Stakes to steaks
Student Trip Blog
Today was a day full of singing and questions. We started with breakfast at the hotel by the beach. We had many options to choose from, and left with our stomachs full. We quickly ran back into the hotel to pack our stuff for the long and bumpy ride ahead—piling into the bus like ants and going immediately on our way. About half way through, we took a quick pit stop, faster than Team Ferrari (f1 reference), and picked up some snacks and food. I (Elliot) got two huge lollipops and 2 packs of m&m’s (I have a sweet tooth if you can’t tell). Katie just got 1 pack of m&m’s…After piling back into the bus and doing another tedious head count with a water reminder, we were back on the road. Julia played some sick beats for us and gave us the opportunity to add some of our own. We were able to show off our incredible singing skills and had the time of our lives screaming the lyrics to Baby by Justin Bieber and Nacho’s fave, Stand by me by Ben E King, but we all know Nacho is the real king of course. Once we got back, we all ate some delicious locrio de cerdo (pork rice) and then played pool and Uno. Afterwards, Elliot and I had to fight our fears of reading out loud during our mental warm up. We headed down to the site where we would be met with the owner of the house, Elena, and looked around at the house we would soon be demolishing and rebuilding. It’s incredibly heartbreaking that there are people like Elena who are living in these horrible conditions: rotting wood, cracking concrete, and unfinished walls, which were being fixed with random pieces of press board. We spoke to Bernardo, the president of the Fundacion Alegría Inocente. We were given the opportunity to ask him questions like what made him and his coworkers so passionate about the organization and helping people in need. After leaving, we stopped by the supermarket to get some snacks. I grabbed a dragon fruit juice, Choco pies, Pringles, and ice cream. Katie got nothing… After arriving back to the villas, we sat our peers down for dinner!! We were made pasta with white AND red sauce with an option of beef or beans on the side. We were being fed GOOD. after playing MORE Uno, we headed back to the guys house for the nightly meeting, where we were explained what would happen on day 6 and passed the torch off to the next leaders, Kai and Alina. After the meeting, we played multiple rounds of mafia!! So much curiosity and bonding today!
P.S.-
Tell Mocha I miss him. I love you all! :3 -Elliot
After a day of leading, Elliot and Katie are signing off. ¡Adiós!
Comments (4)
Justin
Thank you for the highlights today. It sounds like everyone is having an amazing adventure and meeting some cool and interesting people. The experiences that you had will give you all memories for a lifetime, I hope every one of you are enjoying the journey.
On a side note, I miss you Gabriel!!
Martha Borg
Dad and I loved reading the blog! It sounds like an amazing experience. We all miss you, Mocha too! Love, Mom, Dad, Jason and Mocha
Leo
woah alina is so cool guys
im kinda cutting it close with the timing so i hope this gets read tonight, if not then sorry 🙁
this feels like writing a letter to my husband whos at war or smth and ur reading this in a muddy trench my candelight, anyway hope you’re having lots of fun in the dominican republic, sounds like you’re doing so much cool stuff and meeting a lot of cool people. I bet ur getting some good photos too. Def worth it to bring the big film camera.
some fun things happening at home too. welcome back rally and freshman orientation are going along as planned, emails going out and stuff, nothing too exciting here. some progress made with lowellchella too, schedules and ticketing system are being worked out.
the children at work are especially evil this week, 16 hyper little 8-9 year olds screaming and running around all day is going to make me go deaf. The other guy I work with took a day off to watch the world cup too, so I had all 16 to myself for a day which was just so fun. Also, the summer camp is in the middle of the mission, so every day I have to walk the kids multiple blocks to dolores park and back through the car infested streets of the mission25 dollars an hour makes it all worth it tho
still slaving away at robotics too… yes even over the summer. some of the wiring got eaten by some gears, and then while fixing that I discovered that some of the power wires were literally melting and then there were bolts missing everywhere so wheels were straight up falling off, and the list just goes on and on. all of this is a week before a competition btw, and a massive robot demo is happening rn as the robot is broken. as you can tell im having the time of my life.
its been super hot in sf for some reason, like where is the usual fog and gloom to spoil me?? probably not as hot as where you are though, so i cant be complaining.
anyway, sorry for the literal essay. should probably be writing my personal statement instead of this but like call it a warm up who cares.
hopefully i made the nightly reading…
stay 67,
Leo
Leo
woah alina is so cool fr
is this a word limit on this thing? I wrote basically a whole essay and it wouldnt let me post the comment, dunno whats going on there. or maybe it did post and i cant see it. if i just posted duplicated comments, holy aura loss but whatever. im def cutting it super close to like the nightly comment reading session so hopefully this makes it…
hope youre having lots of fun in the dominican republic! sounds like youre getting to do a bunch of cool things and meet so many cool ppl. i bet youre getting some good pics too, def was worth it to bring the big film camera.
boring life update of the day, i got a haircut at an actual barber today instead of having my parents cut it. the barber was doing some crazy fancy tricks and stuff, looked impressive. not sure if youll approve of the haircut, but i guess i’ll have to wait until youre back to see.
its also super hot in sf, like stupid hot. well, prob not as hot as where you are so i cant be complaining. anyway, miss you lots, we should hang out when u get back (hopefully you dont have any more 46 hour work weeks)
stay 67,
leo