Well I am officially in my last month of Fulbright research and it feels quite weird. Though as I mentioned in the last update I will not be leaving the country until August due to an internship. Here are the stories for this month:
16 de Mayo
This past 16th of May the Dominican Republic held there legislative and local elections. Basically the end to my curiosity about who is going to win in what races. I actually got quite a few predictions right...including mayor of Sto Dom (the capital city that is), Senator for Sto Dom (capital city) and Senator for the state of Sto Dom. It was a very interesting day as I went around with Patricia Solano, a reporter that did a television show looking at the female candidate's election process. So I rode with her as she filmed different female candidates voting. I also got to appear on the radio and speak about my experiences on election day. (I did not plan this...it was one of Patrica´s stops of the day) Patricia actually plugged me and the radio
host was like come to the table. It was kinda cool (excuse my corny phrasing) and i received a great complement from Patricia...she stated that my Spanish was perfect (I wish). Either way it was a great day and I got some great pictures. I will try and upload them in the upcoming week.
Trinidad and Tobago
Last week I was out of the country as I went to Trinidad and Tobago for a Fulbright conference. Basically all the Fulbrighers in the Caribbean. It was a really nice experience and I got to meet some cool people and add another country to my traveled list...well two if you count Puerto Rico as a country. Speaking of Puerto Rico...we (the other DR Fulbrighters and I) got to spend some extra time in Puerto Rico as we missed our connecting flight. So I actually got to see Puerto Rico beyond the airport...it is a very pretty country though I missed the DR and it was expensive because of course we were dealing in dollars. I can say that Trinidad and Tobago is a very beautiful country but it is quiet and you would think I would like that after living in the DR but I'm so used to the hustle, noise and colmado (corner store) on every corner that I really missed that.
Internship Story
Well as I have mentioned before I recently started my summer internship with INSTRAW- the UN research and training institute for the advancement of women. Today we actually had a meeting with the researcher doing the European aspect, the INSTRAW director, another INSTRAW staff member and I to discuss the project. It was so weird for me...they were asking me questions and my opinion on stuff. I have never had that much responsibility. I am still used to doing research to simply write a paper. However, I am quite excited. I like that I have something that is challenging again. I really feel that I am going to learn so much. And also have book with my name in it (ok I'm not sure about this part but I will keep you posted). The research is going to be published by early next year.
Well that is all for now...until next time