One week!

Hola everyone! So, we've been in Punta Cana for a week now. I feels like we've been here a month, because we're never bored. It feels like we've done so much already in just one week. It is hard to remember everything. The highlight of the week was yesterday, going to Higuey and La Romana. We finally got to leave the hotel/resort area and travel to these towns to shop at the markets. I think we all thought we might lose our lives on the way there and back but we are all still here. But the drivers around here are crazy! They always pass each other right when theres another car coming in the other lane, they run people off the road, and there are so many people are motorbikes that will just pass on the other side. It was an adventure to say the least. I felt sorry for Anton, the guy in our group that was sitting in the front seat. But that was half of the adventure yesterday so I had to mention it.
We only stopped in Higuey for probably 20-30 minutes to see the cathedral there. I was beautiful! It was built in 1912, but it was HUGH, with very colorful stained glass windows. The architecture was interesting. There were sections coming out from behind other sections. It is kind of hard to explain, but Dad, Ivan, Katie, you all would've liked it. I posted some pictures that might give you an idea. But as always they dont do the structure justice.
After that, we left for La Romana, it was about an hour drive. This was part of our Spanish class, and the assignment was that you had to buy something. We were supposed to negotiate and use only Spanish. I bought a CD, "Reggaeton Xclusivo 2007"!!! There was no reason for me to negoiate though because it was $3 without negotiation. I felt bad asking any less. Although, when I opened it I found it was a burned CD, but the music was on it. So, I think I got a pretty good deal. We also went to a supermarket. It was called "Jumbo." It was basically a Super Walmart kind of thing, but maybe not as big.
We took a side trip on our way to La Romana and stopped at a university. I think the name of the university was "Altos de Chavon." Because it is way up on a mountain that over looks a river called Chavon. It is a school for interior design, fashion design, graphic design, and maybe a couple other areas of study. It was founded by Oscar de la Renta, the Dominican fashion design. It has an amphitheater that many famous artists have performed at: Frank Sanatra, Sting, The Police, umm...those were just a few that they told us about. I felt like I was in Europe, walking around the campus. Some of the buildings and structures were very old, while other parts had been restored or built to look old.
Getting to ride through the towns was the most eye-opening part of the trip so far. It really wasn't anything I didn't expect, but even if you've seen it 30 times before, the poverty that you see once you leave the glamore of the resort area is heartbreaking. It was alot like Mexico, for those of you that have been. There are people on the side of the roads selling food, phone cards, clothes, and many other things. There are places that obviously don't have running water and sometimes electricity. We ate at Burger King (of all places...haha) but there were little kids outside that we not allowed to come in. So, they would wait outside and open the door for people to come out, hoping to get some food or money. One of the little boys shined our bus drivers shoes while we ate. The boys were probably 10-years-old.
It is amazing, the range of classes in one place. As we drove we also saw some very nice houses and also some that were very modest but the people seemed to be relatively well off. Theres always so many things to think about when you see these types of situations. There is a little community right down the road from the resort about a mile or two, that is very, very poor. We went there because someone told us there was a little store to buy things, so we went. But it is literally a mile outside the gates of the hotel and the people are dirt poor. It's amazing. We are going to address some of these issues in a couple of our other classes later on. I'm excited to hear other peoples perspective about the situation. It is the same way with the employees at the resort. They work in a fancy, ritzy environment, but then go home every 10 days or so to families that are counting on them and the money they're making in order to have food to eat. It's very ironic. However, all the Dominicans we have interviewed (we did this for an assignment in our Spanish class) say they are very glad to have the tourists here because they do bring money and boost the economy of the area. So, it's something to think about.
I guess that's it for now. As always, I hope you all are doing well. I love to hear from you all, so feel free to write:) CIAO!

Finally Up

Hey everybody! Sorry it's taken me a minute to get this set up, but thanks to Anne I'm figuring this out!
The Dominican Republic is grrreat!!! The weather is nice, the people are even nicer, and the food is the best! Last night after dinner we were supposed to come back to the Foundation, where we stay, and watch a movie in Spanish as part of our class but ended up all learning the meringue in the lobby of the hotel. Our professor right now, Nancy Lopez, is from Santo Domingo, so she was totally down with skipping the movie and dancing. Dancing is a big part of the Dominican culture; everyone dances and they are all really good at it!!
Today, we took the kayaks out on the water and some people tried windsurfing. We have access to most of the activities at the resort. In class today, a couple other people (Anton and Haley) and I were assigned to go out and interview three Dominican people around our complex and at the hotel. We had a really good time talking to the people. We interview two older men: Miguel, one of the security guards at the foundation and Delacruz another security guard at the gate to the hotel. Then, Jorge who is an employee at the hotel and is 21, which gave us a different perspective. The older men were kind of hard to understand because they spoke really fast and without full pronunciation. We learned that the Dominicans like to leave out letters, so it's kind of difficult to understand sometimes. For example, someone today said "algo" but left out the sound of the "l" so it sounded like "ago." So, it takes sometime to get used the their accents, but everyone is very willing to speak with you and are very patient when we talk for 5 minutes and only actually get out 3 sentences. We help them with their English too. It's a great opportunity for us to learn from each other. Nancy has basically told my group that we need to talk, talk, talk since we already know our grammar and verbs etc. Solomente espanol ahora! (Only Spanish now!)
I was planning on only writing once a week but I feel like there is sooo much to write. But now that I have this somewhat setup I'm going to try to write an update once every day or two and give you the highlights so I don't bore you with all the details!
I miss you all! Espero que TODOS esten aqui!! (I wish you were ALL here!!)

PICTURES: 1. Flying into DR over the mountains
2. the beach!
3. The group in front of the Fundacion Ecológica, where we have stay and have class
4. Luis, me, Jorge, y Anton
5. They have capture 2 baby sea turtles so far this year. Last your they rescued 32. They catch them when they're little to protect them from fish predation and then release them after they're big enough to survive.
6. group at hotel, after meringue-ing

Sorry it's kinda hard to see these pics, Im going to get another program to put more up!