The big city-- Santo Domingo

So, with this being the last week of real academics, I actually only have two final exams-- on being Monday and then the last one today (Wednesday). So, to explore a bit Diane and I decided to go to Santo Domingo, the capital, on Tuesday.

We weren't really sure what exactly we were going to do there but we hopped on Caribe Tours and off we went. First we went to the Jardin Botanico (Botanical Gardens). It was huge, and pretty, but it actually had a lot less flowers than either of us expected-- it was mostly just trees and the like. We got a nice little "train ride" around the park along with about 50 kids from a local high school-- which always spells out trouble-- adolescent Dominican boys and Americanas. I think I might miss it when I go back to the States and people actually are not fighting over being able to sit next to me. Haha.

After that, at the suggestion of Diane's host brother we had lunch at a restaurant called Adriane Tropical. It was absolutely beautiful... It was on the water and the lunch was delicious.

Then, we headed off to the Zona Colonial where we stopped by the Mercado Modelo (which has every kind of souvenir you could possibly ever imagine...) and got last-minute things for people at home.

I think one of the nicest things about the day though was just seeing the city inbetween all of the stops. We got to see the very controvesial Metro (which the President is very critized for because he spent billions of dollars on it and it only has two stops), many government buildings, and different sights. We saw the US Embassy-- and it was interesting to finally see what we've heard about for so long-- how badly people want to go to the States. The line to wait was ridiculous and the people looked as if they had been there for hours. We also saw signs that said "Peloteros con Leonel" (Baseball players for Leonel, the President) and a street food vendor called "Obama's Chimis" (Chimi is a type of sandwich).

Overall it was just a really nice day and it was nice to finally get to explore the capital a little on our own. :)

Next stop, after this final exam today, I hope will be the beach tomorrow :)