Day 10: Reflection & goodbye’s
Student Trip Blog
HEY BLOG!
There is only one word in the English language to describe today, and a cheesy and corny as it may be: bittersweet.
Firstly, thank you to our GGLs (Global Glimpse Leaders) and PCs (Program Coordinators) for letting us sleep in following a night full of happy tears. After a miscellaneous breakfast, we headed to the balcony for our final reflection. We started off the session by mapping out our journey throughout this trip in drawings. Following that, we played a game called Touch Shoulders where we anonymously tapped shoulders according to the people that held a special place in our hearts. Our final activity was spreading even more Big Love by giving others anonymous notes. Julia cheated the rest of us out of heartfelt letters when she was done writing her own note.
We were all caught up in our own worlds on such a chill day that almost all of us forgot to head to the girl’s villa for lunch. All was forgiven, only after those earliest ate first.
After a load of physical exhaustion, Kapil decided to add mental fatigue to the list by introducing the whole delegation to yet another mind game called Silly Sally… Shout out Mr. President (Ethan Louie) for being patient with me (Kapil) as I took over FIVE hours to figure out what Silly Sally likes.
As we trudgingly loaded our suitcases, we got ready for our second to last bus ride. Bittersweet is truly the only word to describe this trip. Even the simple things that we once bonded over no longer seemed as fun. Since the day we arrived, we would boo and cheer as cars passed us and we passed cars. Yet today the bus was mostly silent. A sight we had not seen since the first hour after we landed in Santiago.
The only thing to lift our spirits was a random bottle of conditioner, terrifying Safi and Anna by falling from the ceiling onto their arms. As we prepared to go home, Julia (one of our PCs) wanted to get a taste of home by taking us to eat some New York styled pizza. During our time spent there, we got one last glimpse of the Dominican sunset.
After our “brief” nightly meeting, we ended the evening looking each other in the eyes and saying everything we had left to say, through tearful embraces, speeches, and see you laters.
We started on a sunset and end on a sunrise, symbolizing how we come back from this trip as the same people but with new mindsets.
How poetic that we began on a sunset and end on a sunrise. While most may think going on this trip was the start of something new, it was more of a goodbye to the old. A goodbye to taking things for granted, a goodbye to comfort, and a goodbye to technological addiction. As we leave the Dominican Republic, we follow the wise words of Ignacio Hernandez, Nacho, (our other beloved PC, both of whom need a raise by the way) we say “Hello People” to a new global perspective, a check on our privilege, and a new family that we’ve known for a lifetime.
And with that C1C’s trip to Constanza, the Dominican Republic, comes to an end. Goodnight. (And good morning in a couple of hours 😜)
Signing off,
Lindsey and Kaperrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (a.k.a. Kapil)
P.S. Shout out to my beautiful mother, I miss you and dad so much!! Hope to see Andrew when I get home… And even though she won’t be seeing this… SHOUT OUT TO MY BEST FRIEND, VICKY NGUYEN, FOR DOING MY STREAKS ON TIKTOK AND SNAPCHAT FOR ME, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! (Lindsey)
Shout out my Bhai Parth!!! Love you tons and we’ll celebrate your birthday when I get back. See you soon SMAR. We will be watching Spiderman as soon as Anjali Didi makes it back to the States. Also shout out to my Beta, Timmy Panos. So sad that I missed you DCI performances, but I’ll catch them through videos and the stories you tell at band camp. Btw that better be planned so I don’t have to work on the airplane. (Kapil)