Rhythms

Last night we had a cena comparativa, which means in our neighborhoods a group of us went to one house for salad, one for soup, one for pasta, another for dessert, another for tea, and another for coffee. Which means we ate a LOT. And we spent a lot of time doing it, which was the beautiful thing. We spent like 3 or 4 hours eating and walking and talking and getting to know each other’s host families. And we needed our energy because today is the first day of classes!
It’s my first day as an international student. It’s like the first day of high school, except for (in direct enrollment classes at least) I only understand about 40% of what’s going on. I think today is the first time it fully hit me how much I stand out here. Some of the other students in my group are brunettes instead of blonde but I don’t even have that going for me. I am white-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed. And I don’t blend in very well. This is a tough place to be in on the first day of class at a new school because if you’re lost, everyone notices. When you don’t understand something, everyone notices. It’s hard (mostly impossible) for me to escape the stares and the piropos when I walk down the street. I don’t like having this kind of attention on me. I know there’s going to be some kind of lesson learned through this, but it’s still hard to deal with :) .
After class Rachel and I decided to take on the big city together. We could have lost ourselves in it. It was a delightful adventure. In the few hours we spent there, I bought some hair clips and she sent a letter. So we didn’t accomplish much but we explored a lot and had to ask for general directions a lot. I’m not sure why but the men are just so helpful here…:)
These are a few of my favorite things (so far):
1. Translucent curtains dancing in the Dominican breeze.
2. The smell of the streets and the laundry hanging to dry.
3. Jugo de chinola (passion fruit juice).
4. Roosters crowing.
5. Butterflies.
6. Conchos.
7. Banter between little kids (I know this sounds awful but they are so darn cute when they go off on each other, rattling off threats and smack talk. And they’re so sassy sometimes!)
8. Coconuts.
9. Colmadas (they’re kind of like corner stores).
10. The dancing.
11. Albert’s chubby cheeks and big round eyes (Albert is my host mom’s grandson), coupled with the fact that when my host mom refers to Albert she calls him Gordo, or fatty as a term of endearment :)
12. The little distinction between inside and outside.