A tree grows in Santo Domingo/Un árbol crece en Santo Domingo

I've been here for six weeks and just recently I started to feel homesick.

The struggles and fear I had when I first got here were related to not fitting in and feeling like an outsider. I didn't want to go home but I felt like I couldn't cut it here.

Now I just plain miss California. I miss the rhythm of my old life. I miss working at the pool. I miss Mexican food. Sometimes I think I miss cooler weather--at least, cuddling up in a blanket and a hoodie and drinking hot chocolate with Kahlua.

This week I went to the mall to buy new shoes and a new dress. The mall was huge and not much different from malls I've been to in America. There was even a Payless Shoe Source store. Here, the name is a misnomer. They charge 2250 pesos for a pair of basic black Mary Janes--that's around US$50. In the States, I patronize Payless because, well, I pay less for shoes there.

I found a good pair of black leather flats that are super comfy at a Dominican shoe store next to Payless. It was a throwback to shoe stores I don't see in the States, where they have dedicated shoe salespeople helping you find what you want, suggesting styles and sizes, and bringing the shoes to you. I spent 700 pesos (roughly US$20) and I couldn't be happier.

Clothes shopping was more standard. I gravitated to sales racks at the stores with cute ladies' clothes and found a nice black dress for 700 pesos.

The most impressive thing about the mall was the huge grocery store attached to it. Appropriately named Jumbo, it's a two-story grocery like a Super Target and it has extensive areas for the bakery, butcher/meat,   fresh produce, liquor, and deli.

I wish we had a mall with a grocery store in the States. I'd be all over that.

In my current events class, my prof talked about our individual cultural identities. She said you can be a mango tree growing in the Dominican Republic and you could be transplanted to different soil anywhere in the world. You could thrive in the new soil, but you're still a mango tree.

It goes along with the point I made before. I still have an American brain. I want the knowledge to see things from different perspectives and I've taken the steps to begin that education. But I'm still the tree that grew up in California, so I'll always come back to what I know as that tree. I want the freedom to thrive in other places. I'm not finished growing yet.