La navidad

So, when I arrived back from Haiti, so two weeks ago, I arrived to Christmas world. Before I could even put down my bags, my mom took me on a mini tour of the decorations she had put up, mind you, there were still many boxes yet to be unpacked. A few days later, the tree went up. Beautiful, looks like it could belong in a department store. Then an entire mini city complete with nativity scene was constructed at the foot of the tree. The magnets on the fridge have been changed to Christmas, the bath towels, mats, and TOLIET SEAT: Christmas. All surfaces have been covered with either Santa figurines or caroling dolls. The couch pillow covers have been changed to Christmas. Our plates and placemats have been changed to Christmas! It is sooo funny!

I asked my friends if they had a shit ton of decorations, they do not. However, I have been to three different relative's houses now and they too have houses where it looks like Santa Claus has thrown up all over the room. They too have mini cities with lights and a million Santas. So far, the count is at 32 for the number of Santas in my house. They don't have Thanksgiving, so there is nothing to hold them back!! In some stores there have been decorations since before halloween!!

As for other news, this coming week is my last week of classes, and it is the most work I have had here, but literally it is still nothing. 3 page paper, presentation, two final projects, and a final exam coming up. Sounds like a lot but isn't. I can't bring myself to work on it because I know I could do it all in one night if need be...woops.

Can't believe everyone is leaving so soon!! In reality I am not leaving for about a month still, but I know the time is going to fly past. Mom gets here the 11th, once school is over it will just be nonstop fuuuun. I love it here, I am really going to miss it. I also probably wont live to go to Chile, seeing as I am anticipating dying from the cold that I will encounter upon my return. When it gets to low 70's, I get goosebumps, okay? AHH!

Haití

This past weekend I went to Haiti with five other people from my program and our tour guide (Davidson) who is from Cape-Haitian, the second largest city in haiti located on the north coast, where we would be travelling to.

We left at around 6 in the morning. We arrived at the border and it was very hectic because it was market day. That means people are trying to make as many trips as possible before the border closes to get all the materials they need and to sell as much stuff as they can. We ran into our first problem when Davidson was like ok, everyone 15 dollars (for the immigration/visa fee) and we were like can we pay in pesos? And he was like umm it said dollars and we were like umm we assumed it was equivalent in pesos, why would we have american dollars when we have been living in the DR for the past 3 months?? So then we had to go find a random person who changed out pesos into dollars. The whole trip was very flying by the seat of our pants. Davidson, I am sorry to say, was not the best guide. Basically he would be like "follow me" and not tell us where we were going, we would have to ask every time, and like didn't really explain anything to us.

We rode about as many ways of transportation that there is: literally 19 people piled in the back of a truck, a guagua (tiny bus) filled to capacity, a weird concho thing, a boat, a motorcycle! The first day we went to the citadelle, old ruins of a castle and such. I got completely ripped off for a stupid straw hat. So Davidson tells us the climb up to the top will be about 2 hours and we were like are you serious? and he just laughed so we assumed not...OH YES. Only Marissa and I walked the whole way. I refused to pay money for a horse, which is how everyone else went up eventually. It was a climb, we were seriously scaling a mountain. But it was quite the accomplishment. We had to walk down in the dark, which was terrifying. The whole next day I was limping because I had somehow pulled a groin muscle eee. After that we went to dinner and then all of us were so exhausted we went right to bed.

The next day we saw two historical sites and a lot more of the city, and then we went to a beach after a terrifying journey in the back of a pick up truck on bumpy dirt roads with cliffs on the sides. That night we went to the only discoteca I think there is and it was soo cool. There was a dance floor in the middle and tables filled with people surrounding it. I have never seen better dancers than the ones that were there. It was like watching a professional show, it was so amazing.

Overall, it was really great to be able to see the country that I have been learning so much about. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Once crossing the border from the DR, the poverty is apparent. I could not believe the difference. Even the landscape is different because Haiti had cut down all their trees. There is trash everywhere and almost no electricity at all. It was also really big culture shock. I did not meet a single person who knew spanish or english, thus, we had to rely on Davidson for everything. We were used to being able to understand and communicate with people, and we couldn't. However, on the up side it made me realize how much spanish I actually do know and understand. It was so strange to hear a foreign language that I didn't understand! Also, the vibe was completely different too. No one really stared at us, no piropos. The music was very reggae like and happy. It was a really good experience to have.

our awesome shell collection

the beautiful beach
we took a boat like these ones to our beach
glimpse of the citadelle at the top with fruit trees
ruins
river in cap-haitien

I have been slacking on the updating....

Last weekend the program went on the last real excursion of the program to Samaná, this beautiful place in the southeastish of the island. It is on a peninsula which forms a bay with the national park, los haitises. We stayed in the cutest hotel with a pool in the middle and apartments/bungalows surrounding it. We were about 25 steps from the beach, which was gorgeous. We were in the place called Las Terrenas, which in my guide book is called one of the most beautiful places on the island.

On Friday we got there (4 hour drive) and then went hiking to find la casada de Limón. Waterfaaaaall. So awesome. There was this vibrant green moss/plants growing on the rocks where the water was falling and the water was nice and refreshing. There was a hidden cave you could go in, it was great. That night we walked into town to see if anything was going down. Nothing was. haha, it is pretty small.Walked along the beach, and called it a night.

The next day we went to los haitises. I cannot do its beauty justice in words. You have to take a boat to reach it because basically it is rock islands big and small in the middle of the water with cool stuff growing on them and mangrove forests in the water and caves and humongous birds flying overhead. We saw pelicans and pelican babies, vultures, other birds that I only know the spanish name for...We went on a kayak tour of the mangrove forests and on a cave tour. Oh, at the beginning of the trip I realized my camera was almost out of batteries, so I had to rely on other people's picture taking abilities, which is annoying.

Then that night was Halloween. I forgot the facepaint and fake blood mom sent me so my friend and laura set off down the dirt road to buy candy to make it more halloween-y. No sooner had we walked ten feet when what appeared to be a motoconcho (like a taxi but motocycle) pulled up and the guy asked if we wanted to get on. We debated if we wanted to pay, so we asked how much it was and the guy was like its free, im not a motoconcho im a crazy white haired italian man who lives down the road! (not exactly in those words hahah) We learn that he speaks italian, french and spanish, but no english. So we get on and he gives us a tour of the entire little town, tells us where people go, etc. We told him of our mission to get candy, but he misunderstood dulces to mean cakes and pastries, so we arrive at a bakery. Luckily there was a colmado across the street so we were able to get candy. It was a perfect dominican halloween, riding in the summer air on a moto past the palm trees. Both nights we had dinner under the stars with the waves crashing right next to us.

Mangrove forest
literally humongous vine root thing
glimpse of the caves
los haitises
beach jump!
waterfall jump!
Our hotel