Landed Safely!!! Cant say the same for my professors!!

Ok, I made it to Miami International. As soon as I sat down at my gate, I received a phone call from my professor Dr. Button she said "Randall, 8 of us are in Dallas, we have been sitting here for 2 hours, they are repairing the wing on our plane. We will not make it to Miami to fly out with the rest of you, you are in charge.." Only half of us made it to Miami, I assume the rest of my classmates are sleeping on a concrete slab somewheres in Dallas!!!


We landed in Santiago at around 9pm, it was dark. When we finished deboarding, we had to wait in-line and pay $10 for a tourist card, we then waited in another line to hand it to another man. What a way to spend $10. I have about 1559 pesos with me. Thats $60. The other monies was spent in South Beach. Lets just say South Florida is not for a BROKE college student!!

Here in the Dominican we have a driver who will take us everywhere i.e school, mall and beach. The only issue is he only speaks spanish. Lucky for me my roommate Adam speaks spanish.


Our Driver "keeko" dropped Adam and I off at our host family's apartment. When we arrived dinner was on the table "pescado de chillo" served with rice and salad.

Emilio - Is 15 years old he knows very little english but he seems cool. He keeps yelling "NERVOUS!!! NERVOUS!!! why are u so NERVOUS!!" I wanted to say "Man, I'm in a foreign country, I cant speak the language,and I'm in here eating all your Pescado" I told him thank you 1000 times for his hospitality and every time he replied "Your my brother, my brother." I can get used to this. heres a pic of the 2 of us.




Here is Adam & I





Host Mother Rita - All she speaks is spanish. She works somewhere for the rich, and makes and sells candy. Adam and I tried some and its pretty good. She works all hours of the night. She sat down and ate with us. She kept feeding and feeding me, I wanted to lay down soooo bad. But I do understand the culture. If food is on the table you better scrape the plate!

Foregin Exchange Student - I cant pronounce her name but she is from Japan. She was shy herself. It's crazy someone from Japan speaking spanish better than me! She is here teaching Japanese to k-12 students. I will find out more about her later.


Well that's all for now I am tired, until tomorrow!!

Pre-Departure

It's 6 hours until we fly into Dominican Republic and I could not be more excited. I really don't know what to expect there, but I hope that the knowledge and experience I have gained over the past year will help while I am in the Dominican Republic. For the past several days, I have been staying with a friend in Fort Lauderdale. Since I have never experienced the life of a South FLoridian, my friend showed me around. We visited the Hard Rock Casino, went to the Improv ( a comedy club), went out to dinner, and fished off the pier. The highlight of my stay in South Florida was South Beach!!!

During my 2 week stay in the Dominican Republic, I will be living with a host family who has agreed to take me in, help ensure that I receive a grasp of their culture, cook traditional meals, and make sure that my overall stay is pleasant.

Since I will be abroad for 2 weeks, I will have have limited communication to my family and friends back in the United States. This blog will serve as the only communication I will have. I will try to encompass all the enriched details and information needed for people to get a feel for the culture and experience I will be having in the DR.

If anyone has any questions about the culture of DR, any information that they would like to know, or anything else they wish to gain from my experience during the next 2 weeks, feel free to post comments or questions on this blog and I will be sure to get back to you with the information you desire.