11 DAYS!!

Lots to report on!!! First, I never mentioned the mouse that I found the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I was sitting on my bed when I noticed something crawl across my floor. I immediately shrieked and summoned Holly and Natalia, and the three of us proceeded to use brooms to get him into a laundry bin and throw him outside. Natalie said she found another the other day.

Next, Holly, Brooke, and Alicia’s apartment upstairs was broken into over the weekend. It was very strange; the thief only took Alicia’s money and phone, and only went into her room. He came through the window. Our windows downstairs all have bars, but theirs currently do not. Fortunately, the landlord came the next day and put bolts on the windows. It was still a very startling and scary situation, and it reminds me that I am NOT at home. It’s also

just another sign of the frustrating reality that the Dominicans see Americans and assume they have money. We are approached randomly just for money or clothes and it bothers me greatly. Alicia overhears Dominicans talking in Spanish sometimes about how she is American and must have money, and she will turn around quickly and tell them she has nothing. A few weeks ago when I got a package, the power was out so I took it outside to use the dying daylight to help me see. An old woman just walked on through the gate, took the book out of my hand, and then asked for anything, money, clothes, etc. I was very annoyed and Cecelia had to speak firmly to send the woman away.

We had another Young Life gathering Tuesday and it was fun! It does wear me out though. We meet at 5, Club starts at 7 and goes until 9 or 9:30, and then we clean up and discuss, so it is a very full evening. I am still recovering.

The Christmas program is Friday and we have a half day, which I’m very excited for. We are all really looking forward to heading home in 11 days!!

Some pictures from our trip to Boca Chica:

18 days til ETD!!!

It´s been another week, but in fairness I was at the beach for awhile. I have a nice tan :)

We had our first Young Life Club last night, which burned me out big time but was alot of fun. I really like the high schoolers here.

Thanks to everyone who was praying for our visit by the DR Secretary of Education today...we think it went well!! We´ll find out in a few days, which in DR time means a week or so.

We are all so looking forward to going home for Christmas. I personally am especially excited for cold weather (this is a first), Chrismas decorations, and hot tea. I brought my tea here, but it's always too warm to drink it.

The mornings have cooled down alot to the point where I need a sweatshirt, but I´m still wearing shorts. The afternoons get up to the low 80s or so. I think I´m in for a rude awakening when I get back to MD.

My kids go through spurts of drawing me pictures and notes. There are too many, but I've started taking pictures of the good ones. Here are some of my favorites. The first one was after I got back from the beach. I think Jesus Daniel (yes, that's his name) meant to say, I like you at the beach, but this is how it came out:

Giving thanks

Somehow, suddenly, tomorrow's Thanksgiving! I'm not sure how this sneaked up on us. Without a real fall here, it's pretty easy to forget it's November.

Today we had our Fall Festival at school, with the theme of A Decade of Thanks. First grade was the 50s! I will put some pictures below.

Tomorrow I leave to stay at the beach for a few days with Holly. I'm so looking forward to it! Anyway, since we are leaving early early, I'm going to post my Things I'm Thankful For list right now!

:: A house, a bed, and food.

:: For God's direction in sending me here.

:: Seeing my family in 4 weeks!!

:: loud fans.

:: Good friends down here :)

:: Prayer.

:: Siblings.

:: Cards and packages in the mail.

:: Health.

:: football.

:: my motorcycle.

:: Love.

:: the internet.

Obviously there are more, but I am tired and I have to pack! Here are a smattering of photos from today:

I'm 50s, Holly is 80s, Brewer is 60s!

My class! Please look carefully at the 50s garb and hairstyles :)

The best dressed!

From one of my students a few weeks ago. I believe he means to say, Miss Natalie I like you at the beach.

Well, it was a good weekend but a rough Friday. I reached a critical point at about 11 am when the kids were just not listening and I was tired of yelling and the Spanish teacher had been waiting for 10 minutes. I burst into tears and gave them a short speech about my frustration and then went home and took a nap. That afternoon Jenny was on a moto and got hit by a car and injured her ankle. Totally God's protection that she wasn't hurt worse!!

Anyway, I had a productive weekend but I am not feeling motivated in my class. I am tired of fighting for the attention of my students. I think we are all feeling ready to go home for break. Sunday I definitely didn't feel like going to church either; I just wanted to get into my car and drive to SCC and be in church with my family and everyone I know.

Another bummer was the Ravens loss to the Colts Sunday, but I watched it in the best possible way for the DR: with friends, on a projector screen. The only negatives: it was broadcast in Danish, and I had to watch it with Brewer in her Manning jersey. All in all, a good game, especially to watch.

That's about it! We have a 2 1/2 day week, so I'm pretty much half done. Wednesday is just a party. I can't wait for some time off. And then it's just a few weeks til we go home!

my Young-at-heart Life

I'm back! We had a great weekend at Young Life camp, although I think I am still recovering from the lack of sleep. I absolutely love the high school girls from our school and I'm so glad I went. I think God definitely did some neat things while we were there. Yesterday after school we had a post-camp get together so I feel like I've been running around crazily for days.

Tonight was girl dinner and Bible study, and I really love it when we all get together and share food.

Side note: just discovered that we cut Hauschka. Can we replay the Vikings now?

We have our Thanksgiving festival next Wednesday and my kids have been working hard on their Rock Around the Clock dance. I think I am more into it than they are.

Tonight we talked about some things in our lives that we are thankful for...there are so many! I thought quickly though about how thankful I am that my family has my brother in our lives. Even though none of us were planning on him, he was the best surprise ever. I love him to death and I'm glad he's one of my best friends.

Along with that I'd have to say my sister. We didn't always get along when we were younger, but I think about her pretty much every day and wish she was with me here. She's my other half and I can't wait to see her over Christmas!!!

I'm doing so much better at posting pictures aren't I?? Here are my fingernails painted Ravens purple with Baltimore spread out over them. Daisy is my nail lady...she does well!

Food success and weekend plans

OK I'm super tired and I will get no sleep this weekend so I'm gonna make this quick!

Last night's dinner for my adopted Dominican family was a success. Everything turned out the way it needed to.

I'm way excited for this weekend...I'm going to be a leader for a Young Life camp along with Holly and Tim. There are kids from our school, another Jarabacoa school, and a school in Santiago. I'm looking forward to it but I'm concerned about my sleep levels!

Special thanks to: my awesome MOM, because she always sends me things in t

he mail :)

my CHURCH, for more supplies!

the McFalls, for their nice card :)

Kaylie, for her newsy card too!

Mama Wingate, for PICTURES from the wedding that I could show my kids in class!

Our thanksgiving break is going under the guise of Fall Break, for which we have a fall festival. The theme: Thanksgiving through the decades. First through third is the

50s. We have already begun practicing! I am excited.

I leave you with a picture of the Caribbean: me, Brewer, Holly, Jenny.

AHHHHHH!

Shame! My sister hates when i say this, but Egads! I haven't posted in over a week. I'm usually much better at this. What has happened in the meantime??

Last week is kind of a blur. Did alot of work. Had girl dinner/Bible study on Thursday. Oh, and I got my sandals fixed for a like a dollar by my shoe guy named Eberto. I was pretty excited. I also cut my foot on some glass in the soccer field, and then sliced my finger while making guacamole. (I did not tell the eaters of said guac about said sliced finger. Please keep my secret.)

We had a three day weekend due to some Dominican holiday known as Constitution Day, which

contributes to my cyber absence. I went to the BEACH and had an utterly wonderful time!!! the water was warm, the company was positive, AND we had....wait for it....TV!!!!! Pretty much we exclusively kept football on. I don't even care about college football, but it was a beautiful thing just to listen.

I will refrain from commenting on the performance of my team this Sunday, whose name I will not mention. 4-4?? Really??

Tomorrow I am having my sort-of Dominican family over for dinner....could be rough, since I am cooking, and I think we all know how far (or not) my domestic ability extends.

Time for bed. (2 hours ago)....here are Holly and me at the BEACH!!!

Announcement

I think it's time that I formally let those who don't know that I have a new roommate. She is my MOTORCYCLE, purchased last week, and I love her. (Note to the worriers: She came with a helmet.) I am very excited!!!!

Holly and I riding horses on Sunday!

Horses and Mangos and Report cards, OH MY!

Oi ve! It has been quite a busy week, for many reasons! Most importantly, here are pictures from Parents' Night last Tuesday:

Me in my classroom!!!

(Natalia, Brooke, Jenny, Alicia, Brewer, Holly, Karyn. Heads poking through in the back: Ms. Rojo and Karen)

We moved our girl dinner and Bible study to Thursday night, and it was pretty fantastic! Ceci made a wonderful chicken rice dish which we then ate for lunch on Friday also. Friday was a half day to help us get our report cards done. I still didn't have all mine finished so I had alot of work to do Saturday and Monday evening.

Sunday Holly, Ceci, and I went to a farm owned by one of the school board members. It was pretty much a WONDERFUL day; with good food, alot of Spanish, and riding HORSES!!!! We met some other youngish Dominicans, so that was really nice. I did get a TON of bites by various species of bugs, and even today I am still ready to tear off my legs.

A concern: Large, large frogs have started appearing....two smashed dead on the road by our house (hurrah!), and one in the Stanley's house (AGH!). I very worried about this situation...I actually had a small one on the OUTSIDE of my screen the other night....it was not ok. Anyone who was with me at the Sauters' pool this summer knows how I feel about frogs.

Quarter 1 ends

I know I have been abysmal about posting lately, but it's been a busy week! Parents night was Tuesday, and we had the end of the quarter yesterday, which means we have to get report cards together. But, here is a picture of Jenny and I in the JCS polos:

BACK!

I am happily back in warm weather teaching my kids and drinking bottled water. The 40 degree weather was a little much for me, but it was bearable knowing that I got to come back here today. I'm all about shorts and flipflops.

We had a great wedding (and by we I mean Trish and Jim) and it was FANTASTIC to see so many Messiah alums!!! It was also wonderful spending time with my family (props to my church for sending me back with so much stuff, and to my mom for making me lasagna AND green bean cassarole!!).

Anyway, a last section of people that I live/work/spend time with:

Up the road in the ground floor of another house:

Karyn: 32, HS librarian/grammar, of Tennessee. This her year 4 and her students love her. She also cooks ridiculously well. She does not swim in natural water due to her fear of creatures.

Natalie (Brewer): 23, of Indianapolis. '08 grad of Taylor U, degree in El Ed. Sadly a Colts fan. She teaches 4th grade and enjoys sports of any kind and riding her motorcycle. Possibly one of the funniest people I know.

Jenny: 26, '05 graduate of the Art Institute in Chicago. Born in Miss, she has ALOT of relatives in Texas but spent the last few years in Chicago. Obviously studied art things. Has a fantastic southern accent.

Living around the corner in a rented room:

Ashley, 28 (?), originally from Ohio, lived recently in NYC. He was a chemist that now teaches HS science. He is half Dominican apparently, but wasn't raised speaking spanish, so now he studies with Cecilia.

Brewer and Jenny at 27 Waterfalls:

T minus 10 hours

At approximately 6 am tomorrow I'm all set to depart for Miami and then to Bmore and then to NJ for the wedding!!! I am highly looking forward to family, my car, Messiah friends, FOOD, and fall weather. I'm a little sad to be leaving everyone, however let's get real and remember that it's only 5 days.

Continuing my description of everyone...

Next door there is a large structure. The Dominican people who own said structure live upstairs, and rent out two side rooms and the downstairs apartment. One of the side rooms is rented by:

Susan: 50s, teaches PK3. Has been teaching for a long time, but also has some great stories about playing in marching bands in Poland. She is from North Carolina.

Mike: Rents the other room, 40s or 50s. Orginally from Florida, his family is in Minnesota where his wife is working on her doctorate and his two sons go to college. He was in the army for a long time, then chose to come down here for a bit.

Stanleys: Main ground level apartment. '05 grads of Houghton College (Yea!), Tim is from NY and Laura is from Minnesota. He teaches HS Bible and she teaches 5th grade. They are fantastic and often have us over for evening work and movie parties.

The other house of girls may have to wait until I get back. (Don't be angry, Brew.) But they're some of the best, of course.

Here's a picture of Tim and Laura, with a visiting friend on the right. This is after our trek up the 27 waterfalls!

3-2

I've accepted the fact that I am, or at least was, sick. I am not overly concerned since I am armed with Pepto B, Aleve, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and Cipro if it comes to that. Also because nothing can ever be as bad as that one time in Shanghai.

I think i speak for everyone when I express my disappointment with yesterday's game.

Anyway, inspired by my best friend I thought I might attempt a quick summation of the people that I live and work with:

I will start with my house, first floor:

Cecilia: 33, from Colombia originally, lived in Houston for 15 years prior to this. Fluent Spanish speaker, obviously. Makes awesome rice and loves chocolate. She is our school psychologist.

Natalia: 34, Missouri. Or one of those other M states somewhere in the middle. Middle of 5 girls. Graduated from Pensacola back in the day with a degree in El Ed. Teaches one of our 2nd grade classes. She likes cherry juice and Sprite, as well as some Canadian TV show called Corner gas. She also plays Farmville on Facebook more than I think is prudent.

Upstairs!

Alicia: 19, of Indiana, PK 3 teacher. She is to and fro all the time; she went

to high school down here so she has alot of friends that she goes to see all the time.

Brooke: 23, '08 grad of Taylor U. Born in Nebraska, moved to Illinois. This is her second year here; last year she taught 3rd grade, and this year she teaches the other 2nd grade. She also makes fantastic no-bake cookies that I like to eat in mass quantities.

Holly: 25, '06 Texas Tech graduate, obviously from Texas her whole life. She knows Friends' episodes as well as I do, loves college football, fishing, sarcasm, and making fun of my lack of hearing.

There are obviously a lot more, but I will do it in bits and pieces so as not

to overwhelm you.

Here is my roommate Natalie and I, late at night with ridiculous hairstyles:

Dia de la raza

For the record, I've been trying to load this since yesterday afternoon with a video, but the video refuses to load.

Today is Day of the Races, which actually has nothing to do with the Marx Brothers (B-fry I hope you are proud right now) and more to do with the founding of the new world. What matters most is that there was a fantastic presentation at 10:30, and school ended at noon. I'm trying to think of other things we can celebrate so that there are more fridays like this.

We also had a super bonfire last night (friday) complete with hot dogs and smores. Holly decided it would be a good idea to have a human smore, so here you go:

Brewer and I are graham crackers, Holly the marshmellow, and fantastically Cecilia is the chocolate.

Good news: no fever! I went to bed at 9:30, which was glorious, and woke up at 3 am with a headache. 2 aleves alleviated that (pun intended) and I am still kicking. It's still hot.

I am aware that pictures make this much more interesting, so I'm going to make a conscious effort to consistently add a few.

Today:

This is the girls only before picture from Saturday. Chelsea, on the left is a friend of Laura's from home. As a refresher, Jenny, me, Laura, Brewer, Holly.

my life is average

Currently I feel like I may have a fever, but I'm hoping that if I complain about it enough, then I won't actually have one. Reverse psychology on the germs.

Good week thus far...hotter than in previous weeks. We got our staff shirts, so we look pretty legit, and I don't have to think about what to wear in the mornings. I am about 1 week til departure to the states for the WINGATE wedding, which I'm pretty excited about. (PS mom, I need you to fix my shorts that I tore climbing a fence.)
Recently we have discussed our favorite and common phrases to use at school. The list:
1) WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? [emphasis on the 'doing']
2) Is this a good idea, or a bad idea?
3) my personal favorite: Is this a little problem or a big problem? [i.e. do I need to hear about it.]

I also have to tell my class not to eat pencils more than I think is necessary, and certainly more than I prefer.

Here is a group picture from 27 Waterfalls on Saturday:

I know Mom likes to see me smiling :) FYI the girl to my right is Jenny, our new 3rd grade teacher. I enjoy her greatly.

My plan is to be in bed by 9 pm. So this is out.

27 Waterfalls

It's like 27 dresses, only minus James Marsden and plus alot of helmets.

Today those daring enough ventured out to DR specialty known as 27 waterfalls, which was the best combination of swimming, hiking, and jumping that i have ever done. Unfortunately everything you take gets wet, so we couldn't really take our cameras anywhere. I have some pictures stolen off the internet to give you an idea of what it looked like. Basically we hiked up a mountain, through some streams, up some waterfalls, and then came down all of them in a mixture of jumping and sliding. Very fantastic. Best 500 pesos I've spent yet. I would do it again. Tomorrow.

Note: feel free to pray for my external hard drive, which is giving me excessive amounts of grief for dropping it on the floor, though I've apologized to her several times. The words 'data error' and 'cyclic redundancy check' send a chill down my spine since i lost several good pictures to that last spring on my internal hd. I also apologize for the innate nerdiness of this comment; I am my father's daughter, after all :)

The One with the Adventure

Observers may note that some of us have gotten our hands on some Friends episodes (Read: new 3rd grade teacher Jenny has been holding out on us and has TWO of the seasons), resulting in my utter bliss. I think when Paul wrote that he had learned to be content in whatever the circumstances, he may have been watching friends at the time. Consequently I am a tad low on the sleep side of things.

Observers may also notice that it is 7 am. No, I am not that diligent on my own; we are off to hike and jump down waterfalls for the ENTIRE DAY! I will update on the trip, assuming I survive.

Safari Day!

Here are our pictures from yesterday! They had their choice of 1 of 2 hat styles, plus binoculars.

They had to draw the flowers. Safari isn't all fun and games. It is hard work.

They had to observe. I told them that we had to be quiet because wild animals can hear you and then eat you. This did not keep them quiet as successfully as I had hoped.

That's it! PS I changed the blog settings so you can now leave comments even if you don't have a gmail/blogger account. Enjoy!

Getting to know you...

Ok so for future reference, I have this picture of some of us from my first week here that may be helpful in matching names to faces.

back row, sort of, left to right: Cecilia, school psychologist, my roommate; Mike (orange shirt), HS math; Ashley (I love NY shirt), HS Science; Holly, lives upstairs, HS Lit; Karyn (striped shirt), HS grammar; Susan, PK-5.

Front row: Abel (striped shirt, dominican, a friend of some of the others); Tim Stanley (glasses), HS Bible; Natalie Brewer (green shirt), 4th grade; me; Alicia (teal shirt), PK 3; and front: Brooke, lives upstairs, 2nd grade teacher.

We don't have Laura, Tim's wife, 5th grade teacher, Natalia, my other roommate, who teaches the other 2nd grade class, or Jenny Fisk, the new 3rd grade teacher in this picture. I'll see what I can do about getting some of those.

Thank you!

I have to make a special note to thank the McFalls, kaylie, mama wingate, Kim, and the Brilharts for their cards. I LOVE getting cards; it makes our once every two weeks mail even better! I hang them immediately after reading on my room wall.

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!

Ready,

So I am getting ready to head off on my new adventure, and I wasn't sure when the proper time to begin posting in this would be. I can start before I get there, right?

Yesterday I sent down 2 boxes of my stuff. There is a group that flies packages for missionaries and I've signed up with them via my school to get my mail. So there's an address in Florida that all my mail goes to, and then in theory it should come to me. If for whatever reason you need this address, let me know!

Regarding phone usage and text messages, I don't know whether I will have a cell phone down there or not. Verizon told me mine would work down there, but it will be $1.99/minute, which is out of control. I can technically send and receive text messages, but those are $ .20 each, so I'll want to keep those to a minimum. I did find a great application on my iPod touch that allows me to send and receive text messages, so I'll probably be utilizing that.

I am supposed to have internet in my school and house, so I plan to be Skyping regularly! We'll see how that works out...

That's all for now, I guess! Maybe as I get antsier I'll wrote some more...