I Never Want to See My Luggage Again

‘Alo!

Now that I finally unpacked my room on Sunday, I feel more equipped to talk about packing and travelling. For travel to a tropical environment in the summer it is rarely necessary to wear warm clothing… ever. See, I knew this but I thought, “Hey, maybe it will get cold at night.” I was wrong. Going off of the recommendation of bringing clothes you can layer, I brought a sweater, a fleece, a very light jacket, and a long sleeve shirt. These things are now packed in a space bag ready to return to the States along with a pair of pajama pants and a pair of sweat pants that I can’t visualize wearing any time in the next five weeks. This brings me to my first set of packing tips.

1.Buy space bags

a.You will save a ton of space in your suitcase

b.More importantly, you can put almost half of your clothes in a backpack (if you get the right  

sizes in space bags) and use it as a carry on that will have no weight limit and allow for other things in your bag. Also, if your bags get lost, you will have clothes

2.Look at the most extreme possible weather you could experience and bring only one piece of clothing to suffice that need. Everything else should be fit to the average temperature. The worst thing that could happen is that you have to wear something more than once, but I would have honestly preferred that much more than having 10 pounds of extra useless weight in my bag.

3.Don’t bring things that are not tough enough to maintain their own shape. Seriously, I would be happy to never see this darn woven hat again while I am lugging around nearly 100 pounds.

Travelling has been crazy and I was so glad to hit the ground in Santiago and realize I wouldn’t have to do it again for six weeks after customs. Customs in the Dominican Republic are a piece of cake. I was expecting a torturous experience, and maybe American customs will be, but I have weeks before I have to worry about that. Of course, all of it is in the back of my mind with each purchase. Packing, luggage weight, customs allowance are all floating around… in addition to the fact that more packing will happen as soon as I get home to leave for Mount Pleasant. This is a new worry on my mind because I just got a job on Monday and need to start training July 16^th. Are my Dominican Republic belongings enough to start life in an apartment? No, probably not.

After a very long wait at the airport after spending the night before catching some sleep on the floor at JFK (Yes, I live a glamorous life), I reached my home stay at 4:30 PM. This was my first experience with “Dominican time” as I arrived at the airport at 11 AM and was supposed to be picked up at 1 PM by ISA. Here they tell people that they need to be there at American time if they want to have them there on time. Clearly whoever invented this term hasn’t met my family. The must have forgotten to put (TD) next to the pick-up time, but did give me time to get to know some of the people in my group. We gradually found each other by the ISA luggage tags and because we all looked American. I was very nervous to meet my host family, but they quickly offered me Coca-cola and hot duck (which I later realized was a hot DOG, not duck).

Here’s a couple parting packing tips and some pictures. If you are not planning on studying abroad and this post has completely bored you, hopefully you will enjoy the pictures. Next post will be about Puerto Plata, so stay tuned!

4.Wear/bring things that you won’t need to bring back. A lot of us brought clothes and other things that are on the verge of falling apart. We plan to leave those things here to make room in our suitcases for souvenirs and replacements. I hope not to bring back any of the toiletry items that I brought here if I am able to use most of it. My only warning is to be careful that your things will last as long as you want them because you might end up having to buy a replacement that you don’t want.

5.This is a small thing, but I would recommend bringing scissor and tape. These are two things that I don’t have, but have asked for several times. It would be nice to have my own.

Don’t exchange money at an exchange house or the airport. You will pay a fee, you will get ripped off. 

6.You can talk to local banks and find out if they have or can get the currency you want. I would suggest only exchanging enough for your first week then waiting to exchange the rest until you find a bank at your destination. Odds are very high that they will take US dollars.

Some of my new stuff

All of my clothes

Insect repellent that I should
 have gotten two of

On the bathroom wall in JFK

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!