Travel Week

Last Tuesday, I said goodbye to my first host family. It was a bittersweet experience. I was a bit sad to leave them, but also excited for the rest of the semester and what it had in store. Tuesday night, we had a Spanish graduation party. It was so much fun! Each level had been working on a song and a skit/dance for the party. We had fun laughing at each other and embarrassing ourselves. Wednesday morning, after getting up at 5:30 to run with a bunch of other girls (we had an American mob running down the road), our group left for Santo Domingo. In the course of the last four days, we've visited caves, six museums, the first cathedral built in the Americas, an awesome beach, and several of the local restaurants and shops. Wednesday night, after eating supper and not being even close to finishing all of our food, a group of us gave our food to a homeless lady on the street. We struck up a conversation with her and have been going back to visit her every day since. Last night, we took her out to eat with us at a really nice Italian restaurant. She was giddy with excitement. Earlier in the day, we put together a care package for her and made her a card. She opened the card last night and couldn't go any further because she said she was just so grateful. We figured out that her favorite fruits are apples and grapes, so we decided to get up early and buy her some for breakfast this morning. Unfortunately, the fruit vendors aren't out that early on a Sunday morning. We ended up just giving her the money. She took us on a very brisk walk/tour and showed us several parks, churches, and beaches. Every time we came to a man she didn't approve of, she shook her stick at him! She was too cute. We are leaving Santo Domingo this morning and heading up north to some more caves.