Day 1: Punda

Today I went to a place called the Punda. It is the touristy area here in Willemstad. There are a lot of shops and colorful buildings. I walked around for quite a while and nothing really caught my eye. But I took some pictures.

This is the road ned to the my apartment building.

I am not entirely sure what this is, but it was pretty!

A panoramic view of the Punda

This is the view of the Punda. There are so many colorful buildings here. 

This was by far the coolest thing that I saw today. I was told to walk until I saw the bridge and then cross it and I would be in Punda. I was walking and passed this thing and thought, kind of looks like a floating bridge, but is not across anything, so I kept walking. Then I heard a horn and turned around it was moving back across the water. This is basically like the lift bridge in Duluth, but instead of lifting, it moves out of the way. There is a motor on one side and it pushes the bridge back across the water.

Here is the bridge being pushed back across the water. 

This was the boat that it made room for. 

Bridge all the way across

While walking across the bridge, you feel a little drunk because the bridge moves with the waves and the wind, so it is really hard to walk in a straight line.

All the buildings are pretty colorful in this part of the town.

Even stores like Tommy Hilfiger are in cool old buildings. 

The police station

I'm pretty sure this is like the White House or parliament or something governmental.

No country is complete with a McDonalds. There is also a Subway, Starbucks, and KFC.

This is some outdoor market. It might be the floating market of people from Venezuela selling their goods here. I just know that it is a little expensive because of all the tourists.

Dominican Embassy 

As I said, the money has been an issue. Here are the coins that I have collected so far, with a penny on the bottom for scale. The silver coins feel like fake money. Here, the currency is the Guilder or Florin. $1US is worth 1.8 guilders. The biggest coin is 5 guilders and the other copper colored one is 1. The little silver coins are 25 c, 5 c and 1 c. They act as the cents part of the price. 

I just got back from the grocery store and in order to figure out how much the price was and if it was a good price, I had to first convert to dollars and then into pesos (considering I have shopped for the last 3 years in the DR). Things are a little bit more expensive here compared to the States, but only slightly more expensive than the DR. I bought a yogurt here for 1.65 guilders = 0.92 US dollars = 39 pesos. Not as bad as I thought it would be. 

I have found really no trouble with the language like I thought I would. People here either speak Spanish or English and sometimes both. Although, I don't think I would want to live here if I did not speak Spanish. Most of my conversations start like this: "English? Español?" 

The place where I am living is a little dingy on the inside, but I feel completely spoiled because for the first time in 3 years, I have not only a microwave, but also air-conditioning and hot water. I had "hot" water a couple times in the DR, but this is so hot I had to turn the cold water on in order to avoid being burned. I guess some people at the school consider this 3rd world living, but I am so thankful for the accommodations! Last year I lived in an apartment that only had running water three days a week. Living in a true 3rd world country really puts things into perspective. When we were on our way from the airport yesterday, there was another new student and I casually said, "I hope the dorms have hot water." Her face went white! I found it super funny. She did not! I am just very thankful.