Rum, aparently no one even drinks water

1. So this post I just want to touch on a few of the interesting little details of this amazing country. Lets star with empanadas..fried bread things with cheese or whatever you want inside...I hate there existence , and that I pass by an empanada stand every day on my walk to school! YUMMY! They also have this obsession with ketchup and mayonnaise...its on everything!!!! There are little stands all over the place selling the local food, and they are open till like 5 in the morning, needless to say after a night of some serious merengue, fried food is just what any normal person would want! There is something called Yaroa, and this is only found in Santiago. It is the best invention ever, just imagine,, fries on the bottom, like this crumbly fried meat(like from a cheese steak) and then melted cheese on top with ketchup and mayonnaise! you eat it with a fork HAHAHA. Ok enough of food! I also enjoy that I hear ALOT of French just walking around, because of being so closely attached to Haiti, French is almost just as common as Spanish. I love my classes for the most part, not exactly challenging but I am getting great practice. I am taking an ESOL course and starting next week I will be teaching English classes in the university ...kinda scary ..kinda not :) By the end of the four months I will be certified to teach English.
   
2. This past weekend we went to Samana, a little town on the southern coast. We visited what they call Los Haiteses, which is an island that has amazing caves they we got to go into ..I decided I really don't like bats! We had to take a boat to get there, i decided i really like riding on boats! :) Its great because very time we take a boat ride there is always blaring music drinks and pineapple! We got to go to the beach and again I cant even explain the color of the water, it was amazing, and a guy in our group brought goggles and we could see all the neon fish and sea urchins , and be glad we had decided not to step on the rocks before we realized there were all these prickly sea creatures all over them! Our ride home was my favorite part. It was like a mountain jungle adventure, with these little houses scattered all over the place some were made of concrete and some of wood. There were always little naked kids running around and people just sitting in plastic chairs outside their homes. What these people do all day, easily answered they sit on plastic chairs, and some might play dominoes. There is always so much to take in its almost impossible! Tomorrow we are going to Puerta Plata for the Merengue Festival!! talk about color! To end this I just want to yall to maybe get a little glimpse of my walk to school. Part of it is through the very nice neighborhood that i live in then it turns into a farm area where i have to be careful not to step on the million chickens running around my feet, then i go down a mud slide to a little bridge that goes over the dirtiest river i have ever seen, meanwhile dodging the men on little dirt bikes that think its funny to scare the gringas by almost running them over, and then up a hill, that immediately provokes SWEAT!, past empanadas and across the street, an all the time dealing with the stupid comments EVERYONE makes to you as you pass by. The other day a young guy in a car slowed, rolled his window down and exclaims at me, "Holy Californian Sunshine!"...I'm not joking that's what came to his mind to yell at me... "Holy Californian Sunshine"... and there you have it a little piece of my life here in the Dominican Republic
   

A little Dominican hospitality goes a long way!

It is so funny to me because my days are sometimes so uneventful and then there are days so full and weekends so exciting that its hard to describe in just a quick note... Before we go on the adventure of my past two weekends Here is a little update on me.. I have had a pretty ugly cough the last two months and after the direction of my mother I whent to the doctor ...they sent me to get some x-rays of my chest and lungs and a blood test...Results are that I have bacteria spots in my lungs and my bronchial tubes( how do you even spell that!) and my lungs are inflamed. They gave me an injection in my butt! and I cant even explain how bad it hurt!!!! hehehe im on lots of meds and hopefully ill be on the mend!...On to the more fun stuff...We have made some great Dominican friends and this group goes to PUCMM ( our university) and they are from a small town outside Santiago called Mao. They decided to take us to the mountains to go camping! saturday morning we all meet in mao, in this guys house we had just met, and him and his mom ....complete strangers..made us a great pancake breakfast with eggs and oatmeal and orange juice :) ..then all nine of us pile into a suburban, and speed off down probally the most trerous roads I have ever been on, blaring merengue the whole way. About half way we all had to go to the bathroom so they stop at a gas stationa and we figure that there would be a bathroom there like normal, ...no they take us to this little house and asked this little old lady sitting on the front porch if we could use their bathroom, and of course she usherd us into her home giving us all kisses, and saying "God bless you," I mean im sure its not every day a group of five gringas arrive in her living room. The most hilarious part was that she had one bathroom that of wich was being occupied by her daughter taking a shower and she kicked her daughter out of the shower, i mean dripping wet and soapy, so we could use the bathroom! And then her husband, this adorable wrinkled old man, walkes in his eyes the size of baseballs, and just keeps saying "God does bless" and gave us kisses, candies and huge mangos for the road, and inviting us for dinner, and when we greatfully turned down dinner, tried to get us to stay for coffee. We eventually had to be on our way and they told us that we were their family and were welcome at any time, it was precious! We arrive at the most beautiful river so alone it felt great! There were huge rocks that we jumped off of into the water..maybe like ...i dont even know how high because im bad at guessing height but high enough that it was like 5 seconds of freefall..its was scary! but GREAT! ..They made rice and chicken ever the fire, and we slept by the river..or at least tried to sleep... we got up at sunrise they made us breakfast and we floated around the river some more, learned some dominican card games, got lots of mosquito bites it was great! I am allways just so impressed at how they take it upon themselves to take such good care of us! It was a great experience, and just cool to be with such warm open people!

A little bit of Rain does ya good.....

I wish I could just somehow imprint all my thoughts and experiences on this blog without having to cut short and summarize and be the exciting journalist that Im not :) but well see what I can do.... It has been amazing to me to see after making the comment to my Dominican mom "dont worry everywhere I go i seem to bring a hurricane," that there have been like three stinking hurricanes, and still more to come! :) I do want to say thank your for all your prayers and concerns, this country and those surrounding it have been hit hard, especially the poor regions, when houses are made out of cardboard, they dont last long. Here in Santiago we are in the northern mountain range and God has really protected us, its rainy windy and muddy but safe. I kinda like it tho :) Lets get to the good stuff! Last weekend right before the storm we when to a place called La Romana, its a small town on the southern side of the island. We spent about four hours in a little bus driving through a countryside that I cant even begin to describe. You see things like four people on a moped, houses that dont even deserve to be called houses, and lots of bannanas! Once in La Romana we stayed the night in a small hotel, and got a taste of local flavor at the corner store. I would like to take a moment and help you all understand what I mean when I say corner store, or liquor store....I love this ok get ready. A corner store is just that a store on the corner, you can get anything from cheese, hairspray, and brooms, but they really dont sell anything other than Presidentes ( th local beer) and other forms of achool, and empenadas (delicious fried things!) There are probally a million plastic chairs strewn about, and the key to the fun, there are allways with out fail an impressively LARGE set of speakers(making you wonder how in the world they got them) and the merengue or bachata music cranked up to its utmost volume or make-your-head-explode loudness! It could be eleven at night or two in the morning the music is cranking! and there are people there from the old lady who sells juice to the little two year old kid of the drunk man yelling things at the gringas. At this particular corner store there were alot of random Europeans , prostitutes and sketchy men, so needless to say we didnt stay long. That next morning we has some delicious fruit and toast accompanied by a GREAT cup of cafe con leche and we were of to Island of Saouna ( i might have spelled that wrong) hehehe ... we take this awsome boat for about an hour, dancing merengue with the crew and being served rum...i stuck with plain ol refreshing Coca-Cola :) There are pictures of all this fun in the ablum I posted! no matter where you are in the Dominican there is music BLASTING and Rum being served. I you have ever seen a turqoise gem or that other blue one that I dont remeber what its called :) then you can picture wat this water looked like. I thought that It was just good photography all those pictures you see on the internet that look FAKE. I realized it just good scenery!! and it is actually REAL! the water was as warm as a bath, blue as a gem, and saltly like you were licking a block of salt ewww. The sand was white like me! hehehe but I have learned to wear sun block and I am thankful for that!...we ate some delicous fish for lunch with watermelon juice YUMMY!! and we danced some salsa in this open Cabana , for those of you who know me well, wich is all of you, that was almost unreal!! Amazing! we left the beach and motorboated to this place called "The Natrual pool" and thats what it was...like in the middle of the ocean was this clear water that only can up to your waist..just like a pool ..and we found a starfish! theyre bigger then I thought! The whole day the thought that kept coming back to me, if this can be So indescribably beautiful, how beautiful is GOD , the one who made it! It knocked me off my feet....
"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him, for He spoke and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm." ps 33 ..

I am overwhelmed buy this place, these people, so warm, and this culture so rich! I am so happy to be here and am learning SO much i dont know If my brain can fit it all in!! There is so much more to write but my "mom" has just made a feast ...and i mean feast! so well i gotta go! hehehe..but seriously EVERY day at lunch we have a diffrent kind of rice, beans, some diffrent kind of bannana or platano, and meat and fresh juice and salad and bahhhhh its to much! hehehe, Dont worry dad I am going to learn how to make ALL of it for you!!!
I LOVE you ALL! and almost die everytime I see that I have a new comment!!! hehehehe
Until next time!!

p.s. the spell check has turned off so im sorry i dont have the time to edit ..so just deal with it! :)

HeyYall check out a few of my picts....and yes they are real I was actually there!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/stiefern87/RDFavorites