Life Continues....

This will be a short blog with nothing overly exciting to say, I just wanted to send you all a quick update! I hope you had a wonderful Halloween...Mine was pretty unventful but still great. I gave my students their exam on Wednesday of last week and we had our Halloween party on Thursday during class.... Everyone brought stuff; chocolate, pop, ice, candy, suckers, crackers (which they call cookies... I got overly excited when some people told me they were bringing cookies- as I thought they would be yummy, homemade chocolate chip cookies...much to my dismay.... crackers.) They brought ham and cheese and all sorts of goodies...Then when the party was over there was no second thought about it- everyone said teacher, come on take this stuff home, we will help you...So now I have a house full of goodies and if I am not careful I am going to get my extra chin back...I need to be careful!

The students also had to write papers on Halloween and present them (most of them were copied directly off of Wikipeida (but hey, who is to say I wouldn't have done the same thing back in the day), but they all presented them and one girl even dressed up as a witch! On Friday we had class to finish up last minute workbook things that the students did not have finished and then after work I headed for Santo Domingo to enjoy another weekend con mi novio.

I got to Santo Domingo on Friday night (After a long annoying bus ride with people who would not stop talking to me/making fun of my name). Victor and I hung out with some of his friends, got dinner and called it a night ( traveling for three hours can really tire a person out!) Saturday we got up, picked up his kiddos (who I believe to be 2 of the cutest I have seen for quite some time here in the DR), we went to his sisters house where we ate lunch and just hung out for a few hours, then took all of the kiddos to the park to play outside...We had a great day. We sat in the park, had a few beers and we (or I at least) enjoyed the sunshine!

We then had plans to go to a bbq of one of his friends...but I ruined those plans when we got back to the house to shower and change, I was only going to sit down for 5 minutes, next thing I know Victor moves and I look at the clock and an entire hour had gone by...OOOPS! But I was one tired girl, I did not sleep the greatest on Friday night, we spent the afternoon drinking in the sun... I couldn't do it anymore! So we ended up just getting dinner and watching a movie (which I also ruined because the first scene was a little on the bloody side- I looked away maybe 2 times and he took it upon himself to turn it off and we watched Harry Potter. :) ) I have said it once I will say it again...I have been blessed....blessed with a man who really cares!

Then on Sunday, we went and visited his sweet 89 year old grandmother, his cousin and his wife, his sister and brother in law again and then headed to the beach... We didn't get to the beach until like 3:45ish so I didn't get much sun on this white body but it was a beautiful afternoon, nonetheless.... The view was beautiful..I wish that I would have had my camera... we were just sitting there, enjoying each others company, drinking, ate some wonderful fish, and I had another "wow is this really my life moment?" when I looked over the ocean, saw the waves crashing in against a cliff that was covered in palm trees and then sun setting in the distance.... It could not have been more perfect! We got in the water at like 5:00 and I had goosebumps because of the cold water/wind but he told me that if we got in later the water would be perfect...and yet again. Another smart Dominican! We got in at like 6 something and it was warm! It felt amazing!

What else? We went back into the city, went to visit some friends of his and went home and went to bed because I had to get up at 6:30 this morning to head back to good old San Rafael...we also had a fun discussion last night about my showering habits ( we all know how I feel about showering and the amount of work it is.... and then you add in the fact that it is FREEZING here and why don't you guess how often I am going to want to shower?..My Mexico crew knows how I feel about that!) Dominicans shower 2 to 3 times a day, depending on their plans...This kid? 1 time a day..regardless.... and sometimes if I could..if it were allowed I would even skip a day ( you know me, Jill..) Well anyway...Victor got quite a kick out of the 15 second shower that I took this morning...everyone around here thinks I am being a baby, but I think they are all out of their minds!

Today I was on the bus heading back here and I was sitting in a seat all by myself (2 seats all to myself..which I had FULLY intended on using both to sleep). We were driving for like 20 minutes and then some dude just came up to me and was like "permiso" and sat down next to me..I wanted to say ...umm excuse you? But I was nice and moved over and let him sit down... which was great...because.... it was freezing and my air vents were broken so I could not turn them off and the guy could tell I was freezing and could not sleep because all of my extremites were about to fall off and he said oh are you cold? I said umm FREEZING and he said oh here let me help you... He then pulled out a huge machete looking knife from this bag which was wrapped in paper towels...he unwrapped it (and I was not sure what was going on) and he stuffed the paper towels in the vents! It was perfect! I could not have been more grateful for this man! Plus I thought I better be nice to him since he had a huge machete in his bag! I then got to Higuey and had to take a motoconcho to the bus stop for Yuma...and for once in my life I did NOT get hit on while on a motoconcho..It was a very peaceful ride...But then of course I got to the guagua and was sitting on it and one of the people who takes your money was like oh you live in Yuma? I said Yes...he said oh Do you live alone? I said umm no...to which he said "you don't have a boyfriend?" To which I said..Yes I do...I just went to visit him this weekend acutally.... and then he walked away. WTF people? Back off!

Then this afternoon...Sonja and I did not have class because our supervisor has not brought us our books yet...So we headed back to Higuey (after my student brought us yummy yummy lasagna), went to the bank to get some money and then went to the grocery store...We were both hungry and ended up buying way too much crap...The guaugas here never bring us to our house but it was the owner's (our landlord) brother.... before he took anyone anywhere else he brought us dircetly to our front door ( a few people were asking what he was doing but I was stoked!) Front door service! I could not have been more grateful! We had way too many bags to carry across the street ( I have been pretty lazy with that lately... I am getting used to having them carried for me.) In fact I am getting used to a lot of Dominican ways...and I am loving every minute of it! Things that I have noticed.... People don't point to things with their fingers, they point with their lips. People don't say "what?" they squish their nose a little bit. It's very cute! :)

Anyway...as always I said this blog would not be long but here we are again! It is November 1st and Jess will be here on SATURDAY and I could not be more excited! The fam will be here in 1 month and 9 days...which I could also not be more excited about! Life is GREAT!

Love you all and see you next month para Navidad!