Wednesday, September 16, 2009

One week


A week ago today I met the family I'm living with now. It feels like I've known them forever and that I've been in the DR for a month. I'm really enjoying my time here, but I've also had times where I wished I could be home. The one thing I would love to have most days is chocolate. I don't usually crave chocolate, but the food here is very bland and seasoned with salt, if anything. I like it a lot, but sometimes you just need sugar! I think my body is finally starting to adjust to the food ... this is the first day that I haven't been constipated or had diarrhea (sorry if you're squeamish).
I've been asked if bugs crawl in my ears at night. The answer is no. But mosquitoes and little tiny bugs do somehow manage to get into my mosquito net, so I have bug bites all over my body. I'm just hoping my malaria pills actually work.
My dad here is very interested in my Spanish progress. He tell me every day before I leave for class to learn a lot and then asks me what I learned when I get back. He isn't very good at carrying a conversation though ... he talks a lot, but not really with you, more at you. But I'm learning nonetheless. Dennisse is a great help. When I don't understand something that was said in Spanish, she explains it to me ... in Spanish. I love it when one of my vocabulary words comes up around the table; I feel like I'm actually progressing in my language skills.
I'm dying to climb a mountain. I see them everyday, but I haven't had time to actually go to any. I believe one of our Saturday excursions entails mountain climbing though. This past Saturday, we went hiking in one of the rivers here. In some places it was nearly impossible to keep your footing because the water was going around rocks so quickly. But we made it to our destination without very many injuries (a few people busted their knees). A lady met us in Los Higos and made us a rice/bean/chicken meal over over an open fire. It was pretty amazing that she could whip up a meal like that ... outside ... for about 30 people.
I'm enjoying my Spanish class for the most part. I have two teachers. One is my classroom teacher and the other is the grammar teacher. I really enjoy the grammar teacher, even though she gave our class 14 pages of homework on the first day. She's very easy to understand and explains things very well. Basically, she makes me excited to learn.

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