En el tiempo de Las Mariposas

Since we last met, I have attended a blogging meeting for the university, finished up my semester, and moved back home for the summer. The blog meeting was informative, mostly because afterwards we got the office linked to my blog. If you look, you can see CMU Study Abroad in my contributors to the left. If you're interested in reading blogs of other students, you can click and find many.  After the blog meeting I was thinking, "If only I had a study abroad shirt, I never did get one." Imagine my luck when I wandered over to Gentle Friday (activities organized by Program Board to promote relaxation before exams) and found the study abroad table giving away shirts. I got an orange shirt, and it was a medium when I would normally get a small, but that's okay. Also, I think I promised pictures of the empanadas that my partner and I made for our Spanish class, so those are below. If you have seen empanadas before, we baked ours instead of frying them. I think they turned out pretty well.

My crafty little title here may be unfamiliar to most of you, so allow me to explain. Julia Alverez wrote a novel on the the Mirabal sister during the time of Trujillo, the fierce and terrible dictator. En el tiempo de Las Mariposas, or In the Time of the Butterflies, is the name of this history turned to a book turned to a movie. I own the book in English, even though I was scolded for not reading it in Spanish and I'll admit I only got half way through it, but I intend to finish reading before I leave. At the very end of June, my program is showing the movie and the day after we will travel to the home/museum of the Mirabal sisters. More information on the background to come later, but that much is important to understanding the title of my blog. I am currently in my own time of the butterflies. My stomach does flips every once in awhile and while I am ready, I am also so NOT ready. I have been reading blogs of other students in various countries. Some of the bloggers I know, and some I know only through their stories. I am just absorbing as much information as I can. Some people are counting down their last few days abroad and I am clinging to the days I have, even though I haven't even started. Many of my good friends are either going abroad this summer, or already there. I heard from one friend currently on his trip, and that was exciting. Having never traveled outside the US and Canada, there's is so much I don't know about international travel! The butterflies are definitely setting in, as I leave for Boston two weeks from Tuesday!

So, I've had my travel itinerary for awhile now. Seven weeks, seven airports, the time of my life. I leave the morning of May 29th from Flint to Boston, where I will spend the better part of four days with my sister and her husband. On the 2nd of June my sister and I will be taking a bus from Boston to New York City to spend the day exploring the city. The following day, I have my flight from JFK to Santiago at way-too-early-in-the-morning o'clock. ISA has pick ups from the airport every hour from 2:00 PM-9:00PM, which is a little after my arrival, but by the time I go through customs, get my tourist card, and claim my luggage, I hope to be right on time for the first bus. The first week of my stay will be orientation and introductory activities followed by five weeks of classes. During my six week stay, I will be visiting Jarabacoa, La Romana, Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, visit Museo Hermanas Mirabal, and hike in the Bosque del Cacao. I am so grateful that these opportunities have been organized by my program so that I am able to fully experience the Dominican Republic. On July 14th, I will be flying from Santiago to Miami to Detroit. I'm sure this day will be the most bittersweet time ever, because I have great things planned for July and August, but as I said, I'm already worried about my time abroad passing too fast. I used Priceline and Expedia to book my flights because of prices and trying to get the flights I wanted. As I said in a previous post, I booked the wrong flight back. I intended to book a later flight back so that I could catch the ISA shuttle (only offered at 6 AM or 2 PM), have more time to pass through customs in Miami, and my parents would be able to pick me up from the airport. Now, I have to find my own way to the airport at 5:00 AM, only have a two hour layover, and my friend who is currently studying abroad is going to pick me up.... I'll let you know how that all goes. I just need to have faith that it will all work out. It will work out.

As I look towards this amazing experience, I realize that no matter where or when I go, I'm probably going to miss something at home. I was cautious to go abroad during the school year because I am so involved on campus with many things I don't want to miss. That being said, there are some things that I am going to miss this summer. It's going to be odd not celebrating July 4th after working for a glow novelty company for the past two years. My 21st birthday is another big thing I will be gone for, but who can complain with three birthday parties? It would have been awesome to go to Warped Tour on my birthday, but instead I get to go horseback riding or white water rafting in beautiful Jarabacoa. It's difficult not having a job this summer because no one will hire someone who is only available for a month at a time. Along that line, this is the first summer in five years that I have not been able to spend it watching my cousin, and I am going to miss that. There are times when I think, "I wish I was going to be home for that," but overall, I can't wait for this amazing experience. And for so many things, there are always going to be times in the future that I will be able to experience them.

I will be bouncing back and forth between blogs over the next two and a half weeks, so be sure to check back for posts here and there. Adios, friends!

Any Knowledge is Good Knowledge

Hola chicos y chicas!

Friday was a good day for my study abroad adventure. I have a country guide in my ISA portal! It has a million useful details and I am so happy to have it. I received an email that told me that it should be available after the form due date, April 10th. I can't really say if it was there before or if it was just set up, but either way, I am glad I got that newsletter. The only disappointing this was this little bit of information:

Approximately two weeks prior to your departure, the following housing information will appear in your student portal account:

• Housing assignment (information on your homestay)
• Housing list (a list of all students and their respective housing assignments)
• Student contact list (a list of all participating students' email addresses)
• Final letter regarding airport pick-up
• Participating student flight information

Really? I have to wait a whole additional month before I find out my housing information. Well, that's unfortunate. I have to look on the bright side and be happy that I have my guide book. I am thankful to not be lost in the world! From what I was able to see so far, there are details on almost every question I could have from internet and phone access to the addresses for popular restaurants to a small dictionary of words that I should know. I know that I will be studying this obsessively as soon as school lets out. It is nice that my program starts June 3rd, exactly a month after my last day at Central, so that I have time to dedicate to preparing. The dictionary has words for food and cooking, so my goal of learning to cook authentic dishes is in progress!

As promised, here is a picture of my plantain adventure. The actually turned out pretty well in the end, even though it required 3 hours of prep time. While in Atlanta two weeks ago, I was watching a cooking show where plantains were cooked. If you attempt to make fried plantains, boil them first until the peel starts to split! The skin will turn black, as seen in the picture, but removing the peel and cutting the plantain becomes much easier, and they seem to cook better. I thought I got a picture of them frying, but I can't seem to find it. Also, I used vegetable oil at first, which was a mistake. They kind of have the consistency of potatoes, so it's best to not make them taste any more like it. Tomorrow, I am making empanadas for my other Spanish class, so we'll see how those turn out. I might take pictures of that, too, stay tuned for the next post.


I know I promised last time to talk about the flights and buying supplies, but I'm going to start with the application process. SO MANY FORMS! About 20 things from Central and then when I was accepted to the ISA there were 15 more. Meeting, doctor's appointment, shots, forms, running all around campus.... that's what it takes, and it was a bit overwhelming at first. Lots of list making helped me. A couple pointers: make sure you order your official transcripts ahead of time (office on 2nd floor of Warriner), making doctor's appointments way ahead of time because some shots have to be started about six months in advanced, and take everything one step at a time once you've made a timeline. I didn't get as many shots as I thought I needed though, that's one thing that surprised me. I'm in the process of buying supplies, so I'm going to hold off on that, but I did get $5 off from amazon today and my roommate gave me hers. I'm excited to use those! Booking flights is tedious and I actually ended up booking the flight that I didn't want for the way back. I booked a flight to Boston and from NYC to the DR on Priceline and then booked my flight back through Expedia. I'm just worried about my flight back and transporting myself back to the airport. 


But for now, I have to run away from a fire drill.


Hasta luego!

Six Week Crash Course

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!