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!

No tengo much tiempo para escribir hoy

I will just say that things are little by little getting easier but I still don´t understand a lot of what they say to me. I am on my way to salsa class. Yesterday my salsa teachers and I just hung out speaking spanish (me, sort of) and practicing footwork together. I didn´t feel great yesterday so I went to bed kind of early. My stomach was not good. Anyway, gotta run. Hope all is well with yáll.

Back at the Internet Cafe

Es muy barrato (cheap) to use the internet cafe, so I will probably use it often! Yay! Yesterday I went to the first salsa class and it was HARD! We did similar footwork to what we do in Houston but the names of everything are different so it was hard to remember what I was supposed to do when they called things out. One of the salseros speaks a little English and sometimes he would whisper to me ¨Suzy-Q´s ahora¨ because he knew that is what it is called in English. Tee hee. Anyway, the teacher is very demanding and she doesn´t put up with nonsense. By the way, mis estudiantes, I have a LOT of homework every night so you can feel happy that your teacher is doing more homework than you.
So, the carros publicos... this is the way many people get around in Santo Domingo. The are like Taxis but they smush 2 people up from with the driver and 4 in the back. They don´t take you where ever you want. They go on a route and you can get in and out by asking the driver to stop. they don´t look like anything special. They are usually old cars and sometimes have a green roof. If you see a lot of people smushed into a car, you know it is probably a carro publico. They cost about 50 cents unless you are going far. From my house to the school is almost a dollar. But if I take a taxi it is $5. But it is not comfortable in the carros publicos and is especially scary when your spanish is bad. However, I did it this morning and it was fine. Still not sure if I am moving. I might be moving in with a family that is housing those chicos that are in my class with me. They have an extra room and it is mas circa (much closer). OK. Talk to you all soon.

Day 2

OK so I am here and all is well. It is very weird for me to be somewhere that I don´t undertand ANYONE and I feel lost all the time. The culture here is different. Everyone is much more laid back except when they are driving. When they are driving--They are crazy! The cars do whatever they want. They drive the wrong way on a one way. They pass 20 cars in a no passing zone and swerve just in time! Crazy. When I first got to my house, I was very confused about everything. I don´t understand how to use the shower still and I still don´t understand who the lady is that is cooking for me. Is she the daughter? The housekeeper? Does she live there? My host ´´mom´´ is in Los Estados Unidos so I am confused as to who this person is. The house is far from my school so I might be moving to an apartment closer. The director is looking into it for me. My class in the morning is with two students from Haiti that are in college in Boston. In the afternoon, I have private lessons for an hour or so. Then I am off to dance class. It was supposed to be bachata y merengue but when I got here they said that it is now just salsa y mrengue. Oh well. I obviously like salsa so I guess it is ok. I need to run to dance class now. Oh by the way, after only two days, I am already finding myself thinking half of this letter in Spanish. I keep wanting to type necesito, or loco or entiendo. :) Ok, bien. I hope everyone there is well. I will write again when I next get to the cafe.