fitting in weekend fun

Working out kinks in the first week of summer school can be stressful, so one night all of the volunteers went to a local restaurant for dinner and dancing. Turns out I am pretty good at Dominican dancing (basically a lot of hip-shaking).
[Side note on dancing/music--People here don't sing along to songs; they dance to them. Dominicans like songs for the rhythm, not for pitch or tone--I'm thinking it's because dancing to rhythm makes more sense than dancing to pitch. Also, it is really common for the teenagers to put music on their cell phones and then pull out a dance party anywhere.]
That Friday, me and 6 other girls convinced one of the guy volunteers to take us to Puerto Plata to go shopping. The guy, name of Justin, is practically Hispanic himself for his grasp on Spanish language and culture. Plus he has good fashion taste.

And he was a good tour guide...

In one of the stores we went in, I saw what Dominicans do for baby/wedding registries:

They stick what they want in 'registry shelves', and then people can just pick out an item and buy it. I was impressed enough to take a picture, apparently.
After shopping, we walked along the malecon (boardwalk)

 and headed to dinner: Dominoes. I was extremely thrilled to eat American food. Plus it was located in an "American style" shopping center

Yes, I took a picture of the shopping center. I think I was homesick.

My favorite memory of the night, though, was the travelling part of it. We had taken a guagua (a 4 or 5 row van that is used as a transport vehicle) up to the city of Puerto Plata, and that trip I think we had around 30 people crammed in--there really is no limit to how many people a guagua can take, as long as they 'fit'--hanging on the side, sitting in laps, whatever works. On the trip back, it was too late at night for guaguas to be running, so the 8 of us literally piled into a compact-car taxi--5 girls in the back seat, Justin, me, and another girl in the passenger seat, and the driver. Boy, it was a long drive back!

Saturday, all of the volunteers from my university (Brigham Young University) went on a rafting trip. I have been white water rafting before, but this trip takes the cake. We were outfitted with helmets, wet suits, and life jackets, which is good because we flipped our raft, hit some rocks, and went down at least 3 intense rapids. Our guide was good enough to save our skins. Except I did get sunburned

Yes, it hurt

Some of us didn't get quite enough of the city sights of Puerto Plata, so after attending church there on Sunday, Bjorn, me, and my two roommates toured La Puntilla. It's a fort that used to protect the bay.

The doorways were built low so that defenders could slice off beseigers' heads.
But all I had was a water bottle

Model posing

Bust of Juan Pablo Duarte at a Masonic mansion
See symbol below

So here's the pun--'caber' in Spanish means 'to fit'; our trips to and from Cabarete [hey, it's pronounced about the same] involved fitting into vehicles intended for far fewer passengers.

inside a guagua