Hello everyone my name is Alexandra Garcia and I was the first student leader of the day today. Although I was nervous for today since I was the first leader in a new country, it was very fun to get the beach day. Today we started our daily routine: Wake up call at 7 am, breakfast at 8 am, and around 8:45 am today we got onto our bus to take us to our adventure for the day. Today was the beach day. The ride took around an hour and a half. When we started getting closer to our destination, to our lefts we saw the beach. The nice blue water. Then we arrived to our destination for the day, Playa Rogelio. When we arrived we were first greeted by our lifeguards, three men who voluntarily took time out of their day to make sure we are free of danger. Our group had two huts for us to use and we met the owner of the shack where we got the green light to purchase at; we purchased soda and foreign snacks which tasted different but maybe slightly better than the American snacks. When we were allowed to go into the water, it could not go above our waists and had to stay in the vision of our bodyguards and our Global Glimpse leaders. As I set foot into the water it was super different than the beaches in California, the water at this beach is BLUE and WARM. Our group had the option to move onto visiting a river but the group was having too much fun at the beach we decided to stay. Every thirty minutes was interrupted by either head counts, re applying our sunscreen, and lunch. This day made the group closer and the smiles were never-ending.

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The highlights of today were the beach for sure, although the water was very salty and our eyes were burning, no one stopped smiling. One of our student ambassadors from the Dominican Republic, Kendry, gave the whole group a vibe of positivity and was the contribution to our smiles. He learned how to swim in the ocean for the first time and the smile on his face warmed our hearts. Kendry would not leave anyone out of the group, he would jump into all the pictures and made sure he got one with everyone, and was our Dj at the beach. Kendry not only showed us songs he listens here in the DR he also knew the songs we knew back home and even knew the lyrics better than I did. Carter was my bus buddy for today and he is such a nice person, he laughs at my bad jokes, he shares his candy, and also sings along to the songs on the bus. A special thanks to Stephanie for lending me her alarm clock to make sure I was able to wake everyone up in the morning. I also want to recognize ALL of my delegation members for being at their very best today and being nice to me as the leader of the day, we got an amazing group. A quick shutout to one of our group leaders, Mr. Turner, who helped me purchase a water bottle at the airport on our way over to the DR. Mr. Turner always gives me and my peers feedback on how we are all great leaders throughout the and gives us all reminders to stay hydrated. Ms. Mac, the former Spanish teacher at my high school is always asking how we are doing and checks up to make sure we are doing well. Thank you to my director Amelia for not getting tired of us requesting songs that she didn’t always have and for getting us popsicles at the best times! Evergreen is very sweet and calm she always made sure I was good today and gave me very helpful tips.

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My reflection of the day is how tourism affects this country in a good and bad way. Tourism is not very common in the area of Moca but when there is we can see how much trash is left behind which pollutes this town more than you think. The lack of resources can affect this town because when there is more tourism around they are going to have more resources to display and put out to purchase for the tourists. I have come across many hard workers in this town and having a lot of tourists can impact them by supporting their handmade business and purchasing their souvenirs. Today was a great day and we all loved getting to know more of each other. The only hint for tomorrow’s day is that we received buckets in each of our rooms and our water was no longer available.

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Ms. Hanson if you’re reading this Jasmine and Natalia loved your comment they miss you.

Edgar, thank you for commenting and I hoped you liked my blog today!!