Stepping Out of the Boat

Becky recently needed to get her hair highlighted, so shen went around the corner to a salon called "The Cut." It went pretty well for her there, so when I (Claire) realized that I desperately needed a trim (my hair is no longer soft and healthy because of the harsh sun and harsh water), I decided I'd just take a stroll around the corner, too.

I figured it would take about 20 minutes or so for me to get a trim, but I was wrong. Here, women go to the salon just to get their hair done for the evening. Most people go at least once a week. So, on a Friday afternoon, the salon was teeming with life. I only had to wait for about five minutes, during which I had a lovely cup of Dominican style coffee (espresso). Then, I had my trim - so much was cut off, though, that I had beter call it a cut. I thought I was finished when the hairstylist whipped out the hairdryer. For the next 40 minutes, she yanked and pulled my hair straight with a round brush and dried it until it was completely straight and dry. It was quite an experience. My neck still hurts from trying to hold my head still while she was drying my hair. So, I had straight hair for the rest of the evening.

After the haircut, we went out to dinner with the girls at this place called "Fire and Grill" - it was great! I (Claire) had the Dominican version of a burger called a chimi. I don't think it's beef, and it has great seasoning on. They serve it with a cabbage/carrot mixture on top of the meat instead of lettuce. John had a bacon cheese burger.

Christmas is a HUGE deal here. People had things decorated for Christmas in September. It took us a little while to figure out why, but it's because Thanksgiving and Halloween are'nt really celebrated here, so people go nuts with decorations quite early. Now, every store is decorated for Christmas. Here is a picture of us girls next to a decorated palm tree - they're all over the place! It's commonplace for us to see decorated palm trees now.



Saturday, I (Claire) went shopping with the girls to try and find something suitable for Joel's wedding in December - it's not easy to find winter-wear down here, but I at least have to find some closed-toed shoes. I don't want to be wearing sandals in Indiana in December! We shopped for hours and hours, but we didn't find anything. That's the way things go here a lot of the time.

Saturday night, the girls had a "wine and cheese" party. More then 20 people had said they were planning to come, but it ended up being a much smaller party than they expected. Here is a picture of some of the people who came.

The party was supposed to start at 6:30, and in typical Dominican fasshion, no one even showed up until 8:30.



Here is a picture of Sonya and Yvonne. Everyone else was on the roof at this time because Roger, a friend we've met through Holly, brought super-powerful fire crackers to play with. By the way, fireworks are in no way illegal or even discouraged here, so every night, some one is shooting off fireworks for some reason or another.
Roger's fire crackers were so loud that the sound waves they produced moved my clothing. The guys all thought it was great, but I'm not sure why a really loud thing that you light on fire and explode is fun.



Here we are at the party. The girls bought Christmas lights to put up in their apartment, and only after they had taped them up all around their apartment did they realize the lights were blinkers. Different strands light up at different times making their living room feel kind of like a disco.