4H Equipo GIS

For the most part of the morning and evening, we practiced our presentations and helped the North Carolina team translate their presentation. Since our presentations were the next day, we had to go over our presentations a couple of times.

In the middle of the day, we went to MegaCenter, a very large shopping mall. It was so large we lost our way around. It was probably the equivalent of two regular shopping malls. There were so many stores, stairs, and 3 floors that we went in circles various times. The stores were more expensive than stores back home, however, so I didn’t end up buying anything. I did end up doing a lot of math trying to go from pesos to dollars in my head. Also, I couldn’t figure out if Halloween is celebrated here. One person said they DID celebrate it; another person said they only sold Halloween costumes, but they didn’t actually go trick-or-treating. It was pretty much a day filled with mysteries.

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Por la mayoría de la mañana y la tarde, practicamos nuestra presentación. Como nuestra presentación era el siguiente día, teníamos que practicar varias veces.

Al medio del día, fuimos al MegaCenter, un centro grande de compras. Estaba tan grande que nos perdimos. Era lo equivalente de dos centros de compras regulares. Había muchas tiendas, escalones, y 3 pisos que caminamos en círculos varias veces. Pero las tiendas eran más caras. También tratamos de averiguar si se celebra Halloween o no, pero unos decían que si, y otros decían que no. Era un día lleno de misterios.

-Liz

—->Clara, Liz, and Christian

Is finally OVER! It went great. Everyone seemed to be very interested in what we were saying and was very focused. I am relieved it is over and happy. It was a great experience and I will always remember it. This has been the largest amount of people I have  ever presented. Hopefully this will jumpstart something….Now its time to network and hope someone is impressed. I am really excited! Cant wait until tomorrow! (more…)

We woke early this morning to a bleak day! Guess what? We have rain!

We will be going to the Melia Hotel to attend the plenary sessions of ESRI and to present at 3:30.

We will try to post our presentations, as well as videos of the presentations later today!

  As Noel moved overhead of us…pounding rain, and blowing gusts of wind we were stuck inside all day. So as a group we dedcided to go on a mission. We grabbed a camera and left on our mission. Not knowing what to do we decided to go up to the balcony and film the storm, we became journalist. As the elevator took us up onto our destination, we noticed that there was no thirteenth floor. We didnt think much of it and figured that the hotel staff just didnt want anyone to be in there. Since we are teenagers we decided to walk back down this time taking the stairs and hopefully running into the missing floor. Little did we know what we were going to get ourselves into. Slowly climbing down the stairwel we noticed that it was getting particularly dark. We proceeded with caution…As I was climbing down the stairs I heard Liz yell up at me with horror, “Theres NO thirteenth floor!” It took us by suprise. What was happening,did the floor just randomly dissapear? Of course not that was impossible. So we dedcided to find out.

Down in the lobby we were trying to put this thing together. Why was there no thirteenth floor?  We watched as mysterious men walked around in the lobby watching everything and everyone as to be hiding somekind of secret from us. We finally built up the courage to ask one of these mysterious men. When we finally did ask him he came up with the weirdest anwere: BAD LUCK. They are supertisious,  thirteen is an unlucky number.

And that is how we ended our day….

~clara

After being in the hotel for the most part of the morning and afternoon, we decided it was time to get some fresh air. With the tropical storm STILL 50 feet away from us, the hotel staff strongly discouraged us from going outside, especially from walking outside. We couldn’t use the front doors since those were closed. Being the adventurous rebels that we are, we decided to find our own exit from the hotel and go walking to find the grocery store anyways. This proved to be more difficult than we had imagined. We searched in the lobby, the first floor, the second floor, the parking lot, and through the pool area, but were unsuccessful in finding an alternative exit. Finally, we decided to brave up to the situation and walk out through the parking garage. While only receiving curious glances from the staff members, no one tried to stop us from walking in the tropical storm (the fierce determination on our faces was probably evident). In the end, we managed to find the grocery store without trouble and also managed to arrive at the hotel…DRY, for the first time since arriving. The rest of the evening was spent working on our presentations.

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Despues de estar en el hotel por la mayor parte de la manana, decidimos salir por un poco de aire fresco. Aunque nos queriamos salir por la puerta de enfrente, esa estaba cerrada. Como la mayoria de los trabajadores nos avisaron que nos quedaramos en el hotel, no quisimos preguntarles por una salida. Siendo rebeldes, decidimos buscar nuestra propia salida. Buscamos en el lobby, el primer y segundo piso, por la picina, y por el garage, pero no encontramos salida. Al final, nomas decidimos usar la salida del garage, aunque no queriamos usarla por miedo de que nos dijieran algo. Resulto que no nos dijieron nada y nomas nos vieron con miradas curiosas. Pudimos encontrar una marketa y regresamos secos al hotel por la primer ves. La resta de la noche trabajamos en nuestra presentacion.

-Liz

—>Picture of Clara and Luis working.

The storm has passed. (More or less….)

My grandma Doris used to look up at the clouds, and see the smallest hint of sunshine, and declare it a sunny day. Well, we are not quite there yet, but there are visible sky breaks through the clouds!

The surf is still pretty choppy and violent, and the wind is blowing, but not strong enough to sweep small children away. (And we have no small children or dogs with us…so we are fine!) It is probably blowing about twenty miles an hour.

We were couped up in the hotel most of yesterday with the shutters pulled across the front doors. They youth did a great job practicing and gernearlly keeping themselves entertained all day long! But by late afternoon, we all were getting twitchy! According to the weather service, the storm had passed, and we were no longer in danger. (The danger in the Dominican Republic now appears to be mudslides in the mountains from the huge amount of rain. We are not close to the mountains!)

Despite warnings, (if we had to go out, it was STRONGLY suggested that we take a taxi) we decided to look for the grocery store on foot! We were looking for general munchies, and a chance to stretch our legs.

After quite the excursion, looking for the back door to the hotel, (it doesn’t exist) we finally just walked out of the parking garage. The grocery store was perhaps three blocks from the hotel, and filled with people.

The air was warm and muggy, and needed latin music and people dancing to make it a perfect tropical evening! We bought supplies for lunches, snack items for working late (like Oreos, Fig Newtons, and Soda) and returned to the hotel with our bounty. We returned to our hotel room, stowed the groceries, and decided we should go out again for dinner.

In the same general area, on of the youth had seen a delicatessen. It was filled with people, and we decided it must be a local hang out! The food was marvelous, and reasonably priced. (Something we do not get at the hotel!!!) Several of our group tried a drink called a batida con leche de lechoza It was delicious! It strongly resembles a smoothy made out of papaya. I think I will have one tonight!

After a long lingering dinner we walked back to the hotel, and Liz made an observation! This was the first night we had returned dry! Despite the hotel being boarded up, and having to enter the hotel throug

We assembled in one of the rooms, and the youth worked on their presentation for nearly four hours.

We practice for the first time in the Melia today!

~Sarah

Monday

Although the weather station channel and NOAA are claiming that the storm has passed us by and is on the way to Haiti, we are still experience torrential rains.

 On the satellite pictures on our weather channel, we appear to be in the eye of the storm….1 pm EST….

 We have been working on our presentations and blogs in the lobby (where we have free wireless) next to huge glass windows. This is the same area that we practiced in yesterday, but today however, there are no clear views of the ocean. The motel has closed shutters on the outside of these plate glass windows.

 These windows are at least fifteen feet tall, and thirty feet wide EACH! The shutters are obviously the modern version of nailing up plywood. We went out (not outside, but to a door that was open with the shutter drawn across the front..) to investigate them. They are made out of heavy metal, hinged like a louvered blind, and double paned….the accordion pleat across the front of the windows on the outside. Although we were standing right behind the shutters with the door open we couldn’t feel much of the 45 mile an hour wind on the other side! We could definitely hear it however!!

 
The Washington County youth were practicing their presentation and I was videotaping when a hotel manager asked us to please move to another area of the hotel.

It appears that the windows are not safe…as we collected our five laptops, three digital cameras, and misc other accoutrements, we noted that they had a manager, and a police officer holding the front doors closed. They were discussing how the board planks that were holding the doors shut (wedged between the door handles) looked as if they were going to break. The glass doors were bowing even with the door handles connected with a piece of wood, and a person holding them shut!

 We are currently practicing in the back of the lobby, quiet jazz playing in the background, and can observe absolutely no signs of the weather outside. No wind noise, no rain….it is however….extremely humid!

 According to NOAA we have seen the worst of the storm, and it has passed us by! Walking to the front of the building, it appears that that is wishful thinking!!!!

 So for now, we sit in the lobby feast on appetizers for lunch, and work on our presentation and blogs! We would love to hear from you with any questions or comments!

…that’s right. The day was filled with tour guides in many shapes, colors, and forms. In our attempt to escape the confines of the hotel in the midst of Tropical Rainstorm Noel, we decided to walk through the shops. While walking to our destination, we soon found ourselves accompanied by a local man. What started as a simple conversation soon turned into him leading us to different “popular tourist destinations.” Upon realizing that he was in fact a tour guide, it was too late to tell him “no thanks.” When we decided to eat dinner, we also decided to part ways with our tour guide. Soon after dinner, however, we were quickly accompanied by another man, who also turned out to be a tour guide. While we were more than happy to be led around, we also wanted to explore the city on our own, which put us in a tough position. “To part or not to part with our tour guide” we asked ourselves. The decision was taken out of hands when the rain started pouring down on us once again and we walked back to the hotel in the rain. Once again, we arrived soaking wet to the hotel.

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For the afternoon, we worked on our presentation. This included editing our PowerPoint and rehearsing it aloud a few times. With the practice we were able to see our weaknesses and establish a plan on what we still needed to work on before the presentation.

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Para el dia de hoy, decidimos caminar alrededor de la ciudad. Despues de solo un rato de caminar, nos dimos cuenta que teniamos compania. Era un senor que decidio ser nuestro guia turistico. Aunque estabamos feliz de tener a alguien que nos ayudara, tambien queriamos caminar y explorar la ciudad solos. Cuando empezo a llover, nos separamos de nuestro guia y pudimos caminar al hotel bajo la lluvia. Esto significo que otra vez llegamos mojados al hotel.

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En la tarde, trabajamos en nuestra presentacion y hicimos unos cambio necesarios. Asi pudimos ver las partes que tenemos que practicar mas y asi mejorar la presentacion para el miercoles.

-Liz

—>Group photo

The storm appears to be passing us by.  The power is back, lost it for less than five minutes. The warning is now for mostly Haiti, although it is still raining hard!

We just lost all POWER! The lights have gone off and the whole hotel is without light. This is probably because of the wind…we can hear the rain pounding our window outside. Its supposed to be to the west of us but what if it had gone over us? That wouldnt have been good..

[um..the laptop is running on battery, just in case you were wondering where i was writing from]

Oh! The lights just came back on…yay! Well this is going to be an interesting night….