Embassy!

So right now im sitting in the peace corps headquarters here in Santo Domingo. We were given our work assignments yesterday, i will be working at a high school....wooo....not my first choice, but its not about me. Monday we get our site assignments. Anyways, so today we are meeting our employers, which for me is the Ministery of Education. So we arrived downtown at like 10:30ish to go to some book fair, blew that popsicle stand to hit up the big mac dizzy, Mcdonalds!! It was soooo goood. You never realize how good it is until you have been deprived for soo long. Then we went to the US embassy here, which....is....awesome. I dont even know how to describe it other than it is not the DR. Lush manicured lawns, full service cafeteria and an incredible pool!!! We hung out there for a while and now i am taking advantage of the internet at the HQ.
So we got into Santo Domingo last night and it was a stark reality check. I arrived to no electricty or water, walked into the bathroom and was greeting by someone elses duece, staring me straight in the face, mocking me, "haha, look at me, LOOK AT ME." Not to mention it was like 95 degrees at around 10 last night, so i just sat in bed and sweat for about an hour until i passed out from heat exhaustion only to be woken up by roosters fighting dogs at around 4:30 am eastern time. Perfect first day. But, today has definitely made up for it.
Anyways, gotta go,
love and miss you guys tons

haha

So the bottom two pictures are of us playing the NAtional Dominican Pastime..... Dominoes, the other is me eating the greatest empanada ever created. ham, cheese, chicken, with mustard and mayonnese YYEEESSSS!

Sigue

Free day! So we had a technical meeting from 8:30-10 am, and the rest of the day is free to work on our "projects". Our group has all but finished ours so its pretty much an open day. Just been sitting at home reading and listening to music as the cool Dominican breeze rushes over my near bald scalp. I had mashed potatoes and a block of cheese for lunch. Thats right, its exactly what your thinking in your head, a literal block of cheese. About 1.5 inches thick and about the width of a VHS tape. Yellow, a little wet, spongy, you just take a fork and knife and cut off little bites then mix it with your mashed potatoes. Its a very awkward experience to be sure, i mean cheese is good, dont get me wrong, but there is a time, place, and limit to how much one should eat in a sitting, not to mention this cheese had been sitting out since morning. Nevertheless, i ate it with a smile on my face because thats all there was.
Outside of that, not a whole lot has been going on. We visited a haitian-dominican village and got to see a haitian woman make the best peanut brittle you could ever dream of in a million years, seriously, we had one right after she poured the batter out on the table to cool, and i almost passed out.
On the health front, im still going strong. Im off the D-train as of right now, which is a blessing, Gracias a Dios! But, im pretty sure i fractured a rib playing basketball, because it hurts to......breath.....and its really hard to get out of bed in the mornings because it hurts to lift myself up, cant lay on my belly.....well see how it plays out over the next few days. ITs not TOOO bad, but it is noticable. No te preocupes!
We are going to the beach again on Sunday, which im pretty stoked about, and then we leave this city for good on thrusday and training will be pretty much over. IT went by so fast these past 2 months. But at the same time, it feels like ive been here for 4 years already. Doesnt make any sense, i know, youd have to be here. Im just so thankful that im finally relatively fully healthy, hahaha. Im going to try and upload 1 photo from the beach on here right now, but im not making any promises....

Empanadas

To go with my steadily growing love for empanadas, here is a picture of some empanadas that my spanish class and i made. cheers!

temblor de la tierra

So apparently we had an earthquake today. I was sitting in bed when it started shaking, i didn't really think much of it. But then my host mom came into the room and asked me if i felt the earthquake. So, thats definitely a first for me. I got to watch the first NBA playoff game yesterday, Bulls vs. Cavs. Unfortunately it was a blowout, but it was still cool.
So i want to talk about the mosquitos and flys here, not to mention the spiders. First of all, mosquitos are always around. Its not liek in Florida where they come out towards sunset and later at night. They are out 24/7 here. And there are a few different types of mosquitos. The ones that come out in the morning and night carry malaria, the ones that come out during the day carry dengue fever. So, either way, the odds of contracting a debilitating disease increases with each mosquito bite. We get malaria medicine which should prevent any symptoms, but Dengue fever is a free for all. Dengue is also called breakbone fever, and apparently it feels like all your bones are breaking at the same time. Cant wait for that. Im sure there is diarrhea associated with it as well.
Flys are another problem here. There are flys over everything. I eat meals in a flurry of flys. They carry their own disease as well, but im not too worried about that one. Spiders are frequent here as well. I saw one the size of a baseball in my shower the other day, yayy.
whew, anyways, just spending another lazy sunday here in the DR.
Love and miss you guys tons.

This is our group. Thats me in the back with a bowstaff.

Letters!

So i got letters yesterday!!!! It was like Christmas morning! I got 2 from my Mom and 1 from Gene. Thanks everyone else for caring, lol, just kidding, but seriously. Curiously i got the last 2 letters my mom wrote me......but not the first 3.........wierd.......anyways, it really was aawesome to receive mail. IT was a bright spot in an otherwise pretty stressful day. We had our langauge evaluation, site placement interview, and computer class presentacion, and a graphic design meeting. I was sweating a little, then i got the letter from mom telling me what they were going to eat for my Dads birthday: Family steak, twice baked potatoes, green beans, rolls, and cupcakes. After that, it was all i could think about and it was glorious.

So in other news, i have lost 10 pounds since arriving here. Mostly due to the epic debilitating diarrhea, but also the lack of protein in the diet here. Its all starch and carbs, 100%. So know my Host mom is makign a special diet of milk(cold), eggs, cow meat(not beef), and chicken. I don't feel bad or feel like i look different, but thats what the doc said.

anyways, thats the deal here, the Magic have their first playoff game Sunday, so everybody tune in while i sit under my mosquito net and imagine it happening.

P.S the parasite is fully gone and i am having solids! hahaha gross but awesome news, keep fingers crossed.

titulo

Sooooo we went to the playa esmeralda on sunday. It was the most incredible beach i have ever seen. It looks like a windows screensaver you know? something that younever thought really existed. I have a million pictures of it but i cant waist time uploading them on the internet here. When i have more time i will. So some of us road in the back of a pickup truck for about 2 hours up and over a mountain through the pouring rain to get to this beach. It was a beautiful drive though, very reminiscent of Hawaii. Then we turned down a dirt road called pothole drive. its not really what its called but there were ample potholes. we drove 20 minutes down that to get to this secluded pristine beach. Its was unbeleivable.
Anyways, im pretty sure my parasite is gone. but, i had fried cheese, thats right fried cheese, for lunch so im pretty sure tonightwell be epic. whatever, its worth it, and i have decided that im not going to let diarrea run my life, haha. It is what it is.
So on thursday i am teaching a computer class with 2 other volunteers about the keyboard. Its going to be very interesante.
In other news, it rained today, i ate 3 bizcochos yesterday which equal 6 twinkies and a fat cookie, we made empanadas yesterday as well which were amazing. We have 1 month until we swear in AS volunteers and move to our permanent sites. Our director is coming tomorrow to interview us about where we want to live.
EXCITING STUFF!
love and miss you guys alot!

internet

So we have internet in the lab today so i thought i should take advantage of the freebie. They are few and far between these days. So today the president of the DR is coming to town. Whoopdi dooo. One of my host moms sons is a personal body guard to the President, which is kind of interesting.

In other news, i have a parasite. A little bug that i contracted through some kind of food or drink. Im taking medication for it right now, so im hoping it blows over soon.

Not much else really going on here. Empanadas are amazing here. im poor.

haha love and miss you guys tons

diarrea

ewwww, hah. Thought i would set the mood. I just had lunch, a dish called sancocho. mom, its like that cassolout we had in carcassone, lol. Its platanos, potatoes, carrots, a bunch of other starchy vegetables, meat and fat. Sounds good right? nooooo, its good for the first 2 bites until you start sweating because your eating hot soup outside in 105 degree weather. long story short, ive accepted diarrea as an integral part of my life now, it is just something that will not ever go away. Its not uncomfortable or anything, its just there when its convenient. It could be, and was, a lot worse in Santo Domingo.
Anyways, now that most of you have thrown up in your mouths, ive been pretty busy over the past couple days so i have not been able to access a computer with internet. A lot has happened since i last blogged. I went to two rivers this weekend. Traveled over uncharted sugarcane fields and gorges to get to these tranquil rippling streams in the middle of mountanous landscapes. small cascades over smooth brown stone. One of those places where you forget that there is any other place in the world. Absolutely beautiful. (side note, i know my spelling is bad on these, but its because im rapid typing to try and squeeze as much as i can into a short period of time).
I also had my first technical presentation in spanish yesterday. It was about 8 minutes long about adult education in information technology. I feel like i dominated it, so no worrys. Now me and two other volunteers are enrolled in an internship at the local Liceo ( high school). We have to inventory the lab and observe classes and ask teachers questions because next week, we will be teaching classes, hahah. Thats right, we will eb teaching spanish students how to use computers in spanish. I never dreamed i would ever be in this position before entering peace corps.
Also, i thought everyone might like to know my allowance here. So, they give us 1,300 domincan pesos for 5.5 weeks, which amounts to around 35 pesos a day which is exactly 1 us dollar per day. $1 dollar! I touched a cell phone for the first time in over a month yesterday to call my mom. ive been on the internet 11 times for 30 minutes each over the course of 1 month. so what do i do in my spare time? dominoes, cards, dominoes, chess, dominoes, read, dominoes, basketball. Dominoes is the national sport here, im getting pretty good at it. We play basketball almost every day. Ive seen a couple MLB baseball players that are playing in the DR league. A few guys from the devil rays, yankees, rockies, etc. I watched TV for the first time the other day. I watched sportscenter. Im pissed that i missed the Duke game last night!
So here Aare some funny domincan gestures. Usually on the weekends we go bachata dancing, yes everyone thats right i dance bachata and merengue, sometimes, and not very well.
When someone didnt hear what you said, they scrunch there nose up.
When pointing, they dont use fingers they pucker their lips in the direction you should go, its quite funny actually
When someone is lying they stick their tounge out and touch it with their index finger, lol.
Living here has been quite an experience, and ive only been here 1 month. Not having all the normal distractions, internet, tv, etc. has really opened my eyes to the beauty all around me. Once you get over the fact that you are in poverty and everyone in the living room can here you poop because the walls dont reach the ceiling, it becomes a whole different place. The beauty starts to reveal itself. its been quite an amazing experience.
until next time, whenver that is, love and miss you guys tons!