A Wonderful Weekend in Punta Cana, and other Adventures!

Wow, what a busy weekend!

Friday after school the group had a meeting with our coordinator to make sure that everything was all set for the remainder of our trip. After that, my weekend (which was much too short) in Punta Cana began! My boyfriend flew down to so that we could spend the weekend at a resort and see some sights together. The drive from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana was interesting, we definitely saw some sights there! We took a little bit of a detour leaving Santo Domingo and ended up driving through a traffic jam in little Haiti, which was a bit scary. But it was smooth sailing once we got on the highway. We reached the hotel just in time for dinner. A great bonus of visiting a resort was the hot showers. I am still not used to the cold water showers where we are staying.

Before the trip I was curious about other parts of the island, and how the resort communities differ from the capitol city, it was definitely different! Being at the resort was a whole different world. It was very interesting because I had expected to see a lot of other vacationers from the U.S. there, but it was actually mostly people from places like Ukraine and Russia, which added another cultural element to this trip. They seemed to really like cameras, everyone was constantly posing for a million pictures.

The beach was wonderful, it was nice to relax and feel the sun while listening to the waves. I love the ocean! A funny part of the trip was that on the other side of the wall outside our room was some sort of club/discoteca. All night it sounded like there was a party happening right there, and the DJ was yelling in Spanish. It might sound annoying, but it was pretty entertaining.

I didn’t take any pictures on my phone, but I hope to have some to post soon! The trip went by way too fast, as vacations always do.

I arrived back in Santo Domingo this morning and I showed my boyfriend around the local mall because it is a really neat building, and we were hoping to get some breakfast. It was kind of fun being the one who “knows” Spanish. Usually Sam, a Spanish major, does all of our communicating. Since she wasn’t there and George doesn’t speak any Spanish, I was the expert at the moment. I definitely speak broken Spanish, but I can get the point across. I’m hoping to gain more Spanish skills in the next couple of weeks.

This afternoon, we visited La Zona Colonial again. There was a little festival this weekend, but it was mostly over by the time we arrived. We did, however, stumble upon the oldest fort in the Americas. It was open for us to walk through so we went all the way up to the highest watch tower. It was so cool! The view of the city was beautiful, and I did get a few pictures there.

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.

Another Busy Day

I feel like I accomplished quite a bit today.

At school I continued teaching the French Revolution, and finished up the chapter on U.S. Imperialism. I also observed the 10th grade biology class. I wanted to see how science classes might be different in the Dominican Republic. They were learning about cell growth and division and the teacher showed a very interesting video that did a good job of explaining the topic. I enjoyed the class and hope to visit again. We did not have the 12th graders today because they were on a field trip to a local university. I asked my teacher about universities here and she said that students do not have to apply and be accepted or rejected to universities, they simply pay and go!

Probably the most interesting part of the day was 9th grade. The students are giving presentations on the Greek Gods. They each have to pretend to be a certain god or goddess, in costume, and explain their lives to the class. I could tell that the students put a lot of thought into their presentations. I will post pictures tomorrow after all students have presented!

After school I created a whole new resume for myself, added some items to my electronic teaching portfolio (which is already done, thankfully), worked on lesson plans, figured out some details of my weekend trip to Punta Cana, and even had time to read a little bit of the Hunger Games. I also had a very nice conversation with Adela, one of the ladies we are staying with. It was a good way to practice my Spanish. She would type in Spanish and I would read it then answer in Spanish. I have trouble understanding when they talk here because it is so much faster, and a little different than I am used to from high school Spanish classes, but I can read it pretty well.

Well tomorrow should be another busy day and breakfast is bright and early, so buenos noches!