House Hunting with Tigueres, etc.

(from Domingo 7/18/10...Jueves 7/22/10...Domingo 7/25/10)

This is an inconsistent post about a lot of different topics, united by the running theme of trying to understand and fit in. Otherwise known as my life here. Enjoy!

A House Hunting Update:

House hunting has turned from a peaceful browsing into a “How much is this? When is it available?” desperate search. I like my host family, they’re very nice to me, and luckily I have no real reason to move, gracias a Dios. But at the same time, I want my own schedule and space. I’m happy where I am for now, but I definitely can’t do this for the next two years (It’s been 5 months of host families - all really great, but that’s also a really long time). And to sum up all my progress so far: house hunting is wicked difficult. I’m waiting on a friend from the school to show me around places he’s found, but it’s been a week and a half. I’m trying to be patient and wait, but I figure this is something I’d do on my own in the US, so may as well figure it out for myself in the DR.

So, I set off on my own to find a dream house (complete with zinc roof and cement floor) the only way I knew how: walking around town, strolling up to any place with a sign saying “Se Vende/Alquilar” (For Sale/Rent) and asking, “How much?” Not too professional. Don’t worry, it gets even classier. After a lot of fruitless mornings and afternoons walking around town finding little, I was ready to give up. Then, upon hearing a group of tigueres hissing and yelling at me, an idea struck, and I didn’t think twice.

In a short, sweet conversation, I put my local tigueres to work, and now some of them are looking for houses for me. Yes, the same guys who line up their plastic chairs on the street, hiss and catcall at me everyday with their priopos: “Rubia! Mi corazon! Preciosa! Mami! Ven aca, princesa! and the classic: Americana - pa’manga mi visa!” are now the ones helping me find home sweet home for the next 2 years. Instead of ignoring them and pretending not to hear their borderline harassment, I just chat and tell them how I’m looking for a place to live in town. A lot offer to help me out, and some even come through (with decently priced apartments - added bonus!). So there you go - this machismo culture may finally be on my side just this once.

Thoughts on being from “New York”:

New York is not its own country. It is a state and also a city, and there are many other states and many more cities and all of these combined are the United States. At least that’s how I remember it, anyway. For many, especially kids, “Los Estados Unidos” (the US) is “Nueva Yol” (New York), and only NY. So when you explain that indeed yes, you’re from alla, someone may ask you if you enjoy living in New York. You can try to explain otherwise, “No, NY is one place, I’m from a different city,” which may or may not be effective in changing their mind. It matters little whether or not you’ve lived in NY or have even been there before - if you are from the US, you are pinned as someone from Nueva Yol and that is that, ya tu sabes.

...and living on “DR Time”:

Even though I’m technically in the same time zone as family back home, I’m on Dominican Time which might as well be a whole separate time zone in itself. Dominican Time essentially means a lot of waiting. I hadn’t really had too many issues with this until recently. Since I am working in a school, everyone arrives and works the whole day through. But now that its summer and there’s less of a schedule, DR Time is becoming more and more of a reality. For instance, some days I know I definitely have a meeting with someone, so I wait at specified X location only to find that no, we are in fact not meeting today because of Y reason. Other days, I have nothing planned, so I go off on my own. On these occasions, without fail, I will inevitably have 5 missed calls from a Dominican, only to call back and hear “Where were you? I’ve been calling and calling. We are going to go do X thing right now, I’ll pick you up in 5 minutes.” So there’s a lot of waiting, or a lot of rushing on Dominican Time. ...Another perfect example occurred today (7/22/10). So yesterday, my project partner gives me a day’s notice, and tells me to have the diagnostic ready for today’s presentation with all the teachers and staff at the school. My report’s been written for a while, but of course I hadn’t made the actual presentation part yet. I did my best to figure out PowerPoint all day yesterday condensing my 21 page report into a few slides. Then today rolls around, and its time for the meeting at 2pm. Then its 3pm. Then 4pm. And then I leave, because no one’s there, and I successfully spent 2 hours clicking through the presentation over and over. Bueno. But, I can’t even be frustrated, because at least now, everything’s done with that project. :o) Later, I’ll receive some explanation, but essentially, you see what Dominican Time means.

It’s the funniest thing (sometimes - not always), and Dominican Time definitely keeps life interesting. Everything is scheduled but will only actually occur si Dios quiere (if God wants it to) - a phrase that can literally be tossed into any future/possibility conversation and fit nicely. For example:

“We will graduate next year, si Dios quiere.”

“See you in an hour, si Dios quiere.”

“I’m going to brush my teeth now, sit here, read this book, and drink a glass of water, si Dios quiere.”

...Anything can be si Dios quiere. It’s a fun way to say “maybe I’ll do what I’m telling you, and maybe I won’t. Instead, I’ll give you this vague answer and you can wait and find out what happens later.” At the same time si Dios quiere really is a nice, humbling way to say that everything is in God’s hands. But in those moments that I’m left waiting around for someone else, I can’t help but think it’d be even nicer if Dios would quiere for the DR to run on American time once in a while.

After rereading this, I realized these are mildly unsuccessful stories... my bad, but things are still good! And it will all be even better once people can visit at my house, wherever that ends up being. I am so excited for visitors and cannot wait to play host. With that said, good luck to my new tiguere friends in their search, and please, si Dios quiere, help me find a place with running water and electricity (I dream big). In the mean time, my host siblings told me they want me to stay here with them for the 2 years, so that’s cute. Lucky for them, I’m still very much homeless, so for now they can continue aprovechar-ing my iPod. :o)

Happy Birthday, JT!!

& Happy Birthday, Mom!

Congrats to GBSS at Nationals this year, & Alyssa - Miss College Majorette of America! :D

Thinking of you all at home, missing you, wishing you were here and all the best, always.

XO