Sorry

I´m over blogging. So...if you want to, just talk to me when I get home. It will be soon, 2 weeks!

All is beyond well.
Jamie.

Time is Passing Quickly!!!

I don’t wanna leavvvveeee! I know I have to and I know that it will be fun when I’m home, but I’m pretty bummed about leaving my kids and the families for 2 whole months! Granted I still have a few weeks here and boy am I trying to make the most of them. But, let’s see, what happened this week. Ha a lot.

            First of all, one of the kids in our class has been out for 2 whole weeks with some kind of sickness. The exact cause is unknown, lost in translation. I hope he is okay, he is one of the smart ones. His mother is a teacher in El Estretcho where they live.  Thoughts for him.

            Secondly, let’s talk Halloween. Anna, Loryn and I, being the young fun women we are, slightly missed that we weren’t home to party for Halloween. They don’t celebrate Halloween here, or I should say most don’t because apparently there was a huge Halloween party that we didn’t get the memo about, so we brought Halloween to the Dominican. Using face paint that we had left over from carnivals with the kids and 700 pesos worth of candy Anna and I painted our faces and went around Pueblo Nuevo delivering candy in costume. I was a vampire; Anna was a butterfly. It was soooo fun. The kids and adults got a huge kick out of it and we looked like some crazy Americans that day! Not the best constructed costumes ever—didn’t have much to work with—but they got the point. J Too fun. Then to top off our Halloween, Chris, Anna and I drove into town for dinner at an American restaurant we sometimes go to (Steve’s) to deliver candy to the yachters there who wouldn’t need much explanation. Lots of looks, lots of fun.

            Thirdly, Wednesday was hands down one of my top five favorite nights here. Every Wednesday at this one bar they have Dominican karaoke so we set off to do that. It was me, Chris, Anna, the parents of one of the kids in my class (Yolanda y Boho) and the 18 year old kid that I tutor, Ney. Well I guess that Wednesday it was some holiday, day of the dead or something else I don’t know (so much for them not celebrating Halloween) so karaoke was not happening. So we drove into Luperon to find something to do—nothing. We drove into El Estretcho to find something to do—nothing. (We don’t get out much so we were a bit desperate.) We finally stopped at a supermarket in La Sabana to regroup and decide what we wanted to do. Well like every super market here, there was music, chairs and beer. So we stayed. In the Dominican Republic people gather at supermarkets as a social endevour, however, for a Wednesday night we were semi responsible for getting the party rolling. So between 3 boys and 3 girls, we danced the night away until they closed. I don’t know if I can go back to American dancing after living down here. My favorite style of dance is Merengue because it is easy for me to do, but Bachata is cool too. The Mambo and I are not friends because I look stupid doing it and can’t keep up with my partner’s lead.

            Fourthly, I just wanna say that I absolutely adore my afternoon class in Pueblo Nuevo with the preteens. Doing that class makes me know that I want to teach for the rest of my life--and not to preschoolers. Yesterday 4 of my students came over to my house after class to learn more English. Their desire to learn really made me feel good. I am so nervous about my students English for the two months we are all gone. If they don’t practice then we will have to start over…not completely over, but still take a leap back. We’ll see, only time will tell.

            Fifthly, I found out that dating is impossible here. The mindsets about it are too different.

Welp, that’s all. I have an awesome week ahead of me. More on that next week.