The things I have not told you....

As I am living my life every day here, there are things that I am used to...therefore I just overlook telling you all...As I remember them I will enlighten you! First things first.... I told you all that Victor came last weekend for the festival..what I have not told you is the experience that I had with the policia! :) Victor and I were standing in the streeet with about 50 million other people when all of a suddent this guy zooms by us on a motoconho, Victor had to sort of push me out of the way so that the man didn't hit me...Well, the cop who was standing there saw this happen and took off sprinting toward this man when something in his hand which appeared to be a whip or something along those lines...Anyway this cop ran past us and caught up to this man and hit him as hard as he could on the back....The cop turned around and walked past Victor and I again, Victor looked at him and said "Gracias" and the cop said "de nada." Apparently that is ok! So as I spent some time in the streets last week and this weekend I took note that nearly every cop was carrying a long whip like object, just in case! :)

Next....Some of you know that bathrooms in Latin Ameirca are not all that sanitary. Most of the toilets do not have toilet seats, so unfortunatley, for most women who aren't disgusting, that requires hovering (which is not fun or easy when you are sweating out of control). Second of all, most of the bathrooms..well... all of the public bathrooms are without toilet paper/paper towels.... So...If you are lucky and you remember you either a)bring napkins in your purse or b) find some napkins somewhere before you go in...or there is always option c.... and we know that is without me saying it! :) The next thing that you should know about Dominican bathrooms is that the water is not on, therefore the toilets do not get flushed until the end of the day/night...So if you going into a bathroom hoping to only see water in the toilet, you are WRONG-O.... I hate to tell you but they are full of a lot of other things and they don't smell very good...I refuse to even walk by our bathrooms at school because even to walk outside of them, the reek on urine (Especially the boys.... we all know how icky boy pee is). So I guess...what I am trying to tell you is.... If you come to visit, make sure you go to the bathroom BEFORE you leave the house, otherwise...you in an for an adventure! :) This weekend when we were out for the fesitval, and drinking a lot of cerveza I had no choice but to suck it up and use the icky bathrooms, which I belive were even ickier considering there were a billion people out drinking. Good thing my parents taught me to be tough!

Now on to my recent adventures.... Last week as I said was the fesitval here...for 10 days...It was a GREAT time on the weekends, but during the week, I was fully annoyed! I did not sleep hardly at all because instead of having music at one end of the street this is what it is: Music at one end, walk about 2 blocks down the same street and there are 3 bars (all of which are playing music outside) then about one block further the concert on the other end of the street.... There was no sleep in this household last week. But when I was out, man was it fun! If you were standing in the right spot it was almost as if you could take 2 steps in one direction and hear one song, then take 2 steps the other way and hear a differnet song! It was SO much fun! I am finally learning to dance...and it's amazing! Nothing is better than standing in the street, listening to bomb music, having a beer in your hand and then all of a sudden someone says "quieres bailar?" Ok..why not? I'll dance..I suck but I'll dance...and then they just take you away! It is a blast! I have now semi mastered the bachata and the merengue (minus the hip action...I am no Isaac VanDyke with the hip thrust!).

Anyway, the other two American teachers came here this weekend to partake in the festivities with us! We ended up having an amazing time! After the party got over we went to a cafeteria with our students and sat there and just talked until like 4:30 in the morning! It was amazing...but then of course on Sunday morning I could not sleep due to the sun, the roosters, the music, all of the above! Sonja and I both got up around 9 but the other two slept until noon...then one of them came stumbling out of the room and said "oh my god how do you guys sleep with all of this noise?" You see...those two don't have roosters...also they have fans and air conditioning in their rooms to drown out the noise...So it was not a fun night of sleep for them..Sonja and I are sort of used to it but it's still no walk in the park.

We had a great time on Saturday night, then on Sunday we showed them the ropes of the town, and then stopped up at the bar to have a few drinks...We ran into a couple of students up there...then we got ready and went out for one last night of the festival! To give you an idea of the way Dominicans view time..it is very much different than those of the U.S..... A student who we were supposed to meet to go out with said ok meet me in the cafeteria at 7:45.... can I tell you what time she showed up? 9:45...that's right...2 hours late...and when she got there she said "oh I am so sorry but it was raining." Domincian women can't get their hair wet...so if it rains, life stops! But I am beginning to work on the Domincan hour which I am not mad about!

On Friday night I went out with the students and one of them told me that I was her best friend! :) I felt really really cool..and still do a little bit! :) I also had a different male student confess his love for me...which was difficult to explain that that is not ok...so that was fun! :) One of our other students is a rapper so we watched him rap on Friday night, which I was super amazed by!

What's up for this week? Giving the students a test of Wednesday, having a Halloween party for them on Thursday, and that's about it....Not sure what's up for the weekend yet, most likely Santo Domingo. Next weekend mi amgia Jess will be here and I am muy muy excited! Hard to believe that November is already here in like 5 days...where is my time going? The good news is...My Spanish has not been failing me latley..I have been rockin it!

That's all for now! Will write soon! Love love love you!