I realized that I am on "study" abroad so blogging about the academic side of my experience would be a good idea.
Well, the way my classes are structured here is that I take classes at three different universities. The majority of my classes are at CIEE the study center for the program that my study abroad is run through. Those classes are the most similar to the classes at American colleges. They have small class sizes and usually have powerpoint lectures and class discussions. Those classes are completely in Spanish so they are still a challenge for me!
I also have one class at Bono. Bono is a Dominican university that is very interesting because there are only about 100 students and the majority of them are studying to become priests. It's a really nice, small atmosphere to get to know the other students who are all really cool! That class is fairly challenging as I'm expected to keep up with the Dominican students when I struggle to just understand what the professor is saying! That class also requires me to take the guagua to go into a different part of the city which is always an interesting cultural experience!
The third university where I take a class is La UASD, this is the oldest (and I'm pretty sure the largest, although don't quote me on that...) university in all of the Americas! I wanted to take a class at La UASD because it is the public university in Santo Domingo so I felt that it would give me the best representation of a typical Dominican college education. And it has definitely been interesting! The class I take there is History of Dominican Art and it's supposed to meet once a week for three hours. However much like everything else in the DR, the meeting time seems to be more of a suggestion than a reality. Even though the class is scheduled to go from 2:00-5:00 it's very common for me to be sitting at my desk at 3:30 and the professor still hasn't arrived. It can be frustrating to not know if she will show up or not, but after looking around at the Dominican students I realized that they were not at all phased by the fact that the professor was more than an hour and a half late. Dominican culture values relationships over time. If someone is late, it's assumed that it's fine because they were spending time talking with friends or investing in relationships. My American tendencies wants for things to start and end at their scheduled times because I have developed an addiction to being scheduled. I rely on my planner and weekly routines just as many other Americans do. My class at La UASD is such a reflection of the laid-back, relationship based culture here in the Dominican Republic. It's not that they are lazy or poor workers, but that they place their values in relationships more than on their schedule.
