Day 2 in the DR! (Sunday)

May 18^th, 2014 (Sunday)

Day 2

C-A-T-S! CATS, CATS, CATS!

              Waking up from my first night in Santiago was ok. I was somewhat rested from going to sleep so early, but I kept waking up in and out of my sleep from the humidity that was in my room. We don’t have any AC so the outside temperature reflects how the house feels during the day. When Josh and I are in our room, we have the fan on full blast!

            When it was time to take a shower I didn’t know that I was supposed to use the heating element to take a shower. So my first shower was very cold and quick. I later learned that you must turn the heating element on at first to allow it to warm the water up for 10-15minutes prior to getting in the shower.

An abandoned house with Barbed Wires a block away from my home.

            As we made our way downstairs, breakfast was already made for us, or prepared for us I should say. We had cereal and fruit before we left the house.

            Heading to the ISA office where we had the welcoming orientation and met with the staff. At the ISA office a lot of the students were excited because we all finally where in a place that had Internet service. During our orientation we met two students that were from other schools. Mark who is from Delaware who attends West Virginia University, and Kory who is from Michigan and attends the University of Michigan. They are interning for 8 weeks here in the Dominican Republic. In our orientation we were informed about rules, procedures and regulations of life and the culture here in the DR.

            After orientation, we made our way to the “Super Mercado” which is the supermarket where we could exchange our money into the pesos. I exchanged out $200 and I received 8,610 Pesos. From My amount it seems like I am wealthy compared to the typical person living here.

            We had lunch at this pretty cool restaurant called, Square One. Square One on the outside looked like it was a gas station but it was pretty nice inside. ISA gave us an allowance of 500 pesos for our meal. I ate Chicken quesadillas with Chicken and Steak Fajitas. I also got a "Tequila Sunrise" that was equivalent to $3 in America. The Price difference is real out here.

Pesos (Dominican Currency)

            After lunch, we toured the city and we got a great first hand look at how the people in the community interact and live. A lot of the places and buildings in the community of Santiago look like high poverty stricken areas. Trash is everywhere on the ground and streets of the city. I can remember a guy was trying to sell live rabbits out of a cage to us. There are a lot of markets and corner stores.

A Brief Video driving through the city of Santiago, Dominican Republic

 One thing that stood out was I seen a whole family on the back of a motorcycle. Seriously, like 4 people on the back of one motorcycle driving through the streets. I don’t know how they did it.

Heroes of the Restoration
Monument

            We were able to visit the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, which we learned about how the Dominican Republic gained its independence each time. In the monument they had very nice paintings and décor. Probably my favorite part about the visit was the view that we had overlooking the city of Santiago. The view was incredible.

My Girl Whitney and I at the top of the
Heroes of the Restoration Monument

Dominicano Breeze

            Once we arrived back to our host family’s house we pretty much had the rest of the day to ourselves. The first thing I did was getting me some sleep. My nap was only for a couple of hours but it were well needed. Waking up early and walking around and being active in that heat will definitely take a toll on you. When the rest of the guys woke up from their nap we went walking around the neighborhood to find out what was around us and to interact with the community. We found a corner store and we were able to buy bottled waters and snacks to have at the house. I had seen that they had the “Presidente” cervezas, so I had to try those. Cervezas is the Spanish word for beer, and the “Presidente” is the popular brand of beer to drink. I thought they were good they remind me of a Corona or a Heineken. Leaving the store we headed back to the house to get ready for dinner.

            Eh, The first dinner wasn’t really ideal food for me. Especially for the eating habits I have. I’m used to eating small meals 4-5 times a day, but not 3 meals a day, where the lunch meal is the biggest meal of the day. For dinner, we had salami and plaintains. I’m not a big fan of the plaintains though. They definitely were too bland and needed a whole lot of flavor for my likings.

            After dinner, we were privileged to have some of our friends/classmates come over and we were able to hangout and play cards. This was good and appreciated because our host aunt didn’t have to allow us to have company, but she did, and we all were able to bond together and talk about our trip so far from what we experienced. We had a great time!

More words, and more experiences tomorrow!