Dominicans=nicest people ever

The more I am here, the more examples I get of how welcoming and nice Dominicans are. Saturday night I went with three friends on my program and a host brother to a discoteca. The host brother, Bolí (short for Bolívar) has an uncle with connections to the club, therefore we got to go in the VIP section, woo woo! Except it is raised up from the dance floor aka easy for people to stare at you...Met some of Bolí's friends who were of course very nice and great dancers. All of the dominicans were surprised when I actually knew some of the reggaetón songs.

Didn't go out until 11 got home at 3! Also something funny is on all of the T.Vs in the discoteca they just were playing normal TV, so american football was on instead of in clubs in the US when they usually play music videos at least.

Then on Sunday my family was invited to my mom's sister's house, which is HUGE. Very nice neighborhood and beautiful home. Example of niceness: they kept saying, you know this is your house too, it is your house too. They wanted me to go lay down in a bed if I was tired, etc,etc. They always ask if you have had enough to eat (definitely). Lunch consisted of yellow/orange looking rice with mussels and shrimp in it, chicken, glazed ham, other rice, el guineo dulce (basically a fried banana with sweet syrupy stuff). Yes, all delicious of course. Then a little while later cake and coffee. We stayed there for quite a while just chatting and I could actually follow most of the conversation!! Some topics of conversation were how hard it is to learn a language, Chile and how different a culture it is from dominican (but still nice, dont worry!), the beaches and how much a family member spent to go there to a very nice hotel, etc (9 thousand pesos) and the military.

Below you will see a picture of the apartment building I live in. The bottom window to the left is part of my house, and the little window about to be cut off on the left is the window to my room! I am five minutes walking distance to my university. There is Puerta II and Puerta I (door 1, door 2) and I live basically right in between them, so I am really happy about that because most other people have to take conchos, which would add up if you went everyday.