Dominican Exchange Student

AFS Exchange student in Dominican republic

My name is Wannathip manit, I’m an exchange student and I went to Dominican Republic from July, 2011 to June, 2012. This country uses Spanish as the official language and it was a good opportunity for me to learn the second language. Dominican Republic is the nation on island in the Caribbean Sea and this is the first place where Christopher Columbus found American region in the history, when I was there, I lived in the capital and largest city called Santo Domingo, This city is always crowded with foreigner coming for relaxing in wonderful Caribbean beaches or running businesses. Normally, People are friendly and joyful, so there is nothing wrong if we see local people dancing in any place in this city but it might be wrong if you are too shy to join them.

My family

I lived with my only host mom through the year of program because my host parent got divorced few years ago before I went there but they always keeps in touch to each other as a family and my host dad sometimes sent me to school when he had time. Actually, I used to live with my other host sisters in the first three months but both of them went to study aboard right away. However, I never felt alone because there were many people or kin in my family and we always met on any special occasions.

My friends

I got many friends both in AFS community and my school. In the year of program, there were many AFS camps for exchange student to join and meet each other. This make me feel so great and proud of being part in AFS family because in this program, I met many friends from over the world in the camp, share our own culture and experience of being exchange student. Most of the time, I always went out with my friends in school and joined many activities together. My friends always made joke with me by calling me “china” but all of them are really nice to me and I really love them.