So I guess I'm blogging now

Hey everyone!

For those of you who don’t know what my plans are this summer, I’m studying abroad! This Saturday, I’m headed off to Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic for Spanish Service Learning. So basically, I’m doing a Spanish immersion program, and I’m also volunteering at one of the local clinics.

Quick disclaimer before I start rambling about the program: I am a horrible writer. I am a Microbiology major, so writing is not my forte. I am completely new to this whole blogging thing.  I also really hate editing things.  So that’s not going to happen. I’m mainly doing it so that my family and friends who want to hear about my trip can see what I’m up to, and so that I can look back at my blog later and remember everything that happened. So let’s just take this moment to accept that this will all be terribly written. I don’t English good.

Anyways. The program that I’m doing is an immersion program, which basically means that for the next six weeks, I’m only going to be speaking Spanish. I’ll be living with a Dominican couple at a home stay (their names are Maria and Ramón), hearing only Spanish when I shadowing physicians in the clinics, and I’ll be taking an accelerated intermediate Spanish class. The last time I had a Spanish class was in high school, and to be honest, it was a pretty awful class (shout out to the survivors of Sra. Hernandez’s AP Spanish class!) We had this mean, scary lady that hated all of her students. So between that, and just how rusty my Spanish is from not having used it since that class, I’d have to say I’m a little nervous about only being able to use Spanish. I know I’ll pick it up eventually, and that I’ll learn as I go. But that first week or so will be rough.

The part that I’m really excited for is the clinics, where I’ll be volunteering twice a week. Basically, I’ll get to observe what the doctors are doing, talk to patients, and do simple things like taking vitals. From what I’ve heard, it’ll be a much more hands on experience than anything that I would do in the states. I’ve also heard that the doctors take time to talk to all of their patients too, unlike here where doctors try to get you in and out as fast as possible. But everything the clinics will be in medical Spanish. So if the Spanish alone wasn’t enough of a challenge, I’ll have to try to decipher the medical jargon too. So I’ll let you know how that goes.

While I’m abroad, I’ll have Wi-Fi, but no cell service. I’m going to attempt to keep up this blog, so you all know what I’m up to, but I want to hear from all my friends and family too! If you want to talk, I can still use Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and Skype! I guess that’s all I really have for now, so I’ll write more after I arrive on Saturday night!

-Sarah