Hey Everyone!
Since I wrote last we've been to Santo Domingo and started our service learning project in Veron. We are teaching English in a private school about 20 minutes away from the Fundacion. But I'll tell you first about our 4 day trip to Santo Domingo. After Lisa Kennedy left and we finished up our Physical Geography class, Antonio Fernandez came to teach our Spanish Culture and Civilization course. We're actually finishing up the course right now. Today we have our last lecture. Most of the material that we are covering, I had already seen in the Spanish Culture and Literature class I took a couple semesters ago with Fernandez. However, the first time I took the course it was all in Spanish and this time it was all in English. I wish I could say I already knew everything that we've been taught the last 11/2 - 2 weeks but to be honest I got alot more out of the class this time in English. But it was nice to at least be familiar with the material; it wasnt completely new. We've had lectures everyday (besides our time in Santo Domingo) in the morning for about an hour before lunch and after the service learning group returns from the school, we have lunch at 12-1, and then continue lecture until 2:30 or 3.
Our time in Santo Domingo was great! We stayed in a very nice hotel called Hotel Europa. We stay pretty much in the Colonial Zone of the city; our hotel was a block up from the house of Diego Colombus, the son of Christopher Colombus. I really felt like I was in Europe rather than the Dominican Republic. Santo Domingo is packed full of historic sites; Diego's estate, the first cathedral and school in the new World, a hospital built for Indians that became sick with diseases from Europeans, the monument that (suppositly) contains the remains of Christopher Colombus (the body was transported between the DR and Spain several times after his death and at some point there was confusion on whether they had the body of Christopher or his son Diego...both places want to claim the have the remains, but there are DNA test currently being done to determine who really has the body of Christopher Colombus...Im just going to pretend like we really saw the box containing the remains of the founder of the New World: Christopher Colombus. Even though, after 500 yrs I dont think anyone can be sure.
While in Santo Domingo we also visited the National Aquarium, Botanical Gardens, and two museums: an art museum and history. The art museum had some really cool pieces and I thought of you all: Dad, Ivan and Katie:) Ill post some pictures.
The other big event on our trip to Santo Domingo was a side excursion to Carnaval. It was CRAZY! We didnt actually go to Carnaval in Santo Domingo because it isnt until a later date but instead we traveled to La Vega (about an hour north of Santo Domingo...i think). We went with a group of people on a charter bus. Some of Heyddy's friends were in the organization that was planning the trip. It was $30 for the bus, drinks, a t-shirt, and lots of fun! :) There were some crazy Dominican girls on the bus with us but they made us feel very welcome. They especially liked the American boys with us. We thought the bus ride there was crazy but once we actually got to Carnaval the bus ride didnt compare. There were so many people, it was almost impossible to walk and the music was so loud my eyeballs were vibrating, seriously! haha it was crazy.
All the different regions dress up in different costumes that they work on all year to think of and creat and parade through the streets and compete for the best costume. They were all handmade and very elaborate. Im going to post some pictures, so you can see for yourself. They also carry around these mallets and hit people. I was lucky enough to not get hit very hard but I did get hit gently and that still hurt. Some of the people we were with got hit hard and it definitely left bruises. The idea is that they're beating the bad spirits out of you. It was a cultural experience to say the least.
Hope everything is going well for everyone!
PS- I forgot...we also went to the Presidential Palace also! I've posted some pics.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Back in Punta Cana after 8 days of traveling through the country...
We just got back yesterday from our longest field trip that we'll take this semester. Our professor right now is Lisa Kennedy and the course is Physical Geography. We got to see every type of terrain there is in the DR. We travelled from Punta Cana at about sea level up into the mountains at around 7000 ft above sea level and then back down the other side of the mountains to another coastal region near Haiti. I think I can say those 8 days will be my favorite part of the trip. We just got to see so many things.
We left last Tuesday and travelled along the southern coast through La Romana and Santo Domingo and stopped in La Constanza. On the way we stopped at a market and bought 4, freshly killed chickens to take to the high mountains. We stayed at a hotel there called Rancho Constanza. We took a 14km hike up into the cloud forest areas while we were here. From Constanza we drove up to Valle Nuevo. This is the high, high mountains where we stayed in a cabin.
The bus we took was one from the PuntaCana Resort. It was a nice 30 passenger bus; big enough for 17 people (11 students, 3 grad students that came for this course, along with Lisa, Heyddy and Junior our bus driver) plus all of our food and luggage. I know the people that lived on the roads that we were passing on thought we were crazy trying to take a bus that size up into these mountains...I kinda thought we were too. You have to understand the roads are far, far from paved and not very well maintained. Moreno, who's cabin we stayed at, let Lisa know if there were any really bad spots in the road a couple days before we left. Everything was fine. However, in those couple days there was a small landslide that occurred in one part of the road. We were stuck in the same spot for 3 hours trying to get the bus out of the mud. It was a time to learn patience and teamwork for sure. We were all pushing, taking out rocks and putting rocks back in. It was an adventure to say the least. We finally got it out after a truck came and tied a rope to the bus and pulled it out. I've posted some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about. After that there wasn't too much trouble. We stayed in the mountains for 3 nights. It was cold, but it was nice to have a break from the hot weather for a little while. But 3 nights was just enough, and I was ready to get back to a hot shower and the beach.
We went on the southern coast near Haiti to a resort called Coral Sol and we traveled one day to a region called Cabo Rojo. Everything was beautiful! Cabo Rojo was like paradise, there's no other way to describe it. The water was perfectly clear and warm. It couldn't have gotten any better. We ate at a little bar there. The lady cooked us fresh shrimp, octopus, and conch. It was soo good. They also played "Pasame la Botella" 20 times because we knew the words. It's a popular song around here and it's become our theme song I guess you could say. Again, you can look at the pics, that's better than me trying to describe it.
One thing I've missed alot is ice cream! The food everywhere is very good, but like anywhere other than the US, dessert is not a big deal like it is for a lot of us. But sometimes you can find ice cream in little stores on the street. So, when we were at Coral Sol we walked to the next town to find some ice cream. It was a good walk there, probably about 20 minutes. On the way there we saw probably 5 ice cream wrappers on the ground so we thought that was a good sign. However, when we got there, no one had ice cream. We settled for Cokes and 7-Up's instead, which was fine after walking a mile in that heat. But that's one thing I appreciate more now, because from experience they don't have ice cream everywhere.
We haven't had class per say, because is all the time. For example, when we were on our field trip our assignment was to concentrate on observing things and take pictures of what we saw. For this class we have to make a photo journal of our trip: selecting 40 photos to put into PowerPoint and describe why they're important, basically explaining what we learned.
The experience so far has definitely been one of I guess I would say just that- experiencing. We are learning factual things as we go, but more than that we are seeing things for ourselves. Instead of sitting in a classroom and listening to Lisa tell us that the southwestern part of the country is a desert terrain, we got to go there ourselves, feel the climate, see the plants, and document everything we observed. It was great! See the pics :)
We left last Tuesday and travelled along the southern coast through La Romana and Santo Domingo and stopped in La Constanza. On the way we stopped at a market and bought 4, freshly killed chickens to take to the high mountains. We stayed at a hotel there called Rancho Constanza. We took a 14km hike up into the cloud forest areas while we were here. From Constanza we drove up to Valle Nuevo. This is the high, high mountains where we stayed in a cabin.
The bus we took was one from the PuntaCana Resort. It was a nice 30 passenger bus; big enough for 17 people (11 students, 3 grad students that came for this course, along with Lisa, Heyddy and Junior our bus driver) plus all of our food and luggage. I know the people that lived on the roads that we were passing on thought we were crazy trying to take a bus that size up into these mountains...I kinda thought we were too. You have to understand the roads are far, far from paved and not very well maintained. Moreno, who's cabin we stayed at, let Lisa know if there were any really bad spots in the road a couple days before we left. Everything was fine. However, in those couple days there was a small landslide that occurred in one part of the road. We were stuck in the same spot for 3 hours trying to get the bus out of the mud. It was a time to learn patience and teamwork for sure. We were all pushing, taking out rocks and putting rocks back in. It was an adventure to say the least. We finally got it out after a truck came and tied a rope to the bus and pulled it out. I've posted some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about. After that there wasn't too much trouble. We stayed in the mountains for 3 nights. It was cold, but it was nice to have a break from the hot weather for a little while. But 3 nights was just enough, and I was ready to get back to a hot shower and the beach.
We went on the southern coast near Haiti to a resort called Coral Sol and we traveled one day to a region called Cabo Rojo. Everything was beautiful! Cabo Rojo was like paradise, there's no other way to describe it. The water was perfectly clear and warm. It couldn't have gotten any better. We ate at a little bar there. The lady cooked us fresh shrimp, octopus, and conch. It was soo good. They also played "Pasame la Botella" 20 times because we knew the words. It's a popular song around here and it's become our theme song I guess you could say. Again, you can look at the pics, that's better than me trying to describe it.
One thing I've missed alot is ice cream! The food everywhere is very good, but like anywhere other than the US, dessert is not a big deal like it is for a lot of us. But sometimes you can find ice cream in little stores on the street. So, when we were at Coral Sol we walked to the next town to find some ice cream. It was a good walk there, probably about 20 minutes. On the way there we saw probably 5 ice cream wrappers on the ground so we thought that was a good sign. However, when we got there, no one had ice cream. We settled for Cokes and 7-Up's instead, which was fine after walking a mile in that heat. But that's one thing I appreciate more now, because from experience they don't have ice cream everywhere.
We haven't had class per say, because is all the time. For example, when we were on our field trip our assignment was to concentrate on observing things and take pictures of what we saw. For this class we have to make a photo journal of our trip: selecting 40 photos to put into PowerPoint and describe why they're important, basically explaining what we learned.
The experience so far has definitely been one of I guess I would say just that- experiencing. We are learning factual things as we go, but more than that we are seeing things for ourselves. Instead of sitting in a classroom and listening to Lisa tell us that the southwestern part of the country is a desert terrain, we got to go there ourselves, feel the climate, see the plants, and document everything we observed. It was great! See the pics :)
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