Riooooo

As you obviously know, this past Thursday was Thanksgiving! (I hope you all had plenty of yummy turkey!)

At school the PTA organized a luncheon for the entire school, which was quite nice considering Thanksgiving isn't important to anybody here! There was turkey and pasta and eggplant something and rolls-but no gravy and no mashed potatoes. And no pie. NO PIE! That almost ruined it for me. But it was a good effort considering most of those people had never experienced half of the traditional foods and dishes associated with such a lovely gluttonous holiday ;)

The next day was my roommate Caitlin's birthday, so for that I had made reservations for us to Rio San Juan. Not de Janiero. Verrry different (or so I would imagine, from what I've heard about Brazil). It's this sleeeeepy little town with 1 good restaurant (out of 3) that's located near one of the best and prettiest beaches in the country. There's a really big French ex-pat population there, and so you hear a lot of "Bonjour" and "Comment ca va?" all around you. We stayed at this cute (albeit rundown) hotel right on the water. It's run by a French man who doesn't speak English or Spanish, which wouldn't have been a problem except calling to make reservations was virtually impossible. I tried to bust out some of my French to help him, but he seemed to want to practice his Spanish and use up all of my phone minutes instead

The biggest attraction about Rio San Juan is Laguna Gri-Gri, where you can take a boat down a river through this small mangrove forest that opens up to the ocean. There are all sorts of birds flying overhead as you cruise down the channel, making you feel just like you're in some primitive rainforest, and then you turn a corner and pow- the big blue sea! Next they take you on a little boat ride to this cave with the clearest water you've ever seen. It's 40 feet deep and you can see straight to the rocks on the bottom. All along the way to this cave we kept seeing these figureheads stuck on the rocky cliffs we were speeding by. I asked our drivers what they were, these white body-less statues, and he told me they were from inquisitive tourists. Haha very funny. But he never did tell me what the real story behind them was...

On the way back they took us to Playa Caleton, your typical beautiful, palm tree, white sand, crystal blue water beach and that's when I realized I had already been there! A friend last year had invited me along with her family last year on a weekend trip along the North Coast, but I never knew the names of any of the places we visited. Turns out we saw it all! Oh well, at least the 2nd time around I knew what I was seeing

We also checked out Playa Grade, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the DR (says Lonely Planet). However, it has a very strong undertow. We were there for just a morning we saw 3 people almost drown. They were rescued by some surfers, but it was very scary. Not a place to play around at.

One thing I love about beaches here is that there are always a string of shacks on the sand selling all sorts of food and juice and snacks and drinks, with people standing around just waiting to cater to your every need. They're not exactly sturdy looking, health-inspection passable stands, but at least they're affordable! ;) As soon as we arrived we were approached by a man who introduced himself and told us to just call him if ever we got thirsty or hungry or needed anything at all. It's so funny because none of those snack places really have a menu; instead you just tell the "waiter" what you want and he'll go find it from someone somewhere. They are super relaxed too-waving you away when you try to get out your pesos to start counting saying "Later later. Pay whenever you want."

And the people really are there to make sure you have a good beach day. There were a whole bunch of stray dogs just wandering around that took an affinity to us, so the man chased them away from us, and then kept reminding us how easy it would be to set up a table right on the beach (for no extra charge) for us to chow down at... So accommodating and attentive!

We hitchhiked back (apparently that's just what you do here) and then left to go home to Santiago.

Certainly not the wildest weekend I've had down here, but one of the most relaxing by far. So happy birthday to Caitlin! :) Thanks to her we got to experience some of the finest natural beauty that the DR has to offer ;)

Giving thanks

Unfortunately this country really suffers from a lack of holidays, with Thanksgiving definitely not included in our vacation days. We do get Friday off, but since Thursday is Thanksgiving it's just not the same! A lot of the teachers are flying home to be with their families, and so we decided to have our own little DR-style Thanksgiving a little early so that everyone could celebrate together.

We ended up having a potluck (to which I brought delicious pumpkin muffins, if I may toot my own horn) and there was so much good food it was ridiculous. It was almost better than home, since my mom and dad seem to think K&W is a sufficient Thanksgiving dinner...(nothing like home cooking??)

Being far away from home on a holiday that's all about blessings and being thankful isn't always easy, but at the same time it really gives you a chance to reflect on the real meaning of the day. There are so many things in my life I have to give praise for:

My beautiful, loving students who cannot seem to stop hugging me

My fantastic family who puts up with static-y, often dropped Skype phone calls

My roommates here who do so much for helping me deal and cope with the frustrations of life in a different country

The opportunity to live in a country that has so much to offer me, and that is changing me in so many positive ways

True blue friends who do their best to check in every now and again ;)

A secure job and paycheck in these turbulent times

Running water and electricity 24/7

My teacher assistant, who helps me keep my sanity on those trying days

My health, especially since sometimes I'm not so sure about the sanitation around here...

YOU reading this and thinking of me and praying for me and sending me all around good vibes :)

etc, etc, etc

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving, and got to bask in the many blessings that are in your lives as well! :D

Pleasant surprises to end a not so pleasant week

Last week was a pretty difficult week. There was an incredible amount of stuff going on, and it was very slowly overwhelming me until by Thursday I had reached my peak.

Tuesday began with an intramural competition, which was a great idea for getting the kids pumped up for sports and friendly (psh hah) competition. The only negative, however, was that we were not informed about this week-long class disruption until after they started taking our kids out of class for hours at a time. I was surprised to discover that chess was included in the games, and am still not sure how 2nd graders were able to wrap their heads around those strategies...though I guess it may have helped because all of the teachers pulled to judge didn't even know how to play the game themselves!

Wednesday we had a surprise (for me at least) field trip to a deaf and blind school. It was actually pretty interesting, but I think the kids may have been a little overwhelmed. They were super shy and seemed stunned into silence by all that they were seeing. We had brought sports equipment and balls to give to them, which was only awkward when one girl refused to give up her princess kickball...

In addition, the Secretary of Education informed us Tuesday she was coming Wednesday to assess whether or not the country would allow us to offer high school (funny fact: we already do!). So there was another little flurry of activity as everyone was trying to turn in lesson plans and update grade books.

Wednesday was also grade distribution for the younger kids, which meant the parents were going to be coming to school that night and so our rooms had to look extra good and spotless and intellectually stimulating! And because of problems with the system we will still inputting grades and comments up until 2 hours before the meeting. Not like that's stressful or anything though

And then the finale of the week was Friday when we had Grandparents Day, for which we needed to have prepared a song and a card and a craft. I did not know we needed to do this with both of our groups until Tuesday...And of course kids are not always the most reliable about bringing in the supplies you need by the date that you asked. Responsibility catches up with them a little later...

And to top it all off, I started after school tutoring and had too many kids of too many different levels put into my session. Plus it's no fun working 10 hours a day!

So there's my little rant :P

BUT there are always rays of light after the storm. On Friday we went out to dinner and because it was just that kind of week we decided to go big. Drinks, entrees, dessert, nightcaps, the works. It was actually a super nice but really cheap place, so it wasn't an unreasonable bill for the amount of stuff we had ordered. When the check came we all got out our cell phone calculators to start the painful process of figuring how much was owed by who, until the waiter came back and said "It's already paid". We were super confused thinking that something was getting lost in translation, until he explained that a gentleman seated a few tables over had paid everything for us. EVERYTHING. Whoa. Just because we reminded him of his kids going to college in the States.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't such a bad week after all ;)

Once in a Blue Moon

This past weekend we decided to hit up the only authentic Indian restaurant in all of the DR.

It's located far far away from anything (thus is a bit of a pain to get to) so it's super tranquil and calming. Or at least it probably would be more so when it's not raining :(

To get there you have to take multiple forms of transportation, which turned into an adventure in itself. This place is literally on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, so "getting there" involves flagging down a ride on the main road and jumping off when you see yo

ur stop (which was problematic since we didn't really know what we were looking for...). We had a lot more difficulties going than

coming and ended up having to take a taxi the last leg of the trip. Unfortunately the taxi got stuck trying to take us up the mountainous hill to the cabins, so that was some awkward price negotiating... Trying to explain to someone why you don't think it's fair to pay a certain amount when they are quite literally stuck with no relief in sight is a little bit tricky (or impossible. We definitely failed).

The dinner wasn't what I was expecting, but was still very good. It was all served in this big open air room with cushions arranged in a circle on the floor. There were a bunch of people and small groups there, maybe 25 in total, and the group I came with arrived late so I tried to sneak quickly across the room to an available cushion. But since I didn't hear the instructions about our plates being the big banana leaves on the floor, I definitely stepped on mine. With dirty feet. Talk about yuck

I was a little terrified about the food, because I honestly cannot tolerate anything spicy. Even the salsa at Cosmic Cantina is too hot for my palate. Lame, right? They brought all the food out in big dishes, so there was no specializing of orders being done. But honestly it really wasn't bad. They put out a lot of differen

t kind of dips of varying levels of picante-mango, basil, pepper, etc. We ate fried corn fritters (TGIFriday's anyone??), rice, chicken, carrot salad, green bean and lentil salad, and some other things I didn't quite recognize (but tried anyways!). They didn't give out any silverware and told us we were only allowed to use our right hand (the left is the "dirty" one because it's what you wipe with, hope that's not tmi). And turns out that is actually really hard, especially with rice! Everyone definitely had a handful of food in their lap for every handful that made it to their mouths

And for dessert they had some yogurt and fruit combo. Not quite the chocolate lovers dream, but good nonetheless ;)

All the cabins were super

cute and had fun art and paint all over the walls, and we all got a really good night's sleep.

They give you breakfast in the morning (which you don't have to eat with your hands, thank goodness!) and since there's pretty much nothing up there, it's on the road again for you. Which was where our transportation situation got a little murky again.

So there's 9 of us standing by the road trying to hitch a ride back to town. We're waiting waiting waiting and finally a guagua pulls on up. It is already really crowded, not a seat in sight, so I figure the group will be splitting up and just half will go now. Ooooh noooo. They crammed all 9 of us into there, making the guagua fit to bust with 24 people inside what would normally hold 14. In the passenger seat alone they put 4 of us. I was the last person to get in and since there was literally no room I just climbed on top of 1 row of people and laid down. (I don't even want to think about how what would've happened if we'd had an accident!)

But by far the best part of that ride: there was a ROOSTER on the bus! Now to you this might not seem like a big deal, but I had previously been told it's not a true guagua experience unless there are live animals onboard. So after 1 1/2 years here, I finally got my wish! I asked the man what it's name was and he replied as unenthusiastically as possible "Rooster". It was on it's way to a cockfight, so who knows how that went for him

Once we got to the beach we all climbed out clown car style and then hung out for a while. We went to this restaurant for lunch and when I tried ordering something on the menu the waitress told me "But we don't have that". Thinking logically, I responded "But it's on the menu" to which she scoffed saying "Honey, there's a lot of things on that menu that we don't have". Only in the DR...

Overall a successful trip since I have now achieved my dream of riding in a guagua with a rooster! It's the little things in life that really make us happy ;)