The last two days I’ve been spending with the new CIEE students who arrived on Monday. Wow, I’m already trying to write this message in Spanish… clearly I’m in the bilingual mood right now so I’m sorry if anything comes out in Spanish. Anyway, it’s been very eyeopening to watch the new people arrive and figure out their surroundings. This was be before I knew where the streets Bolivar or Socorro Sanchez or Maximo Gomez were. Before I learned the phrase “que lo que?” and understood the word “vaina.” They don’t know about the tigueres, bateyes, Tainos, haitianos, guaguas, carros publicos, mangu, tostones, Yogen Fruz, Presidente and Benedicta and Brugal, merengue, Estadio Olympico and all of its awesome concerts, Trujillo, etc. I can hardly remember that there was a time before I knew a bit too much about all of those things. It seems weird that I didn’t always know Stephanie and Belkis. It was hard for me to watch the new girl head off with Belkis yesterday and I had to stay put. It still feels like she’s moving into my home while I’m out for a little bit.
Yesterday and today I went to loan meetings and did interviews. But for this entry I’m not going to focus on that since you’ve had enough of me describing those adventures so I’ll stick with the new ones. Yesterday (Tuesday, I think?), I came into the CIEE office around 2:30 and hung out with Robin talking about my internship and the possibility of doing a Fulbright project here (awesome, right!?). When they got back from getting there phones (there was a time I didn’t have this Dominican phone?), I had a little session with them when they closed the doors and all CIEE staff left so the students could ask me any sort of question that they wanted. It was fun and made me realize that I also once had those questions. Except for the question about where to find a hula hoop club, but I told her I wouldn’t even know where to direct her in the US.
It’s been fun getting to know them and see where all they came from and the similarities/differences among the groups. I found another girl who is going to be a senior at Penn State and who went to Grace Prep. Small freaking world (that’s where Loryn’s mom works). And honestly, I’m realizing how much I enjoy going back and getting a new perspective on groups that I used to be part of. After Leadership Jumpstart I got to be a TA and see the freshman year transition all over. I led the Jr. High youth group at church and got to learn again what life was like at that age. And now I get to relearn what it was like to study abroad, but from a much more emotionally detached/analytical perspective. Maria (the program director) said that it was good to have someone around who sobrevivio la experiencia (survived the experience). I suppose I’m an especially good example since I’m back another month for more (a slightly biased sample, but oh well).
This afternoon I sat through the orientation part about Dominican racism (there was a time where I could hardly tell Dominicans and Haitians apart? where I thought that in this country race didn’t matter?). Then there was a snack break (fruta!!) and a presentation about the classes and atmostpheres at the different schools (there was a time that I actually considered taking a class at la UASD?). Throughout that presentation, it made me realize that if I had to do it again I would likely take the exact same classes that I took. In fact, I can’t think of much anything that I would have changed from my time here last semester. That either means 1)I’m uncreative or apathetic or 2) I actually had the best experience I could have while here. I choose to tell myself it was the second one, although as time since my last semester here slides away I find myself dwelling much more on the great times I had and forgetting about the many, yet small daily inconveniences (I thought of making a list of examples, but then realized it would go on too long before I stopped myself) that peppered each day. I forgot about the daily stress of classes while I was here and remember most my time at the Melia pool with the other students. Heck, I’d forgotten that I’d even taken classes until they started describing the schools today and I was like, Oh yeah, I did go to INTEC. It’s probably because those ones ended mid-October… aka like 10 months ago.
After the days worth of orientation was done, a few of us went to the beloved colmado across the street (saw Carlos of course, and Vinchenzo who happened to be riding by) and shared jumbo Presidentes all around. Now they can begin there experience here (that’s pretty much the one of the first rite of passages that they have to go through). After a little while doing that, I headed back to my apartment and met up there with Elizabeth (who really wanted to use my shower due to the decent water pressure, especially in comparison to bucket baths) and Jordan. We hung out for awhile and then Jordan’s friends came over and made mofongo (fried platanos mashed with garlic and pork) and fried cheese. Delicious? Yes. But I have a feeling this grease might not sit too well in the morning. Oh well.
Tomorrow will be good except for the fact that I’ve got to wake up super early to be in Villa Mella by 7:15 am (40 minutes away). I need to shower but I’m exhausted now (for some reason I’ve gotten less than 6 hours of sleep the last three nights) but I know I won’t want to into the morning. I guess I’ll do it now. But then my pillow will be wet. So maybe not. We’ll see.
