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)!