Pa' Mangar Mi Visa

The song goes like this:

Querido Santo Domingo

O sea, querido Nueba Yol

Yo quiero una americana

(Pa' que?)

Pa' mangar mi visa!

Which translates to:

Dear Santo Domingo

In other words, dear New York

I want an American.

(Why?)

To get my visa!

And it was the song of the weekend!

At the end of the year the school organizes a little day trip for all the teachers at both the campuses in Santiago as well as Santo Domingo. This year they decided to take us to Rancho Don Rey, which is a camp the school owns (and runs during the summer) on the other side of the country in Sabana de la Mar. It's on the far far far east, and is pretty hard to get to because there's only one road and it pretty much loops around the whole east side, with the last stop being Sabana.

For those of us in Santiago we had the luck of getting transported there partially by boat! The funniest part was just seeing all the Dominican teachers screaming for glee as we glided over the waves. It was like a veritable roller coaster!

We arrived and it was tooootally like a birthday party. They actually hired an entertainer to lead us in super silly games and songs. In addition they had a pool, climbing wall, horses, and beer ;) Because it was like 4 1/2 hour drive I had decided to pay the extra just s

o I could stay the night, and it was definitely worth it. It's an absolutely beautiful ranch and it was so great to see all the teachers hanging out and acting like real people! :)

The next day we checked out this hotel called Caño Hondo and it is absolutely gorgeous. Made out of rocks, and built among tons of waterfalls. The owner had diverted a nearby river and built it into lots of little waterfalls and constructed the rooms right alongside them. Each room is named for the little waterfall it's located beside. It definitely has the best view of the whole area. Unfortunately we didn't have lots of time so we couldn't take a dip in the river amongst the waterfalls, but nevertheless it was definitely the most peaceful place I've seen in this country.

And then we had our 5 hr drive ahead of us with our race car driving chofer. I think he thought he was Mario Andretti. There was definitely no sleeping on that ride.

Then when dropping me off at my apartment after it was all over he offered me $10,000 to marry him and give him a visa. I told him I was waiting for love and he told me "I can fall in love with you, if that's what you want".

You know me folks, I told him "Sorry" but that I was going to hold out for the real deal...