So I must officially be labeled the slowest blogger ever. Please forgive the month long lapses of time that I seem to be letting slide by between each blog. I will try to do better.... but with limited internet and mid-term assignments picking up speed, I can make no promises.
Over the past month, I have been to my first latin american concert, been whale-watching, had my first exams, experienced my first Carnaval, been the the Moscow Circus here and had my first visitor from the states. Lots to show and lots to explain. I'll give you guys some pics that I promised quite a while ago.
Alejandro Sanz was here in Santo Domingo while on tour and I went with my friend Ellie. It was a really great time and my first experience at a spanish concert. Granted I couldn't understand most of what he was singing about, it was definitely a memorable experience and an educational one at that. Finding ways to immerse myself in the culture here is hard sometimes because it seems you have to be in the right circles to hear about things, but if you seek out these opportunities, they are plentiful and tons of fun.
During February, the CIEE group took an excursion to Samana to go whale-watching and see Taino cave paintings. We traveled packed into these little boats through mongroves and out into the open waters. These little boats, while lots of fun while going fast, are not such a good idea for the weak-stomached. While I was having a great time, the people all around me getting sick were not so happy at the prospect of rocking back and forth along the waves.
While you may be wondering why I'm including a picture of the back of somebody's head, take a second to look up in the left hand corner. There's a whale! And the only one I spotted.... This was enough for me though, seeing as how they warned us there was a chance we may not see any whales at all.
Yay for visitors! My boyfriend came to visit me for his spring break and here we are relaxing on the beach at Boca Chica. While some may think it takes away from the abroad experience to have visitors, it really forced me to take lead and seek out new cool places to take him. And no worries, I didn't miss a single class while he was here. But the solitude of being in the Dominican won't last long as my parents, brother and cousin are on their way this weekend for my Semana Santa vacation.
This was one of the floats in the Carnaval parade. While this float kind of made me chuckle, it also made me a little sad that this is how people here are viewing my country. Now on to some more typical and more colorful Carnaval costumes:
Why, yes, that is a man......
The papuluses- these costumes are made out of plantain peels, one of the major food staples here.
I think that's all I have to share for now, and I must be off to our monthly program meeting to check in, discuss issues we have here, and of course, eat pizza! They make sure to take good care of us here! Adios mis amigos!
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