So I learned a few things this weekend. First, when walking and talking with a group of people always watch where you are going. Twice I ran into objects. The first time I walked right into a light post, which produced a knot on my forehead. The second time I walked into a tree branch. The Second thing I learned was that when taking a public car (concha) always try to go with someone you know. In these public cars they tend to pile as many people in them as possible. So knowing someone in the car is helpful when you have to sit on a lap. The third is when taking a taxi on a Sunday always have the exact amount of change. My taxi driver had to stop at 3 different places to get change for the money I gave him. Sadly since it was a sunday not many places were open or could change it. Those are my lessons from this weekend.
On Saturday Karlyn, Pommela and I met up with Tanner and our Dominican friend Jayles to play tennis. When we got there, it was raining so the tennis match has been potponed. Instead we explored the city a bit and worked on our Spanish. Jayles wont allow us to talk to him in English even though he knows it pretty well. This actually helps us a lot. He taught us a lot of slang. The Spanish here is a little different than the Spanish that I am normally around. They drop the letter 's' all the time. Instead of saying gracias they say gracia or instead of 'como estas tu' they say 'como ta tu'. They also drop the last sylabal of words. It is a little difficult to understand sometimes. Oh and they speak super fast.
While exploring on Saturday I got to ride in my very first public car (which is how I learned about taking it with someone you know). This was definitley an experience. Not really something I want to take everyday but it is very cheap so who knows. I made it to church Sunday. I met every American that attends the church. That afternoon while hanging out with friends I met a photographer that graduated from Texas A&M...random. He is going to Haiti to take photographs. Hopefully we are going to meet up with him when he gets back.
Yesterday Lisa found out that there was a baseball game that night. So a few of our group and some of our Dominican friends went. It was sooo much fun. I haven't been to a game in the states in a long time but I don't think that they are anything like this. Baseball in the DR is very very popular. When we got to the stadium the parking lot was packed. We got there after the game had started but there were still others coming in. I can't even begin to discribe the amount of excitement. The team I cheared for, Gigantes(by the way they won), had a fan band. I say band but it was more like a group of drummers...awesome. The other team had some dancers that looked somewhat like the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. The game was insane. Afterwrds we ended up bowling. Bowling here is not like the states either. The alley that we went to was very very very nice. It was a bar&lounge mixed with bowling alley...different and yet very nice. They also had pool tables uptairs and an arcade. Bowling is not very popular here so there were not many people in the alley. We got there pretty late so we couldn't play long. Overall one of the most fun nights I have had here.
Tomorrow is the day of the Virgen de la Altagracia which is a national holiday here so we have no school. We have made plans to go to one of the beaches about 40 minutes from here. This Saturday we are making a trip to Santiago, which is the next largest city in the DR. We are touring many of the muesems there and I believe we are ending the day at a water park.
Please continue to keep the island of Hispaniola in your thoughts and prayers. I hope all is well at home. This week say hi to someone you don't know because you never know know who you will meet.
Peace
Katie
