Dominican Student Trip

On Monday (October 23), about 20 students from the San Judas Tadeo school in the Dominican Republic came to EHS as part of a larger trip to the US. The students, who were mostly in 9th and 10th grade, each shadowed an EHS student for the day, following them throughout their schedule. I was shadowed by a 10th-grader named María. 

During their Spanish class, the students went to the auditorium and presented songs and dances. A group had formed a band and sang several songs, while many others had learned several dances including the merengue, bachata, and salsa. (My shadow, Maria, was one of the best dancers, and we ended up going to the performances three times during the day.)

Although her class has since returned to the Dominican Republic, Maria agreed to do an interview with me over WhatsApp.*

Maria is in 10th grade, goes to San Judas Tadeo, plays volleyball, dances, and is learning several languages. Her favorite things to do in the Dominican Republic are going bowling or to the beach, and she commented several times on the pretty landscape of New England. 

Her group stayed in Boston but traveled around to do several different activities. Of all the outings, her favorite was going to Newbury Comics in Boston, although she said that she also loved dancing for our classes. (She had been hoping to go ice skating as well, and she said that if she had, it would have been her favorite overall.)

Maria thought our school was “very colorful,” and although she said it was much bigger than hers, she liked the structure and space. Of the students, she said she liked that we “are what [we] are and do not appear to be anyone else.” She also appreciated how kind and helpful everyone was during her visit. Overall, we are “very sincere” and “get along well despite their differences.” Despite all this, though, she said that she prefers her own school, “only for the simple fact that I know everyone.” With a graduating class of around 30, San Judas Tadeo is considerably smaller than EHS, and so Maria knows everyone enrolled. Still, she said that EHS has “many positive factors,” and that she likes everything about it except its size. 

The only other negative factor she mentioned was the lunch—while she was here, she said it was good, but over text she told me that it was nice that it was relatively cheap and all included in one price, but that “the truth is it is bad.” On the other hand, with the school lunches at San Judas Tadeo, you have to pay for different food individually, and “some things are expensive but they’re good.” 

Still, overall Maria enjoyed the visit, and when asked if you would return if given the option, she said “of course!”

*The interview was conducted in Spanish, and has been translated.