Hola! Me llamo Brooke. Iré a la Republica Dominicana este verano y eso es mi blog.
For those of you who don't speak Spanish, I said, "Hello! They call me, Brooke. I will go to the Dominican Republic this summer and this is my blog."
While I have already started another blog, my sister encouraged me to segment this section to make it more easily accessible in the future. There are tabs to connect both blogs together at the top of the page, so it should be easy to follow. There are 43 days left before my six week journey around the Eastern part of Hispanola (the island made of of the DR and Haiti). I am getting really excited! I have never really been able to experience another culture to this extent. I am hoping to improve my Spanish and hopefully my host family and other natives will be able to understand me.
This brings me to my first concern. If you are reading this blog because you are considering studying in the DR, I am going to try to ease concerns as I become at ease with them and hopefully that will help you as well. There is very little information to go off of for my program as far as personal experiences go. While on a normal day I am perfectly happy to be laid back and go with the flow, I am a planner when it comes to trips. I get excited when I plan for things. So, since I wasn't granted that opportunity, I am hoping to create that for others. Especially when school gets out, I will reflect on all the steps I took. One thing that I found that was actually helpful was from a collection of different universities and found here:
http://offices.colgate.edu/ocstudy/Guide%20to%20DR%2008.pdf
But anyway, my first concern is that I know absolutely nothing about my host family. People keep asking me questions about them, but I have no idea. The program I am going through, ISA, is giving the flight itineraries, contact information, and homestay locations for our group to us a month before we leave. It's just around the corner, but also feels SO FAR AWAY. I'm not worried about my family, I'm sure it will be great, I just want to know. While I am the only one going from Central, I have met three other girls through the facebook page for my program so far. Talking to them has made me even more excited and a little more relaxed about the whole thing.
Throughout this post, I have been cooking plátanos fritos (or fried plantains) for my Spanish class party that is today. It was an experience, that I can say. I only burnt myself twice and I ate my weight in plantains testing them out. Pictures will come in the next post. I am so looking forward to the food when I am abroad. I am hoping that my host family will teach me how to cook some things. *Note to self: Learn Spanish cooking terms more than 'tazas,' 'hornear,' 'cocinar,' and 'quemar' ('cups,' 'to bake,' 'to cook,' and 'to burn' respectively).*
In the next post, I will talk about booking my flights, buying supplies, and lots of other good stuff.
Adios chicos!
For those of you who don't speak Spanish, I said, "Hello! They call me, Brooke. I will go to the Dominican Republic this summer and this is my blog."
While I have already started another blog, my sister encouraged me to segment this section to make it more easily accessible in the future. There are tabs to connect both blogs together at the top of the page, so it should be easy to follow. There are 43 days left before my six week journey around the Eastern part of Hispanola (the island made of of the DR and Haiti). I am getting really excited! I have never really been able to experience another culture to this extent. I am hoping to improve my Spanish and hopefully my host family and other natives will be able to understand me.
This brings me to my first concern. If you are reading this blog because you are considering studying in the DR, I am going to try to ease concerns as I become at ease with them and hopefully that will help you as well. There is very little information to go off of for my program as far as personal experiences go. While on a normal day I am perfectly happy to be laid back and go with the flow, I am a planner when it comes to trips. I get excited when I plan for things. So, since I wasn't granted that opportunity, I am hoping to create that for others. Especially when school gets out, I will reflect on all the steps I took. One thing that I found that was actually helpful was from a collection of different universities and found here:
http://offices.colgate.edu/ocstudy/Guide%20to%20DR%2008.pdf
But anyway, my first concern is that I know absolutely nothing about my host family. People keep asking me questions about them, but I have no idea. The program I am going through, ISA, is giving the flight itineraries, contact information, and homestay locations for our group to us a month before we leave. It's just around the corner, but also feels SO FAR AWAY. I'm not worried about my family, I'm sure it will be great, I just want to know. While I am the only one going from Central, I have met three other girls through the facebook page for my program so far. Talking to them has made me even more excited and a little more relaxed about the whole thing.
Throughout this post, I have been cooking plátanos fritos (or fried plantains) for my Spanish class party that is today. It was an experience, that I can say. I only burnt myself twice and I ate my weight in plantains testing them out. Pictures will come in the next post. I am so looking forward to the food when I am abroad. I am hoping that my host family will teach me how to cook some things. *Note to self: Learn Spanish cooking terms more than 'tazas,' 'hornear,' 'cocinar,' and 'quemar' ('cups,' 'to bake,' 'to cook,' and 'to burn' respectively).*
In the next post, I will talk about booking my flights, buying supplies, and lots of other good stuff.
Adios chicos!
I am impressed and laughing and loving you so much-MOM
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