fog

man it has been so foggy and hazy lately here.
oh wait.
thats just the insane amount of exhaust that overtakes you when you are crossing the street.
i am hoping my lungs won't be blackened by the time i get home.
but otherwise, today is a be-a-u-tiful dayyy.
i bought some candy yesterday.
can-cans.
they are real good.
mucho amor.

picssssss

boatttttttts...




the cutesy tutes little buggers...




at the game...

horse dancing, paper boats, and 61st birthdays...

holaaaa amigossssss. what a week. so lets see…we didn’t have school last wednesday or yesterday so that has been pretty fun. we pretty much never have class around here. or that’s how it feels. so Wednesday I got to go to the campo (the countryside basically). it was so so fun and hilarious. once again bingo was involved. however, I managed to avoid the bingo playing and just hang out with some insano kids who were swimming in the little pool at the house we went to. they didn’t quite understand why I couldn’t swim in the skirt I had on. they also were convinced that my eyes changed from green to blue throughout the day. hilar. so it was a pretty normal day until a bandit of cowboys/horsemen came riding up with their friends in cars blaring bachata and meringue music. everyone just started cheering and running to look at them as if it was totally normal. little did I know the talent these horses had. they could dance. which is apparently really hard. I don’t really know much about it but it was sweet and you can talk to my dear old roomski, sg, for more info. shes like a total horse-o-maniac if you know what I mean. so that was great. then we came back to good old Santiago. i had class on Thursday and then on Saturday, brie and I went with Eduardo and daysi to a birthday celebration that we thought was for eduardo’s 61st. so we piled in the car and drove to jarabacoa which is really pretty and mountainous and then went to this humongo house. turns out the party was for these little boys. same dif. it was great and Eduardo showed off his crazy cooking skills. delish. so then for the trip to santo domingo on Sunday. some of the people in my program and I went to santo dom for one of the last baseball games in the season. it was quite the experience. it involved really loud horns that seemed like bullhorns and whistles everywhere. I am surprised I still can hear. overall, it was crazy and fun but it took a bit of a dangerous turn when it started pouring in the 7th inning. insanity is really all I can say. apparently everyone here really doesn’t want to get rain on them because as the mob was racing to the exits we were literally pushed through a very tight space in a not so safe way. it was absolutely ridiculous that people were risking life and limb for dryness. anyways, so licey, the team that I think is from santo domingo and that everyone loves, won. woo.

that night involved seeing some terrifying masks and costumes preparing for the carnival that starts in February…I realized that I have a weird fear of masks.
then came the real good times. in the morning I went to cielo and nazaret where dear friends and mission Emanuel is. it was so great to spend a little time with my amigos there and especially with elliott and lindsay drake who are living there right now. in general, it was just refreshing to see familiar faces and people I really love…

but I will say it was definitely bittersweet going into the community in cielo. I loved seeing friends, but going by myself when there weren’t other Americans there made me realize even more the reality of the poverty that a lot of those people live in. its easy to idealize a place when you only see it every 6 months or so. but I guess it became more of a reality that they live that way all the time. but I am so thankful for that place. there is a lot of hope. so then I took the bus home and arrived to loud music in our apartment. I was a little surprised but then I walked in and remembered it was eduardos 61st bday. he is so hilarious. they certainly like to party on bdays. okay well sorry this is so long. but I will leave you with this pic taken right after a paper-boat-making instructional by our very own Eduardo…

actually i am just going to make another post with pics because the blog system is being difficult.

k love and miss you.

true love

so i just wanted you all to know that i seem to have met the one. according to him. as many of you know, dominican/haitian guys here are ridiculous. it is half hilarious and six eighths annoying. so i was walking to the copy center yesterday and this guy said 'wazup' to me. after i ignored him, he called after me that he was sorry that he had been so forward. so i decided i would talk to him because his ingles was good. so anyways, after our introduction, he proceeds to tell me that he is pretty positive that i am the one for him and i should be his 'girl'. surprisingly (completely sarcastic), i found out later that he had approached two of my friends earlier and gotten their phone numbers. lets just say, my heart was not so much broken.
much love to you all.

dos semanas a bajo.

well I have been here for two weeks. woo woo. we started class last week which was good although two of my classes were cancelled so I am glad to really get going this week. things have been great. this weekend i was maybe going to go to the beach. but after trekking around in the rain for a while and the bus being full, I decided to just come home. I am soooo glad I did. it was great to just rest and then I got to do some great stuff with my madre, daysi. she works at an Episcopal school and some really important person in the Episcopalian church came to the dr this weekend. so on Saturday, we went to a church service in honor of this person in a very poor area of Santiago. it was so so great. there were like a ton of the cutest kids ever and we sang songs such as ‘la nina de tus ojos,’and ‘alabare’ and one other one that we sing at the cielo church in the santo domingo. I am so thankful I got to go. after that we stopped at Eduardo’s (my padre) family’s house and then the grocery and then got yogen fruz which is frozen yogurt that actually tastes like yogurt and is the best thing ever. so then came Sunday. brie (my housemate) and I basically went on daysi’s school field trip to see this same Episcopal person in santo domingo. let me just say, Dominican field trips are insane but somehow no one ever really gets stressed or hurt. it even involved daysi peeing in this spicket thing because the bathroom was locked. but don’t worry, me and brie stood in front of her to hide her. it was hilarious. Overall, it was an interesting experience. so that’s good.
as for adjusting, I am feeling more and more comfortable here. while I refuse to wear jeans in hot weather like the entire rest of the Dominican population that is my age, i am kind of understanding how to get places and stuff. one thing I have definitely learned is how much pride that comes along with knowing what you are doing and where you are. why is it so hard to admit that we don’t have a handle on things. why are we so obsessed with being ‘normal’ and having approval. maybe its not as good as we all think. so I pray we would all be different. not for difference sake. but for christ’s sake. literally.

not the best situation.

so i had my first almost poop your pants moment.
just thought i would let you know.
hopefully my first and last.

i made it though to the local bar, gracias a dios.

a few serious sunburns later...

so...this weekend my program went to the beach which was great but before telling you about that, let me first tell you what preceded that. on friday night, i had the hilarious experience of going with my host mom to play bingo with her friends. i was hesitant because i was tired and she said it would go pretty late but i decided that i shouldn't pass up a cultural experience. so me and my housemate went. and let me tell you, there is not much like playing bingo with a ton of middle aged dominican women for money. all that to say, me and gabrielle each won about 150 pesos which is almost five dollars. woo woo. although i must say that bingo is not the most exciting game i have ever played. then something even better happened. i woke up in the morning to my first rain during my study abroad experience. i already have a strange liking of rain but it sounded sooo cool when i woke up to it. i guess its cause you can hear through the windows and walls very easily. either way, i loved it. okay so anyway, as for la romana (the beach). it was really really fun. it was about 5 hours away but we stopped in some cool places on the way including some caves with bats in them and this random town which i would maybe compare to old salem except its only like 30 years old and totally posh as pete would say. one weird thing on the way was passing through santo domingo. this included going past the carrefour that is often frequented by mission emanuel. a lot of me wanted to jump out the window to go see friends there but i resisted. so then we went to the beach. once we got there we had dinner and then went to a discoteca which was hilarious. i stumbled through trying to dance some bachata/merengue (unsure which one). but it was a good time overall. the next day we went to this sweet island via sailboat. lets just say that the sail boat ride involved even more dancing and a dominican guy worker dressed as a girl to be funny. it was maybe funny for 5 seconds but then fairly ridiculous. while at the island, we had some great handstand contests, swam to our anchored sailboat (probs a bad idea), and played in the sand...
this is johanson, one of the leaders of the trip who is totes cool:
and this is dancing on a sailboat:

some highlights of the weekend:
-guys selling puppies and goldfish at stoplights as if they were newspapers
-way too many guys in speedos going crazy. never a good thing.
-dancing in a discoteca with some dude while wearing chacos, a sweatshirt, and cut off jeans among people in four inch heels
-eating bon icecream
-seeing a iceskating rink in a mall in santo domingo. of course there would be one.
-realizing how reeeediculously dominicans can dress. no offense.
-breaking the curtain rod within five minutes of being in our hotel room. not cool.
okay well classes started yesterday but i have only had one because many of mine have been cancelled this week. so my one class was good at least.
oh and woooooooooo for the deacons and their domination in bball. i am like the biggest fan ever.
i hope that los estados are good.
i miss you all a lot especially yesterday and today.
mucho amor

toilet paper in the trash. obvi.

so heyyyy mis amigos. as i said before, i did make it to the beautiful country of la republica dominicana. and it is sooo pretty right now. the weather has been really great so thats good. i am living with a couple that are about 60 years old, daysi and eduardo. they are so so cool. they are just really caring and eduardo is pretty animated and likes to talk about random things in the dr and just life in general. when i got the description of them, it had said that they went to church "frequently". so i figured like on sundays or something. but no, they go every morning for mass at 6:30 am. which is amazing to me. oh and the food is really deliciosa. lots of potato-y like things that are all muy bueno. my room is totes cool. literally. i have a fan and usually keep my windows open. i love it that there is no air conditioning because its just good ole fresh dominican air. here are some pics...sorry but i dont feel like rotating that pic and then downloading it again.

yeah so thats the bed where i am lulled to sleep by the sweet beats of reggaeton many nights.

unfortunately there is one mosquito in my room that has been sucking my blood like its his job. but who can blame him. i may have killed him earlier. one can only hope.

okay anyway, so yeah my housemate is really cool too which i am very thankful for.
in general, there are some really great people in the program with me. some of them are hilarious which is always bueno.
yesterday i got my classes and a phone and some pesos which made me feel a lot more able to live on my own. then today we went on a tour with dominican students in order to learn how to use public transportation. which is the bomb dig. its like really cheapy cheap and often involves putting like 7 people in a small compact car. we got to see downtown and just figure out how to navigate the city better which is good because before i had no idea where i was.
one interesting fact about this country is that they dont flush their toilet paper. i have never known that in the past so i have probably clogged about 20 toilets in past trips but whatevs. now i know although i have had to fish out my paper a few times because i forget.
another thing is that there are stray dogs here in santiago just like in santo domingo. in fact there is one right beside me sitting. kinda cute. at a distance at least. finally, i will just say that when we went downtown today i was definitely a little overwhelmed at the poverty that you can see everywhere. you are reminded of it every time some little boy asks to shine your shoes and everytime you see random shacks made of odds and ends on the outskirts of roads. its crazy. it has become very clear to me today how easy it is to avoid that. in my neighborhood, there arent many very poor areas and its easier to live comfortably without seeing people who dont have what they really need. yet, i definitely believe that life is not about comfort. nothing will change if we don't face the pain and poverty in this world. plus the people in those places have a whole new kind of wisdom and just as much right to freedom and food and all things good. so yeah i am just praying for courage for myself in that and for you also. if you arent sure, just go ahead and go to the hard places.
okay well thats all. i love you all. unless you are like someone creepy that i dont know. although i guess then i do love you in a purely plutonic kind of way.
talk to you soon hopefully. i am leaving for the beach tomorrow morning. we are going 6 hours away for an overnight. its a little strange to me but whatevs.
byeeeeeee.

estoy aquiiiiii.

i am here and it is great!!!!!!
love the weird dominican smell as always. the noises. the accent.
hilarious awk beginning times of course.
love you all.
bye.

woo woo

hello mis amigos.
so here i go with the whole blog o wog.
i was just looking at some pics i have from the dr and thought using pictures would be a great way to show you the emotions that i have felt in preparing for this semester.
so...
sometimes i have felt a little nervous and unsure about it like my dear baby-friend llamarlyn:



sometimes i have felt like 'what the heck, i am crazy':


sometimes i have felt a little stressed:



but more than anything else, especially recently, i have felt incredibly excited!!!!:


i leave on monday at the butt crack of dawn. literally.
i will miss you all.
peace out eagle scouts.
mucho amor.