Excursiones

Today I seem to have most of the afternoon free, and since the weather’s not looking too great (I know…that’s shocking) I figured that I would take some time to write in my Blog.

As always, things are going well. I’m healthy, eating like a sow, studying a little, and tanning a lot! So far, our ISA group has had two excursions. The first excursion was to Santo Domingo, which is the capital city of the DR, and the second was to Puerto Plata, a big tourist destination on the coast with some pretty beautiful beaches. That was pretty painful to endure, obviously. J Santo Domingo was pretty amazing…I have some photos on Facebook but they don’t really do justice to how cool everything was. The Dominican Republic was the first European colony in the Americas, so we’re thinking over 500 years ago. Which is quite a while, and there are buildings in the city that were built that long ago and are still standing. I’ve probably never seen buildings that are more than 300 years old, so this was pretty exciting for me. Especially the church! Every time I visit a different city, I’m always sure to go to the Catholic cathedral because they are always beautiful. This one was pretty amazing. To think, the first Catholic cathedral in the Americas! Well, I know that probably doesn’t fascinate some of you as much as it does me, but if you think about the strong presence that Catholicism has in Latin America, this is where it all started. There were a lot of gringos there takin pictures of the painted ceiling, and I saw a lot of women wearing pink and red cloth skirts and shirts, and I was wondering what that was all about. Then I realized that it was because outside of the church, there is a security person checking everyone to make sure they are properly clothed so as to be respectful to the church. Well, a lot of women who come here don’t realize that it’s a long pants culture and women don’t wear shorts unless they want to get looked at. So they had a little stand to give cloth to the women to cover up their bare legs and shoulders. For us Americans this is really bizarre but hey. If you’re here you gotta comply with the rules!

This weekend was pretty great. On Friday we had an excursion to Puerto Plata (AKA Gringolandia). We took a teleferico (a cable car) to the top of the mountain, which is the only cable car in the whole country. At first, I have to admit that I was skeptical. I don’t like heights, and I certainly don’t like going in a little box held by a cord with 20 other people up the side of a mountain. But I was brave and it really wasn’t that bad. I was sure to take a lot of selfies to prove that I actually had the guts to go on it. There were about fifteen of us students, a couple Dominican guys and a poor woman in that little car together. The poor senora did not like the cable car at all…I think she shared my fear of heights. I’m not sure why she went, because she was sitting down with her head cupped in her hands and was all by herself. The fact that we were all there shouting and laughing and taking pictures probably didn’t help ease her pain. But once we got to the top, we could all see that it was worth it. It was the most beautiful sight I have ever laid eyes on (apart from the baseball field). Once again, if you have me on FB, you’ll see pictures of it. After the teleferico, we went to the rum factory, which made me want to buy bottles of rum for all my male friends and family members. Brugal rum company is the world’s third largest producer of rum, after Bacardi in Puerto Rico and Captain Morgan in Jamaica. We got to see a really old distiller brought over from Spain on the first ships to reach the Caribbean. I didn’t know that rum was made from sugar cane, but seeing that it’s produced mostly in the Caribbean, that sure makes a lot of sense. When we went inside the factory, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. I don’t know what I was really expecting to see but it was quite funny what was inside. We go in and of course there was large metal machinery operated by a bunch of Dominican men. I think they must have been on break or something, because as we were touring they just sat there, in a row, staring and smiling at us girls as the bottles of rum flowed from one end of the factory to the other. “Pleass…yo numbah?” I think not, strange man. Nothing like a stolen bottle of rum fresh from the assembly line to lure gringas.

            On Saturday, my friends and I had quite the experience. It was the birthday of one of our friends, so we decided to go out to a club. I have never been to a club in my life, and probably would have gone the rest of my life without having gone to one. At DePauw, we have fraternities for that sort of thing. My roommate and I got all dressed up to go out and you won’t believe it but…I painted my nails. Green! The things this country is doing to me! But I was kinda proud because they matched my dress. That wasn’t an accident. So off we went in a taxi to the mall where the club was. We were told that it was on the fourth floor, so up we went on the elevator. And the fourth floor was a parking garage. We went back in the elevator and were about to go back down when one of us saw a door with lights in the parking garage. Upon checking it out, we discovered that it was in fact the club. Sketchy? Nah J So in we went. It was unlike any other place I had ever been. It was fancy, cold, and there were strobe lights and mist. There was mist. And all sorts of American techno that really wasn’t my style, but we went with it. The other girls got fancy drinks like pina coladas and sex on the beaches. Well, my last name is Butz so beer is always going to be my drink of choice. And it was that night as well. We had a good time, danced some, met some people, that sort of thing. Got home at 3 and went to church the next morning. Such little saints we are! Yesterday after church Katie and I went with our host brother to go play some basketball (because that’s his favorite sport). I may not be good at basketball but I’m always down to play a game of horse or lo que sea. We went to the cancha to play and Katie asked me how to say the game “horse” in Spanish. I didn’t know how to say it, so we started saying “caballo” (which is the Spanish word for horse). Poor Moises had no idea what we were talking about, and at first it was a struggle. Katie started to explain to him how the game worked, and he said, “Oh! Horse!” Guess we could have said that before. So we started playing and we all did really terribly. A pitiful game of horse that my family would be ashamed of! But once we started playing one on one (or rather two on one) Moises started beating us to a pulp. Man, can that kid play! I suddenly felt like an old woman trying to compete in the Olympics. Once my hip started to hurt, I started to give up. Didn’t do too badly, but I’m glad no one else was around to see the beating.

More to come! Next one’s gonna be about school. Oh joy J