Hey family and friends!
Today we woke up energized and ready to visit historical caves called Las Cuevas del Pomier and go swimming at La Toma, a natural public pool. After breakfast, we boarded our bus and drove about forty five minutes to Las Cuevas, where we met the in-country ambassadors as well as our cave tour guides. Everyone was very excited to tour the caves, which were culturally and historically significant because of the aboriginal paintings and religious rituals that used to take place in them. Once we split up into two groups, we put on our awesome hard hats and saw carvings and paintings over 2,000 years old, lots of bats, and spent a minute of silence in total darkness (which felt more like ten minutes). After the tour, we sat with our tour guides and ambassadors to get to know them better and ate a delicious lunch of rice and beans, chicken, plantains, and steamed vegetables.
We then drove to La Toma, a natural pool where the community gathers to cool off and chill on a hot day. Everyone was happy about the fact that our ambassadors as well as our new tour guide pals were able to accompany us. It was super refreshing to be able to swim in the cool and clear waters and play Marco Polo with our group. We spent about an hour and a half there and also had the chance to purchase snacks from the outside market. Although many of us were tired from the packed day, we still managed to sing and dance to Spanish and American songs on the bus ride back. We were sad to see our Dominican friends go but we knew we would see them again soon.
Once we got back to our hostel, everyone was pooped. We spent a couple hours of free time changing, relaxing, and learning how to salsa and bachata from our leaders and fellow chums before an academic seminar on global business. During the seminar (which we held outside), it suddenly began to pour! For us Californians, it was practically a miracle for us to see such heavy rain all of a sudden; for our one Seattle-ian, it was no surprise. We continued our seminar until dinner time, where we enjoyed galletitas, steamed potatoes, and sausages. For some reason, after dinner we were extremely giggly and had a blast. After that, we had our nightly meeting and shared lots of encouraging comments to top off a fun and memorable day.
We miss you all so dearly and think of you every day. We also all get very emotional while reading your comments on our blog so keep ‘em coming!! Don’t worry too much about us, we’re making lots of memories and having a fab time! Also, we are missing our pets.
-Michelle Dalarossa and Ally Francis
P.S. I love Jangli
P.P.S (from Matt, GGL) There’s no photo on this yet, our other great GGL will be uploading one ASAP.
Hello Jay(Seattle-ian),
We are so proud of you & very Happy to see your smiling face! We miss you very much! Please always be safe & have an Amazing Time! Appreciate every moment!
We love you from rainy Seattle,
Mama ?
Hi Erik, I hope you are eating the delicious food from Republica Dominicana. We miss you! Diego and Carlos say hello. Papi keeps asking at all hours “I wonder what Erik is doing right now?” We love you!!!!
So glad to hear you are having fun enjoying the DR. Miss you Ella!
Sup Goolie Kim. It seems like it’s crazy lit over there. It’s nice reading these blogs and seeing the different things you guys do compared to what my delegation and I did in Constanza. I hung out with nik and Sam a couple days ago and we tried getting Nik to confess his love for Vanessa but he wouldn’t do it. (Maybe bc Sam was there) Anyways, hope you’re having a great time in the DR. I miss you lots !! :’)
Hi Michelle, Ally, Kristian, Claudia, Shyreen, and all the GG kids and staff of this delegation! This sounds like a really fun fun day and tfti. I’m sad Kris and Claudia won’t be there with me at pre-season tomorrow, but I know you guys are getting a cool experience in the DR like i did. Ok bye, have fun, and enjoy your plantains. Don’t let Kristian draw chickens on your stuff.
Hi Malcolm!! I loved hearing your annoying voice that I didn’t think I’d miss so much LOL. I hope you’ve been having hella fun with everything you’re doing I’m super jealous! I’m almost done packing for my Costa Rica trip, I’m actually not procrastinating as bad this year lol. I’m so excited I leave on Wednesday at night! Wandera finally emailed us about the retreat! I don’t know if you emailed him that you were going to be gone but I mentioned it to him again. I’m probably going to a student panel he emailed us about on Wednesday morning too. Although I’m happy you’re out that I REALLY wish you were here because I’m been so bored LOL. Your mom says she misses you and she’s gotten your phone calls but it’s hard to hear you. Here’s her email if you get to email her again [email protected]. I taught her about the blog as well 🙂
Keep eating that yummy food! Miss you
Sammi
Hi Ally:
Glad to hear about all your adventures…..Cookie asked about you today…..she said….where’s Ally…..oh…she must be in her room….and I let her think you were. Although I missed your presence at dinner time and laundry time…I was happy to read that you are still having the best time of your life. I’m glad that you’re getting to know your group…..enjoying each other’s company. Since it was hot here again….Jangli went outside and sat on his chair….I’m sure he misses you and wondering….how come….there is this peace and quiet 🙂 I’m definitely getting a little taste of how it will be without you when you go off to college….I hope you’re enjoying the local food there….and figured out which food will be your favorite. Since I have work tomorrow…..I’ve got to sign off now…..Enjoy your day…….we love and miss you…..but know that you’re learning lots of new things……ohh and btw…..Nick even asked when will you be back….but wouldn’t admit that he’s missing you also.
Love you
Mummy, papa, maasi, nana, nani, Ashy, Cookie, Nick, Mark and…..Jangli…..Take care until next time
Oi Michelle! Estou vendo que seus dias são bem cheios! Saudades! Mas com certeza vc vai ter muitas coisas para nos contar! Poco está bem, a Ellie está de volta, eu e papai estamos em NYC. Beijos, te amo muito! Cuide-se!
Claudia; Omg that sounds so wonderful, what an adventurous day I wish I was there with you enjoying all of these great experiences, I’m sure they’ll stay in your mind for a very long time. You know we want the best for you. I’m very proud of you. Take care, lots of hugs and kisses. We love you??
Cave exploring and pool chilling sound absolutely amazing! I’m so glad to hear this trip is full of enriching experiences, and I hope the rest of the trip turns out to be as fantastic as you Michelle! 🙂 thanks for writing such an awesome post!
Best wishes ^.^
Hello fellow lizard squad-ian,
As you can see I am not using my real name because there is one person we both know who reads these comments every day who I do not want reading this (hope you know who I’m talking about.) Just to make sure you know who I am I will also say that lizardboi is doing well in college so far. Anyways, I sent you and another person of interest an email about two days ago but I guess you can’t read it since you sent me a new email from I’m assuming your guide’s email, and the contents of that email made it clear that you had not read my original email. Let me just quickly update you and say that I have ended things with him ? (I hope emojis show up here) and it went suspiciously well. I believe he either a) is hiding his true feelings very well or b) had some prior knowledge of the then future breakup, which may have been supplied to him by a mutual friend of ours. I’m sure you were very interested in this event, which is why I started with it (NOT because I’m haunted by it every day and absolutely had to tell you.) In other news, I had much fun this past weekend with various friends but with one in particular (no this is not a sexual innuendo), and sent/have been sending you snap chats the entire time you’ve been gone. Please restrain yourself from opening them as soon as you touch down in America next week- I know I’m very interesting but at this point I’ve forgotten what I’ve sent you and want to watch with you. This is becoming a very long comment so I should go. Hope you continue to have as much fun as it looks like you’re having and tell your cool friends I said hi (I must stress that you only tell the cool ones I say hi as I have no interest in the lame ones. Yes I am forcing you into an awkward position as you told me you read these out loud every day, so all your friends, both lame and cool, will know of the task you must perform on my behalf and thus will know who you think is cool and who you think is lame.) Ok this comment is so long I’m worried I won’t be allowed to post it. I hope random people (ehem parents) don’t read this. Bye!!
JESSE!! Hi bubaloo pumkin butt! I miss you so much! I was sad that I missed your calls. Funny story behind that. I’ll tell you about it when we talk. So I’m trying to picture you in this cave and what you said when you saw bats. And I crack up. Still yet what a mystifying adventure to explore those caves! I can’t wait to hear about this adventure in your animated way of storytelling. I miss you so much kid! I’m so very happy that you are there though. Its a life changing experience. And it sounds like you are having the time of your life! I got your email and I cried while reading it. I love you lots babygirl!! Dom and popsie say hi and they miss you too. As for Crosby and Louie….. They are too busy being Garfield and odie!!! Love you!!