Tag Archives: DR

Visitors

A few weeks ago I had two different friends visiting me. You usually don’t think of having visitors from home when you study abroad. But it really is a great opportunity, especially in a place like the Dominican Republic. When most people think of the Dominican Republic, they think of going to the beach. The DR is much, much deeper than that, and I truly think it’s a shame that people rarely see any other parts of the country. My first visitor had the same mindset as I do, and he proved this to me when he told me about how he wanted his vacation to go. He told me “get me as far away from Punta Cana as you can. I want to see how real Dominicans live”. The fact that Santiago and Punta Cana are practically on the other side of the country did not make this feat too difficult. We rented an apartment in the city of Santiago, and for 5 short days, I gave him a taste of my life here. If we forget what I just recently said about the beach, a vacation to the DR would still be incomplete without one. Here my friend Greg and I are pictured at Playa Sosúa right after lunch.IMG_0225

The other days that my friend had here were spent in the city of Santiago. Pictured below is my friend walking up to the famous monument in the center of the city.

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Although there are some very nice restaurants around the city, Greg insisted that we eat like locals. So I took him to the places that suited his request. Although we were very out of place, I was able to use my Spanish to get some great meals. Dominicans are also not shy when it comes to portion sizes. They definitely give the US a run for our money. I have gotten used to the portion sizes by this point, but Greg had trouble finishing his piles of rice a few times.

I had another opportunity to see a friend from the US, but this one has Dominican roots. I met up with Pavel as he was passing through Santiago. We headed to his uncles house in Santo Domingo for a night, where I met his aunt as well as three of his cousins. I had never spoken Spanish with Pavel before this trip because I had never spoken Spanish at all before this trip. However, I needed to speak Spanish with him when I was around his family. This was a really weird experience for me, because I never imagined that I would speak anything with Pavel besides English. However, this experience broke down a little mental block that I had. If I know that someone speaks English, it becomes hard for me to speak Spanish with them. However, there are situations where I need to speak Spanish with someone because someone else involved in the interaction doesn’t speak English. The next day, Pavel and I headed to Juan Dolio, a coastal town west of Santo Domingo. We had a great day at the beach, and somehow were only able to snap one picture.

Juan Dolio

I’m really glad that I got to have a taste of home through the visit of my two friends. It was very cool to experience the best that the DR has to offer.

Photo Of The Week

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This past weekend I went to Laguna Dudú. There were cliffs that you could jump off of into the Lagoon. Here is a picture of people right after jumping. It was quite high, as you may be able to see how far I am from where the picture is taken. See you next time!


Location: Santiago, DR

Haiti

Last weekend I got to do something that I did not think I would do before coming to the Dominican Republic, and that is going to Haiti! We had a free weekend, and a bunch of other American students and I were able to find a tour company that did weekend trips to Haiti. It was a bit expensive, but well worth the experience.

Drive to the Border

We met just outside our university on Friday morning at 5AM. After cramming into a van, we headed towards the border. On Fridays and Mondays at this particular border crossing, it is completely open. This is because there is a market between buyers and sellers from both the DR and Haiti. My passport got four stamps that weekend: my first was to leave the DR, my second to enter Haiti. On Sunday, I got the same stamps, but for leaving Haiti and entering the DR. We were at the border for probably over an hour, and for most of that time the flow of people crossing the border did not slow down. Pictured below is a scene of the people crossing the border, taken from the immigration office. It’s a bit of a distance away but you may be able to see that nearly every person is carrying or towing something with them in hopes of selling it.

Haitian Border

The Citadelle

After the border, we were on our way to the Citadelle, the largest fortress in the Americas. After driving up what seemed like a hundred switchbacks, we were at a spot where we could not drive any further. We walked the rest of the distance up to the fortress. It was not more than a 30 minute walk from where we stopped driving. Once at the fortress, we were directed around by a local guide. The fortress was built to protect Haiti against an attack from the French. The Citadelle was threatened more so by earthquakes than the French, as a French attack never came. However, the fortress remains an icon of Haiti and is featured on the country’s currency. It is situated on top of a mountain, and really makes you wonder how each stone, cannon, and the endless amounts of daily supplies were carried up there. Here is a picture shot from the base of the wall.

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Here is another picture at the Citadelle of the hundreds if not thousands of cannonballs stored there.

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The Citadelle itself was very impressive, but also very much so because of the views of the mountains that you could see from it. Here I am below, on the roof of the Citadelle, pictured with this beautiful ridge that I could not leave without taking a picture with.

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Sans-Souci Palace

The second part of the day was spent at the Sans-Souci Palace, which was near by the Citadelle. It housed Henri Christophe, the man responsible for building the Citadelle. Here are a couple pictures of the palace.

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To be honest, this palace reminded me a lot of Roman ruins, probably because of their shared use of arches. Although I was very tired and sweaty at the end of the day, I had a fantastic time. I was able to visit two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in one day. If that does not count as a successful travel, I don’t know what does.

The rest of the weekend consisted of going to the beach, out to a discoteca in Cap-Haitien, and a lot of driving. I don’t have any pictures of the city itself. It was very difficult to get clear pictures through tinted glass on a bumpy road, so I decided to kick back and just observe. I was practically mesmerized as we were driving through the city. People-watching is one of my favorite things to do while traveling somewhere new. Cap-Haitien was a bustling city, which actually reminded me of the DR in some ways. I saw a countless number of people selling things in the street. The buildings were painted with very brightly colors and built from concrete. The roads were quite bumpy at times but not torturous to drive through. Motorcycles were fearless when it came to weaving in and out of traffic. Our last stop in Haiti before returning to the DR was to the statues of the fore fathers of Haiti.

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This tour made me realize how connected each country in the Americas is. I often thought of the Dominican Republic and Haiti as faraway lands, but we are much more connected than we think we are. The US, along with Haiti, the Dominican Republic and countless other nations has fought for their independence from European settlers. It was very cool and eye opening to see this connection in a country that I previously had very little interest in.

Photo of the Week

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There is a very popular festival all throughout Latin America taking place called Carnaval, I will explain more in my next post, but here is a picture to act as a bit of a teaser. Masks are a huge part of Carnaval, and as you can see a lot of work goes into making them, even the small ones sold in flea markets. I picked this up at a flea market down the street for less than $5. It is entirely made of paper Papier-mâché, and elaborately painted. That’s all I will say for now, see you next time!


Location: The Citadelle, Haiti

The Big 3

Today marks three weeks that I have been here in the Dominican Republic. As I look over my first two blog posts I realized that I really did not give too much background info on my living situation here. Now that I have been here for a little bit, many of my first impressions have subsided so I think I’ll be able to explain things to you in a better way than I would have done so before. I’ll explain the three main aspects of my daily life. For the rest of my time here, I will share a photo at the end of my posts with an interesting experience that I had and would like to share with you.

Home

I live in a neighborhood of Santiago called La Zurza II. It is a middle class neighborhood situated about a ten minute walk from the University. The houses in this neighborhood are beautiful. I don’t have too many photos of the houses here but I will be sure to take some and share them with you in future posts. I live with my host mom and my host brother, Jorge. Jorge is 12 years old. Last week, Jorge adopted a puppy Chihuahua, Nikki. At the moment she is about as big as a guinea pig, and couldn’t have more energy. She is very fun to play with and gives me another reason to love living here.

School

I take all my classes at the University close by. It’s called La Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, but since that is an absolute mouthful to say, we just say PUCMM in daily discussion (Pronounced PU-KA-MAI-MUH). I am majoring in business, so I cannot take classes which will count towards my major. However, I am minoring in Spanish, so I have come to a perfect place to focus on that. A few of the classes that I am taking are Dominican Folklore, Political Processes of the Dominican Republic, and of course Dance for Foreigners. These are all taught in Spanish by local professors. The professors here are very experienced at working with foreigners, so they are extremely patient and realize that struggling through conversation is the best way to learn a language.

Spanish

This brings me to the next aspect of my life here. You may be wondering how I could possibly live and function in a world where I can’t even use my own language. Well it’s not as scary as it seems, but still pretty tough. Although I have a couple years of classroom experience with Spanish, it’s a whole different ball game when you need to converse. As of now and for the most part, I am still hearing things in Spanish, translating into English, thinking of a response, then translating back to Spanish. Even then I still always seem to get something wrong. It can get frustrating at times, but I have wanted to learn Spanish for a while, so the fact that I can actually use it is a few years of hard work finally coming together. A whole day of classes thinking like this takes quite a toll on your head. However, it has definitely gotten easier since I’ve arrived. I can’t wait to see how much more my Spanish will improve while I am here, as it is more or less the inspiration behind my trip.

Photo of the week

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I apologize that this photo is a bit blurry. I came home from class one night, and my host mom had left dinner for me. Next to the plate there was a piece of tree bark on the table. As I looked closer I realized that it was actually a moth. I was instantly out of my comfort zone and started considering my options.  I’m usually pretty calm around bugs but this thing was huge! I carefully went to my room to grab my camera and something to use as a size comparison. All of what I just described amounted to this photo. See you next week!


Location: Santiago, DR

The Full Experience: Conchos

Since my last post, most of my week has been orientation. Much of it involved info sessions in a classroom type setting at the university, but some of it was very hands on. One of our afternoons was spent doing a scavenger hunt around the city in order to get to know our home a little bit better. It involved getting phone numbers from local medical clinics, stamps from the post office, and various other things. The most beneficial part of the scavenger hunt was learning how to get around the city. To rely solely on walking is pretty unrealistic. Like any city, Santiago has buses and taxis, but the one method of transportation that really stood out to me was conchos. Like buses, they follow set routes but what is different about conchos is that you can enter or leave the concho anywhere along that route. Each route also has a countless number of conchos in order to accommodate the demand. Conchos consist of many different makes of cars, but every one that I have seen has been a sedan, which has 5 seats. However, due to less enforced traffic regulations in the Dominican Republic, it is not uncommon to see more people than seats in a concho. In fact, I have seen as many as nine people in one concho. Concho drivers are paid based on how many fares they get throughout the day. So the more people they can fit in their car, the more money they can make. To be honest I think they are extremely efficient. It is without a doubt very dangerous to be in a car without a seatbelt, but it is just another part of life here in Santiago. Conchos allow people to get around the city very cheaply. People don’t seem to be bothered by the fact that they are potentially dangerous. They just need to get to where they are going.

If you are thinking about studying abroad, I hope this type of thing does not sway you from doing so. When I used a concho for the first time, I was absolutely out of my comfort zone. There were four people in the back seat and another two in the passenger seat. The temperature usually hovers around 85 during the day which definitely made it more uncomfortable.  But these are the type of experiences that I live for in a way. These are the moments that I will remember for a long time coming.

I will be starting my classes tomorrow, and am very excited about them. They will all be taught in Spanish which seems a little scary but I am looking forward to them. This and more in my next post. Until next time!


Location: Santiago, DR