despedidas

It feels like just yesterday, I was wandering around Calle del Sol with my scavenger hunt team, feeling like a desperate tourist. I can't believe my six weeks here are coming to an end, but saying goodbye is bittersweet. I've fallen in love with this country, the culture, and the people, but I also can't wait to get back and see my family and friends. The first time it began to sink it was during our farewell banquet a few days ago. We all got dressed up to celebrate with our host families, professors, and program coordinators.

mi familia anfitriona 

I usually don't get emotional at goodbyes because I can't wrap my mind around the fact it's a goodbye. I just get really sappy and nostalgic after everyone's left and I'm sitting by myself in some sad little corner. Anyways, I wanted to enjoy the last couple days in this country...so I spent as much time as I could dancing.

I danced with my friends, my friend's little host sister, estudiantes de apoyo, and people I just met. I FINALLY learned how to correctly dance merengue. The entire time, I had been swinging my hips in the wrong direction but after I got the swing of things, I couldn't stop. I tried to persuade my host mother to dance with me, but she was too shy. Thankfully, another host mom liked to move it move it, and she spun and twirled me across the dance floor. 

dancing queen, not quite seventeen. 

I danced until there was almost no one left, and was still moving to imaginary music after I had gotten home and was taking a shower. It's a miracle I didn't slip and fall. Speaking of showers, I found a little surprise in my shower this morning.

After going out for one last night of dancing, I got back wanting nothing more than a nice, cold shower before passing out. I opened the door, turned on the light, and saw a lizard scurry from my feet, up the opposite wall, and into the shower. It climbed down the shower wall, right across from me and stopped in the middle of the wall. I stared at it for a minute, trying to figure out what to do. It stared back at me. I don't know how it got in there because the windows were closed, and usually are during the day too. If I tried to chase it out, where would it go? But I also didn't want it scurrying around the bathtub while I showered. Neither of us moved. I walked back to my room and got my camera since I might as well take a picture.

It was still there. 

So I took the picture, walked out to put my camera in my room, and when I came back, it was gone. I decided to just pretend like it never happened but my eyes were scanning every corner while I showered. Then, as I placed my shampoo back,  I noticed something brownish and webby behind my bottle of conditioner. It was definitely lizardy, but I didn't dare get any closer to get a better look. But it wasn't moving. Was it a different lizard? Was it dead? I skipped conditioner and got out of the shower as fast as I could. When I went back to brush my teeth, it was gone. It had to have been the same lizard and I figured we were both terrified of each other. Maybe that's one thing I won't miss.

But I will miss a lot of things: the loud music booming from every other street corner, the conchos, saying "saludos" to strangers and storekeepers, walking back in the mid-day heat to freshly squeezed mango juice and avocados, laughing with my host mom over dinner, dancing merengue, bachata and salsa with random tigueres at the clubs, learning pop music at Zumba classes, and my host mother saying "Ava, ven a comer" before every meal.

I already talked to my parents about coming back for a family vacation. I'm also joining a club at Yale where I can dance. These 6 weeks had their frustrations, disappointments, and struggles, but I couldn't have asked for more. I leave tomorrow morning for JFK...but I'll always have a little bit of la Republica Dominicana with me. Literally: my backpack is covered in dirt and my D.R. playlist won't stop growing.

gracias

Santo Domingo

I've had 2 final "exams" (scantron = middle school memories!), 2 presentations, and a couple of improvised dramatizations this week. The presentations are a good measure of how much I've improved in Spanish, since they were given with almost no preparation. I also had a mild fever during all this, but I'm just happy that it's gone and I most likely don't have malaria or dengue :) Anyways, this week has been a hot reguero (mess) mostly because we spent the entire weekend touring the capital, Santo Domingo.

Did you know Santo Domingo was the third place Christopher Columbus discovered in the New World?? Now you do. We visited lots of historic places, the names of which I don't remember because I was distracted by the humidity and heat. And my fever. But here's a picture of the palace where Diego Colon - Christopher's son - lived:

It was located in a large plaza that overlooked a river and was lit with old-fashioned street lamps that lined the cafés and restaurants on one side. There was even a public jazz concert and couples danced under the moonlight. So romantic. But my camera is too old to capture the ambience.

We spent our first morning on a guided tour of La Zona Colonial, which is home to the first hospital-turned-prison, university, and cathedral of the New World. We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, with 300 pesos to spend for lunch. Naturally, I spent almost all of it on ice cream. Surprisingly, I had only bought ice cream or froyo 3 times before this.

BON!!! The ice cream carts from heaven. These guys made bank from our tour group. 

Santo Domingo - at least the Zona Colonial - was much more European than I'd expected.
But then I remembered the whole Christopher Columbus this. 

After my "lunch" of a chocolate Magnum bar and delicious chinola (passionfruit) frozen yogurt, we went to Calle El Conde for some shopping. I had been pretty frugal up to this point, but I ended up splurging on a saucy, new dress. Even though we split up into several smaller groups, somehow all of us girls ended up at the same store, Divas. I tried on a bandage dress that required a surprisingly amount of exertion to take off. Everyone tried to persuade me to get it, but it wasn't worth $50. It was also a little difficult to walk while wearing it. After looking at what felt like 10 million dresses, I finally bought one.

Deepesh, the lone gentleman who endured hours of shopping and even offered very practical commentary. 

At Mercado Modelo, I used my Chinese-ness to haggle with the shopkeepers. One of them chatted me up, asking me where I was from. When I told him I was Chinese, he went on about how there are so many Chinese people here, they're so hard working, and sell things for the lowest prices. When it came time to bargain, he wouldn't go below 450 pesos while I was trying for 300.  Then I pulled out the "Ya tu sabes! Soy china" But you already know...I'm Chinese!  We all laughed...300 pesos. bam.  I was exhausted and dehydrated (this is a reoccurring theme) after shopping, but the best was yet to come.  LOOK WHAT I FOUND ON THE WAY BACK TO THE HOTEL!!!

Chinatown in Santo Domingo. Obligatory Asian tourist pose. 

Deepesh and I ventured through all of Chinatown (read: 2 blocks) in search of bao zi - steamed buns - in the rain. After speaking to a couple of Chinese store-owners in a mixture of Chinese and Spanish (españchino??), we finally stumbled across the one Chinese bakery that sold vegetable steamed buns and tao sao bao. NOMS. My damp shirt, muddy shoes and grimy limbs melted away as I bit into my derricious veggi steamed bun. To be honest, it was only mediocre, but I was so content.

On Sunday, we visited Tres Ojos, which is home to a collection of beautiful caves and lagoons. It was pretty eerie. And humid.

I felt like I was in "The Goonies"! 

On the way back to Santiago, we bumped into an Dominican-American family at a road-side cafeteria and chatted for a while. These random, spontaneous conversations with strangers are one of my favorite aspects of traveling. I really appreciate it when people start a conversation just out of curiosity instead of watching and wondering. I usually end up doing the latter, but it's something I might change, though I also don't want to be a total creep. We'll see how that goes.

A lot of little things happened today that I feel deserve to be recorded. First, I drank coffee. All of you know I never drink coffee. On the rare occasion where things get really rough (oy, those biochem lab reports), I turn to green tea. However, everyone here drinks coffee so when I woke up this morning feeling like a bag of yuck, I asked my mother for some coffee. It was yummy - probably because I made it Dominican style with 5 spoonfulls of sugar in a tiny little teacup.

Then in our Medical Sociology class, our professor apologized for not wishing us a Happy 4th of July yesterday, and asked us to sing the Star Spangled Banner. We awkwardly all stood up and started singing. It was a surprisingly good rendition of the national anthem, as we hit the high notes and held out the long ones... I even felt a warm burst of pride. U-S-A!

Sadly, I had to skip lunch because my project partner, Kate, and I promised our clinic we would arrive earlier than usual so there wasn't enough time to walk back home. This was mostly because our promotadora de salud (a community volunteer who works in the clinic) basically had nothing for us to do the past 2 days, and when our professor made a surprise visit to our clinic, she had to have a nice loooong chat with the doctor and nurse about how we are actually supposed to be involved at the clinic.   Anyways, I saw some pretty gory stuff. One guy had a second degree burn on his lower arm from a motorcycle accident but refused to let me clean it because he was embarrassed. Psh. The skin had already been removed and it was raw, but there were still some debris embedded in the wound. He's going to regret that. Another woman came in with this huge blister/zit almost 1.5 inches in diameter under her arm that was oozing blood and what looked like pus. My first reaction after "oh my" was "....HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!" Apparently heat + humidity + bacteria + chaffing is not good. It was a sight to see.

For some reason beyond our comprehension, Kate and I received more attention than usual from the male crowds as we walked to and from the clinic. We both looked like hot messes in the heat and humidity, so we're still confused. But a group of guys was playing baseball and fervently tried to get us to join them. They were playing in the middle of the street with a stick and plastic caps from the large water jugs. Maybe this is why Dominicans are so good at baseball? I totally would have played if we hadn't been running late. Next time.

By the time we left the clinic, I was dehydrated even though I'd been constantly drinking water, covered in sweat that made my jeans cling to my legs like saran-wrap, and HUNGRY because all I had for lunch was a granola bar, empenada and some kind of chicken in fried dough. Ok, that sounds like a lot but it wasn't enough for me. Turns out, it was too much grease for my tummy because I had pretty bad cramps by my second mile at the gym and had to walk. Thankfully, there was a spinning class and I felt almost normal by the end. But still HUNGRY. Like, I NEED SOME GLUCOSE hungry.

I got home, took a cold shower, and sat down to a beautiful sight. My host mother saved me part of lunch, so I feasted on roasted chicken, rice pilaf flavored with tomatoes and some other kind of delicious seasoning, sauteed vegetables, and freshly-made jugo de lechoza, piña, y limón (juice made of papaya, pineapple and lemon). She is a goddess. I ate. and ate. and ate. And then when I was uncomfortably full, I ate a banana because my foot had been cramping (not enough potassium!) I was planning to go out with the group, since we get to sleep in tomorrow before heading out to Santo Domingo, but now all I want to do is sit, listen to my new collection of Dominican music, and digest. God, I love food.

YOLO!

I have two exams, a presentation, and a secondary med school application to write this week BUT I couldn't skip out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A group of CIEE students and I hopped on a guagua - driven by our favorite chauffer, Rafael - and headed to the mountains of Puerto Plata to see the 27 Charcos (waterfalls). 

On the way to 27 Charcos

Even though it was super touristy (so many white people!), it was totally worth the trip. We hiked for about an hour up a mountain with our two guides and came to the first waterfall. One of them demonstrated how to jump off the rocks into the pool of water below. Even though we were all wearing life vests and helmets, it was a bit scary, and I kept getting water up my nose. We hiked a bit, jumped into a waterfall, swam, hiked some more, and jumped into another waterfall. Every jump was different; some were shallow (tuck your knees in!), others were profundo, and some were surrounded by walls of rock so we had to make sure we jumped carefully. Even though I have a pretty bad fear of heights, I felt fine jumping down into the water...until we got to #8. It was 30 ft tall and was shaped like a deep well. It was basically like jumping off of a 3 story building. Jump too far, hit a rock wall. Jump too close, land on some other rocks.  I stepped out onto the ledge of rocks with a stream of water beneath my feet, looked down, and felt my knees begin to quiver. So I just shut my brain off and yelled "YOOLLOOOOOOOOO" before I could second guess myself.

This one was a baby. Our camera was out of battery for most of the trip :(

                         

some were sit and slide...my butt really hurt after all 27 waterfalls

The scenery was absolutely beautiful. Some of the waterfalls led to streams that made me feel like I was swimming through a mini version of the Grand Canyon. The water was crystal blue, cold, and refreshing after all that sweating on our hike up - not to mention the entire week in the clinic. I have seriously never sweated this much in my entire life.

As if that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, my host mom asked if I wanted to go to the beach with the family and her close friend. ¿POR QUE NO? And so, I headed off to Playa Sosua for a second time - but with real Dominicans. We brought ham and cheese sandwiches with us, to avoid the over-aggressive restaurant owners. It was a perfect day for the beach - sunny and hot. It turns out, most Dominicans (or at least the ones I've met) don't know how to swim. The beaches here are so accommodating that people can just wade out into the nearly wave-free ocean for about 100 m before needing to tread water. You know another thing that would be perfect at this beach? INNER TUBE WATER POLO. Forget Myrtle Beach, guys...we're all coming here and playing ITWP all day every day. Everyone drinks on the beach and in the ocean too, so all you day-drinkers will be happy. Just imagine: play a round of water polo, lounge in the sand, then grab another piña colada just in time for a rematch.

Playa Sosua: going to the beach will never be the same

It's going to a be a busy week (just found out I have another presentation to give!) but with 2 weeks left in this country, I think I'll just enjoy the wonderful people and beautiful (albeit hot and humid) weather.

My host sister and mother. They're the best! 

Before we got roasted in the blazing sun. I'm pretty sure I'm beyond Filipino tan now.