So busy!
We have been busy since the day we got here! Since I last wrote, Wednesday and Thursday have passed. Wednesday was a long day… We did the usual, eat breakfast, walk to school, have Kinesiology and our Latin culture class after, and then lunch. After lunch we went to visit a Physical Therapy Center in the city. It was very interesting because the Center was basically two different things; A physical therapy part and basically a retirement home for the elderly. There were two parts to the home for the elderly, one for those with money and one for those without. We toured all the facilities and saw a lot of people. The PT place was not at all like the facilities we have in the states. It had the basic equipment, but it was all in a very small place. It might have been about three quarters of a basketball court, or less. We got to ask the physical therapist a few questions about her background and what she had to do to become a PT. It was very interesting!
After the visit my roommates, Carly and Sarah, our class mate Justin and myself went for a nice little run around the PUCMM campus. It was great to do some exercise (that wasn’t walking around a crazy city for 4 hours) and open up our lungs. But man was it hot. The humidity here is unreal. All day, every day you sweat and feel sticky. But I’m not complaining because I LOVE it here!
Next is dinner!! For dinner we had yet another great meal! Like I said before, dinner here is a typical lunch or even breakfast in the states. So we had Eggs and Salami. It was soooo good. At breakfast and dinner we always have fresh fruit! I promise the fruits here are better than any fruit in the states. The pineapple, cantaloupe, and melon are so juicy and delicious. Oh! and for the past couple nights Mom has made us hot chocolate for dinner. I’m sorry if I’m repeating myself but I can’t tell you enough how good the food is here. THE best I have ever had. Mom puts cinnamon in the hot chocolate and it is heaven in my mouth. I guess I should tell you all that the food she makes is all organic because she has a health issue. So all her food is fresh and not processed like the food you’re all eating ;) JK! She said that she loves to mix fruits to make different juices. We’ve had fresh pineapple, mango and both mixed together. YUM!!
In case you’re worried about my education; I have been studying…a lot. After dinner Carly, Sarah and I read a 20 page article for our Kines class. I love being able to study with people. We are great at helping each other learn and understand things. So by the time we finished that article our brains were literally fried! Bedtime
Thursday-
After some much needed sleep we did our daily routine, but today was especially fun. We should have known it was going to be a good day when we crossed the street with no problem on the way to class. The streets here are unreal! There is no such thing as pedestrians. The laws here are referred to as “suggestions.” They drive 50mph, three cars wide in a two lane road. People hang off the side of trucks, three or four people on a little motor cycle (sometimes two guys), 7 people in a “concha,” and they constantly honk! Usually we have to sprint across the first part and wait in the median to cross the other side. Today we WALKED. J
After our Kinesiology class we had our Culture class but we got to go to Centro Leon again because they had an art preview. We got to see a lot of different displays of art that was handmade. The art here is a major part of their culture. We saw handmade jewelry made from bull horns and coffee spoons made from cow bones. A lot of things we wouldn’t see back at home. Here’s some history: Wooden dolls are very popular here, but none of them have faces painted on them. They are just a black wooden doll with a dress on and no face. The reason is, the DR people are known to be an equal mix of Spanish, African, and Indigenous ethnicities. They are so unique that there is no distinct look about them, at least that they want to claim. Also, the DR people are very racist. They said it themselves. They really, really, really, don’t like Haitians.
Anyway, after the Museum we came back and had fish for lunch. Then we had a lot of fun. We went PUCMM, which is the university that is basically in our back yard, and hung out with the baseball team! We met the Director of Physical Education, the coach of the team and a few players. We asked the coach questions that related to our class and then he put us through a practice. We started with stretching. Then we went to the outfield to work on catching fly-balls. Then to the infield to work on grounders, then of course, everyone’s favorite…batting.We have some very talented people in my class. Everyone was crushing the ball!...Even Professor Gulgin. All of her hits were to the outfield.
It was so much fun to get to play around. I’m really enjoying the people here. I have been blessed to have two really great experiences this summer. I am meeting some really great people that I hope to remain friends with throughout college.
All is still well here. Still not homesick! J Im loving every second! Thanks again to those who helped me get here!
Stay tuned because Friday is going to be a long day, and Saturday only gets better!!
Hasta Luego! (Until later!),
Dani
As many of you will remember, one year ago we had an amazing young girl enter our program, Alyssia Crook. She is celebrating her 1 year anniversary when she chose to have her leg was amputated. Thursday at 6pm WZZM13 will be running an incredible documentary on Alyssia and her story of courage! Please check it out if you time. You will also be able to watch it online on Thursday after 7:00pm at www.wzzm13.com.
Have a great Wednesday!
Coach Burgess
Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Grand Valley State University
Blog: http://gvsuwbb.posterous.com/
Twitter: GVSUWBB
Sunday
On Sunday I got to sleep in until about 9:30. Then we had a delicious homemade breakfast. Lourdes, our mother, made eggs, toast, ham, and fresh pineapple and mango. After breakfast we went to church at PUCMM church which is on the campus of the University. That was a great experience. It was a Catholic service so we were somewhat familiar with some of the activities but we couldn’t understand much. While I was in church I was looking at all the people that were there and I noticed a lot of things. For the most part, the kids here are very well behaved. The women are GORGEOUS! I promise they are absolutely beautiful. And they are all in shape, I haven’t seen any over weight people here, really, I haven’t. Many of the women have long, straight, dark hair. Some have curly hair but for the majority, they have straight hair. They dress well too! Nice shirts, designer jeans, very high heels, and designer purses. The men here aren’t hard on the eyes either! :) They dress very nice, designer jeans, polos, slicked back hair, and dress shoes.
After church we came back to our house and our mom prepared lunch. More family members came over to hang out. Me, my roommates, and our classmates went to a little basketball court we found and played basketball and soccer. We brought two of the kids from our family to play. It was soooo much fun. We were only out for about an hour and I already had tan lines. It was very hot! Then we came back and got cleaned up. We had another great meal for dinner. You all would think the meals are all wrong because breakfast is mostly fruit and cereal, and lunch is the biggest meal. They even get 12-2:30p off to come home and eat lunch and take a nap. For lunch we eat a lot of rice, veggies, and meat. Dinner isn’t big either, we had sandwiches. But all the food is all SOOOOOO GOOOD!
Monday! Lunes!
Today was our first day of class! We thought that we were going to actually have class on the PUCMM campus but things got changed so we actually have class in a hotel meeting room. They set it up very nicely. We had Kines for 2 hours, from 8:30 to 10:30, then our latin culture class at 10:45 for two hours.
Lunch, again no surprise, was amazing. We had rice and chicken and fried plantains. Then we studied on our balcony. Our Latin Culture professor, Luis, took us on the PUCMM campus to the library. Such a beautiful campus. We walked around for about 3 hours. Now we are watching E! news … in English!! yay!! I’m still loving it here. I wasn’t worried about coming here, but now I’m worried about going back to the states! I’m afraid I’m going to experience more culture shock there, than here. I will be speaking a lot of Spanish when I return so everyone, prepare. Today we found out that our class mate, Justin, his host mom is a travel agent and she is going to take us to an all inclusive resort! I can not wait!!! We will get to be tourist and wear American clothes. We get to go on the white beaches and have way too much fun. I hope I didn’t make you all jealous…
..I’ll leave you at that:)
More to come…
Love, Dani
Primera Día-
What a day! We got into Santiago last night (Friday) at about 9pm after our plane was delayed because of the storm that came into Miami. When we landed in at the Airport it finally hit me…I was now in the Dominican Republic! I felt like a celebrity, all eyes were on las Rubias (blonde girls) y los Americanos!
We got off the plane and went straight inside where we got more stares. We had to go get our visitors card and then we went through customs. It was such an easy process. Everyone was so nice to us! Next we got our luggage off the carousel and headed outside where there were even more people. I couldn’t help but smile! I was soooo happy to be here! Then we found our ISA people. The ISA are the ones who basically guide us around and help us. Then they took us each to our host family.
My host family is wonderful! My roommates are Carly and Sarah. My “mom” is very sweet to us. She cooks our meals and cleans up after us. Yeah, I know, you all must think we’re brats but it is actually part of their culture. If we try to help with things they don’t like it. She reminds me a lot of my second mom at home, Kim D. There is also our “padre” and our “hermano” (brother). Our hermano is 14 and we just found out tonight that he can speak ENGLISH! He was holding out on us this whole time.
The house is fairly big and their family is very big. There are four bedrooms upstairs. Each of us girls have our own room…I got the King bed…because I’m the tallest… ;) The three of us share a bathroom. They decorated it with pink and purple. Oh yeah, our Madre has a salon in the house where she does hair and nails. Maybe she will dye my hair purple… JK!!
My Spanish is going well so far. I can understand most of what our Madre says. I want to write this in Spanish!
Today was a very busy day. We got up, ate breakfast, and gave our mom the gifts we brought her. Sarah brought three coasterswith pictures of Comerica Park and Detroit, chocolate covered cherries, and some hot fudge toppings for ice-cream. Carly brought a Petoskey ornament that was shaped like Michigan and a nice bar of soap. I brought a postcard of Michigan and Pure Michigan Maple Syrup. She loved them all.
After breakfast we had a meeting with ISA to go over safety and we learned some history about the DR.
FACT: The Dominican Republic was the first place Christopher Columbus landed in 1492.
After the long meeting we went to the mall to have lunch and to buy some pre paid cell phones so we could all call our worried mothers in the states ;) Then we went site seeing in the city. We saw El Monumento, a museum, and downtown Santiago. El Monumento de los Heroes is the single most famous building in Santiago. It is the Monument of Heroes. J Then the ISA people dropped us off at our house for about an hour before dinner. Finally we went to dinner, ate way too much food, ate too many desserts and had to walk home, just to feel good about ourselves.
It has been very humid here. The average temperature is 77 F year ‘round. It’s very tropical. Palm trees, fruit trees, and fresh fruit everywhere. And A LOT of mosquitoes.
So far it’s been great. I’ve experienced a little bit of culture shock… I’m finding that I’m exhausted by 7:30pm because of all the information I’m taking in…It’s A LOT. I miss my friends and family too. I just wish you could all see and experience all this with me. This is such a great opportunity for me and I just want to thank those who made it possible. ¡¡GRACIAS!!
Please feel free to ask me any questions about my trip via Facebook or Email: Crandald@mail.gvsu.edu
And PLEASE don’t text me.
Hasta Luego! (See you later!),
DC
Sent from my iPadLast evening I received an awesome email I wanted to share with everyone. Moriah who introduces herself in the email is a true example of giving, hard working, and selfless. Enjoy reading it: I have a few thoughts at the end:
Hello,
My name is Moriah Muscaro. I am the Feature Twirler with the Laker Marching Band.
I am writing to you to thank you for your help and support. As some of you may know, I twirl baton on a state, regional, and national level. This past Saturday, I competed at the Miss Majorette of Michigan pageant, vying for the top title in the state. I was honored to be crowned the 'College Miss Majorette of Michigan' while representing Grand Valley!! I will now be going on to compete at the national competition this summer to go for the College Miss Majorette of America championship. Most importantly, I will be competing at nationals representing Grand Valley amongst the many other college twirlers in the nation.
However, I would not have been ready for this pageant if not for each of you. Thank you for allowing me to use the superb facilities in the Rec Center to practice. Thank you also for allowing me to perform at football, basketball, and lacrosse games, as these help to improve my skills at performing under pressure. All of your support has made this win possible.
I have so enjoyed my first year at GV. I am so excited for the years to come! I will be spreading the "good news" about GVSU to the twirling community at Nationals!! See you in August!!
Moriah Muscaro
She is so appreciative for opportunity to represent GVSU. And she made me reflect on one simple work APPRECIATION. I can remember Moriah in the Rec Center one day twirling her baton, practicing extremely hard, when she stopped to talk to my daughter for 5 minutes. I can remember her taking time during brief moments in our games to say hi to the little fans she has at our games. I can remember talking to her in the hallway and the look of excitement, love and passion for WHAT she does but for what she has been given.
Moriah is so appreciative of ALL the opportunities she has been given. Are you appreciative for what you get? I know I am blessed to have a healthy family, great staff, great team and the opportunity to work for an amazing University.
Are you appreciative for all you have like Moriah?
Coach Burgess
Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Grand Valley State University
Blog: http://gvsuwbb.posterous.com/
Twitter: GVSUWBB
Last evening I received an awesome email I wanted to share with everyone. Moriah who introduces herself in the email is a true example of giving, hard working, and selfless. Enjoy reading it: I have a few thoughts at the end:
Hello,
My name is Moriah Muscaro. I am the Feature Twirler with the Laker Marching Band.
I am writing to you to thank you for your help and support. As some of you may know, I twirl baton on a state, regional, and national level. This past Saturday, I competed at the Miss Majorette of Michigan pageant, vying for the top title in the state. I was honored to be crowned the 'College Miss Majorette of Michigan' while representing Grand Valley!! I will now be going on to compete at the national competition this summer to go for the College Miss Majorette of America championship. Most importantly, I will be competing at nationals representing Grand Valley amongst the many other college twirlers in the nation.
However, I would not have been ready for this pageant if not for each of you. Thank you for allowing me to use the superb facilities in the Rec Center to practice. Thank you also for allowing me to perform at football, basketball, and lacrosse games, as these help to improve my skills at performing under pressure. All of your support has made this win possible.
I have so enjoyed my first year at GV. I am so excited for the years to come! I will be spreading the "good news" about GVSU to the twirling community at Nationals!! See you in August!!
Moriah Muscaro
She is so appreciative for opportunity to represent GVSU. And she made me reflect on one simple work APPRECIATION. I can remember Moriah in the Rec Center one day twirling her baton, practicing extremely hard, when she stopped to talk to my daughter for 5 minutes. I can remember her taking time during brief moments in our games to say hi to the little fans she has at our games. I can remember talking to her in the hallway and the look of excitement, love and passion for WHAT she does but for what she has been given.
Moriah is so appreciative of ALL the opportunities she has been given. Are you appreciative for what you get? I know I am blessed to have a healthy family, great staff, great team and the opportunity to work for an amazing University.
Are you appreciative for all you have like Moriah?
Coach Burgess
Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Grand Valley State University
Blog: http://gvsuwbb.posterous.com/
Twitter: GVSUWBB
Grand Valley State and Division 2 athletics has a strong emphasis on Service Learning. This summer 2 people in our program have great opportunities ahead of them and I would like to share those 2 experiences with you.
On Friday morning Dani Crandall (DC) will get on a plane and head to Santiago, the second largest city in the Dominican Republic for a study abroad experience. This is a program that is available to all Movement Science majors who have a 2.5 GPA or better and is designed to allow the students to work within a diverse population in one of the most beautiful countries in the Caribbean. Dani will be taking 2 classes while visiting local elementary/secondary schools, physical therapy clinics and gym facilities throughout the city.
One of the most unique experiences for Dani will be the opportunity to live with a host family. This experience will deepen their cultural immersion. I am extremely thrilled for Dani, she will come back the end of June and have so many great stories to share with us. As well as many life experiences for the future.
Coach Wiseman is also doing a service project called Bring Me Hope. She will be traveling to China and work with the Chinese orphanages to take kids out of their orphanages for a week, shower them with love and give them hope. There are more than 700,000 orphans in China—many of them are female because of a phenomenon known as infanticide. Within in the Chinese culture there is a preference for male babies and the low value associated with the birth of females. Therefore many of these young children are females.
The main goal is to bring hope to these children in need. Coach Wiseman will shower one chosen child with love and help them feel worth for an entire week. As well as working with Chinese caseworkers to get their needs met, either medically or emotionally after the week is over. If you would like to learn more about this trip please visit: www.bringmehope.org
DC and Coach Wiseman will be sharing their experience through our blog. So make sure you follow them both. What a great learning experience for both of them. Once again DC leaves on May 18 and Coach Wiseman will leave July 20th.
Please keep them both in your prayers and thoughts as they empower people from different cultures and grow as women!
Coach Burgess
Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Grand Valley State University
Blog: http://gvsuwbb.posterous.com/
Twitter: GVSUWBB
