Day 29!!!

So, i started typing this on Sunday, but then there were, of course, power outtages and first graders. So here you go:

My sincerest apologies for the lack of updates; the first grade has taken over my life somewhat.

An observation, not of Dominican culture. I’m here with a lot of people from the Midwest, Texas, Minnesota, and a couple people from Indiana. I think in Maryland and on the east coast in general we pretty much think we are hot stuff in comparison to the other states. I just assumed that everyone knew the order of the states on the coastline, what Maryland looked like, etc. To my dismay, I’m discovering that our state just isn’t that important to some of the other states! I was fairly aghast at this realization, but then again I realized that we don’t think much of the middle states either. I had just always assumed there was a state envy for the poor folks from Kansas and Oklahoma, and it is quite the sobering sensation to think that there isn’t.

There has been a copious amount of rain lately that comes in the afternoon, usually when I want to go running. Yes, I have started running. I TOLD you my iPod purchase would be useful!! I am greatly enjoying getting to see some of the roads this way, although if another dude offers to father my child I'm going to punch him in the face and/or use my limited spanish to tell him off.

(Back to the present)

I am also LOVING playing soccer with my first graders on their breaks. One of my kids I was fairly certain was psycho last week, and this week after he gets done eating he goes, "Miss Natalie! Go play soccer?" This from a child that literally had to be pried from his mother at lunchtime on Friday, screaming like someone was filleting the skin off his body. I do not know what changed, but I am eternally grateful for every spanking I ever got.

We are learning about plants in Science, and since the Art teacher isn't here, I have integrated the art for science. On Friday we painted newspapers, and on Monday we used said newspapers to make hats (either pointy or otherwise, pictures forthcoming), tomorrow we are making binoculars with toilet paper tubes. Both projects to be used on Thursday, at whence point we are going on plant safari with our hats and binoculars. I'm excited. After that, I'm going to have to think of some other art projects. I really want to do collages with trash, but I feel like first grade might be a little too young in terms of cleanliness and art appreciation. Are they too young to memorize pictures of the Pantheon and the Parthenon??

Anyway, I will definitely take pictures of Safari Day.

PS a big thank you to Miss Janice and my awesome parents for sending me packages! I really can't express the excitement we all get when the mail is coming!! (every two weeks on a Tuesday evening.)

Nat: out.

Week 4: half summation

This is quite the week thus far. Monday I started my time in the first grade. Quite a different schedule, but not altogether bad. Alot of lying and non English speakers is the main challenge at the moment.

Tuesday was a bit rougher only because the power went out Monday night right before I went to bed which mean no fan, making it A) hot and B) silent (until 3am when the rooster next door starts).

Bringing us to today, which was only problematic because my aide was absent due to feeling sick due to her pregnancy. Tomorrow is a day off for a DR holiday, which you would think I would spend sleeping in, but no, I am waking up at 5:30 am to head to Santiago for some optional training. Which I obviously opted for. I'm looking forward to it.

Every other Tuesday we have started having girl dinners. Last night was the second, and it was pretty fantastic. I have been thinking alot in the past two weeks about community, as obviously I am in the midst of one that is put together out of happenstance and not choice. While I was at Messiah (MC alum are laughing at me right now) there was alot of talk about community that I, like everyone else, rolled my eyes at. Looking back, community was such a huge part of college that I can't believe we didn't realize it. Anyway, the point is, fantasticly enough, Brewer was thinking about community recently as well, and asked if anyone would be interested in doing a Bible study/sharing time after our girl dinners to be more intentional about community. So I was pretty excited to hear that she was thinking along the same lines.

Dinner tonight is a plain old PB&J, since I went for a run/walk and my feet want to kill me.

Miss all of you and thinking about you!!

Weekend happenings

First of all, I would like to commend first and foremost BALTIMORE for another win, and CHICAGO for beating my loathe archrival. Also props to my brother for his undefeated soccer team.

Well, yesterday was a very relaxing fun day. I woke up feeling fairly terrible; it appears I have some sort of sinus issue going on. Fortunately, my roommate has both nighttime and daytime benedryl. Natalie Brewer (hereafter known as Brewer, for obvious reasons of confusion) drove me to town to get some groceries. I made some soup for our neighbors for dinner, and then we walked over to Brewer's and watched Dirty Dancing in memory of Patrick Swayze. *tear*

Today after church I took a glorious 3.5 hour nap, which I think my body needed due to it's illness.



That's about it! Wish me luck and pray for me tomorrow; I start 1st grade tomorrow! I leave you with a picture of my PM preschool class:


PS please send a LARGE raven flag to my address. I live below a Texas Tech fan and down the road from an Indi fan. AHHH!!

pictures!

Click here for a full photo album!

feet and first grade

Notice: for your convenience, I will first write the normal, newsy post, and then at the end summarize in one sentence per item, so if you are short on time, just scroll down.

Well, there’s news! I am going to be the first grade teacher! You may ask, but aren’t you teaching PK 4? Yes, I am, but they desperately need a 1st grade teacher, so they asked if I would consider it. And I’m fine with it. It’s a shorter day (ends at 4 instead of 5ish), one group of kids (instead of two), and multiple subjects. I’m hoping they will be able to understand me better and obey more. I’m not holding my breath.

The weather these past two weeks has been cooler than the first week that I got here. Maybe it’s cooling down! I still sweat when I walk into town (probably TMI), but it’s not so bad anymore. Brooke (upstairs, 2nd grade teacher) says it gets REALLY cold here in the winter; because it gets down to the 50s and there’s no heat. I’m pretty excited, especially since at home we know how cold it gets!!

I think in order to refer to certain people, I’m going to need to take pictures of the main people I encounter and post them here. I will do my best, but we all know how successful I am at getting those up right when I want to.

I bought some claves concretas (concrete nails) so that I can hang some things on my wall AND hopefully a mosquito net! I need someone tall to put the nail in on my ceiling. I’m slowly but surely organizing things! I don’t know if I mentioned this, but prior to my departure I had shipped a vast amount of my shoes here. When they arrived on Tuesday I realized how silly and futile it was to send most of them. I sent quite a few pairs of heels from the last year working in an office setting. I do not think they would do so well on our gravel roads.

I usually wear a pair of “house slippers” (in reality they are fake crocs that I got in China for like a dollar, basically just rubbery/plastic material) inside because the floors get dirty very easily. Last night I just wore my socks around and immediately noticed that my feet hurt even more. I’m sitting down as much as possible now; I had trouble falling sleep last night because my legs were hurting so much.

Blog Abridged:
-I’m switching from PK 4 to 1st grade cause they need a teacher.
-The weather’s gotten cooler
-I plan to take some pictures of the other teachers so you know who I’m referring to.
-I bought some nails to hang things, hopefully a mosquito net.
-I sent myself a lot of my heels from home and that was silly.
-my feet and my legs hurt in a major way.

Food!

I just successfully made guacamole, balsamic vinegrette dressing, and quesadillas. On a gas stove. I invited my PK 4 aide over for dinner, and she and i plus cecelia had a lively conversation in spanish, with cecelia doing some translating.

As a quick aside, I've had a few comments about the warm milk. let me explain. It's not warm; they just don't refrigerate it in the stores. I personally put mine in the fridge right away so that it's cold.

Pray for my feet. I didn't realize the benefits of carpet on podiatry until now. Walking around on concrete and tile literally makes my feet utterly ache.

Pictures from the beach trip!

Day 15

People (Ok, just my MOM) have been asking for a translation of Candy's Noah story. I didn't bother because I knew it wouldn't make sense, but when it's your mom, what are you gonna do? Here it goes:

Noah was in the boat because, besides, the water was falling because they couldn't go outside because after the animals would get wet. And after, they couldn't leave [the boat] And later all the animals left and also Noah and his family.

I had Gracie and Jasmine over for lunch today (Kraft macaroni and cheese - a step up from college because it was NOT Easy Mac!) and we had a good time. They were excited to see my house. I was excited that they speak English.

ALSO best part of the day - I got MAIL!!!! The two packages I sent my self (I have hangers and shoes now - thank the Lord!!), as well as a package from my mom, AND letters from some of you!!! I haven't opened them yet because I want to prolong the happiness. :) I'm VERY happy because my dad sent a wireless router which means we don't have to connect to the one upstairs!! FIVE BARS!!! Also, I got cereal, hand sanitizer, spices, hand soap, AND a crossword puzzle. :) I love my parents!!

Pictures I hope to upload after I've cleaned off all of this stuff: beach and AM PK4.

a quick update...

I am ready to fall asleep, but some fun recent things:

Tonight I had dinner with a wonderful Dominican family who is part of the JCS school board. They have a daughter my age who speaks fluent English and we had a wonderful time talking. It was great to spend some time with a family.

I just need to comment on some of the glories of nature here. I have seen geckos and lizards crawling all over the place, I watched a crab scurry across the sand, I held a live starfish in my hands from the Carib Sea, and there's a dead moth being consumed by ants on our floor.

Tomorrow I am having two of my (english speaking) AM preschoolers over for lunch. They are two of my favorites; I'm pretty excited!

I really will put pictures up soon!

SOSUA!

What a glorious day. Yesterday we met at 7 am, brought a cooler and some drinking water and took a taxi van down to the beach. If you've never swam in the Caribbean, I highly encourage you to do so. The water was clear, turquoise, and warm. And cleaner than Waikiki beach. Hearing the ever cautioning voice of reason of my mother in my head, I dutifully applied SPF 50 to my arms, face, and shoulders, which proved to be wise. That sun was HOT in the afternoon! I kept moving my chair to stay in the shade.

The trip down was just as interesting. Absolutely beautiful countryside, but it has little collections of little houses of the poor. They use that corregated tin on their roofs.

My skin is covered in bites. I don't know what's in my sheets, but i'm spraying them with bug spray tonight and installing a mosquito net on Monday.

The cutest video ever

The story of Noah, according to Candy

My house!!

This is the outside of where I live! I couldn't back up anymore because there's a wall for another house across the road, so you might say my back was up against a wall. Ba-dum ching! Anyway, I live on the first floor (through the gate - the door is kind of hidden here by an orange pillar) with Cecelia (school psychologist, Colombian, good cook, fluent in Spanish) and the 3rd Natalie (dubbed Natalia, because I am Nat and the other gets Natalie). Alicia (PK 3 teacher), Holly (HS English, Texan) and Brooke (2nd grade) live above us. That is their porch you see.

More!

Waterfall!1

As promised, the first of the pictures!! This is the waterfall we visited on Saturday.

Laboring on Labor day

I hope all of you who have off today enjoy it; the DR Labor Day comes in May, so i am back to work today. It's kind of like being at Messiah again and having to go to class.

It was a great weekend, although I am pretty sure we spent more of Saturday without power than with. When that happens I usually sit and read until the light ceases to be enough, and then I move outside, where it's better. My roommate Cecelia is Colombian, and she has been spoiling me by cooking alot of Colombian food, and thus letting me not learn how to cook. I did, however, make some soup last night and we ate with the girls upstairs.

On Saturday we used Holly (HS Lit teacher, lives upstairs)'s laptop battery to watch The Happening. Her battery ran out, and we had just gotten in from below when the power came back on. Thank goodness; I wasn't sure how I was going to handle another fanless night.

Sunday morning 6 of us girls took a taxi truck to the outer limits of the town, and went swimming by a waterfall!! I took pictures. It was pretty great. We had to go right through/past the really poor section of town, and it was really sad to see the conditions that the people there live in. One of them had an outhouse that looked like it was barely in one piece; it was like a patchwork structure.

Sunday afternoon we ventured to a church right behind us, and I missed alot of what was said. Definitely going to have to polish up on the Spanish.

My morning class was a mixture of exultation and frustration, as we were learning how to write the letter D. Two of my boys (well, 3, but one wasn't there today) don't really "get" things...so i sat down in between them to show the the proper way to write D. I almost pulled my hair out, but by the end of the morning when each of them could correctly trace a lowercase d, I was pretty exuberant. Fortunately we have the rest of the week to practice the D's.

They're also learning the story of Noah, so today I started the teaching of Arky, Arky. Good memories.

Speaking of which, on Saturday the teachers for middle and high school were discussing some of the dress code issues and it was definitely a flashback to LCS. Anyone remember how the girls would roll their skirts?? I feel like that is an age-old trick that will never die.

Well, this is long, and I don't think I would have made it this far if I were reading this, so I'll stop here. If I'm motivated later I'll post the waterfall pictures!

Power and Sweat

Our power is finally back on after turning off the in the middle of the night. I immediately woke up because my fan turned off, and then spent the next few hours tossing and turning and sweating from the heat. I think the tropical storm/depression caused alot of rain.

I've been pretty sweaty and gross feeling all day, but I think somehow I am getting used to it. Which is very rare for me as I HATE feeling sweaty at all.

The bug bites continue in vast numbers. I am thinking about trying to hang a mosquito net. I'm used to them from my second trip to China, and as long as there aren't any mosquitos in the net, they function pretty well. First though I would have to find a "cement" nail for the ceiling, and then find someone tall enough to reach my ceiling.

I am trying to adjust to Dominican Spanish and not Spain Spanish. There are a few little phrases that I miss saying in Spain that they don't use here.

I think one of the things I'm going to struggle with is making myself get out and do things around town in the first few weeks. I always feel too tired and too lazy to go out with people I don't know and put in the effort of meeting others, but if I don't it won't really feel like home, so I need to. I just always prefer to sleep.

I'm going to start a list of prayer requests to the right to make it easier to find, since i know some people would like to know specific ways. We had our teachers meeting today to go over life things like rent, electricity, health insurance, bank accounts, etc, so I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. I have a bank account but no money until September 30th. I think I may have to take some money out of my account because I'm pretty sure my food won't last the whole month.

Hopefully there will be pictures forthcoming SOON!!

Day 4

In an effort to be more pithy, I will try to sum events up in 1-3 sentences (each).

1) One of my little girls today said something about me knowing alot of songs. This after I sang to her the chorus of Jay Sean's "Down".

2) I don't know whether the kids who color the turtle pink and the tiger blue are artistic or deranged.

3) I have at minimum 13 mosquito bites on my left leg, and maybe a max of 5 on my right leg. Why the preference I don't know.

4) Just found one on my EYELID.

5) I played some alphabet songs from my iPod today and the kids didn't know what to do with music coming from somewhere other than the (broken) CD player. Also, the alphabet songs were loaded for teaching...I didn't just have them on there for fun.

6) word on the street is that there's some sort of tropical storm or depression headed our way. Good times sure to follow.

7) I tried to cook black beans today in an effort to be cultural, and I didn't realize that they take five weeks to boil. That may be an exaggeration, but they take a really long time.

8) This climate is making MY hair frizzy. And my hair doesn't do that.

9) Please note that I have to pay $1.50/lb on packages over 1 pound. Don't let that deter you from sending food. Or pretty pictures for my walls!! Which are pretty sparse at the moment.

10.) A memory from my first day here: I've always said I could live in a climate where palm trees grow. They were one of the first things I saw when I left my house my first morning. I think it was God winking at me.

Day 2!

SURVIVED!! I think my Spanish is getting better pretty much every second. I have to tell my kids what to do in English, then translate it for them. It could be a very educational year for me.

Fan update: I went on a long walk into town last night and found the recommended store with cheap fans ($18-$25). I tried out a cheaper one, but it was too quiet, and if you know me, you may know I like ALOT of white noise. So, i asked if he had a louder one (mas ruidoso) and then he spent 15 minutes putting it together from a box. But it was SO worth it. It is one of the loudest fans I've ever heard, and I slept very well last night.

I cleaned some of our dishes and my fruits and vegetables that I bought. I can't decide what to make for my dinner tonight. I have a feeling guacamole may be on the menu :) I have two avocados, plus some onions and cilantro. Life is good.

Random side note: If anyone has any old Hide Em in Your Heart CDs they want to contribute to my class, I am on the lookout!!

At about 6ish pm tonight we experienced our first power outtage. I was messaging Kels at the time, but with out power, you have no internet. You also have a dark kitchen. So I poured myself some cereal and read the summer issue of Relevant Magazine. (An awesome couple here have a subscription. They also had us over for dinner last night and we had a great time!) The power stayed out for about 2.5 hours, so we did alot of reading by flashlight. I'm a little depressed that it gets dark by 8 pm. I miss summer already! AND I'm closer to the equator - aren't I supposed to have longer days??

In the interest of not boring my readers, I'll sign off now. Only two more days til the weekend!!

My classroom aide doesn't speak English!!

I'm here!! Where to begin?? I only have a few minutes before my afternoon class of Pre schoolers arrive. The morning class wore me out, so I'm not sure how I'm going to do another afternoon! Plus, I did not sleep too well due to all the noise. I'm praying I'll get a fan today to help with that.

It's pretty humid, but not too hot. I just went and did a little grocery shopping. There is apparently a fruit and vegetable market that I need to find too. Also, they don't refrigerate milk or eggs, which is going to take some getting used to.

My big morning favorite, cereal, can cost up to $6 here, so I opted for some cheap plain corn flakes :(. Feel free to send Post Selects and Honey Bunches of Oats. :)

Quick word on the internet situation: for some reason it's not working at my apartment, so I'm going to try and figure that out tonight. I might need a router or something (Dad).

I'm still overwhelmed by everything that I need to do (buy the fan, clean the house, organize my things), but I'm feeling pretty excited too.

It's just about time for the PM kids. I miss my home and all of you already!