing how I can just always keep sleeping here when it’s raining because you really don’t feel like doing anything. When we woke up we went to La Sirena which is like a wal-mart type situation because we had planned to watch Mean Girls with Stephanie and Jenny and we wanted to make them puppy chow but couldn’t find any of the ingredients so we decided on rice crispy bars. And luckily for us looking like death, we ran into JB and Dimitri so that was pretty random/funny/unfortunate. When we got home we made our rice crispy bars and Jenny was at a friends house so we decided to watch the movie another night. That night Rosie and I went with JB, Dimitri, and Carlille to meet their friend Paolo and we hung out as his apartment.. oh my god. It was the nicest apartment I’ve ever seen in my life, and he lives there by himself. It was like extremely well decorated and clean and huge. His parents live in New York and he lived there with them for 15 years but decided to come back here for school. They were going out to a club but dropped us off before because we had to get up at 7:30 on Sunday.
After getting completely ready Sunday morning, Jonathan (our program director) called us a little after 8 saying that our excursion was cancelled because it was still pouring rain. Sooo let down, because I was way excited (we were going to go to Jarabacoa to ride horses to a waterfall then go to La Vega for carnival in the afternoon.. and those are all very outdoorsy activities so it doesn’t make sense to go when it’s raining but still) so naturally I went back to bed and took a three hour nap. I’m going to be so rested when I come back it’s going to be out of control. I watched two and a half movies with my mom after taking my second nap of the day and finishing my homework through Wednesday. Loser. We also watched the news which was really sad because tons of people’s houses were flooded and completely destroyed and normally it doesn’t rain this much. So sad.
This morning (Monday) was my first day of volunteering with the kids in the orphanage/home place. It was absolute chaos but I absolutely loved it. There were about thirty kids who “split” into two groups (they were all about eight years old or younger) of little kids who were going to do art and the older kids who we were going to teach English. There were four of us from the university, two for the little kids and two for the older ones. However, we were all in the same room that also had all the toys in it and it’s been raining for the past three days. And we didn’t get any training whatsoever, they literally were just like “ok here you go you have two hours teach them English good luck!” It was ridiculously crazy but the kids were all excited to learn it was just difficult with the environment. We managed to teach them “hello my name is..” and “what is your name” haha except when we had them practicing writing it I wrote my example as “my name is Krista” and all of the kids wrote “my name is Krista Juan” or whatever their name was because they didn’t understand that Krista wasn’t part of the English. Hilarious but I clearly need to improve my teaching techniques. After about 20 minutes of trying to get them to focus we gave up and just let them play and helped individual kids with what they wanted to practice. They know the “head shoulders knees and toes” song and I quizzed them on the individual parts and they only kind of knew them but it was cute to watch them go through the song in their heads to try to figure it out. I’m really excited to plan what to teach them and try to make fun activities because I think we’re really just on our own. I’m with the older kids on Wednesday afternoon so I don’t know if that will be harder or easier but I guess I’ll find out. I miss all of you so so much, les amo!
This was our first real routine week of school with out holidays or random trips. It finally feels like this is where I go to school and that I’m not just some tourist wandering around (people still stare all the time but I don’t think there’s a chance for that to stop so oh well). Wednesday was Dimitri’s birthday so Brie and I went over to JB’s apartment to hang out with the guys. I tried Haitian rum.. I hate rum so it was terrible but not as bad as other kinds I’ve had. And Dimitri’s mom had made this like super sweet/thick as syrup/rum drink that I only had a sip of but was really good but I felt like I should have put it on pancakes. Thursday it rained all day and after a full day of class Rosie and I did not feel like going out so we watched Sex in the City for about three hours and went to bed early. Oh and for dinner that night mama made pancakes and the Dominican equivalent to oatmeal.. it’s a lot thinner and a lot sweeter and you drink it out of a coffee mug (Rosie didn’t understand this at first and put water in her oatmeal mug and mama laughed at us). It was good but too sweet to drink a lot of.
Friday it was still raining so we didn’t do much during the day, just homework and watched the Office for most of the day. That night we went to this Haitian boy Clement’s apartment to have a few cocktails and play spin the bottle like middle schoolers before we went to this house party where we met up with Brie, Joe, Charlotte, and Randi. There were a ton of people but it was all outside in the backyard this time but still had like a bunch of different DJs so that was cool. The police came I guess, which meant nothing except they had to stop playing the music so after lingering there for a little bit we all went back to JB’s apartment to hang out. Oh and we were just talking about cultural differences with them and they said that almost all guys lose their virginity between 11 and 13. I could not believe it but sex is just way more casual here which is just so weird and different for me. But, before we knew it it was 4am and we came home.. mama laughed at us the next day but was ok with it because usually parties don’t start until so late here.
Saturday was even more worthless than Friday.. since we went to bed at like 5am we didn’t wake up until like noon. After lunch we were still recovering from the evening before and tried to watch a movie in Rosie’s room but we both fell asleep for like three hours. Amazing how I can just always keep sleeping here when it’s raining because you really don’t feel like doing anything. When we woke up we went to La Sirena which is like a wal-mart type situation because we had planned to watch Mean Girls with Stephanie and Jenny and we wanted to make them puppy chow but couldn’t find any of the ingredients so we decided on rice crispy bars. And luckily for us looking like death, we ran into JB and Dimitri so that was pretty random/funny/unfortunate. When we got home we made our rice crispy bars and Jenny was at a friends house so we decided to watch the movie another night. That night Rosie and I went with JB, Dimitri, and Carlille to meet their friend Paolo and we hung out as his apartment.. oh my god. It was the nicest apartment I’ve ever seen in my life, and he lives there by himself. It was like extremely well decorated and clean and huge. His parents live in New York and he lived there with them for 15 years but decided to come back here for school. They were going out to a club but dropped us off before because we had to get up at 7:30 on Sunday.
After getting completely ready Sunday morning, Jonathan (our program director) called us a little after 8 saying that our excursion was cancelled because it was still pouring rain. Sooo let down, because I was way excited (we were going to go to Jarabacoa to ride horses to a waterfall then go to La Vega for carnival in the afternoon.. and those are all very outdoorsy activities so it doesn’t make sense to go when it’s raining but still) so naturally I went back to bed and took a three hour nap. I’m going to be so rested when I come back it’s going to be out of control. I watched two and a half movies with my mom after taking my second nap of the day and finishing my homework through Wednesday. Loser. We also watched the news which was really sad because tons of people’s houses were flooded and completely destroyed and normally it doesn’t rain this much. So sad.
This morning (Monday) was my first day of volunteering with the kids in the orphanage/home place. It was absolute chaos but I absolutely loved it. There were about thirty kids who “split” into two groups (they were all about eight years old or younger) of little kids who were going to do art and the older kids who we were going to teach English. There were four of us from the university, two for the little kids and two for the older ones. However, we were all in the same room that also had all the toys in it and it’s been raining for the past three days. And we didn’t get any training whatsoever, they literally were just like “ok here you go you have two hours teach them English good luck!” It was ridiculously crazy but the kids were all excited to learn it was just difficult with the environment. We managed to teach them “hello my name is..” and “what is your name” haha except when we had them practicing writing it I wrote my example as “my name is Krista” and all of the kids wrote “my name is Krista Juan” or whatever their name was because they didn’t understand that Krista wasn’t part of the English. Hilarious but I clearly need to improve my teaching techniques. After about 20 minutes of trying to get them to focus we gave up and just let them play and helped individual kids with what they wanted to practice. They know the “head shoulders knees and toes” song and I quizzed them on the individual parts and they only kind of knew them but it was cute to watch them go through the song in their heads to try to figure it out. I’m really excited to plan what to teach them and try to make fun activities because I think we’re really just on our own. I’m with the older kids on Wednesday afternoon so I don’t know if that will be harder or easier but I guess I’ll find out. I miss all of you so so much, les amo!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
27 Enero
Ha so I’m sitting in my room and Jenny and Stephanie start listening to “candy shop” by 50 cent and singing along.. hilarious.
28 Enero – 2 Febrero
Sorry about the long break between posts, but now school is getting pretty routine so I’ll probably end up just posting at the beginning of every week. Last Thursday Charlotte, Randi, Angelica, Joe, Trena, and her friend went out to the monument. No one was really there (people usually go on Friday through Sunday nights, but JB told me that starting a few years ago a lot less people started hanging out there) but we bought a bottle and took shots and got a little silly and walked around for a bar by the monument and when we didn’t find anything we headed back to fogon, ha. There was almost no one there but there were a ton of people at the bar next door so we hung out there. There were quite a few CIEE (another study abroad program like ISA, we have classes with them and are white people with them so we’ve gotten to know some of them) people there and we talked to some Dominicans too. When that bar closed at 12 we were still weren’t ready to go home so we went to fogon and some guys watched us being drunk and bought us a beer and they were actually just really nice guys to talk to so that was fun. Friday Rosie and I laid out and we had an ISA meeting in the afternoon (they told us about our next excursion.. we’re going to ride horses to a waterfall!! And go to La Vega, the main place for carnival so I’m really excited) and we just did homework until that night. Brie and I went out with JB, Demitri, and Carlisle (he was at the party last weekend too) and we went to two bars by the monument. One was more like a dance club but it was really small and we were the only people in the bar but the second bar was more like an outdoor restaurant on a patio. I felt cool because it’s the first time in my life I’ve ordered a drink off of a menu. Brie and I got mojitos, me gusta mucho. We all went back to JB’s apartment and since the guys had been telling us how bad all the Dominican music is (they’re Haitian) we listed to traditional Haitian music. It was kind of like reggae sometimes but different other times, it was cool and different than anything else I’ve really heard. We came back at like 2 because Brie was going to the beach at 8 Saturday morning and I was going to the campo with my family but it was really fun to hang out with new people and just get to know those guys.
Saturday morning our whole family went out to the campo. It’s basically just a big amount of land that our family owns (with all of my dad’s brothers and stuff) that has rice and other fields and just land with a bunch of trees and hills and pastures for cows and stuff. It was absolutely gorgeous; there was a little cabin-like thing that just had a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom but had a really nice patio and the entire yard was shaded with trees so I was finally at a perfect temp all day. And it wasn’t just our family but (I think) most of my dad’s brothers and their families so there was another CIEE exchange student and two of Stephanie and Jenny’s cousins that were 5 and 7 and adorable. The little cousins had just gotten a dog that morning (it’s name was poochy) and it was soo tiny and adorable and it was so cute to watch the girls play with it.
There was a little “lagoon” aka pond that we went to and threw bread in the water and watched tons of fish eat it. Then papa took us around the land and we picked guavas off the trees. He had a huge long stick with prongs on the end of it and a huge knife so I figured he was just going to poke the fruit down but when we got to the first tree he literally jumped in the tree and started climbing to get the fruit down and threw it to us and we put it in bags. It was literally hilarious because I really did not expect him to be climbing the trees. We got to eat guava fresh off the tree; they gave us green ones first but those tasted like literal shit because they were so sour. But we tried yellow ones which are riper and those were much much better. We just walked (/hiked.. it was really hilly) around and papa gathered more fruit and we just looked around. And we got probably five feet from the cows that were grazing in the pasture so that was cool. We had lunch and cheesecake and dulce de leche but a solid version that was phenomenal and just basically relaxed the entire rest of the day. I played dominos with mama, Rosie, and Mary (the CIEE girl) and the three of us took naps in lawn chairs. The old men played dominos really fast and were really intense about it, maybe someday I can play with them. Oh and poochy kept trying to attack the horses (the dog was barely bigger than a hamster). Hilarious. Overall it was just such a relaxing day and so good to be out of the city and be able to be outside all day.
That night we tried to go out dancing, and yet again failed. We’re finally believe everyone who tells us that only couples go to dancing clubs, but it was still fun to watch. There was this crazzzy couple who like flipped each other around like the hand jive scene in Grease and the guy put an empty presidente bottle on the floor and balanced on it with one foot while the girl spun him around. Tough act to follow. So after watching for awhile we went back to the monument and there was actually a pretty big concert there with meringue, bachata, and salsa music so that was fun to watch. The concert didn’t last much longer after we got there but we just hung out at the monument for awhile and a few randoms talked to us which was interesting as always. Everyone went to a different dance club after but I was really tired from getting up early so I had them take me home and I just kind of hung out and went to bed pretty early.
Sunday rained all day and I had a ton of homework so that was kind of a lame day. We met at a sports bar to watch the super bowl though and that was really fun. I felt like such an adult drinking a beer in a bar watching the super bowl. Geek but still too excited to be legal (and less than a month until I’m literally legal woo!) And Randi is from Pittsburg so she was really pumped and even brought her fan towel thing that you wave at games. There weren’t very many people in the bar but it was still fun to just hang out and have a very American night haha. OH and right as the steelers were making the 100 yard drive the sound on all the TVs got switched to a palates infomercial so we could still see the game but had to listen to people doing palates for like fifteen minutes. Hilarious. They finally figured it out so we could hear Bruce so that was good. This is my first week that I’ll actually have all my classes so that’ll be different than everything feeling like a weekend. I still haven’t started volunteering yet.. but hopefully by next week I can because I really want to play with the kiddds. I hope all is well in the US, I miss you all very very much! Besos (kisses)!
Ha so I’m sitting in my room and Jenny and Stephanie start listening to “candy shop” by 50 cent and singing along.. hilarious.
28 Enero – 2 Febrero
Sorry about the long break between posts, but now school is getting pretty routine so I’ll probably end up just posting at the beginning of every week. Last Thursday Charlotte, Randi, Angelica, Joe, Trena, and her friend went out to the monument. No one was really there (people usually go on Friday through Sunday nights, but JB told me that starting a few years ago a lot less people started hanging out there) but we bought a bottle and took shots and got a little silly and walked around for a bar by the monument and when we didn’t find anything we headed back to fogon, ha. There was almost no one there but there were a ton of people at the bar next door so we hung out there. There were quite a few CIEE (another study abroad program like ISA, we have classes with them and are white people with them so we’ve gotten to know some of them) people there and we talked to some Dominicans too. When that bar closed at 12 we were still weren’t ready to go home so we went to fogon and some guys watched us being drunk and bought us a beer and they were actually just really nice guys to talk to so that was fun. Friday Rosie and I laid out and we had an ISA meeting in the afternoon (they told us about our next excursion.. we’re going to ride horses to a waterfall!! And go to La Vega, the main place for carnival so I’m really excited) and we just did homework until that night. Brie and I went out with JB, Demitri, and Carlisle (he was at the party last weekend too) and we went to two bars by the monument. One was more like a dance club but it was really small and we were the only people in the bar but the second bar was more like an outdoor restaurant on a patio. I felt cool because it’s the first time in my life I’ve ordered a drink off of a menu. Brie and I got mojitos, me gusta mucho. We all went back to JB’s apartment and since the guys had been telling us how bad all the Dominican music is (they’re Haitian) we listed to traditional Haitian music. It was kind of like reggae sometimes but different other times, it was cool and different than anything else I’ve really heard. We came back at like 2 because Brie was going to the beach at 8 Saturday morning and I was going to the campo with my family but it was really fun to hang out with new people and just get to know those guys.
Saturday morning our whole family went out to the campo. It’s basically just a big amount of land that our family owns (with all of my dad’s brothers and stuff) that has rice and other fields and just land with a bunch of trees and hills and pastures for cows and stuff. It was absolutely gorgeous; there was a little cabin-like thing that just had a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom but had a really nice patio and the entire yard was shaded with trees so I was finally at a perfect temp all day. And it wasn’t just our family but (I think) most of my dad’s brothers and their families so there was another CIEE exchange student and two of Stephanie and Jenny’s cousins that were 5 and 7 and adorable. The little cousins had just gotten a dog that morning (it’s name was poochy) and it was soo tiny and adorable and it was so cute to watch the girls play with it.
There was a little “lagoon” aka pond that we went to and threw bread in the water and watched tons of fish eat it. Then papa took us around the land and we picked guavas off the trees. He had a huge long stick with prongs on the end of it and a huge knife so I figured he was just going to poke the fruit down but when we got to the first tree he literally jumped in the tree and started climbing to get the fruit down and threw it to us and we put it in bags. It was literally hilarious because I really did not expect him to be climbing the trees. We got to eat guava fresh off the tree; they gave us green ones first but those tasted like literal shit because they were so sour. But we tried yellow ones which are riper and those were much much better. We just walked (/hiked.. it was really hilly) around and papa gathered more fruit and we just looked around. And we got probably five feet from the cows that were grazing in the pasture so that was cool. We had lunch and cheesecake and dulce de leche but a solid version that was phenomenal and just basically relaxed the entire rest of the day. I played dominos with mama, Rosie, and Mary (the CIEE girl) and the three of us took naps in lawn chairs. The old men played dominos really fast and were really intense about it, maybe someday I can play with them. Oh and poochy kept trying to attack the horses (the dog was barely bigger than a hamster). Hilarious. Overall it was just such a relaxing day and so good to be out of the city and be able to be outside all day.
That night we tried to go out dancing, and yet again failed. We’re finally believe everyone who tells us that only couples go to dancing clubs, but it was still fun to watch. There was this crazzzy couple who like flipped each other around like the hand jive scene in Grease and the guy put an empty presidente bottle on the floor and balanced on it with one foot while the girl spun him around. Tough act to follow. So after watching for awhile we went back to the monument and there was actually a pretty big concert there with meringue, bachata, and salsa music so that was fun to watch. The concert didn’t last much longer after we got there but we just hung out at the monument for awhile and a few randoms talked to us which was interesting as always. Everyone went to a different dance club after but I was really tired from getting up early so I had them take me home and I just kind of hung out and went to bed pretty early.
Sunday rained all day and I had a ton of homework so that was kind of a lame day. We met at a sports bar to watch the super bowl though and that was really fun. I felt like such an adult drinking a beer in a bar watching the super bowl. Geek but still too excited to be legal (and less than a month until I’m literally legal woo!) And Randi is from Pittsburg so she was really pumped and even brought her fan towel thing that you wave at games. There weren’t very many people in the bar but it was still fun to just hang out and have a very American night haha. OH and right as the steelers were making the 100 yard drive the sound on all the TVs got switched to a palates infomercial so we could still see the game but had to listen to people doing palates for like fifteen minutes. Hilarious. They finally figured it out so we could hear Bruce so that was good. This is my first week that I’ll actually have all my classes so that’ll be different than everything feeling like a weekend. I still haven’t started volunteering yet.. but hopefully by next week I can because I really want to play with the kiddds. I hope all is well in the US, I miss you all very very much! Besos (kisses)!
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