Hello, relatives and friends of us Glimpsers!

This is Alex and Kweko, your student leaders for day 6 of our trip to San Juan in the Dominican Republic. Today was a very relax and calm day compared to the past few days. Unlike the past few days, today we didn’t have a very filled schedule. Today was the first time we Glimpsers were able to go out on our own in groups with our local student ambassadors and explore the city. It was borderline chaos as we were all rushing around the city to various shops and landmarks before our check-ins or curfews. It was especially hard for us leaders today since both of us have come down with a semi-severe cold also causing us to lose our voices but it was a fun and enjoyable day overall for everyone.

Alex: Kweko and I started the day by waking up everyone at 8:10 AM to get ready for breakfast. Originally, we were going to get breakfast delivered to us and let everyone sleep until 8:30 AM, however, there was a miscommunication between the leadership and our provider, so we had to wake everyone up earlier to get to the restaurant on time. We had cereal and yogurt for breakfast and then headed back to our accommodations to begin our first free day. Glimpsers had around an hour and forty-five minutes to explore the city before our check-in for lunch. Most groups decided to use this time to search for souvenirs to bring back for loved ones. Some souvenirs Kweko and I decided to pick up were keychains, bracelets, and necklaces.

After our first block of free time finished and we had a lunch of rice, beans, and chicken, we returned to the accommodation to meet up with our student ambassadors and go out for our second block of free time. My group was joined by Saory, one of our most knowledgeable ambassadors. She led us to some amazing shops and stores that would have been hard for us visitors to find. Other people, like Lauren or Sergio went to the local church and climbed up to the highest tower giving them an incredible view of the city and the surrounding communities. Some of our more ambitious and active students, like Wyatt, Mohit, and Allen, went and played basketball in the sweltering heat against some of our ambassadors and Sixto. Sadly, the students were defeated 14-21 and 17-21.

After everyone returned to the accommodation at 5:45 PM, we had another forty-five minutes to rest and hang out with each other. We then headed to Rosaura’s for a simple dinner of hotdogs. Following our return to the accommodation, we began our nightly meeting where we happily passed off the role of being a leader for the day to Lauren, Rhea, and Julia who will be leading the next day’s activities.

Kweko: Overall, everyone had an incredibly fun day and had new experiences unlike anywhere else in the world. We enjoyed beautiful architecture, local sweets/treats, Dominican culture such as music/dances, and got to experience the city life more closely than the days before. Also throughout the day, many of you relatives and friends were called as each student was given time to reach out and tell you all about the trip and how much they miss you. (Unfortunately, I am quite ill and am unable to write too much today)

Alex and Kweko: We hope you enjoyed reading about our delegations adventures and experiences today and we all can’t wait to come home to tell you even more stories and memories we have made on this trip of a lifetime.

Alex and Kweko

Sorry about the lack of a photo for the trip. We were unable to upload any photos to post but we will all be sure to show you all the photos when we get back to California.