Almost done!

Two more days. I can´t believe it. I am sort of ready to come home but I am also sad to be leaving new friends behind. I can´t wait to see my neices. I hear that my littlest niece can sit up now! This week the heat is awful. And so are the mosquitos. Even with bug spray they are eating me alive. Today I decided that even though I would get lots and lots of stares, I was wearing shorts. Women don´t wear shorts much here. But I am too hot to care. Needless to say, the men here had much to say about the fact that I was scantily clad. Loudly. From busses. From houses. Everywhere. How annoying.
OK top ten Dominican phrases that I hear here on a daily basis:

Como tu'ta? How are you?
Tienes un novio? Do you have a boy friend?
Quieres un novio? Do you want a boy friend?
Oy, rubia! Hey blondie!
Griga! American!
Mi amor! o Linda, Bella, etc. No translation necessary.
Buenas Lazy way of saying hi
Si, claro! Yes of course
Entiendes? Do you understand?
Tu bailas? Tu? Salsa? You dance? You? Salsa? increible

Only 4 days left!

I can´t believe that I am going home this saturday. It went so quickly. And then I am back to work.... My weekend was ok but I am glad to be back to school where I know what to expect. I have some fear of the weekends because it isn´t easy to get in touch with people here and I don´t want to be stuck at home with nothing to do. And where as I am very independent at home and go lots of places alone, here I don´t feel comfortable enough to do that. I did go out to dance with those guys from my dance class yesterday even though I couldn´t get a hold of the German girl. Today there is a new student from Arizona. She is moving here for a year. She is supposedly an intermediate but I speak more spanish than her so that makes me feel better. I still am frustrated that I don´t understand more when people other than my teachers talk. But with my teachers I can hold a full conversation. The dancing here is amazing. There is always always music and you can dance all the time. But to be honest, most people here dance the same way as people in clubs in Houston dance. Maybe the average person here dances better than the average person in the United States but there seem to be more REALLY good dancers in Houston than here. I am a super star dancer here. :) I get applause at the discotecas. Or maybe it is just that I am blonde :) But at home I am an average dancer in a salsa club. I don´t know. It is funny that right now I am traslate back from Spanish to English in my head. I guess that means I am thinking in Spanish. Er... I am thinking in Spanglish. Anyway... I am off to dance class.

Estoy aburrida

Sundays in the Dominican Republic are not exactly known for their excitment. There really isn´t anything to do. Especially now that the boys that lived here left. Tonight I am supposed to go dancing but I can´t get a hold of anyone that I am supposed to go with. Vamos a ver. (we´ll see). Everything is closed so alas, I am at home typing on the computer and watching TV. I feel a little funny just hanging out in these people´s house. If I come again, I think I will get an apartment. It would be nice to go a movie but I don´t feel like going alone.... Anyway, yesterday I hung out with a friend and went to this place. I don´t know how to call it in English. It is this big huge fountain that ¨cleans¨ the water that runs off from the rain. Since the water here isn´t clean i doubt it does a very good job. But it was pretty. Unfortunately it rained. I mean, it poured! I got soaking wet and it was far from home. We had to take 3 carropublicos to get there and in the rain it is very difficult to get a car or a taxi so we had to walk a lot of the way back. Afterwards, I went to bed, kind of early. I was exhausted. Today, I guess this is what I am going to do. Write on the computer and watch tv.... maybe dance later....

Quemada

Well, I am feeling much better with my cold. It wasn´t much of a cold apparently. But today when we went to the beach, I got a sun burn. I put on SPF 50 but apparently that wasn´t enough in this sun. Another student that is from Germany didnt put any sun screen on and she was fried to a crisp. I hope she will be ok. Any way I don´t think the burn is that bad on my shoulders but it isn´t comfortable. This weekend I don´t have too much planned. I am going to a discoteca tonight to celebrate my friends´last night here. And tomorrow I am meeting up with one of the teachers to go sightseeing. Sunday I am going to a dance place with people from the dance studio. That is all.

Thursday #2

I can´t believe my second week is already almost finished. Today in my dance class there was a teacher from another dance school there to watch me. The owner Chicha was so impressed with me that she wanted him to see how I dance. Then he danced with me as well. He said that he can´t believe how beautifully I dance. (He even spoke a little English) He said he wished I could stay here and learn more because I would soon be the queen of Salsa in Santo Domingo. ¨La reyna rubia¨ he said. (blond queen) How nice. I am surprised at how they think I am such a fantastic dancer here! I guess they just don´t expect it from me, you know? Anyway, I also went to a mall. I bought a phone charger because I can use my phone here and it is becoming difficult to make plans with people when I don´t have a phone. That is all of the news here. I am still stuffy but not too bad and I am going to the beach mañana. And then it is the weekend!

A new week in the Dominican Republic

So today is my second Wednesday and I am definately becoming more and more accustomed to the way of life here. I could even see myself returning someday. There are things that I definately don't like. But there are things that I do like as well. Today I had an interesting experience. My Spanish teacher is an English teacher as well and she took us to meet her English students at the university. They prepared these presentations for us about Dominican culture. About holidays and dance and food.... They were so excited and scared because they had to present in English. It was very cute. They even brought us in food to try and we danced with them. :) Very fun.
So I have been having fun every day lately, going and doing lots of things. Last week when I lived so far away I only went to school and home but now, I go out a lot. Yesterday I convinced my afternoon teacher that we should have class in a clothing store. So we went shopping for shirts for me while we talked in Spanish. I am happy to say that I am quite conversational in Spanish now, when people speak slowly and clearly. But I still have a very hard time understanding anything that people on the street say to me. They use a lot of slang and their accent is very hard to understand. Anyway, after class one of the girls that works there at the school and I went to McDonalds (IT HAS AIRCONITIONING!!!!!) This is the first American food I have had. I ate a lot! Hamburger, french fries, coke, mcflurry.... So funny because I don't eat this kind of food at home. :) After that, I went to dance class which is still fun. They all love me there. The woman who owns the place (who I thought was mean in the beginning) LOVES me. I feel like I am at home because everyone knows me there now. It is nice to feel comfortable again...finally. Anyway, in the evening I went to a restaurant to hear a band play.
Now the bad news... I am sick. Again. I got a sore throat last night and I was worried about all kinds of things being wrong with me but when I got home Dona Gloria (my hostess) said that she had a cold and I knew that I was getting a cold.... so of course when I woke up I was all stuffy and felt gross. It has been a long, tiring day. I hope I feel better tomorrow...

El fin de semana

So, I have finally moved into a new house because not only was my family crazy but it was really far away from the school and everything else.  I moved into the house with two guys that are going to my school as well and the family is very nice.  But they talk very fast and I can't understand hardly ANYTHING of what they say.  After a week I still feel very out of place a lot of the time.  I went dancing last night (saturday) with the son of my host family who is a college student, his friends, and some of my new friends from my school.  It was fun even though I didn't understand a lot of what they were saying.  This seems to be a theme for me here.  Their accent is so crazy and they talk REALLY fast.  OK about the music here.  There is always music.  I can't remember more than 5 minutes of time passing here when I didn't hear music.  People have music blasting from everywhere and they will just dance wherever.  They play a lot of merengue and bachata but also some rock and tons of regeton. And they play it LOUD.  Very Loud. I am going to some club to take a free salsa lesson this evening.  I hope that I understood the people who told me about it.  I can never be sure. :)

So one week down two more to go.  Looking forward to getting back to school and learning more Spanish so that I am not so clueless. :)  Hugs to all!