Santiago-->Jarabacoa

 Julissa and me

Today was a very good day. For one, Julissa told me she loves me. It’s so soon…but when you love someone, why wait?
 We also went to Jarabacoa, a part of the country known for its rivers and waterfalls, it’s in the mountains that surround Santiago.  The bus ride there, we had to sit next to an estudiante de apoyo who explained a list of classic Dominican phrases to us.  I was with Joseph from Haiti, helped explain the Dominican accent (which involves cutting off a lot of words off and not pronouncing the letter s, so the phrase “vamos para ese sitio” is said “Vamo pa ese sitio) as well as some key phrases.
Our first stop was a coffee factory where we took a tour.  I legit didn’t understand most of it, although I eventually learned the word for coffee bean and coffee grounds.  Next, we went to a waterfall and at first, the water was so freakin’ cold, but once I got used to it, it was really refreshing.  I swam under a waterfall  and climbed on some super slippery rocks, all without incident.  Joseph however, very nearly drowned.  He didn’t know how to swim, but made it out to the waterfall with help but on the way back there were 4 people out there helping and it was not a pretty situation.  He played it cool on the ride home though.
Our last stop was La Confluencia, and as the name would indicate, it was the confluence of 2 rivers, one of which may or may not be the biggest in the DR, depending on the accuracy of my listening comprehension.  We weren’t there very long but I didn’t have a fabulous impression of it.  On the way home, Lilly, the program director, bought me pink roses for my birthday and everyone sang for me, which was nice.
When I got back from Jarabacao, I visited the family of my padre, Pedro .  I was really not feeling another trip,  but I thought of all the times people advised me to say yes to everything,  and I ended up going. Dontcha know, I had a great time.  His mother’s house is beautiful and she has this two story garden-patio full of orchids, a grape vineyard, a cherry tree, an orange tree, bananas, and doves.  10 points for the upper-middle class! I also got to pet an albino rabbit. His mother and brother also host foreign exchange students, so I got to meet both of them which was fun. 
On the way home we stopped at The Monumento which is in the center of the city.  It was originally constructed of Trujillo, by Trujillo, and for Trujillo but since then it’s been restored and apparently reclaimed and is this park where a bunch of people were hanging out. There was a great sunset, and it’s built on a hill so it offered a great view of the city.
Word of the Day:
Picado= bite,  like of the mosquitoes that are causing the dengue fever epidemic here.  Pedro is a doctor and part of his job is to go around and educate people in high risk areas of the city about how to prevent mosquito breeding, etc.