Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Even though we are in a different country, we are still celebrating Thanksgiving just as we would at home! Our students celebrated at school today with a Thanksgiving brunch including all kinds of Dominican breakfast foods. (I have officially come to the conclusion that I do not like plantains, I think I’ve tried them in every form now.) I also taught government for the first time today, and I think that it went well! School is closed for the rest of the week for the holiday.

After school 4 of us student teachers stopped by a local colmado to hang out and discuss our weekend plans. Our professor even stopped by to chat. On our walk back home we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a turkey so that it could start thawing for our big feast tomorrow. I don’t know how much turkeys cost in the states, but 2500 pesos seemed like a lot! That’s almost $60! But we are trying to feed about 15 people. In addition to a delicious turkey, we are planning to make green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and more! I am so excited!

We are also planning to stick with our other various Thanksgiving day traditions such as running the Turkey Trot (not me, I don’t run) and eating Lucky Charms while watching the Macy’s Parade (that’s my plan).

Tonight we are going to see a Dominican ballet, which should be very interesting. I hear that it is not like a ballet we would go to in the U.S., so I’m not really sure what to expect.

A Productive Tuesday

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but on Tuesdays we only have three class periods with students. During the rest of the day I worked on making the lessons for government class next week. I will be teaching the chapter about political parties in the U.S. government. As a history major, I’m not qualified to teach government in the U.S., and have not taken a government class since I was in high school. But I’m excited to give it a try, I definitely learned a lot about political parties today while making the lessons, I did not know they could be so complicated! I am even having my coordinator come in to observe my government lesson on Monday.

A lot of my students were talking about Thanksgiving today and asking if I celebrate it. It seems that a lot of my students here celebrate it, but there are some people who do not. We also had a discussion about egg nog because a few students had never tried it and wanted to know what it was. But how do you explain the taste of egg nog? That and all of the Christmas decorations around town (and hearing about snow days back at home!) are getting me excited to be home for the holidays.

Greek Food Day and Heading to Punta Cana = Perfect End to the Week!

How is it already the end of our second week of school in Santo Domingo? Time is really flying.

To finish up the unit on Greek History, we had a Greek food day in 9th grade. They brought all kinds of delicious things such as hummus and pita, vanilla ice cream, Greek Salad, cinnamon apples, orange juice, Greek grilled cheese, and a variety of feta cheese items, and a few desserts. It was so yummy! I loved the Greek grilled cheese and the cinnamon apples with vanilla ice cream. The food day reminded me of when we had food days in my high school Spanish classes. I think that food days are a great way to celebrate the end of a unit and to explore other cultures. It is important to try new foods, which is something I have done a lot while I’ve been here! Another interesting part of the school day was that everyone was called out of class to to courtyard where the flag  ceremony takes place. They announced that the U.S. flag was flying at half mast in respect for John F. Kennedy, whose assassination was 50 years ago today. I wondered if schools in the U.S. did anything to commemorate this event?

So many delicious treats!

Last night a few of us went to the Agora Mall near our apartment. When we walked in we noticed all of the Christmas decorations and music. We followed our ears to the source of the music, and they were having a little Christmas concert! People were standing on platforms in the giant Christmas tree singing Christmas songs in Spanish! We all looked around for the Santa display because we want to get our picture taken with a Dominican Santa Claus! Do they have mall Santas here?

The mall looks so pretty!

Today after school I am headed to a resort in Punta Cana for the weekend. I am looking forward to a nice relaxing time on the beach, and indulging in some delicious all-you-can eat buffets. It will be interesting to compare being in a resort/tourist area to life here in the city of Santo Domingo.