Wofford College - Study Abroad

My 4 months has come to an end...

    It's currently 4:47 p.m. as I sit in the study room at Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra for the last time.  Today is officially my last full day here in Santiago, Dominican Republic and I have been a lot busier than I thought I would be.  I had planned to do nothing but pack today and make sure everything would fit in my suitcases so that I would be ready to leave my host family's home at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.  However, my day was a lot different than that. 

 

**Me with my host mom and host sisters as well as my friend, Anna, and her host family.  Anna's host mom and my host mom are sisters which makes us host cousins or "primas" as we call each other!**

    I ended up packing last night and it took a lot less time than I thought it would so this morning I did some last minute shopping downtown.  I bought the last two gifts that I needed this morning and took in all the sights and sounds of downtown Santiago for the last time.  I hadn't really been sad about leaving before today but after reminiscing on all the fun times that I had with my new friends here in the DR, I realized that saying good-bye would be a lot harder than I had anticipated. 

 

**My professor, Jose Ricardo Santos, and I on the last day of class.  He was definitely my favorite!**

    My host mom has been getting sadder day by day and it makes me sad to see her that way.  When she was preparing my dinner on Saturday evening, we were discussing the specifics about my return flight and tears came to her eyes.  Tomorrow morning my flight leaves at 8:30 a.m. and I will be leaving my house at 6:00 a.m.  I'm sure she will be very sad but I just hope she won't cry because that will only make me cry and I don't want her to be sad the last time that I see her. 

 

**My friend, Amanda, and I at our program's going away party.  She and I did community service together every week.**

    Several of my friends will be leaving tomorrow so we are all planning to have a big celebration tonight.  There were 9 other girls from my program who lived in my neighborhood and we all became very close.  So close that we have already planned several reunions for when we all return to the U.S.  I will truly miss them ALL and will never forget the friendships that I made here in the DR. 

 

**Me with all of the girls from my neighborhood minus two!!** 

    I have been in contact with several friends and family members from home and am extremely excited to reunite with each and every one of them.  My time here in the DR has been wonderful and I will never forget it.  I am even more grateful now than I was in January for having the opportunity to come study and explore this wonderful country and will definitely be back to visit in the future.

My families...

     

   **My family and I eating dinner at the resort in Puerto Plata!**

    I have to say that this semester abroad would have been impossible to get through without the support of my families.  When I say families, I am speaking of my REAL family as well as my DOMINICAN family.  Since I arrived in January, I have been living with the same family and every single member has been AMAZING!  I will miss them dearly when I leave.

 

**Me with my host family (minus my older host sister Carolina) inside the house!**

    My host mom, Josefina, is about the same age as my mom and acts a lot like my mom.  She is a stay at home mom and cooks, cleans, and visits her mother everyday.  Her mother lives on the same street so she gets her exercise by walking to her house multiple times per day.  She is always very calm and has been very supportive throughout the semester and anytime that I needed her advice she was always there willing and waiting to help in any way that she could.  I didn't meet my host dad, Miguel, until the middle of March because he lives in New York.  He came to the Dominican Republic for my host sister's wedding and left 2 weeks ago to return to New York.  He suffered a stroke more than 20 years ago that caused him to lose his ability to talk and even though he can't talk, he is still one of the nicest people that I have ever met.  He loves to do home improvements and even though he was only here visiting for one month, he fixed a ton of things!  

 

**My host mom and I at my host sister's wedding reception!**

    I have two host sisters, Carolina and Melissa, and one host brother, Carlos.  Carlos is the oldest and doesn't live in the house but with his wife in another part of town.  He eats lunch at his mother's house everyday during the week and on the weekend he visits as well.  I see him all the time and he always has a question to ask about the United States.  His questions are always random and could be about anything from sports to politics in the U.S.  It's sometimes hard for me to answer the questions in Spanish but Carlos is always patient with me and appreciates the fact that I always make an honest attempt to answer them.  Melissa is the youngest and she is a senior in high school.  When she's not at school, she's usually at home in her room listening to music or spending time with her boyfriend.  She is very artistic and has her artwork is displayed in several rooms inside the house.  She likes acting and participates in a local theater group in Santiago.  She reminds me a lot of myself whenever I was that age.  Last but not least, my older host sister, is Carolina.  She is an absolute sweetheart and has been a great older sister always helping me when I needed anything.  Carolina got married on Saturday, March 21, and the wedding was absolutely gorgeous.  It was a small, intimate, Dominican wedding and my friends and I enjoyed every minute of it.  She made a beautiful bride and is now living with her husband approximately 15 minutes away from her mother's house. 

    **My host sister and I after I caught the bouquet at the reception!**

    My REAL family from the states came to visit me at the beginning of this month and I had a WONDERFUL time with them.  My mom, one of my cousins, and one of my aunts came and they stayed at a resort in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, which is approximately 1 hour away from where I live in Santiago, and I went and stayed with them for the weekend.  They got to meet my host family and that was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend.  Neither my mom, nor my aunt speak any Spanish at all except for knowing how to say "Hola" and "Gracias" but my cousin knew how to speak a little bit of Spanish.  My host mom prepared lunch for us and we all ate and talked for a while.  After lunch, I took my family to tour the city before we went back to Puerto Plata.  They enjoyed their time here touring the beautiful country and I enjoyed having both my families here at the same time!   

 

**My mom and I with the taxi driver who drove us to the bus station in Puerto Plata!**

"Oh no there's another one...RUN!"

   **Me in El Museo de Don Tomas Morel with one of my favorite masks from Carnaval!"**   

    Carnaval was celebrated here in the Dominican Republic during the entire month of February.  I didn't go until Sunday, February 22; however, I had heard both positive and negative responses from other students in my program all month long.  These different responses made me very anxious to experience Carnaval so that I could form my own personal opinion of Carnaval.  Carnaval is a big celebration that is held every year during the month of February in different cities throughout the Dominican Republic.  There are usually thousands of people in attendance lining the streets.  There is a lot of loud music, free giveaways, and vendors on the sides of the streets selling everything from food to jewelry. 

  **Me with some of the characters from Carnaval** 

  **One of the first lechones that I saw upon arriving at Carnaval...I was amazed that he had braces!**

    The largest Carnaval celebration is held in Santo Domingo, but I went to Carnaval in La Vega and the streets were packed!  Whenever I tried to walk I had to say excuse me in order to go through because the crowd was so thick.  I had a lot of fun besides having to dodge the "Lechones" in order to avoid being hit by their "Vejigas".  The lechones were people dressed up in extravagant costumes who were in the parade.  They carried round rubber "vejigas" which means bladders in Spanish that they used to hit people with.  Many years ago they used inflated cow bladders to hit people with; not rubber like they use today.  I had been told that the vejigas hurt really bad and that some people who were hit weren't able to sit down for an entire month!!  Naturally, I was scared after hearing that!  Luckily I didn't get hit nearly as many times as some people did and I walked away with no injuries.  Well, no injuries from the vejigas that is.  However, I did manage to jam one of my toes while running away from one of the lechones.  We were in a big group and one of my friends yelled out, "Oh no there's another one...RUN!"  So everyone ran, including myself, but somehow I hit my toe on something and felt a sharp pain.  I looked down as soon as we had escaped and saw that the toe had already started swelling.  I guess I should have worn closed toe shoes but the thought never even crossed my mind.  I have fully recovered now and am glad that I didn't have to seek medical attention.  Besides that minor injury, Carnaval was a BLAST!  If I ever get the opportunity to go again, I will definitely know what kind of shoes to wear!  

  **Another lechon with some of the crowd in the background.  The round red object that is in his right hand is the vejiga...as you can see none of the people are really close to him!**

  **Keshia, one of my new friends, Kyra, and myself on the side of the street at Carnaval.**

"You did WHAT?"

 

**Me in the mountains of Constanza!**

    I have continued to have a wonderful time here in the Dominican Republic and it's hard to believe that 2 months have already passed!  I celebrated Valentine's Day in the mountains of Constanza, Dominican Republic, which is the highest region in the entire country!  I went to Constanza on an excursion with my program and didn't think I would be doing anything to celebrate Valentine's Day but to my surprise I was WRONG!  Some friends from my program decided it would be fun to make Valentine's Day cards so they purchased some supplies and brought them to Constanza.  I usually don't enjoy doing arts and crafts but I have to admit that this actually ended up being pretty fun!  I also received more Valentine's cards this year than I have since elementary school when everyone used to receive a card from each student in the class.

 

                           **The Valentine's Day cards that I received from my friends.**

    Thankfully my Valentine's Day went well but it's too bad I can't say the same thing about the rest of my weekend.  I mentioned that I was in the mountains of Constanza for the weekend on an excursion with my program.  A few hours after we arrived we were told that we were going on a walk to tour Constanza.  Basically they tricked us bcause this so-called "walk" ended up being a mini hike up a mountain!  Almost everyone knows that I hardly ever participate in outdoor activities unless I absolutely have to so climbing up a mountain was definitely not something that I had planned to do.  Needless to say, I was scared during the entire adventure and the fact that we just kept getting higher and higher only made it worse.  Not to mention it had rained for an entire week the week before so there were some spots were the amount of mud was unreal.  The mud was almost like quicksand and three people got stuck and had to be helped out by the medic that was accompanying us on our "walk".  One of my friend's shoes even got stuck in the mud and had to be dug out.  This was truly an experience that I will never forget but I have to admit I will probably never walk up another mountain again!  I felt like I had accomplished so much when I reached the top and was extremely excited that I didn't have to walk back down because there were buses there to take us back down to the bottom.

    When I described what I did to family members and friends back home their responses were basically the same; they were all shocked!  I told my mom and her response was, "You did WHAT?"  She, along with the others, couldn't believe that I, Jasmine Davis, had actually participated in an activity like this.  Well, What can I say, you never know what adventures you might have while studying abroad!

                **My friends and I decided to take a break from walking up the mountain.**

 

 

**Me after making it to the top of the mountain!!  I think it's pretty obvious that I was EXTREMELY proud of myself!!**

CHANGE!!

 

*ME on the day of President Obama's inauguration supporting what he stands for...CHANGE!!*

 

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, history was made as Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44^th President of the United States of America.  I was extremely happy to be able to witness such a historic event, even if I am currently living in the Caribbean!   With Monday, January 19 having been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Tuesday, January 20 the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States of America, I was really homesick.  I wanted to be in Spartanburg, SC with my closest family members and friends to celebrate these two dynamic men.  If I had been at Wofford on Monday, I would have attended the annual MLK Jr. Day Breakfast along with some of my closest friends.  On Tuesday morning, I would have attended the viewing of the Presidential Inauguration and then later on probably would have driven to my house, which is only 15 minutes away, and watched more of the inaugural events on CNN with my mother.

            Since I wasn’t in Spartanburg, SC or even in the United States, those two days were celebrated A LOT differently.  Monday hardly felt like a holiday.  I got up and went to class at 8:00 a.m., but to my surprise, my professor in my first class of the day mentioned the fact that it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  This made me happy and even though none of my other professors mentioned it, I was glad to know at least one of them was aware of the holiday and what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood for.  On Tuesday morning, I didn’t have class until 10:00 a.m.  I had discussed plans for viewing the inauguration the day before with some friends in my program.  After discussing several options, my friend and roommate at Wofford, Keshia, and I decided to go to her house after class and watch the inauguration during lunch.  We arrived at her house just in time to watch all of the VIPs as they were coming to the stage.  As soon as they showed Barack Obama heading toward the stage, tears began to stream down my face. 

These were definitely tears of joy and at that moment I thought about all of the people around the world who would be inspired by President Obama during the next 4 years.  Right when it was time to eat, Barack Obama was about to be sworn in and we didn’t want to miss it.  Keshia’s host mom, Fior, called us to come eat about 5 times and each time Keshia replied, “Okay”, as our eyes remained glued to the television.  We finally ate with only about half an hour left before we had to return to class at the university but trust me, the brisk walk back to school wasn’t bad at all because it was spent reminiscing on the historic event that we had just witnessed. 

 

 

*I was so happy that I could hardly sit still long enough to take this picture after I read the fact at the bottom of the t.v. screen!*

 

            As we all know, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the most famous civil rights activists during the civil rights movement and President Obama wants to carry out the dream that Dr. King had when he was living.  Here in the Dominican Republic, many people have never even heard of a civil rights movement, much less witnessed one.  Many Dominicans have, however, been informed about the history of relations with their neighboring country, Haiti.  The relationship that exists between these two countries who share the island of Hispaniola has not been the best and because of that some Haitians, or people with darker skin who people may assume are Haitian, are sometimes victims of discrimination.  Several of my friends witnessed this discrimination when they attempted to enter two local discotecas (dance clubs) here in Santiago the weekend before President Obama’s inauguration.  All the students in my program had been warned about the problems that some students with darker skin had witnessed in the past when trying to go to certain clubs.  However, the clubs that my friends tried to go to were not the same two that we had been warned about.  We all knew the day was coming when someone in our program would witness this discrimination but we never thought it would happen so soon.  Discrimination based on racism is not against the law in the Dominican Republic as it is in the U.S. so some clubs and restaurants choose to discriminate and only allow people with certain skin tones to enter their facilities.  My friends who were denied entry to the two different clubs were told by a man at the door that there was a private party being held and they would need an invitation in order to enter.  They knew the man was lying because they had just seen him let two Caucasian females from our same program into the club who didn’t have invitations.  When they told him this he came up with another excuse and said there was a dress code and they weren’t dressed properly which wasn’t true either.  Needless to say, my friends were highly upset and offended when they were denied entry to these two clubs just because their skin was too dark.  Even though I wasn’t present when either of these events took place, just to see the look on their faces when they told me what happened was sad enough.  This is just an example of the type of problems that still exist in some parts of the world…even in the country that I chose to study abroad in.  I am so glad that I voted for CHANGE!     

 

  

*Barack Obama being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America and our new first lady, Michelle Obama!* 

Reality...

    As of today, I have been in Santiago, Dominican Republic for 12 days.  Maybe it's just me, but it definitely seems like way more than 12 days!  I feel like I have already learned and experienced so much even though I still have the entire semester ahead of me.  I wasted no time taking advantage of the beautiful beaches that are here in the Dominican Republic and went to Sosua with a group of girls from my program.  The bus ride there from Santiago was approximately 2 hours and was very relaxing.  I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to spending an entire day at the beach; however, that changed as soon as my feet hit the sand.  I found an umbrella to sit under because I definitely didn't want to get a tan, plugged in my i-pod, and began to take in the view.  Sosua is definitely the most gorgeous beach that I have ever been to and when I was admiring the beautiful view, I decided that I could finally say I actually like going to the beach!

    I was placed with a wonderful host family.  My host mom, Josefina, host sisters, Carolina and Melissa, and host brother, Carlos, are all extremely nice.  I get along with them very well and my host mom always makes sure that I have everything I need.  She is an awesome cook and I ALWAYS eat everything she prepares for me.  I have to admit that it is somewhat difficult  to understand the "Dominican Spanish" that my host family speaks.  Most Dominicans have a tendency to speak very fast and to cut some letters out of certain words that they say.  In the short time that I have been here, I have started to become more familiar with the way my family members talk; however, I still find myself asking them to repeat what they say almost every time I have a conversation with them.  It is very comforting to me that they don't mind repeating themselves and are committed to helping me improve my speaking skills.

    Before leaving for the Dominican Republic, I was warned about several things, including the frequent "apagones" (power outages) that I would experience.  I was in the Dominican Republic for an entire week before I experienced a power outage that actually affected me.  I had just woken up and was about to get read to go to Santo Domingo with the other students in my program for the last day of orientation.  I noticed that my fan was off but remembered that it had been on when I went to sleep.  I turned on the light in my room; however, when I flipped the switch for the fan, nothing happened.  As soon as I opened my door and was about to walk across the hall to my bathroom, my host mom yelled from  another room that the electricity was out and that I wouldn't have any hot water if I was planning on taking a shower.  I was shocked and not expecting to wake up to that kind of chaos.  At that moment reality set in.  After 3 months of preparing to study abroad, I had finally reached my destination and the Dominican Republic would be my new home for the next 4 months.  I dealt with not having any hot water to use that morning while I got ready and continued on with my day.  Other than that, the experience has been great so far and I hope it only continues to get better!