My host mother takes forever to do anything! That is just an observation, not a judgement, but of course "forever" is culturally subjective. However, I am constantly late for things because she is so social and when we get in the car she talks to me and fixes the radio and her phone and takes her time before we start to drive.
I had mi classe de espanol (I'm probably saying that wrong!) today. The placement test that they had us take evidently does not matter because PUCMM cannot afford to divide us up into small groups and teach us seperately so we are all in the same class. We went around the room and said mi nombre est ___ (Leila) et mi especialidad et _____ (communications). Then we listened to the teacher speak about food and culture and the school in Spanish that I did not understand. Next we were divided into small groups where we read an article about La gastronomie domenicana (domenican diet). I found that I understood a lot of what I was reading because French and Spanish have much more in common than French and English so I was able to use my knowledge of French to decipher Spanish.. pretty cool. The other beginner students complain that they don't like the class because they can't understand what is going on, but I am using it as a way to gain new vocab...even small words here and there help and to notice things like the teacher's teaching style or the way the other fluent spanish speaking students communicate. Tomorrow we are getting the Spanish books that we requested so that should help a lot! Our homework is to read an article about dancing and to interview our host family about la musicana, la comida, y carnaval.
After the Spanish class, I walked across the street and bought a 1 day membership to a gym called "BioFit." It is nice, like a gym back home, although the equipment is ancient. It took me a while to actually purchase the membership as I don't know how to say "how much" and for some reason getting across the idea that I only wanted a one day membership instead of a week-long one was difficult. The ladies working there were all well-groomed. Dominican woman seem to value cleanliness and style. There weren't a lot of people working out at the gym - me and a few others. There were no towels to wipe the equipment and I didn't drink out of the water fountain because I wasn't sure if it was filtered water. There were mirrors lining the walls and 2 TVs playing Spanish programs on the ceiling. The bathroom was really nice, too. Did I mention that we aren't allowed to throw toilet paper in the toilets here? They all flush really, really slow and I guess the septic system in this entire country cannot handle toilet paper.
Anyway, being in a gym always feels like home, no matter what language/culture its people identify with. I remember reading a feminist article in which the author said that we all go in and out of consciousness - sometimes we identify with our gendered identity, with our family identity, with our cultural identity, or with any other person that we have created ourselves to be. I thought about this while I was running today - about how I had approached this mundane activity of working out in a lot of different ways. I was using it as a way to situate myself into some type of routine that would allow me to take the greatest possible advantage of everything this trip has to offer (I've discovered that it is easier to feel blessed, appreciative, and spontaneous when you are healthy) I was also using it as a way to compare the gym experience in the DR to the gym experience back home. I was also using it as a way to feel united to people with whom I do not share a language or a culture - here we all shared a pursuit of the same activity. Sometimes I would be conscious of the fact that I should be actively observing the culture and surroundings in order to pinpoint differences or remember specific feelings/emotions/incidents/encounters. At other moments I would focus on myself, my brother, my physical conditions, how my body felt when I was working out, my own internal/personal experience. And then other times I would focus on my relationship with the others and their relationship with their surroundings. I think that this is not just my experience in the gym - it characterizes a lot of how this trip is going. Sometimes I am an outsider. Other times, an insider. Sometimes I feel connected, other times I feel disconnected. Remembering that these fluctuations are inevitable has helped me remain peaceful and eager to develop more cultural competence.
The ladies at the gym were nice and professional. When I first got there and the lady at the front desk realized that I didn't speak english, she directed me to another man who spoke a little. He didn't smile at all - I'm very conscious of smiles or lack of them here. Dominicans in general aren't an especially smily culture. Which does not mean that they have attitudes or that they are mad or judgemental. They are simply accepting of each other, treat everyone like family, and don't put on aires.
I had my host mom pick me up from the gym and went home to a lunch that consisted of rice and more yucca!!!!! and a yellow sauce. One of the maids also put out sliced up avacados. I still can't believe that I don't have to do any dishes! Another incongruity is that there is no garbage in the kitchen - we just throw everything in the sink - napkins, fruit skins, our dirty dishes, glasses, utensils etc. The workers wash them.
At lunch, I sat with Boliver and we chatted in english. He is on vacation this week so he parties every night and gets up late (around 2:00). It is an interesting time to be in the Dominican Republic because all of the kids who are my age are on a break from school and because of the holiday that recently passed. It is not how life usually(what is usual?) functions and I am trying to be extra conscious of this in developing a general idea of Dominican life. I'm also trying to remember the different agendas that people who. Ie. my host family knows that they are a host family - they have been involved in hosting for quite a while and they are probably conscious of the fact that I am (some of the time) studying them, watching how they act, journaling about them, talking about them, and above all else coming back to the United States using their family life as the most intimate example of family life in the Dominican Republic. I wonder how being conscious of the role that they play effects how they act? I wonder if the hired help is only here because I am here? I wonder if all the visitors are here to see me? I wonder what all the visitors think of me? At the same time, my host family is extremely social and there are always people here, always host students here, so they are probably not living much differently than they would normally.
It is nice to talk to Boliver in English. He's cool and practical and his head is not in the clouds. This is a pretty good assessment of many Dominicans. He told me that people here do not study the arts - only law and architecture and medicine and things of this sort. The social sciences aren't even that big, nor are sports, besides baseball. I must have written about this in another blog because I got a comment (from MikieV101) that said:
I assume that the Dominican's desire to become a lawyer or dentist, rather than pursue "the arts" is due in part to the lifelong living conditions they are experiencing in this poverty stricken country. You are lucky to have food, clothes, a home, and people around you always willing to help....I don't think pursuing a dancing career, pianist or poetry writer in college is going to get them out of poverty, which I assume is one of their goals/reasons for attending college in the first place.
which I think is pretty spot on. College here is for getting a job that will get you both status and money, that will allow you to provide for your family and live a comfortable life. In the United States, college seems to be more focused on "following your dreams" or "doing what your heart tells you to do" or using the experience to create an identity or yourself, to distinguish yourself from others, even if it is at the expense of status or money. This is totally acceptable in the US and being crative/artsy is often valued just as highly as being business oriented I think. It is nice to be able to put my own experience and the luxuries that my own culture affords me into perspective, to appreciate them in context. And it makes me wonder about comparisons that we make between artists/musicians/creative writers etc. from different cultures. There are writers from the Carribbean, but the majority of them comes to the States to pursue their craft. As horrible as poverty is, it is important to see.
After lunch I had to go back to PUCMM for a visitas al Centro Cultural Eduardo Leon Jimenes.
http://www.centroleon.org.do/
My host mom dropped me off and one of the NYU coordinators who came with us commented that she looked like a soccer mom dropping her daughter off. Totally accurate! My host mom honks her horn ever 3 minutes because she knows everybodddddy, even the garden workers at the school! Apparently this is not exclusive to her, however. Everybody knows everybody in Santiago.
Centro de Leon is a museum-type place where you can go to learn about Dominican culture.
Un lugar donde todo el mundo se encuentra was the slogan written across a pair of intertwined scissors (it's on the front page of that website) and it translates as "a place where everyone is." One of the girls on my trip told me that it symbolizes that coming together of cultures. We had a museum guide give us a tour. He gave the tour en espanol so I was pretty lost the entire time, except when I had other students translate for me. But again, it was more practice in developing cultural sensitivity/empathy for people who might be experience similar types of disorientation. Museums are always interesting, as the things that they display are supposed to embody the culture that they are portaying. I often wonder who gets to decide what goes into a museum? And if all the artifacts are truly representative of the culture. We got to see Dominican animals, foods, a video that showed different cultures and their contributions, musical instruments, artwork, tools, and a simulation of a Dominican market that had lifesize cardboardish people who would say things like "bananas! bananas! bananas!" and other calls for the products they were selling when you turned them one way or another. It was an interesting display. We saw a Spanish king who, upon dying, had one of his many wives buried alive with him. We could see by her skeleton that she had died of asphyxiation. People and their rituals are so interesting.
At the end of the tour we got to go into a Dominican cigar shop and watch where cigars were made. Apparently they are really good here! Then we sat down for a beer (Presidente Light) and I got to chat some more with the other NYU students about their life/plans/thoughts. Everyone here is so interesting! A lot of them are in the TESOL program or the linguistics program and I loooooove hearing their stories. Everyone has a story!
After the museum I headed home to find Boliver there with his cousin Rolando and 2 other cool Dominican friends and a host of ladies helping Caridad writ birthday cards for her daughter Camilla who is having a fiesta for her 7th birthday on friday! There never seem to be any men who come to the house - all women. One of them -a neighbor - was really animated and came with a little boy (Mario) who tried to steal one of my (really awesome) empanadas! I said "it's ok" but Caridad scolded him anyway. I did my interview with Papa y the neighbor at the table. I wrote down questions and they gave me short answers. I could have probably picked a better time, but they seemed willing/eager to help me and I discovered that I learned a lot from them.
It is sort of difficult to get a sense of when the guys are sharing "guy time" and when it is appropriate for me to sit in on their conversations because they speak in spanish, but I am good at navigating my way through these social spaces. I like all of Boliver's friends! They are awesome and fun and nice and good looking and they provide me with a good representative sample of what college kids are like here! Rolando, who is a DJ, used my computer to download some pictures. I was glad that I could help them out with something, as the aid always seems to be directed the other way.
Boliver had told me about a club called "Dubai." Apparently Wednesdays are Ladies Night so I took all the girls from the program and some of their friends out with me to go dancing. Our Professor came to. I have an interesting relationship with her - more of a friendship than a teacher/student relationship. I can't believe she went to a club with us! We hailed 2 cabs from the Monument Los Heros - our meeting spot) - each cost 150 pesos. Cabs are can be a bit sketchy and are usually small, run-down, and driven by Haitians.
We were the first ones at the club. Apparently people go out around 11:30/12, so we were super early at 10:30. It felt like being back in NYC. It was up-scale and there were bottles of Vodka and something else on the tables. At first we were seated in the VIP section, but our new American friend Stephanie who was really good at negotiating got us out of there (we would have had to pay extra) and we ordered (free) cosmopolitans and margaritas from the regular section. People gradually started coming and we took to dancing. Later on, we had jello shots out of syringes (apparently this is no uncommmon). All the drinks were pretty weak except for the first one and I didn't have much (I like dancing way more than drinking and only did it so that I could experience that aspect of the DR club experience). The music was a mix of Raeggeton and meregnueish/salsaish music.. although we didn't merengue or salsa. They even played a Miley Cyrus song haha!! The girls were mostly lighter skinned Dominicans -apparently there is colorism here in addition to racism and Dominicans with lighter skin are considered classier/higher status.
I danced with my NYU friends and some Dominican who asked me dance and then started pulling out some weird moves while his friends laughed nearby. I didn't really know what to make of it so I just laughed and did my own thing haha.
One of the bartender would NOT serve any of us Americans! It was the strangest thing and we didn't really know what to make of it. For some reason we came across as rude - or maybe he just didn't like Americans. At any rate, it was interesting to see that the club experience here is basically the same as in NYC - except I didn't feel like everyone was jealous of everyone else which was nice.
My host brother invited us to another club where "more people where dancing." I was tempted to go, but I've done a good job of balancing going out with remembering that there is still a tomorrow and I wanted to be fresh i the morning for spanish class. (Another example of going in and out of consciousness- I was an observer as well as a participant at the club, but more of a participant). So I took a taxi home with my Professor and another student after a few hours of dancing. He charged us a bit more, but we went with it. The taxi experience here is always fun, different and interesting and unlike in NYC they are willing to pack as many people as possible into those tiny cars.
When I got home I couldn't get any of the keys to work in any of the locks, so I tried to open the door to my own personal room with the keys that I had. Apparently I turned it too hard and the KEY BROKE IN THE LOCK! After it happened I stared at it for a while in disbelief before having a moment of "oh my gosh what am I going to tell my host family!!" Then I went inside and looked up "I apologize a million times! I will give you my pesos just tell me how much!" on google translator.
Oh I forgot to mention that I had a nice, deep, thoughtful moment in the bathroom halfway through the night - one of those really reflective, peaceful, existential moments. I think I love track of time while I was in there- i could have been in there for an hour hahaha Those moments always seem to occur in the bathroom hahaha!! Why is that?
I still love the Dominican and tonight I anticipate my dreams being filled with yuccas!
Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world.
I assume that the Dominican's desire to become a lawyer or dentist, rather than pursue "the arts" is due in part to the lifelong living conditions they are experiencing in this poverty stricken country. You are lucky to have food, clothes, a home, and people around you always willing to help....I don't think pursuing a dancing career, pianist or poetry writer in college is going to get them out of poverty, which I assume is one of their goals/reasons for attending college in the first place.
which I think is pretty spot on. College here is for getting a job that will get you both status and money, that will allow you to provide for your family and live a comfortable life. In the United States, college seems to be more focused on "following your dreams" or "doing what your heart tells you to do" or using the experience to create an identity or yourself, to distinguish yourself from others, even if it is at the expense of status or money. This is totally acceptable in the US and being crative/artsy is often valued just as highly as being business oriented I think. It is nice to be able to put my own experience and the luxuries that my own culture affords me into perspective, to appreciate them in context. And it makes me wonder about comparisons that we make between artists/musicians/creative writers etc. from different cultures. There are writers from the Carribbean, but the majority of them comes to the States to pursue their craft. As horrible as poverty is, it is important to see.
After lunch I had to go back to PUCMM for a visitas al Centro Cultural Eduardo Leon Jimenes.
http://www.centroleon.org.do/
My host mom dropped me off and one of the NYU coordinators who came with us commented that she looked like a soccer mom dropping her daughter off. Totally accurate! My host mom honks her horn ever 3 minutes because she knows everybodddddy, even the garden workers at the school! Apparently this is not exclusive to her, however. Everybody knows everybody in Santiago.
Centro de Leon is a museum-type place where you can go to learn about Dominican culture.
Un lugar donde todo el mundo se encuentra was the slogan written across a pair of intertwined scissors (it's on the front page of that website) and it translates as "a place where everyone is." One of the girls on my trip told me that it symbolizes that coming together of cultures. We had a museum guide give us a tour. He gave the tour en espanol so I was pretty lost the entire time, except when I had other students translate for me. But again, it was more practice in developing cultural sensitivity/empathy for people who might be experience similar types of disorientation. Museums are always interesting, as the things that they display are supposed to embody the culture that they are portaying. I often wonder who gets to decide what goes into a museum? And if all the artifacts are truly representative of the culture. We got to see Dominican animals, foods, a video that showed different cultures and their contributions, musical instruments, artwork, tools, and a simulation of a Dominican market that had lifesize cardboardish people who would say things like "bananas! bananas! bananas!" and other calls for the products they were selling when you turned them one way or another. It was an interesting display. We saw a Spanish king who, upon dying, had one of his many wives buried alive with him. We could see by her skeleton that she had died of asphyxiation. People and their rituals are so interesting.
At the end of the tour we got to go into a Dominican cigar shop and watch where cigars were made. Apparently they are really good here! Then we sat down for a beer (Presidente Light) and I got to chat some more with the other NYU students about their life/plans/thoughts. Everyone here is so interesting! A lot of them are in the TESOL program or the linguistics program and I loooooove hearing their stories. Everyone has a story!
After the museum I headed home to find Boliver there with his cousin Rolando and 2 other cool Dominican friends and a host of ladies helping Caridad writ birthday cards for her daughter Camilla who is having a fiesta for her 7th birthday on friday! There never seem to be any men who come to the house - all women. One of them -a neighbor - was really animated and came with a little boy (Mario) who tried to steal one of my (really awesome) empanadas! I said "it's ok" but Caridad scolded him anyway. I did my interview with Papa y the neighbor at the table. I wrote down questions and they gave me short answers. I could have probably picked a better time, but they seemed willing/eager to help me and I discovered that I learned a lot from them.
It is sort of difficult to get a sense of when the guys are sharing "guy time" and when it is appropriate for me to sit in on their conversations because they speak in spanish, but I am good at navigating my way through these social spaces. I like all of Boliver's friends! They are awesome and fun and nice and good looking and they provide me with a good representative sample of what college kids are like here! Rolando, who is a DJ, used my computer to download some pictures. I was glad that I could help them out with something, as the aid always seems to be directed the other way.
Boliver had told me about a club called "Dubai." Apparently Wednesdays are Ladies Night so I took all the girls from the program and some of their friends out with me to go dancing. Our Professor came to. I have an interesting relationship with her - more of a friendship than a teacher/student relationship. I can't believe she went to a club with us! We hailed 2 cabs from the Monument Los Heros - our meeting spot) - each cost 150 pesos. Cabs are can be a bit sketchy and are usually small, run-down, and driven by Haitians.
We were the first ones at the club. Apparently people go out around 11:30/12, so we were super early at 10:30. It felt like being back in NYC. It was up-scale and there were bottles of Vodka and something else on the tables. At first we were seated in the VIP section, but our new American friend Stephanie who was really good at negotiating got us out of there (we would have had to pay extra) and we ordered (free) cosmopolitans and margaritas from the regular section. People gradually started coming and we took to dancing. Later on, we had jello shots out of syringes (apparently this is no uncommmon). All the drinks were pretty weak except for the first one and I didn't have much (I like dancing way more than drinking and only did it so that I could experience that aspect of the DR club experience). The music was a mix of Raeggeton and meregnueish/salsaish music.. although we didn't merengue or salsa. They even played a Miley Cyrus song haha!! The girls were mostly lighter skinned Dominicans -apparently there is colorism here in addition to racism and Dominicans with lighter skin are considered classier/higher status.
I danced with my NYU friends and some Dominican who asked me dance and then started pulling out some weird moves while his friends laughed nearby. I didn't really know what to make of it so I just laughed and did my own thing haha.
One of the bartender would NOT serve any of us Americans! It was the strangest thing and we didn't really know what to make of it. For some reason we came across as rude - or maybe he just didn't like Americans. At any rate, it was interesting to see that the club experience here is basically the same as in NYC - except I didn't feel like everyone was jealous of everyone else which was nice.
My host brother invited us to another club where "more people where dancing." I was tempted to go, but I've done a good job of balancing going out with remembering that there is still a tomorrow and I wanted to be fresh i the morning for spanish class. (Another example of going in and out of consciousness- I was an observer as well as a participant at the club, but more of a participant). So I took a taxi home with my Professor and another student after a few hours of dancing. He charged us a bit more, but we went with it. The taxi experience here is always fun, different and interesting and unlike in NYC they are willing to pack as many people as possible into those tiny cars.
When I got home I couldn't get any of the keys to work in any of the locks, so I tried to open the door to my own personal room with the keys that I had. Apparently I turned it too hard and the KEY BROKE IN THE LOCK! After it happened I stared at it for a while in disbelief before having a moment of "oh my gosh what am I going to tell my host family!!" Then I went inside and looked up "I apologize a million times! I will give you my pesos just tell me how much!" on google translator.
Oh I forgot to mention that I had a nice, deep, thoughtful moment in the bathroom halfway through the night - one of those really reflective, peaceful, existential moments. I think I love track of time while I was in there- i could have been in there for an hour hahaha Those moments always seem to occur in the bathroom hahaha!! Why is that?
I still love the Dominican and tonight I anticipate my dreams being filled with yuccas!
Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world.
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