Life, Love, & Law: Yo he llegado a la Republica Dominicana!

Hola mis amores!

I'm FINALLY HERE! Yes, I am writing this post from my very own bedroom in my Dominican apartment where I will spend the next two and a half months! Exciting, right?! I have been counting down to this day since I decided that I would be interning here back in October.

It's really surreal being here, as this is my first time visiting a Spanish-speaking country, and when I say "Spanish-speaking," I really mean it! Since I touched down in Santo Domingo this afternoon, I have not met ONE person who knows any English. Super intimidating because now I know that if I want anything done or need to ask for assistance, etc., I better know how to say what I need to say or I'll be SOL! However, I am very thankful for it because I will finally be forced to speak Spanish almost all the time. I'm already learning new everyday words that I had somehow missed out on learning during my high school and college studies.

Our apartment is huge and located on a really nice street lined with condos. The apartment is a three bedroom and although five girls will be living here (L, A, me, and two other girls that we haven't met yet), it's very spacious and I don't think that anyone will feel uncomfortable, especially me seeing as I snagged my own room! WOOT! Downside though is that my air conditioning unit doesn't seem to be working properly so I have the fan on full blast, but it's blowing around warm Caribbean air =/. The apartment also features a dining room, full kitchen, laundry room (no dryer, we have to hang our items to dry), living room, balcony, and in addition to a bathroom in each room, a half bath.

Anywho, earlier this evening before A arrived, L and I decided to walk to the nearest grocery store in search of some towels and hangers (two words that we didn't know how to say in Spanish). There's a little shopping plaza about seven esquinas (blocks) from where we live and along the way, we met some of the most interesting characters. The men here do truly believe that they are Romeos, as we heard nothing but praises of our beauty with every step along the way- not even an exaggeration, Dominican men are hilarious! However, the only store that carries the items for which we searched (the Dominican version of Walmart) was about a ten minute away and since it was getting dark, we decided to save that trip for tomorrow.

As a last bit of news, L and I were both offered correspondent positions with the program! That means every week you can stay updated with my adventures on an official InteRDom student blog where I will document my time in the Dominican Republic. You can check that blog out here. Our first blog posts will be posted at sometime within the next week =)

Stay tuned because the fun's just beginning...

<3