4H Equipo GIS » Tuesday October 30

Day 4- Confusion in the Mall

4hequipogis — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:52:34 +0000

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

Mission Impossible: The 13th Floor.

4hequipogis — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:38:56 +0000

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

Tuesday am – SUN Breaks!!!

4hequipogis — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:17:25 +0000

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