Santiago de los Caballeros y su comida
Wow! A lot has happened since my last communication-I can't believe I took so long to get writing again. Since the last time we've had (this is just from my schedule/notes)....
-a language exam
-tours of the campus
-tours of the city
-conversations about dominican identity
-talks about how academics are here
-a treasure hunt that took us throughout the entire city
-a trip to the waterfalls of Jarabacoa (ha-rah-buh-co-uh)
-class registration
-talks about learning a second language, and the pros and cons of immersion
-check-ins to make sure our families are feeding us well :)
-talks about depression, culture shock, and eating disorders
-a progressive dinner between different host families, with their students (soup at one house, salad at another)
-tree-planting
-trips to the store
Somewhere in there, I also spent a day at Sosua (a beach) with some friends, went out tons of times.
the city, orla ciudad
The city has about 800,000 inhabitants. (...small sociology lesson/explanation here... skip to the next paragraph if you don't care...) It's important to realize that, unlike most American cities (San Francisco, Portland, and most of New York excepted,) Latin American cities generally have the rich in the center of the city and lower-income areas in the surroundings. Originally, the cities were used by rich European landowners and the government, but as the country (especially in the last fifty years) was no longer able to sustain an agriculture model, those who had previously farmed flocked to the outskirts of the cities. In the United States, and some European models, the growth of a automobile-centric culture and the goal of having large, almost-ranch-like surroundings led to a populace increasingly dissatisfied with industrialized city centers. Basically, to live in a suburb in Latin America is not a good label, while in the US it is generally held as a sign of success.
The other (not-skippable) thing about the city is that the distance between the rich and the poor is much smaller than the United States. The lack of a car culture or commuter mindset means that everyone wants to live in the city. This results in a juxtaposition of abject poverty (no clean water, adequate sanitation, food or education) and over-the-top opulence (Cadillac and Lexus SUVs, gated homes, haute-couture fashion. Also, the concept of a middle class in the Dominican Republic is basically nonexistent. So, while I didn't think that the program I'm on would put US students in dirt-floored shacks, mostly for fear of offending their parents, I also didn't expect to be living in two-story house with a balcony. By US standards, our house is middle-class, maybe upper-middle-class-but here, it's considered quite high up on the food chain.
I can walk to downtown from here, and when I do, it's easy to pass through a couple of lower-middle-class barrios (solid buildings, but not much more.) I'm about a twenty-five minute walk from the center of town, and I prefer walking to taking a taxi or concho, a very inexpensive taxi-route (imagine someone operating a sedan on a bus route. More on transportation another day.) The downtown is situated on a bit of an incline, and most of the streets are one-way. The occasional high-end store (think half-a-step above Gap or Express) is mixed in with currency-changers, pharmacies, supermarkets, shoe stores, and haircut places, much like stateside. The difference is that the sidewalks are lined with street vendors hawking coconuts, mangoes, beans, empanadas, and all of the rest (see below for food info.) Also, as garbage service is of a different frequency or consistency than the states, many times piles of garbage block intersections. For that matter, so do carts, people, and traffic jams. Traffic here is about three times as chaotic as NYC, and stoplights are viewed as suggestions, not rules, while lane lines and crosswalks are categorically ignored by everyone, including the police. Oh, and horns are used far more frequently than brakes. I LOVE IT.
I also love the noises of the city. People shout, music blares, kids run around, vendors hawk their wares-basically, city life without the inhibitions of, say, downtown Portland.
food, or comida
I've also eaten all manner of food (including about two thousand different types of plantains.) Common snacks here: empañadas, which are like fried calzones, or if you're into that sort of thing, hot pockets-but way, way better. The beer here is called El Presidente, and it is roughly equivalent to Corona or Dos Equis, in that it is suitably light for this kind of climate. It's incredibly popular-and it's not much more expensive than water. It's the national beer. Also, it's not uncommon to have piña coladas served in the pineapple, which are, by the way, incredibly fresh -but piña coladas here sometimes have grenadine in them, changing the flavor a little bit. I've found it difficult to get dark green vegetables here. The DR version of spinach is what we call bok choy in the states; baby spinach or the all-green versions we have at home are not readily available.
Foods commonly served at lunch or dinner: Rice and pinto beans with squash mixed in. About half an avocado. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and iceberg lettuce. Tostones (fried plantains, which are like bananas.) Tayota, which looks (pre-cooking) like a kind of spiky squash, comes out looking like the inside of a sloppy joe and tasting way better. Obviously they add other veggies in, but which ones, I do not know. Eggplant, usually heavily fried. Fresh juices made from guava, limes, passion fruit, or oranges, all local, fresh, and organic, and made in our kitchen. On and on and on, I know... where to stop!
-a language exam
-tours of the campus
-tours of the city
-conversations about dominican identity
-talks about how academics are here
-a treasure hunt that took us throughout the entire city
-a trip to the waterfalls of Jarabacoa (ha-rah-buh-co-uh)
-class registration
-talks about learning a second language, and the pros and cons of immersion
-check-ins to make sure our families are feeding us well :)
-talks about depression, culture shock, and eating disorders
-a progressive dinner between different host families, with their students (soup at one house, salad at another)
-tree-planting
-trips to the store
Somewhere in there, I also spent a day at Sosua (a beach) with some friends, went out tons of times.
the city, orla ciudad
The city has about 800,000 inhabitants. (...small sociology lesson/explanation here... skip to the next paragraph if you don't care...) It's important to realize that, unlike most American cities (San Francisco, Portland, and most of New York excepted,) Latin American cities generally have the rich in the center of the city and lower-income areas in the surroundings. Originally, the cities were used by rich European landowners and the government, but as the country (especially in the last fifty years) was no longer able to sustain an agriculture model, those who had previously farmed flocked to the outskirts of the cities. In the United States, and some European models, the growth of a automobile-centric culture and the goal of having large, almost-ranch-like surroundings led to a populace increasingly dissatisfied with industrialized city centers. Basically, to live in a suburb in Latin America is not a good label, while in the US it is generally held as a sign of success.
The other (not-skippable) thing about the city is that the distance between the rich and the poor is much smaller than the United States. The lack of a car culture or commuter mindset means that everyone wants to live in the city. This results in a juxtaposition of abject poverty (no clean water, adequate sanitation, food or education) and over-the-top opulence (Cadillac and Lexus SUVs, gated homes, haute-couture fashion. Also, the concept of a middle class in the Dominican Republic is basically nonexistent. So, while I didn't think that the program I'm on would put US students in dirt-floored shacks, mostly for fear of offending their parents, I also didn't expect to be living in two-story house with a balcony. By US standards, our house is middle-class, maybe upper-middle-class-but here, it's considered quite high up on the food chain.
I can walk to downtown from here, and when I do, it's easy to pass through a couple of lower-middle-class barrios (solid buildings, but not much more.) I'm about a twenty-five minute walk from the center of town, and I prefer walking to taking a taxi or concho, a very inexpensive taxi-route (imagine someone operating a sedan on a bus route. More on transportation another day.) The downtown is situated on a bit of an incline, and most of the streets are one-way. The occasional high-end store (think half-a-step above Gap or Express) is mixed in with currency-changers, pharmacies, supermarkets, shoe stores, and haircut places, much like stateside. The difference is that the sidewalks are lined with street vendors hawking coconuts, mangoes, beans, empanadas, and all of the rest (see below for food info.) Also, as garbage service is of a different frequency or consistency than the states, many times piles of garbage block intersections. For that matter, so do carts, people, and traffic jams. Traffic here is about three times as chaotic as NYC, and stoplights are viewed as suggestions, not rules, while lane lines and crosswalks are categorically ignored by everyone, including the police. Oh, and horns are used far more frequently than brakes. I LOVE IT.
I also love the noises of the city. People shout, music blares, kids run around, vendors hawk their wares-basically, city life without the inhibitions of, say, downtown Portland.
food, or comida
I've also eaten all manner of food (including about two thousand different types of plantains.) Common snacks here: empañadas, which are like fried calzones, or if you're into that sort of thing, hot pockets-but way, way better. The beer here is called El Presidente, and it is roughly equivalent to Corona or Dos Equis, in that it is suitably light for this kind of climate. It's incredibly popular-and it's not much more expensive than water. It's the national beer. Also, it's not uncommon to have piña coladas served in the pineapple, which are, by the way, incredibly fresh -but piña coladas here sometimes have grenadine in them, changing the flavor a little bit. I've found it difficult to get dark green vegetables here. The DR version of spinach is what we call bok choy in the states; baby spinach or the all-green versions we have at home are not readily available.
Foods commonly served at lunch or dinner: Rice and pinto beans with squash mixed in. About half an avocado. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and iceberg lettuce. Tostones (fried plantains, which are like bananas.) Tayota, which looks (pre-cooking) like a kind of spiky squash, comes out looking like the inside of a sloppy joe and tasting way better. Obviously they add other veggies in, but which ones, I do not know. Eggplant, usually heavily fried. Fresh juices made from guava, limes, passion fruit, or oranges, all local, fresh, and organic, and made in our kitchen. On and on and on, I know... where to stop!