Day 1

6.29.12.

After waking up at the ungodly hour of two in the morning, Mom, Dad and I loaded my 3 bags into the car and made the two and a half hour drive to New York's JFK airport. I made a protein shake for the ride down (last one for three weeks! - I know, I'm quite sad). I planned to sleep for the majority of the ride, since I only got 3 hours of sleep the previous night, but I couldn't shut eye once. Too much excitement I guess. And nervosity..

We arrived at JFK by 4am, and after I waved goodbye to M&D at security only 12 times, I was officially traveling alone. I regathered my things and found Gate 20, where we'd be departing in less than 2 hours. At the gate I saw glimpses of red, and located 2 other members of my new GLA group, Gabby and Patrick. Eventually all 10 of us waited in line to board, getting familiar with each other. After boarding the plane, we were delayed for four hours before we set off, taking another 4 hours to get to the DR. We met Dave and Jane (our program directors) at the airport entrance and me and 3 others squished into Jane's car and made the 45 minute journey to our farm paradise residence. Lets just say after 11 hours of traveling over the course of the day, my glutes ached. A lot.

The four of us claimed our beds, climbed into our swimsuits and dove into the pool just as the other members began to arrive. We spent that night getting to know one another (which was going to take more than a night, as there were 33 of us), over a dinner of beans, rice and chicken (something we'd better get used to), in the rippling infinity pool and during our farm exploration period, where we all buddied up and investigated the surrounding acres of the total 60. In our journey, we discovered a squalking chicken coop, beautiful rolling fields, a spectacular view overlooking the mountains, and a poor goat leashed to a tree that was going to be dinner in the near future. For the meat eaters at least.

That night, I fell asleep in our little cabin content, and filled with excitement of the upcoming days of activities.

The Road Up

Our Eating/Chillout area

You may be thinking...
 'Is that a hammock? And a jacuzzi?
And a refreshing, heavenly infinity pool surrounded
by lush palm trees?'
And the answer is Yes, yes it is.