So Thankful to Be Here!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration today with our host family and CMU professor. All of us student teachers woke up, watched a bit of the Thanksgiving parade and headed to the grocery store to prepare for our feast. We cooked for our host family because they take such good care of us every other day. It turned out surprisingly well, considering we were not even sure if we could buy a turkey in the Dominican Republic. I made pumpkin pies, and realized that they do not have measuring spoons or cups, so it was kind of a fun guessing game. Luckily, the pies turned out fine!

Groceries purchased at the supermarket located in the mall nearby.

So much good food!

The student teachers sitting at the kids table.

The whole family 🙂

So proud of my pies!

 

It was a lot of fun to celebrate Thanksgiving in another country, it turned out to be quite the adventure! We are so excited to be heading to Las Terrenas for the weekend. It will be great to relax on the beach some more and see another part of the island.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Week 3!

We are halfway through our Santo Domingo student teaching experience! =

Today I taught U.S. History again. We are still talking about World War I and I am having a great time with it. My favorite time period is from about 1900-1950. The world wars are a fun topic to teach because students find it very interesting and sometimes have stories to add if their grandparents or other relatives were around during the war. One of my favorite things to do while teaching about the wars is to analyze propaganda, it is a great way to see how people felt during the war, and how their government wanted them to feel. I will finish up the WWI unit after Thanksgiving.

In 8th grade Geography the students had a food day! They have just finished learning all about the North and South American continents so each student brought a dish from a different country. We had cheeseburgers and fries from the U.S., empanadas from Argentina, banana bread from Guatemala, nachos from Mexico and so much more! It was delicious. I thought it was funny that the student who brought nachos brought chips, salsa, and queso dip that were all Tostitos brand, and chili that was from Wendy’s. I would have thought they would have some delicious homemade nacho stuff down here, but they brought exactly what I would make at home in Michigan. Not that I’m complaining, I love Tostitos!

The 8th graders enjoying their feast!

Yummy!

Another random cultural observation is that Spanish is exhausting! George and I discussed this over the weekend while we were watching Semi Pro in Spanish on TV in our hotel. He thought the movie was just hilarious gibberish because he didn’t understand a word of it. To me it was almost stressful to watch because I was trying to keep up with what they were saying. This is how I feel everyday, because I understand Spanish except when they are speaking too fast, which is almost always. By the end of the day my brain is fried. I really hope that feeling means that my brain is learning more Spanish, like the way your muscles burn after a good work out. Reading in Spanish is so much easier for me, I think because I’m a visual learner, and because I can read at my own pace. I am so glad that I had really good high school and college Spanish teachers, because I would rather be struggling to understand than to have no idea what is being said at all. So a big thank you to Mrs. Chahbazi, Mrs. Cavric, and Mrs. Vernon for teaching me everything I know about this language!