One of those moments

They have a new plaza in Santiago and it is sweeeeet. I remember 2 years ago when it was just pieces of wood and concrete sticking out of the ground, and now finally we have the finished product.

Plaza Bella Terra!

It is beautiful and has a Tony Roma's and a Papa John's. And a Creamoooos yogurt place, wh

ich I don't think they have in the States, but that's just an awesome name to say anyways. Creamoooos

It is also super special about this new plaza is the movie theater. Now Santiago already has 3 movie theaters, so a new movie theater in itself isn't anything exciting. But WAIT. This movie theater has stadium seating! Can you imagine?! That's a pretty big deal here.

And it gets better. Not only does it have stadium seating, but they also built a special VIP section to the theater. That mean

s for RD350 (or the cost of a regular movie in the States) you can go to a special side theater where all the chairs are LA-Z-BOYS. Seriously, the foot rest flips up and everything. It is ridiculous. A waiter comes to take your order and then hunts down whatever you want from the various snack bars in the lobby. It is so comfortable-you could just curl up in your chair and go to sleep! But you don't, because you paid $10.

I went this past Saturday to go see the movie "Remember Me" starring Robert Pattinson (think: Twilight blood-sucking vampire) and VIP sounded just too good to pass up. We didn't know what the movie was about, but the super helpful woman selling tickets said, "I think it's about love. Or something". It's this horribly tragically sad love story, and the most intense heart-wrenching moments are the last 2 minutes. Usually after a movie is over the theater stays dark as everyone recollects themselves/dries their eyes/processes what they think and the credits roll on. Well not here. Just as our sobs reach a crescendo and we're desperately hunting for tissues to blow our nose, BOOM-movie over lights on. They didn't even show the credits! I looked over at my friend and couldn't help but laugh. She looked like a red-eyed deer caught in the headlights. It was such an abrupt crash back to reality, and neither of us were prepared for it.

Before I would've been super annoyed and frustrated, but maybe it just goes to show how much I've come to love the DR. How can I bear to leave those moments behind when I go in June?!

The Race is On!

May 16th is it for political parties. On that Sunday everyone (or 60% of everyone) will head to the polls here to cast their vote for the next diputado and síndico. Let me tell you, they do not do politics the same way here as in the States...

First thing is that not everyone can read, so posting billboards and handing out flyers outlining each candidates' platform ain't gonna work. Instead what they rely on is colors, because everyone (more or less...) can distinguish those. So all the candidates make sure to prominently display their party's political colors wherever they go. Red, purple, white, blue. And there may be a green out there.

The most common and popular self-promotion technique: face signs. These are literally just ENORMOUS pictures of the candidates face. Their tactic for getting someone's vote consists in draping a sign of their smiling face over the side of an entire building. With their party's color as the background of course. It's kind of creepy really. Walking down the street and seeing all of these Godzilla size people staring down at you, smiling eerily and reminding you to vote! :D

The current man in charge is Jose Enrique Sued, and now that elections are coming up there's a whole bunch of (inconvenient) construction projects going on as he tries to make it look like he's actually been doing his job for the past 6 years and improving Santiago. So imagine 6 years of work crammed into the course of 6 months...trying to make up for lost time?? He's always asking for your "pardon" as you try to figure out how to walk around wet cement without also walking into oncoming traffic. Helping to make Santiago more beautiful or less pedestrian friendly? There's the real question!

My favorite part of all though is by far the parades. Oh the parades! Every weekend on Saturdays and Sundays each political party will have parades in the cities to promote their candidates. However, their version of a "parade" is a big long traffic jam of people wearing the same color. And making sure every car is blasting reggaeton or merengue as loud as their stereo system will let them. That is it. There is no discussion of platforms, no chanting of any slogans. Just music and colors. Sometimes people just join onto the parade because there is a chance that their palms will be greased with some dinero if they shake hands with an important person in the party while cheering their hearts out.

And to continue the celebrations throughout the week they just have trucks drive around and blare music from the extra extra large speakers in the truck bed that are covered with (you guessed it!) a big face poster.

Only one more week left of pure ridiculousness...

PICOOOOO DUARTE

Now that I have sufficiently recovered, I'm ready to talk.

Semana Santa is Spring Break down here, for which we had an entire week off of school at the beginning of April. A whole week! Just imagine!

A lot of the other American teachers were going home, but I decided to aprovecharme of my (little) remaining time here and use it to do something I'd been wanting to do for a long time.

CLIMB PICO DUARTE

The highest peak in all of the Caribbean islands. 10, 164 ft. In 4 days? Totally possible.

I went with a company from Santiago called Camping Tours, which put together a group of about 15 people for our little trip. We were a mix of everything-Americans, Dominicans, old, young. Ready!

We met on Thursday morning nice and early (4:30am to be exact!) and we were told repeatedly "American time!". We were told we would be left if we were 5 minutes late. We were told to be there or be square.

Psh. Never trust anything a Dominican company says :P Time is always negotiable.

We were going to be hiking out of the mountain town of Jarabacoa, about 2 hours away. We got there, had a quick breakfast, and off we went!

The first hour was a piece of cake. Eeeeeassssyyyy. We were all thinking, "No sweat, right?!". Then we rounded a bend and looked up. Straight up. Oh geez, here come the hills.

Before long all small talk and pleasant chit chatter had died away. All you could hear was people struggling to breathe. Sweat pouring off our faces, legs burning with fire, water being guzzled like there would be no tomorrow.

After an exhausting 10 hours of hiking, we reached camp. Our guides encouraged us to not be antisocial but to stay up and hang out. And then they told us we were going to be waking up the following day at 4am. That didn't make it sound like the ideal night to be social. We ate our asopao (a meat stew), drank our ginger tea, and then passed out on the cold cement floor of the cabins.

4am couldn't have come fast enough. I was FREEZING. And cement isn't as comfortable as you might like to believe.

Day 2: Our wake-up call was a rousing chorus of "VAMONOSSSSSSSS!!!!" (Let's go!) screamed inside the cabins. What an alarm clock. This was the day we climbed the part appropriately named "Regret". I have already blocked those excruciating 4 hours out of my brain.

But...

We finally arrived! We made it! Victory! :D

After all of that hard work we had reached the top and could see mountains and valleys and green in every direction we looked. What a sight! We were above the clouds so it was pretty chilly, but the feeling of accomplishment warmed us up. Duarte's bust and a tattered Dominican flag were at the top for photo ops, and after drinking in all that we could of the beauty down below, it was time to descend.

Ironically enough, that was the worst part. The mountains were so steep and you really had to watch your footing. There were a bunch of loose rocks and more than a couple times I had a near heart attack thinking I was about to roll down the mountain. It also hadn't rained in a while so the rivers were dry, and there was no extra water to drink. That meant rationing for 13 hours! We had so much walking to do that we had no time to stop for lunch. We arrived at our camp site at around 6:30, and THEN had lunch. The only glitch in the whole trip was this day, because one woman with us was a very slow walker and she was taking a really long time to reach camp. She refused to get on a mule to go down, because they made her nervous. She ended up going down the mountain at 9:00pm in total darkness with just a flashlight. Eek!

Day 3: REST! Our bodies finally had a chance to recuperate. We slept late, went for a quick dip in the ice cold river, sunbathed on the rocks, played cards, and ate good Dominican food. Just what I needed. The best part by far was waking up and seeing an entire pig roasting over the fire. I have no idea where it came from. Were we carrying it with us? Did we find it? It slow cooked all day and made for a filling dinner.

Day 4: Our return. A measly 7 hours walking. Not a problem after those other days. A lot of soreness, but I did it. I felt so proud of myself. I climbed up and down the mountain without a mule, all by myself, for 4 days. I didn't know my body could do it!

That was definitely one of the most physically demanding things I've done in my life, but I don't regret it at all. It was totally worth it. It made me appreciate this beautiful country even more. Gorgeous beaches AND breathtaking (in more ways than one) mountains?!

How lucky I am ;)

What will one day drive me crazy

There is a serious problem with change in this country. Change meaning small bills and coins.

I went to the post office Saturday to mail a letter to the United States. The woman told me it would cost 30 pesos. Perfect! I had 50 pesos, so that shouldn't have been too hard for her to find change for. Riiiiight??

I put the 50 down on the counter and she gawks at me. "But there is no change!"

Then it was my turn to gawk.

"No change? NO change? You mean to tell me that in this ENTIRE POST OFFICE BUILDING nobody has 20 pesos??"

That's when she became the most annoying broken record I've ever encountered. It was a stand-off.

"There's no change."

"Are you sure?"

"There's no change."

"There has to be SOME."

"There's no change."

ARGH!

There are some things about this country I will never be able to get used to.

But my happy conclusion? A stranger walking by had 20 pesos ;)

They call me Sexton

Due to the awesome skills I showcased in the "Beginners" dance class (it's true, I have the diploma to prove it!), I progressed from being a peon in "Principiantes" and stepped it up a notch to...INTERMEDIATE.

Moving on up, what what!

It's really hard to get a spot in a class because the school is so popular and so many people want in. The teacher has been thinking about expanding, but to do so she needs more hands on deck teaching. Our class became the guinea pig class, as she experimented with a teaching assistant (who quickly became head teacher as she found "other things" to do).

His name is Jesus.

I was being taught how to seductively swing my salsa hips by a man named Jesus.

Isn't that just rich???

And he calls me Sexton. Because apparently "Lesa" is too hard to learn :P

I was worried that with him having no experience, it would be a waste of a class. There was definitely a teaching curve for him, since he was new at it all, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Since he's waaaay younger than the other woman, he had a pretty good hand on what moves would be cool for us to learn.

Fast forward to our graduation

Our class was chosen to perform a salsa dance for the graduation, choreographed by Jesus himself. We were the STARS of the evening. The other classes performed a merengue/son and a bachata, both choreographed by the other teacher. *Yawn* But OURS! OURS was a hot upbeat showy piece with some dips and shimmies. And combined with our purple and white outfits, we were looking gooood

I tell you, I'm really starting to like this Latin dancing stuff

I think I've got one more class left to completely refine my skills, and then- watch out world!

Could the DR have more beautiful beaches??

It seems every corner you turn there's another. I have yet to find an ugly one. (Mind you, this is hardly a complaint. I just don't know how I'll have time to discover them all!)

Next on the list-Playa Ensenada

So I had been hearing amazing things about this beach but it's totally out of the way of basically everything. No buses, no guaguas, no motoconchos. Nada. The only way to get there is through some sort of private transportation.

BUT I had the great suerte of being invited to

tag along with a Study Abroad group of Americans currently enrolled in Santiago's finest private university, PUCMM. They have

various excursions planned for them during their semester here, and I hopped on board this little day trip they were taking. The idea was to leave bright and early in the morning, at 8am, so we could have a full day. Knowing Dominican punctuality, we were lucky to leave by 8:30. After a nice 2 1/2 hour drive, we rolled up to some of the bluest water I have ever seen.

It was FANTASTIC. The water was crystal clear and no matter how far you waded, it only came up to your hips at best. They had all sorts of food shacks along the beach, not necessarily the kind that would pass a health inspection in the States, but those nonetheless with the best and freshest food. You can actually see them catch it while you're laying out!

Those were some of the biggest lobsters, crabs, and fish I have ever seen.

The perfect day. Relaxing and reading on the beach. Water gently lapping at your to

es. Cotorra con batatas fritas y tostones. And getting a back sunburn like a roasted lobster

Could this life be any harder? ;)

Fun Fact

Down here diesel is the gasoline of choice because it's cheaper.

Did you know that you can put diesel into your car without having to turn it off?

That fun fact made me a little bit nervous, especially when someone in the car thought it would be funny to yell "BOOM!" and scare the living daylights out of me.

I'll take my regular, please