Stepping Out of the Boat

Here I am with Fred! This picture was meant to be on the previous post, but the uploading wasn't working. Fred, my stuffed bear that my grandmother made me a loooooong time ago, arrived in the package from my mom. I waas glad to see him - you know - a piece of home.


And now for today - WHAT A DAY!! (We feel that way after every day.)

This morning, I (Claire) wasted an entire prep period wandering around the school, a sweaty mess, trying to find a place to work that had air conditioning. I was locked out of one office area (and couldn't find the person who had the key to it) and the only other office area's airconditioning wasn't working. Every classroom is full practically every minute of every day, so I just sweat like a pig lugging around my huge bag with all my supplies, folders, papers to grade, and other materials. How I long for the days of working in a temperature controlled empty classroom that has all my stuff on shelves and in drawers!! I'll never take prep periods in the US for granted again!

After school today, we had yet another adventure. We needed to somehow send the part of our paychecks that we want to save back to the USA since it is practically illegal for us to have a bank account in $US, and since the mail absolutely does not work, we have to use a courier service. Courier services are a completely unnecessary entity in the USA because the mail works. Basically, we pay a small fee for some private company to take our mail to Miami, FL, by plane and drop it in the US mail. For one letter containing a couple checks, it cost $74 pesos (about $2.50 US). So mom- in about 2 weeks, expect the checks in the mail!

By the time we were finished with all that, it was about 4:30, at which time we thought we would go over to the cell phone company and quickly and simply sign up to get a cell phone. When are we going to learn?!? Nothing is quick and simple here!! Let me start from the beginning:

We decided to go with this French/Dominican company called "Orange" becuase it's very reasonable and because we can call places in the US for the same amount as we can call locally - a minute used is a minute used whether it's a call to the US or the DR. So, when we walked into the huge Orange headquarters, a lady at a reception desk took our name and entered our passport number into the computer. Then the madness began.

We were told to go back to "customer service," which was really a gigantic room resembling an airport waiting area with various computer stations located randomly around. It was full of people waiting. Here is their system: after you give your name to the lady out front, you go sit down and wait for them to call your name. It sounds simple enough, right? Here are the complications: the room was so loud and echoed so badly that no one could hear when their names were being called, not to mention that only three of the thirty employees actually said people's names loud enough for people ten feet away to hear. Add to that that Spanish speakers have trouble pronouncing our names.

After we finally got to talk to some one (we missed our name when it was called - big surprise) we tried to choose a phone from a list they gave us only to find out that they didn't really have half of the phones on the list. After MUCH ado, we finally, an hour and a half later, walked out of the place with a phone. All the directions are in Spanish, but we'll manage. Here's John with the phone and the bag it came in. I asked him to put a shirt on since he's not wearing a shirt in almost all the pictures we have of him, so he briefly laid the shirt on top of his chest instead of putting it on. It's so hot here!

By the way - incoming phone calls cost us nothing - so call us!! Here's our cell number: 1-829-868-2613

After we were finally done at the cell phone place, we went out to dinner with all the other foriegn teachers at this Mexican Grill called Spicey's. It was yummy. Almost anything would have tasted good since we had walked so far and waited so long for dinner.



This picture is of last night. We had a guacamole party on the roof. It's the coolest place to go at dusk and after. The avacados here cost about 12 pesos, which is about 50 cents US. They are different than the ones at home in that they are very smooth on the outside. When they get ripe, the skin doesn't get darker, they just get soft. Also, the pit in the center is HUGE, but the avacados themsleves are also much bigger. The guac was good, but on one makes it like my Dad!