Spanish/Dance Lessons

My spanish class and teacher!
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Since we chose to participate in the optional spanish lessons, we got to attend a school spnonsored by ALPI, which taught english to dominican students during after school hours.  We were divided into a beginner and advanced spanish class.  I was placed in the advanced and we focused a lot on reviewing each verb tense, refreshing verbs/vocabulary, and presenting conversations in front of the class.  Our class had a lot of fun; I belive it took us out of our comfort zone once in awhile, though.  Our teacher would send us out on the streets of Santiago to ask people walking by certain questions to strike up a converstaion with them.  Surprisingly, the citizens were very understanding and willing to take time out of their day to speak to us, it was pleasant!

Us sitting while being taught how to dance in our 'large' classroom!
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We had four days of spanish lessons from 9am-3pm with a lunch break every day.  We ate lunch at a local dominican cafe where you got to choose what food you wanted.  The food was very good and the wide variety gave us a good taste of the basic dominican foods.  Also on our lunch break we had the option to walk around town, shop, chill, or use the internet cafes to contact family and friends.  The city was confusing, but after 4 days there most of us got used to its layout.

Food, Dance, and Learn!

Benita, my spanish teacher, asisting in the dance lessons.
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Another part of our cultural experience were the dance lessons.  Two of the four days we had dance instructors come in and teach us how to dance the two main dominican dances; bachata and merengue.  These lessons were fun, interesting, and quite a hoot!  Not all of us were dancers, but it was new to all of us, so we made everything work out okay!  We did warmups, then saw a demonstration, then learned the steps, then had to practice them with a partner.  Only problem was that we had about 30 girls and about 8 guys, no AC, and all of us packed in a tiny room, so we took turns dancing with each guy.  The poor guys definately got a workout, while us ladies got to watch and rest inbetween.

Us attempting to dance...
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Another thing that we got were cooking instructions.  We all learned how to make tostones con queso: which were friend plantains with 'white cheese' which was also fried.  We got to peel the plantains, fry them, and smash them, and of course, eat them too!