Saturday, October 20, 2007
A very triste Bon Voyage
My latest "Side Project"
Life as Usual
I really do work, too
Monday, October 15, 2007
So Sick of Computers
Happy Birthday of a Different Sort
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Happy Baby You You
Some Honorable Mentions
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Mi Viaje (continued)
Reportedly, there is a bus that goes directly from Samana (which is across the bay from Sabana de la Mar) to Puerto Plata. I was told that it takes 3 hours...which is a GREAT alternative to the 8 hour trip through the capital. The hitch-to get to Samana one has to take the FERRY. So, at 9am, I hopped on the "yola," which is a tiny boat like those they use to illegally enter other countries (everyone kept yelling "Vamanos a Puerto Rico!"), which led us to the slightly larger boat that crosses the bay. I decided to sit up top, as sitting below makes me ill. It turned out that the most HILARIOUS people were sitting up there with me. There were two guys who were drinking out of their flasks..all before 10am, mind you, and told me that when I come back to Sabana they are going to make me paella. They also told me that I had better not fall over the edge because the sharks will see my white skin and think, "Mmmm, que postre!" which pretty much means mmm....what a dessert! They also kept telling this clearly married guy that he needs to "put on a nice shirt" if he wants to conseguir (obtain) me. Maybe they were just drunken, old idiots but I thought they were hilarious.
About halfway through our trip, it started to sprinkle..and then POUR. We all sat up there laughing as we were COMPLETELY drenched. Finally, we arrived on the other side of the bay, where I started to look for this reported guagua to Puerto Plata. When I was told that the only direct one had left, blah blah blah, I had to find another route. Well, that route turned out as follows: A guagua from Samana to Sanchez. Then another from Sanchez to Nagua. Then from Nagua to Rio San Juan. Then from Rio San Juan to Puerto Plata. Mind you, these are all the small, crammed, crappy guaguas and each took at LEAST an hour. So, after leaving Sabana de la Mar at 9 am, I arrived home about EIGHT hours later...we decided that we REALLY need to do some more research about this reported direct route! I think I saw more of this country (albeit through crappy guagua windows) then ever before!
Around the World in Five Days
As we flew around the mountain bends in the peace of junk van, we finally arrived about two hours later in Miches. Kevin has an AWESOME apartment right on the ocean. He even has four rocking chairs! We began by chatting and having some Presidentes, and somehow ended up going on a tour of the pueblo's street eateries. We ultimately made some ""friends," one of whom turned out to be a freak and kept telling me that he was in love with me and referring to me as the espanola. Fortunately, Kevin's host-second-cousin came to the rescue in his insanely nice SUV (we are not quite sure where he gets the money for it...or if we want to know), and he drove us right to the discoteca that was up in the trees. We went home shortly thereafter, but definitely weren't going to be getting up at 5am as planned.
The next morning (Saturday), we all hurried over to another guagua and began the four-hour trek out to Bavaro for our night at the all-inclusive hotel. We didn't get there until around 1pm and had to wait until 3 to get the rooms (because I, classically, made the reservations for the wrong day). We started by eating right away...though, to our utter dismay, the food was nothing to write home about. We did have fun drinking the girly drinks at the bar ("coco loco," pina colada, etc)...though after a few we started feeling sick from all of the sugar. We eventually got to our rooms...which were really neat little lofts...and headed out to the beach. Kevin and Zoe decided that, as we all need to get our money's worth, we really should eat, vomit, eat, vomit, etc. in order to try ALL of the restaurants. The plan, thankfully, didn't quite catch on. After dinner we saw a few minutes of the "tropicalissimo"show which couldn't have been more lame, and headed over to the disco. The disco was cheesy as well, but the americans (there was a huge group of peace corps volunteers celebrating one year in country) had a BLAST getting down to Usher and 50 cent. The next morning, however, we awoke to MORE travelling...
Sunday, August 26, 2007
PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!
SWEET dinner parties!
The other really fun "dinner parties" that I had involved about 8 of the neighborhood muchachos. They all bring as many little pesos as they can (usually about 5-10), and we buy plantains and salami. Then, THEY were actually "cooking" (all we did is fry everything)!! Granted, there was a lot of wrestling and running around my house, but they were generally well-behaved (to my surprise). They played my board games, read books, and colored so much that I ran out of paper. The only problem--they also went through about 10 plantains, a BOTTLE of ketsup, and THREE packets of juice! I love having them over but they eat me out of house and home! And now I have little muchachos over literally everyday...so I think I might have to start taking some days off =)
Los Montones
ME vs. THEM
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
I Heart My Babies! Volume 2
I Joined the Dengue Club!!!
I Heart Playa Dorada
A Rìo I Actually LIKED!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Home Alone
Thursday, June 7, 2007
My New Babies
Aside from the fact that there is only one week left in the school, the other major obstacle I have is that my school loves to "dispachar." According to my dictionary, this means "to dispatch". According to Dominicans, this means "send the kids home early just because we want to." They have been dispacharing just about EVERY day this week...so I am ready just to settle with what I have and hope that this insane summer camp is not a complete failure!
Top 5 Things I Have Learned in the DR
4. All languages that aren't Spanish must be English. This explains why I was given a very interesting novel...that is entirely in German.
3. "Gripe", or the flu, is caused by getting wet when it rains or by inhaling too much dust. It is completely unrelated to sharing the same cup, drinking from the same bottle, or passing around suckers from mouth to mouth.
2. Washing one's hair when one has a cold is the most ridiculously dangerous thing that he can do. The chemicals in the shampoo can cause pneumonia, so beware!
1. When one is very hot (after running, for example), he should NEVER open the refridgerator because the blast of cold air will give him Bell's Palsy.
Hope you all enjoyed your little lesson from the DR!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Off to Muerto Plata
The house where I am staying now is, as they say, on the "patio"of the school...which is essentially its frontyard. Each of the 1,200 students conveniently knows exactly where I live and where I am at all times. I hope to have some pictures of my site soon, but I am experiencing serious technical difficulties at the moment. stay tuned for pics..i hope!
Bon Voyage
To top it off, Bam Bam somehow was able to convince the discoteca owner to cancel his usual Friday events (strippers) so that we could have a nice, healthy dance night instead. We volunteers, our profes, Bam Bam, Franklin, Sosa, and the rest of their crew were pretty much the only people in the whole discoteca, but it made for a really fun time. We all danced the WHOLE night and didn't have to be harassed by a bunch of chester molesters! I already miss sabana...and especially its disco! I'm really looking forward to visiting soon.
Where the Wild Things Are
Oddly enough, the only thing that dominicans totally hate are "macos"which is their common word for a frog or toad. I, of course, totally love them which makes for a really sweet time. I literally had my dona in sabana screeming and running away because I caught a huge toad while playing with my host brother. They think that they are the most hideous creatures ever...I think I should get one as a pet. And for the record, day one that I move into my house I am buying a cat and she is going to eat ALL of my spiders and cockroaches. gracias a dios for los gatos.
La Cicaria, Robin Hood, and |Mami No Te Vayas
Psycho Beaches
Sunday, April 8, 2007
We Really do Work, too
A Dominican Adventure
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Feliz Cumpleaños
I am in love with the Domincan Republic
Although I haven´t put up pictures of any of the amazing beaches that I have been to (I am working on it!)..I want to post some pictures of el Parque Nacional de los Haitises because it was SO cool! It is a huge, densly wooded area right near Sabana de la Mar that has really cool caves with ancient paintings from the tainos (native peoples). We hiked all morning with our really cool guide, had a picnic lunch on a little playita, and rode around in a boat to see all of the really pretty mangroves. I wanted to see a manatee but they are hard to spot!! We also met a really hot guy in an army uniform who SCALED a coconut tree and then proceeded to hack open the coconuts with his machete. This man of our dreams also came out dancing with us later that evening (see Robyn´s blog for more details!).
"I haven´t gone in EIGHT days"-Special Ed PCT
When it Rains, it POURS!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
How long is TOO long?
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Caño Hondo..not to be confused with cuño hondo
Today we took the 1 hour boat ride across the Samana Bay to Samana. We had a picnic lunch and walked across a humongous bridge. The bay is SUPER gorgeous and we pretty much just hung out in the water (as usual). Unfortunately, spf 80 cannot even fight off this equatorial sun and I am as red as a TOMATO...which is why I have earned the nickname ¨cangrecito¨(little crab). Hopefully, I can post some pictures of Samana soon so that you can all be jealous.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Home on the Range
In other news, I saw my first CUCARACHA yesterday. Unfortunately, it lives in the refridgerator! So maybe I will be eating ¨cockroach soup¨ like some of you suggested. Other than that, my family is absolutely hilarious. My host brother, Hosmy, is 10 years old and spends the entire day outside making bikes with machetes. He comes in every evening completely filthy and his mother yells ¨bañate¨every 5 mins (telling him to bathe). He isn´t allowed to sit at the table when he is dirty..but he usually prefers to remain dirty and eat his dinner on the floor. He has appropriately earned the nickname of ¨child-dog.¨ He is also desperate to go to the US because he is convinced the snow has to be the most amazing thing on earth. He wanted to know if you can surf in it, swim in it, bulild caves in it, drown it it, etc. He then went to the freezer and got the ¨snow¨from the freezer. I showed him how to make snowballs and now he just throws them at his sister.
My host mom and dad LOVE to dance so they have been at the discoteca every Saturday with us. They are also constantly looking over me and telling me which guys are ¨tigres¨and which ones are ok for us to befriend. They laugh at me for saying things like ¨Are you eating chicken hand?¨instead of ¨chicken claw¨which is awesome. All in all, my casita is SWEET.
Friday, March 16, 2007
I finally started a blog!
For my PCV visit, I went to Sosua on the northern coast. The volunteer´s site was RIGHT on the beach! It was sooo awesome. On Saturday, we went to Cabarete, which is a touristy beach that has lots of great restaurants and bars. Booze is really cheap so you should all come visit!
Now I am in Sabana de la Mar which is also on the coast, right across from the Samana Peninsula. The beach here is gross, which blows, but we have plans to go to at least one nice beach while we are here. Last Saturday, I went to the discoteca with my host parents and fellow volunteers. As my beebs would describe, there were many ¨creepsters¨lurking about but, all in all, we had an awesome time dancing bachata and merengue...though I am sure that I look like a complete moron. Anyway, I wish that Jenny were writing these because her tales are always much funnier. I think that I might email her and have her convert my stories into a good blog!