Studying abroad continues to do funny things to my sense of time. It feels like it's been more than a week since I wrote the last post, but it's only been 72 hours. On Sunday morning we went to Jarabacoa for an orientation, which is a town south of the city at the base of the mountains. We drove for about half an hour in a guagua (a large van that seats about twelve people comfortably and fifteen or sixteen if you squish. We always have to squish--a good way to get to know people better!) and arrived at Casa Club, which had a large open pavilion, a snack bar, a regular bar, a pool, a basketball court and pool tables.
We spent the morning listening to the program directors talk to us in a small room with very cold air conditioning. It was cooler in Jarabacoa than in the city, but it was still very warm outside and we felt like we were defrosting each time we had a break. Then we had lunch, which was delicious--rice chicken and salad. Lunch was nice because we got to spend a lot of time talking and getting to know each other, especially the students that we hadn't met yet. After lunch the estudiantes de apoyo (support students) from PUCMM talked to us about university life. This part of the day was in Spanish after a morning of English, which was an adjustment. After the presentations ended, we had free time to hang out with each other and the estudiantes de apoyo. It was getting cloudy and a little colder, so I didn't swim, but I played some basketball with some other students and some Dominican kids. The game we played was sort of like a team version of Horse, and the kids clearly had fun teaching us the game and bossing us around.
When we got back to Santiago, we went out to a restaurant/bar called Puerto del Sol to celebrate someone's birthday. The place was large and casual but quite nice. No one went crazy since we had to be at the university at 8:15 to take Spanish placement tests the next morning, but we had a good time.
The Spanish placement test was very similar to what I've taken at Pitt, and I guess I did well since I'm in the advanced class. I'm slightly nervous about this since there are 8 or 9 heritage speakers in my program who are very good at Spanish and I'm a little worried about being compared with them, but overall I'm glad that my Spanish was good enough for them to place me there.
I think I'm ready for the classes to start, although we know surprisingly little about them. They are going to be taught entirely in Spanish by professors from PUCCM, but there aren't going to be any Dominican students in our class. I haven't seen a detailed syllabus yet, and I have no idea how much homework there will be, but I guess we will find out soon! Overall I enjoyed orientation, but I'm getting very tired of being in such a large and cumbersome group all the time. Everything starts late and takes forever because there are so many of us, and I feel like we're always very loud and conspicuous and a little obnoxious. Sometimes it seems like things could be better organized, but the program this year is almost twice the size of the one last year, so I can see that that they might not be used to working with such a large group.
This afternoon we actually did get to go out and see the city by ourselves in smaller groups. We did a scavenger hunt through the city, and it really helped me become more comfortable using my Spanish in real-life situations and getting around the city. Dominicans are super friendly and we had no problem getting directions and other information from people on the street. In addition to walking, we traveled using conchos, which are cars that follow a fixed route and pick up and drop off passengers at any point along the route. They're very safe during the day and they're super cheap--twenty pesos per person (about 50 cents). The catch is that they will hold as many as six passengers, two in the front seat and four across the back, which is more than a little uncomfortable!
Besides all of the CIEE activities, life with my familia anfitriona (host family) is a entirely different but equally important part of my experience. I'll save that for another post since I have a lot to say on that subject, but in general everything is going very, very well. I really like talking about life with our host families with the other students when we walk back and forth to the university each day, because we can compare our experiences and tease out the general patterns of Dominican life from all of our individual experiences with each family.
I've been really bad about taking pictures over the last couple days, but I'm going to upload some that other people took (and that they promised to send to me) as soon as I get them!
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