Blogs from Santiago, Dominican Republic, Central America Caribbean - page 4

here i am, about 3 weeks into my semester in the dominican republic and finally trying to make a blog. let's see how it goes... things have been great here so far. my host family is fabulous, i've done a little bit of traveling, and i'm starting to know my way around the city. some things i have experienced so far: lots of hissing from locals, being woken up by stray roosters every morning, a peanut butter- ham-and-cheese sandwich, lots of rice, a couple of beautiful beaches, the cave of wonders, and the vacation houses of shakira and julio iglesias. score! i forgot the cable i need to upload my pictures to the computer, but my wonderful mother has mailed it to me. while i'm waiting for that, i'll try to steal some photos from friends' ... read more

iiBuenos Dias familia, amigas y amigos!! Well, I finally got here and have had a week and a half to look around and see what's up. Saw some service sites, went up north to an all-inclusive resort, didn't get a sunburn. Also, made friends with Creighton kids, they all seem nice, and they all like me a lot. Missing the family and SLU community quite a bit. I keep thinking of things to say to you guys, or jokes only y'all would laugh at, and nope, some don't go over that well down here, particularly the crude jokes. Creighton girls don't think those are funny. I've got almost everything in line except for a loan that's supposed to come in from SLU, and I don't remember too much Spanish, so that kind of sucks. I expect ... read more

Some friends from the capital came up to Santiago and we all took off for 27 waterfalls. I had heard about it, that it was awsome, but it exceeded my expectations by far. The beginning of the trail was in a quiet field of sugar kane. We walked about half a mile to the first charco where there was a little hut with beer and rum and a locker to put your valuables and dry stuff. Looking back, I shouldn't have taken my digital camera because it did get wet. But it still works perfectly, so no harm done. The first waterfall was small but had a large pool to swim around in and a spot to jump in from about fifty feet above, lots of fun! Then going upstream, in many places the stream was ... read more

so yesterday i came home from a day of teaching english and ninety degree weather 32 C. i unlocked the door to my room (which is weird because for about 2 months i didn't even have a door) and flung my laptop and books on my bed, stripped my uniform shirt off and proceeded to do what every guy does no matter what country your in- go and look in the fridge. There's something to be said about the psychological relief that takes place when you look in the fridge. It is a feeling of security or what? It is always one of the first things I do, and usually there isn't a whole lot there. Anyway, while I was musing over the lack of food in the house, my door slammed shut like it has ... read more