I’m spending my AFS exchange in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Two and a half months just passed by without me noticing that time is running fast. I’ve been living in a Caribbean paradise and I couldn’t be more grateful and happy.
First of all, I’m very lucky with my host family, I’ve become a real daughter and a real sister in my Dominican family. I live with my host parents and two younger siblings and I also have an older host sister but she’s spending her exchange in Norway at the moment.
We spend a lot of time together at the weekends, usually we travel to the beach. On weekdays everyone has their own activities, but they’re really loving and caring even on a busy day. From Monday to Friday days are similar, but in the afternoons I’m able to do whatever I want to, specially because the weather is always nice and hot.
Living in a crowded capital city is a new experince for me but I’m enjoying it. We can’t really go out to the streets because of the danger, but there’re some parts that are safe and beautiful. I love the ancient part, which is called Zona Colonial, where Christopher Colombus built the first city of America.
Europe and Latin America are completely different and I’ve had a lot of interesting situations caused by cultural differences. Dominican people in general are more outgoing and have more physical contact with each other. They speak really loud, everybody expresses their own opinion about everything, anytime. Happiness is an everyday attitude for them, they’re basically enjoying life at its’ best. It’s really enjoyable and entertaining to spend time with these wonderful people.