La empieza

Well, here it goes. I haven't done anything that resembles blogging since those middle school xanga days (remember those?) but thought I'd give it a shot. I've never been much of a writer, so I apologize if I ramble or can't follow a logical train of thought. I'm sitting in a make-shift Vandy common room, trying to stay awake until 2:40 am, which is when my shuttle to JFK should arrive. It's raining heavily. Boo.

Anyways, the past 4 weeks (it's been 4 weeks already!?) have been.....marvelous. I can no longer think in complete sentences, even though the wine from another delicious Shabbat dinner has completely worn off.  So I'll continue in bullet point form.

Good things that happened so far:

• I learned to like carrots. Even without hummus! 
• Biked the entire length of West Rock Park
• Possibly made a fool of myself in front of Barbara Walters 
• Wonderful conversations with people I love and people I'm getting to know better
• Discovered Red Lentil. so. many. yummy. vegetables.

Not so good things that happened so far: 

• It's rained every time I need to move heavy things across campus. 
• I can't think of anything else. 
• OH, that mean lady at the Gheav on Whitney who wouldn't accept my meal vouchers. 

Oh my goodness. IT'S TIME TO GO ALREADY! Wish me luck. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, HERE I COME!!!

[edit: 12 hours later]
I just arrived at my host family's apartment. My host mother seems like a wonderful, gracious women and I even have a host sister who's also turning 21 this summer! My first 40 minutes in the country were a bit tense since no one had shown up to pick me up, but everything turned out alright. They were just running late. The airport employee who was with me kept making fun of me, saying my family doesn't love me. I was surprisingly calm during the entire wait...On the bright side, I got to warm-up my Spanish with him. Also, everyone clapped the moment the airplane touched the run way when we landed in the DR. Is that a thing here?