Yaro-whaaa?

Yaroa: New late night food of choice.  It's a delicious base of fried plantains with grilled veggies (substitute for unidentifiable meat) topped with melted cheese.  

Playing some volleyball in the pool.  That's an ace, by the way.

At the beach AND the mountains!  You CAN have it all, friends.

Americans, lounging it up

Things are cruisin' along here in Santiago de los Caballeros.  I don't have classes on Friday, and it's kind of incredible the impact that has on the structure of the week.  IT GOES BY SO FAST!  I don't have many plans for this weekend, but last weekend I went to Puerto Plata to celebrate the birthday of a friend from the program.  It was a really fun time, save for the massive sunburn I've acquired on some very tender stomach skin.  Puerto Plata is a pretty tourist-oriented area of the DR and we definitely didn't fight the system based on the all-inclusive resort we stayed in...I have rather mixed feelings about this, especially after taking "Caribbean Literature and Culture" my first semester at Macalester.  Memories of Consuming the Caribbean a book we read that details North-American--Caribbean relations are still pretty fresh in my mind: 
"In the author's view, the verb that governs relations between the powerful countries of the North Atlantic and the Caribbean is not "to develop," or "to buy," or "to enjoy," or "to exploit," but "to consume." European and North American publics, she claims, have devoured and continue to consume not only such obvious commodities as sugar cane, bananas, tropical fruits, coffee, rum, and cannabis but also the natural environment in the form of landscapes and "tropical paradises," human bodies in the form of slaves, indentured laborers, and sex workers, cultural products such as texts, images, and music, and knowledge collections such as studies of botany, ethnology, and linguistics. An important interpretative strand that runs through the book shows the persistent continuities as well as the resistance to, and the unintended consequences of, this pattern of "consumption" over the past five centuries."   -History Cooperative
Ouch.
But, however shamefully, I enjoyed myself and it was a fun group of people, so I will focus on that to make myself feel better.
I haven't been up to a ton of other things this week, had a test, turned in a rough draft of my independent study plan, did a little running, and made a friend from another program!  Making friends, particularly with Dominican students has been way harder than anticipated.  It's tough for a few reasons, one of which being that because the campus closes at 9 PM, no one lives on campus, and there are virtually no on-campus activities, it's hard to casually ask someone to hang out.  It's on my list though!
Classes are fine, I'm really enjoying the medical classes where we go out in the field to rural clinics and hospitals in the cities.  It's kind of incredible the stuff we have been given clearance to do.  This past week we went to the childrens' hospital of the region, and we only took a tour there, but the week before we just popped into two surgeries to observe.  In the first one, the woman was getting an incontinence problem fixed and there were about 15 medical students in the room, the iodine dispenser was formerly a Snapple bottle, and the anesthesiologist answered her cell phone mid-procedure.  Yikes.  It's really interesting getting the experiential learning side of things and see theories in practice. 

Some classmates and I (they are all legit prospective doctors, unlike yours truly) getting ready to watch some prostate cauterization. Holla!

Well, it's getting a little steamy where I'm sitting, so I'm going to head out.