Ending the Orientation

Hola Amigos!
Necisito practicar mi espanol mucho! I just finished my first entire day in Santo Domingo, the capitol of the country and biggest city. It was fantastic. We ate a great breakfast with eggs and ham, cereal, and fresh fruit. Then we had a long orientation and went on a very informed tour of the city and learned about the history. We had free time for lunch and so a big group of us went to a bar/casual diner. I had "arroz con pollo" which was literally rice with chicken, it also had onions, peppers, tomatoes, and was huge and only 205 pesos, sooo like 4 bucks. The exchange here is 1 US dollar = 33 DR pesos. I am living good :) We had dinner together as a group at a nice restaurant and were assigned our families. I am living with a single mom with one son who is 16. One of our teachers was conducting the interviews and is in charge of placing families and if we have problems, so she told me I need to be very independent with my donna (mother) because she works a lot and supports the family. She said that my house was very nice and so is my room. I will see tomorrow! It will be sooooo weird to have a brother but I guess I should learn some time. In regard to my spanish, I can understand a lot but my actual speaking skills are not great. I hope to increase that a lot obviously. I love this country and its people. The culture and way of life is amazing, not to mention the weather. Palm trees galore :) BUT it is EXTREMELY poor. It makes me very sad to see all the stray dogs and poor people roaming and begging but its life and I need to see these things in order to better understand my life and my perspective on life. That's all for now as I am borrowing my roommates laptop!! I kinda regret not having mine but I think it will be a good challenge for me to distance myself from the US. I miss the idea of home and the comfort zone of knowing cultural norms but you all know I love this experience, I just miss you all! (especially mi familia, y mis amigos)

MICHELLE GET READY FOR JAMAICA!!!!

Pretty much all of us went out tonight and drank a little bit and just experienced Santo Domingo. I met many people who spoke fluent english and even if I try to speak Spanish, they are too proud of their english to let me speak spanish even though I need to practice my Spanish.

Lots of love and kisses, sorry this isn't very long I will write more soon, especially when I arrive in Jarabacoa and its a more manageable city (only like 20,000 people).

DAD & MOM, I will call you tomorrow so we can figure out the phone issue :)

CHELS

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