clases, charlas y más

Something I forgot to mention that I did yesterday was register for classes! I tested into Advanced Spanish II, which I am very proud of (there's I, II and III but no one got into III so yay!). So as of right now I am taking: Sculpture (but I am going to do painting instead), TESL (teaching english as a second language) and after lots of theory and methodology I get to teach english classes at PUCMM wtf! And, another cool thing about that class is after the semester you receive a certificate that is basically a free pass to getting a job teaching english anywhere in latin america because if is from PUCMM which is considered one of the top latin america universities, which is awwwesome! Then all of us have to take spanish class (duh), procesos, which is social and political processes of the dominican republic (i think), and then as of now I am taking dominican and haitian relations, which I find fascinating, more about that later in this post. BUT, I might switch it for another class called la Realidad Dominicana (Dominican Reality), which is a direct enrollment class into the university. The other classes, while taught in spanish, are taught by professors in the "spanish for foreigners" department, so basically they know that the ppl in the class are not native spanish speakers and therefore cater to that a bit more than direct enrollment classes which are just normal, full of dominicans, etc. My art class is direct enrollment too. So we shall see...I start thurs!

Then, today we met to discuss how our host families were working out so far. Mine is good. I live with all girls and two of them are younger so they are always out with their friends or talking on the phone with their friends, etc so I dont see them too much. My mom is really nice and sweet and she is always on the phone too (dominicans are veeeery social). But yeah, I have a great set up in my room: fan, TV, desk, mirror, lamps, wireless internet, mosquito net...que bueno.

After that we had la clase de baile!! (dance class) Where we were taught merengue, bachata, and salsa by los estudiantes del apoyo. They are all great, of course, because they have been dancing since they were babies. But it was really fun.

Then I just got back a little while ago from la charla sobre la raza e identidad en la república dominicana. Chat about race and identity because it is very very different here than in the United States. First of all, they have never had a civil rights movement, womens rights, no dr martin luther king, no gay pride, none of that. The history of the dominican republic has made it so that anyone who is black is thought of as haitian. And there has been a very rocky history with haitians. Basically, dominicans describe themselves as what haitians aren't. This results in dominicans emphasizing their spanish heritage, and ignoring their african heritage. Since haitians are thought of as black, no dominican can be black. Thus, they have many words to describe the colors of skin. No dominican, even if they are very very black, will ever call him/her self "negro/a" they will be called moreno oscuro (dark brown) or indio oscuro. If you want to know more, email me, because this is barely scratching the surface and I cant really explain it very good here...

Tomorrow we go on a day trip to Santo Domingo and I get to see Allison!!!