Sorpresas!

Surpises:

1) Speaking Spanish to a Chinese girl who works in a Pico Pollo restaurant. So confusing.

2) The existence of a place called Casa del Arte gives me hope. I went there a couple of nights ago. It’s a tiny art gallery and they have a space where they show cultural/educational movies. I saw a movie about a Cuban singer, Beni Moré last Tuesday. We’re going to a Fiesta de Palos tonight.

3) I’m starting to like rooftops a lot. At a friend’s party, some of us decided to climb his ladders to the roof. It was so peaceful. That same Dominican friend and I laid on the roof talking for a while, looking at the stars. I could have fallen in love with him right there… if I didn’t know we were just friends. The environment was too perfect.

4) Some of my best conversations have been with random people on the street. Usually it’ll start with them wondering if I’m Chinese, and now that I’m so tan, if I’m Filipino. Then when they hear that I'm Vietnamese, they start talking about the Vietnam War. This would upset me in the US, but I feel like there’s less control of information here so I let it go. And usually by the end of the conversation, I get some idea of that person’s political views and feel like I can actually communicate in Spanish.

5) I’m starting to recognize random people in the street. Like the guy on Calle del Sol that always hits on me and I say hi back. Or the guy from the store that helped my friend and me buy jeans… We had to go to the big girl section. Damn Dominican jeans are too small!!!


I guess life has definitely improved after I let go of my academic standards and just began accepting this experience for what it is: a chance to get to know another country, culture, people.