Tabasco

Today, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you all to a friend of mine. His name is Tabasco and he lives right outside my bedroom window. Like many roosters in the developing world, Tabasco does not play by the rules. Rather than crowing at dawn, he crows at all hours of the day and night. My first night in my apartment, Tabasco woke me up with his beautiful crow, which I mistook for a woman's scream, and almost went outside to see what was going on before he crowed again, and someone threw a stone at him. Tabasco has over seven hen wives, a healthy sex life, and a special talent of ruining phone interviews for summer internships. As of last night, he is the proud new father of about a dozen baby chicks. Trust me, I heard all about it. I will leave you all with a picture of our friend.

PS - Tabasco's other companion is Coco, the Husky across the way who barks all night and day to protest his current location. I guess he doesn't like having a FUR COAT in a tiny apartment complex in the DR...I can't imagine why not.

La huelga

Well, a cold front hit soon after Carnaval - aka it was about 65 degrees here, and a nice break from the heat. It lasted a week, and while I was comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt, most Dominicans were really bundled up. I even sat next to one woman on the bus who was wearing a puffy north face-type coat! Crazyyy.

Art History Class Update: New teacher. Obviously. He seemed nice as he excitedly explained the syllabus -- no papers, no tests, no quizzes. He apparently gets called in by the university every so often to be yelled at for giving too many 100s as final grades, but maintains that if he thinks students deserve 100%, that's what he will give out. I do not entirely understand how he calculates these grades with no actual assignments to base them off of, but I'm not complaining! So we had our introductory class, and all was going well. We returned for class last Thursday, though, and were interrupted by strange sounds coming from outside. The Dominican students all looked extremely nervous, and started telling the professor that he needed to end class. I had no idea what was going on until someone told me that there was a "huelga" - a strike - going on to protest the costs of public transportation. The Dominican students told us not to leave the building because people were throwing rocks, shooting, and setting off homemade bombs! We stayed for a little while, until a Dominican student told us we could come with her and she'd show us how to leave safely. We booked it out of there, and lucky we did, because one of my friends who chose to stay was stuck in the building for three hours while homemade bombs were going off all around the area. We somehow ended up at McDonald's (obviously), where I ordered a Happy Meal. The strike continued into Friday as well - another friend of mine was riding a public bus as men were pelting it with rocks!

Anyway, after la huelga, the cold front ended. Now it's hotter than ever, and it's still "winter" here!

Día de Independencia y Carnaval en la Vega!

El Diablo!

Cross dresser?




defense mechanisms!

This past Saturday was Independence Day in the DR, and I went to the parade along the Malecon, which was a lot of fun. Their version of 4th of July!! Street vendors and entertainers were everywhere, so I spent more time waiting for the parade to start (obviously no one knew what time it would begin) than actually watching it. Thousands of military men and women lined the streets and it seemed as if the entire military was there...I was pretty sure no one was even defending the country. Oops.

The next day, I went to Carnaval in la Vega, the biggest Carnaval celebration in the DR that really celebrates Lent the right way. We had no idea what time the festivities would start, so we were the first ones to arrive around 12:30 and spent time running around meeting people and taking pictures with the bizarre characters who were walking around. I was a little nervous about coming to la Vega; I had been warned by multiple people multiple times to TEN CUIDADO because la Vega was supposed to be so dangerous. One Dominican friend of mine advised me to bring a mask so that I would "fit in" more with all the costumed people and attract less attention. People in the streets carry inflated cow bladders around with them on strings to use as whips to hit others with when they least expect it! I got hit a few times by people before making the wise decision to buy an inflated cow bladder of my own to defend myself! The parade finally started around 4:30 and it was so much fun. The costumes were beautiful and some were really scary! In addition to the parade, a lot of random little boys were nearly naked, walking through the streets covered completely in mud or tar and dancing for money. I also got a fake tattoo of the Dominican flag, and the guy gave it to me for free because I spoke Spanish to him! I took tons of photos, so I will post some of them here! Something funny was that while I was constantly asking characters if I could take pictures with them, a lot of Dominicans were asking to take pictures with ME, a gringa. Of course I said yes!

The Fateful Story of My Art History Class

When I signed up for Dominican Art History Class at la UASD (the huuuuge public university here that looks exactly like University of Hawaii or a Cali State School), I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I registered for the class in January, and was told that the class would start January 18th. Stoked. Soon after, I received a cryptic email that said that classes at la UASD would be postponed until the following week with no explanation. Okay, sounds good. Soon, I received a similar email: Classes postponed until the following week. So, the first week of February, a few friends of mine who are also in the class and I went to la UASD to find the classroom (a near impossible experience) and were told after a significant amount of confusion that our teacher was sick, class was cancelled, and we were to come back the next week. So the next week, we came back...guess what? Teacher still sick! Lucky for us, she had left us a reading to do. Great. Next Thursday, we returned to la UASD with no idea what to expect. There was a teacher in the classroom who informed us that he had just found out he was now teaching our Art History Class the hour before. He asked us if we had read anything for the class and when one student showed him our reading packet, he goes, "Ahh. Yes..this looks good. Keep reading this. Come back next week to discuss." With that, class was over. Yesterday, we returned to la UASD for class and...guess who wasn't there? The teacher. We waited around for about 30 minutes before someone informed us that apparently the teacher was at a graduation ceremony. Ohhhh. Okay. So we are two months into study abroad, and I have not even started one of my classes. But no worries! Instead of class, I can just go to the beach. :)

Cliff diving and watching kite surfing in Cabarete!

Caño Hondo y El Parque Nacional de los Haitises

I spent this past weekend in Caño Hondo/El Parque Nacional de los Haitises in the east of the DR with my study abroad group. Our hotel was an incredible ecotourism hotel ~ the pools were real rivers with waterfalls in them! We went on hikes through caves and saw old Dominican cave paintings and got to eat bananas straight off the tree and also cacao – the stuff that chocolate is made of! On Saturday we went whale watching in Sabana de la Mar and saw so many whales flopping their fins against the water. Some actually jumped all the way out of the water and made the LOUDEST noise and a huge splash when they landed. Then we went to a beach in Samana, a town that is internationally famous for its beautiful beaches. My roommates’ parents are from Sabana de la Mar and came to visit me for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon, which was fun. They knew the co-owners of the hotel so I got to meet them and we all sat around talking/they laughed at my English accent. Our group spent some of Sunday planting mangrove trees in the mud which was…interesting, before taking the 3 hour bus ride back to Santo Domingo. There has been a cold front the past couple of days, which means the highs are about 75 degrees – definitely cold. J It’s been a nice break from the blistering WINTER heat in this city! I don’t know how I’m going to survive in April or May… stay tuned.

Gascue

It is my 7^th week in the DR and lots has been going on! I am now living with 2 other students in an apartment in Gascue, a fun part of the city (still right on the ocean!). All of my classes have officially started, although little setbacks often prevent class from being held…which is fine with me. I am taking 5 classes in Spanish at 4 different universities—Literatura Latinoamericana at El Bonó, Desarollo Económico at INTEC, Historia del Arte Dominicana at la UASD (a HUGE university that looks like a California state school), a Spanish Language class at FLACSO, as well as a Pasantía (internship) class where we work for a non-profit organization. I have been interviewing for internships, so hopefully I will hear back soon and get to get started! Not much other news for now, so I will leave you with a few fun facts about the DR:

1) Pedestrians do not have the right of way.

2) Bare feet are considered inappropriate, and even disgusting.

3) The DR is the #2 happiest country in the world.