Aqui estoy

So here I am, finally, in Santiago. So this post is a little old as I have been here now over a full week, but it hasn't been until now that I have fully had time to breathe and reflect back on this first week.

After very little sleep the night before, I arrived here in Santiago at the location of our orientation site-- the hotel "Camp David". The hotel was located up in the mountains, and had one of the most spectacular views ever. Historically, it was also very interesting as the man who built it was a huge admirer of Trujillo, the brutal dictator who ruled this country for 30 odd years and killed many people. So at the hotel they actually have three cars of Trujillo's, all which I found amusing because they showed how full of himself he was. Each of the cars is equipped with a license plate which has the number as says at the top "era de Trujillo" rather than Dominican Republic or whatnot.

Below is a picture from the hotel...


Sadly, I don't think it does much justice but you can basically see all of Santiago from the balconies and the restaurant that is there. Apparently the restaurant at the hotel was deemed the "most romantic" place to go on a date or the best place to propose. It was definitely a really neat place to have our orientation.

Sunday, after a long morning/afternoon of orientation, we all received a piece of paper which told us about our prospective host families and where we would be living. From there we would be heading out to PUCMM, the university where we will be studying, and meeting our families.

Let's just say it was a super overwhelming experience, as we basically all just stood there until our families picked us out from a crowd.

My family is super cute though; the mom and dad are both young and in their 30's and they have two little boys, Alejandro (3) and Marco (2). The first thing Marco said to me was "yo te estaba esperando" meaning "I've been waiting for you". They were both super super cute and excited to have me there.

I'm their first exchange student, and since the boys are both still little they're a little bit confused about what exactly that means. The first several days they asked me over and over where my home was and where my parents were. But after several days of explaining they now tell me that I'm their "hermana" (sister) and that where I live now is my house. So much so that Alejandro got defensive yesterday when I told him that I have another house.

They're both super super cute though and want to play with me allll the time. But I was glad because I wanted little kids since I definitely miss the kids in Monte Cristi a ton.

Anyways, I came back to the house, settled in, and then began the week-long orientation. We spent the past week doing activities, seeing the city, taking placement exams, registering for classes, and the like. Unfortunately that has not left much room for any time to breathe. But it has been a fun week so far.

Monday night my family took me to an Aguilas game (the local team here) that was against their rival team the Liseys. The family has season tickets two rows behind first base so it was super fun. Needless to say, now that I am a part of this family I am automatically an aguilucha (which means an Aguilas fan) and have the gear to go along with it. Below is a picture of my two little brothers dressed up and ready for the game-- the colors of the team are yellow and black.


We also went to an Aguilas game Friday night with my entire group, which was also fun, and I got on tv twice with a friend when we went to visit my family. So I can say now that I have been on Dominican tv three times! Hahah. The games were both super fun, but unfortunately the team is not doing very well so I their season will be over quite soon.

Yesterday we went to Santo Domingo (the capital) for the day. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I don't have pictures. However, we went to the "zona colonial" (colonial zone) and saw lots of historical buildings and streets as Santo Domingo was one of the first cities in the Americas, so that was kind of cool.

After that we went to an art workshop where we were shown how they painted and supported youth learning to paint and then got to make something ourselves. I made a ridiculous looking piggy bank and gave it to my little brothers when I got back.

Tomorrow we start classes! I think that's when reality will finally sink in, and I think it will definitely be an interesting experience to have all my classes in Spanish. So we'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to "shop around" and perhaps change my schedule a little bit too but my classes sound interesting thus far. I'm excited for the community service too because I'm hoping to work at a home for children and see how it is here versus in Monte Cristi.

That's all for now as this post has already been super long! Adios!