Since it's been almost three weeks...

This might take a while.

Part 1

The Weekend-Before-Last:
Cricket, his fake brother (host brother) Vienne, and I went to Cabarete on the north coast (about fifteen minutes away from Sosuá) and stayed in a hotel that was USD$25 a night per room. We paid in cash. Which was weird. The hotel was a ten minute walk or so away from the beach, which was awesome and also horrible because we had to walk in the sun just to go sit in the sun so we could walk back in the sun to sit in a hot hotel (but out of the sun).

Cabarete is a very strange place. It's full of tourists but the parts we saw were still very obviously Dominican. Merengue blaring from most of the bars, motoconchos always asking if you need a lift, but also a lot of white people. Lots from Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries and also a fair share of americanos. I don't think there's anything I hate more than a stereotypical American beach-vacationer. We are obnoxious; I'm sorry, World.

We didn't do much in Cabarete besides hit the beach and search for a hairbrush since I forgot one (a harder search than you'd think). On Sunday we went to this beach that was created by the earthquake in Haiti a few years ago:

That floating body is Cricket. He's alive.

And we stayed there for a few hours before heading back to the bus station to wait for our bus. All in all it was a pretty nice weekend. I'm currently in the process of trying to figure out when I can go back.

Last Thursday Avy left. For America. For good. Well, she might be back, but I really, really doubt it. We'll see her again in Spain but I'll miss her antics until then.

Anyway, this weekend Cricket and I went with the CIEE Liberal Arts program students to a mountain town called Constanza. We left at 8:00 AM Friday morning which made for a very exciting bus ride. (It wasn't.) Constanza is about three hours away from Santiago so we all got to take a very nice nap. Cricket befriended Lynne's ten-year-old grandson, Brighton (he's Dominican), when he let him play with his iPad and listen to Spanish songs with bad words in them. Brighton was a little obnoxious but in the way that most ten-year-olds can be. The other girls in the Liberal Arts program were not amused, needless to say. 

We arrived at our hotel which was surprisingly gorgeous. We all got to stay in villas which I could've stayed and lived in for the rest of the trip. 

There were glasses and plates and pots and pans and everything. It was awesome.

We also had a gorgeous view from our balcony:

We checked in and got our room keys. Boys and gals were obviously split up so I got to room with three girls from the Liberal Arts program: Stephanie, Andrea, and Sarah. They were all super nice and we got along really well which was a relief since I had pretty much no idea what any of the Liberal Arts kids were like. We had a delicious buffet lunch (the food is basically always good here) in the hotel before setting off for a hike up el Alto de los Mañangüise. The route we took was the same that the rebels and guerrillas of the 14th of June Movement took - a group of exiled Dominicans living in Cuba hoping to overthrow Trujillo - while trying to run from Trujillo's army, though their attempt to topple the dictatorship failed.

At least they had a nice view.

The hike up was muddy and dirty and full of spiders and I don't even know what else - but it was a lot of fun. Our buses were waiting for us at the top which was such a beautiful sight after hiking uphill through wet clay and cow poop for an hour and a half. But don't get me wrong - it was awesome!

Andrea, me, and Stephanie half-way through the hike. And not yet completely covered in mud!

We headed back in the buses and showered before heading out for dinner. Because Constanza has a significantly cooler climate than the rest of the DR (I wore a sweater there for the first and last time in this country), we got to enjoya meal of things we don't usually get to eat here in Santiago - sanconcho, which is basically just a hot stew (guess why we don't eat it often) and everything strawberry. Strawberry juice (amazing), strawberry cheesecake with a strawberry glaze...it was fabulous. The Liberal Arts kids take dance classes at the university, so there was some dancing after dinner which was very entertaining...

Headed back to our villahhhs and all hung out in the boys' cabin for a while, played cards and watched The Other Guys in Spanish while trying to learn a dice game (which I still don't understand). Turned in pretty early since we were all exhausted and were excited for our adventures the next day.

And now I'll start working on Part 2...