It’s because there is absolutely nothing else to do when you’re cooped up in such a tiny space. I mean I have tv, but there’s only so much of not thinking that I can take. I need movement and human interaction. I mean sure I could pester my host sister here and only understand half of what she’s saying, but I think I’d like to stay in good standing with my one connection to a Dominican social-life. And after thinking in Spanish for a while, my brain begins to crash. I want contact with the English-speaking world! Facebook, AIM, unlimited nighttime minutes! These are the commodities that I miss the most, the ones that connect me to home and to all you good people reading along with my international disconnect.
I mean I feel like I am literally living in a cage. There are even pretty decorative wrought iron bars on all the windows, the kind you would want if, say, you were to have a pretty little bird cooped up for your personal enjoyment. I just wonder, who exactly am I singing for here? Because, oh, trust me, I’m singing.
As most of you who know, and therefore love, me know, I am a fool for my music. I mean seriously, if you people could see me when I get alone with a song I can belt every word to and a mirror to watch how foolish I can look singing it, that’s when I really let loose. My nightly routine has become to shut the door to my little room (obviously I don’t want my host family thinking I’ve lots my marbles), crank up the fan (it’s like a hot box in here), and crank up the i-tunes (shuffle, anyone?).
Now before you people think I’m becoming some sort of a recluse, rejecting the culture of the Dominican Republic and shutting my self away to just wait out the next few months (which is only slightly true, and I won’t say which parts), let me explain just why I am locked away in my castle tower (some may refer to it as a third story apartment, but the Disney princess in me prefers my terminology).
Every night as the sun starts to set, I find myself in a race with the on-setting darkness, hustling the ten blocks (and in Dominican a block has no significant standard distance, so it’s quite some while) back to my amarillo abode. See, in a city where petty theft and nightly gang violence have presented some problems, walking along after dark is a big no-no, especially for a gringa like me. So the solution and strongly practiced Dominican practice is to call a cab. But that’ll run you about $5 bucks each way, plus the cost of whatever you plan to do. So for a thrifty exchange student like me, I try to reserve the going out and being social (which is not only expensive but also a hassle seeing as how all of us live all over the city) to just once, maybe twice a week.
So as I sit here typing away to all of you my friends (very much lacking the means to actually connect to you) I have begun my new nightly ritual and cranked up the i-tunes. Oh I’m also getting pretty good at computer chess too. (As long as it’s on the easiest setting-that computer can get pretty tricky with its fancy moves.)
So farewell for now to you my friends back in the states, or wherever you may be with your fancy internet. As for now, I am left to the sun, the beaches, and my personal nightly entertainment (hey, just i-tunes, remember?)
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