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Published: August 28th 2008
Today signifies the end of the first week of my stay in the DR. After orientation week I feel that my feet are starting to sink into this part of the world. There are people, places and things that I have not seen until this week and for that I am grateful. I would like to formally introduce the journal of me, Miss Natalie Moses to all of you; my family and friends. Here is a just a small window into the world I will be enduring for the next four months!
This week started off late, as we departed the airport in Miami we were already fours behind schedule. So there was little orientation Sunday night, but the hotel was at the top of a mountain that overlooked the entire city of Santiago. From this view all could be seen; a valley full of buildings and houses and gorgeous green gardens.
My director Lynne is an older woman who looks much like my fourth grade teacher; she is surprisingly spunky, quirky and always in optimistic spirits. She has lived in the DR for over eleven years now and is well acquainted with the Dominican people and culture. She fell in love with the island and decided to ever leave once she came in 1997.
The first week has been full of orientation workshops, touring the city, meeting the other students families, getting acquainted with our own families and simply settling into this new place that we are to call home for the next four months.
Things that I love: the food, the architecture, the fact that everything is colorful, the weather- even though it is ridiculously hot most of the time, almost everyone I have met has been very friendly and last but not least the beautiful people! Everyone here ranges from one spectrum of blonde hair and blue eyes to the darkest skin yet they all consider themselves Latino. It is a bizarre concept but almost refreshing that they all call themselves “ Dominican” rather than black or white or something else. The division between color is certainly still apparent but in a very different way.
All of the students in my program are from all over the US and are all very different from each other. We all come from very different backgrounds and all share something different, which adds a lot to our program. There are also local students from the university called “ Estudiantes de Apoyo” which mean students of support. They are all very nice and have been very welcoming to us- I am now into the first day of school which was very intimidating. Our campus is very spread out but beautiful, it is as if we are in the middle of the jungle. The atmosphere is very laid back and all the students kind of just stand around between class and chat. I like the environment, but it is very different from the Minnesota campus.
Finally, my family! I have a mother, Matitza who is 48 and a yonger sister, Emely who is 7. They are both very nice and patient with my Spanish; I think I am about the fifth student they have hosted. The mother speaks extremely fast and was very hard to understand initially but now I can decifer most anything she says. The little girl is very sweet and has very clear Spanish and she is very easy to talk to. She wants a lot of attention being an only child but none the less is very helpful and very mature. She helped me unpack and sometimes translates when the mother speaks 1000 miles a minute.
We visited our first beach on Saturday and went to a waterfall on Sunday. Both were beautiful and very fun- we have many excursions planned as well as community service projects. I think the one I am choosing is at an orphanage which should be quite the experience.
Well that is all for now, I think that this information should cover most of the aspects of my life here. CIAO FOR NOW!
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Auntie21261
RB Moses
First Week
Of course I want to hear more about the food. hehe. All in time.