Day 13-14: Santo Domingo

Saturday morning we were able to sleep in an extra hour and then put make-up and dresses on!!! We were all commenting on how much fun it was to actually get pretty and feel good about appearances again:) Santo Domingo is the capitol of the Dominican Republic and it was a 3 hour drive from Santiago. Once we got there, we took our things up to our hostel. There were 3 rooms with about 8 beds per room. Thank goodness we didn't sleep there long because we could feel every spring in those mattresses.

We then went on a tour around Santo Domingo and learned a lot about their country. Highlights were bartering, having lunch and dinner together, as well as dancing afterwards. I bought an awesome bracelet that I am just in love with. I told myself I wouldn't spend over $20 for it so I offered it to them and they accepted! Successful first attempt at bartering! We were so excited to have a change from the usual rice beans and entrees we’ve been having at ILAC. The food was marvelous and the majority of us had our own pizzasJ It still is so crazy how much attention we get walking around…usually unwanted. I’m not sure if I mentioned that the Dominican’s way of getting our attention is to hiss at us. We got very good at shaking our fingers and took a picture of us all doing so. We also had a tour of some of the interesting places…we saw a beautiful church, where Columbus lived, and where many of Santo Domingo’s heroes were buried. I’m horrible with my memory so you may have to ask one of my classmates for that info.

Dancing was quite the experience as well. Apparently in the Dominican culture, it isn’t uncommon to go out around 12:30am. Guess what time our curfew was…12:30am. Boo!! We were all so shocked when we went to go dancing and NO ONE was around! We wanted to learn all the different dances and engage in the full experience and we were going to be dancing with ourselves. We also learned that there was some rationale behind our curfew…apparently the streets get very dangerous after 12:30 as people are drinking and the area in general isn’t very safe. High theft and assault are much greater at this time so it probably ended up being a blessing even though we were disappointed. It was really funny though, because the  DJ started playing American music thinking we would be more likely to dance and instead we requested Dominican music because it has a really awesome beat and really makes you want to. The best part was that some Dominican men would start to come into the dance, see a bunch of American gringas dancing and WALK OUT!!! Haha Americans tend to dance a little crazier, therefore, we are convinced we scared off a decent number of men. Some men decided to brave it out and started to ask us to dance. I learned the Bachata and parts of the Merenge dance. One of the guys told me I needed to move my hips more and I told him I was too focused on getting my feet to cooperate! They were all really nice and gave us all a run for our money. My dancing buddies also informed me that  needed to quit trying to lead and follow. I informed them that in the US, our men typically do not know how to dance so we get very good at becoming the leader…(right, Justin) J He’s a great dancer, don’t get me wrong, but I definitely had to initiate teaching him to dance and drag his shy little booty out of his comfort zone. I LOVE HIM!!

Speaking of my novio, the homesickness is definitely starting to settle in as this has been such a long period of time I’ve went without being in close contact with my family or siblings. I miss my family so much and cannot wait to get home. Apparently Hurricane Ilene is trying to rain on our parade and will be hitting sometime on Thursday close to where we will be staying for the next 3 days. We’re all hoping that it either changes directions or gets blocked by the mountains because this could cause not only some danger to us, but worse…DELAY OUR FLIGHTS HOME!!! Haha we’re all so anxious to see our loved ones and have some good American food like Burger King that we really don’t want to have to wait longer than we have toJ

We just finished our reflection for the weekend and presented our case studies to the group. We each chose an individual we worked with and created a presentation together regarding their impairments, function, interventions, and comparison to how their status may have been significantly different had they been in the US. It was very interesting and each group did a great job.  I’m going to attempt to Skype Justin for a second time today and head off to bed! Thanks for reading and buenos noches!