Stepping Out of the Boat

We're back, and no we haven't fallen off into some Caribbean hole. Sorry that we haven't blogged in a little while. A combination of being pretty busy and not a whole lot going on has contributed to us being M.I.B.A (Missing in Blog Action). I guess after the whopper of a story we had from spring break everything seems calm. This particular post will be a quick catch up to the things that have been going on in our lives over the past week or so.

Lets start off with last weekend, the first weekend following spring break. Recently we have really started to notice that the temperature around here is starting to rise. Very soon will come the days of taking some school work and heading over to the air conditioned mall to escape the heat. As the temperature outside continues to go up so do the sauna like conditions in our apartment. When we are unable to go to the mall we head up to the roof at night where we can usually find a breeze to cool us down. It was because of this that we had the idea of borrowing a projector from the school and having our own little movie night on the roof.

We weren't sure if the school would go for the idea of letting us check out the projector for the weekend so Rebbecca was planning on "borrowing" it for her last period class on Friday and then returning it Monday morning. However we felt that if something were to happen it would look really bad on our part. So we decided to ask and be ready with a plan B. Just like everything around here simply asking and getting a yes or no is not as easy as it sounds. When we went to ask the person in charge of the computer equipment on Friday afternoon, we found that she had left early and her assistant could not allow us permission. So Becky got on the phone and after a few calls to some key people and possibly a little begging, JACKPOT, we had the projector.

That night we brought the iron couch from our apartment up to the roof along with some computer speakers and before we knew it we had our own personal movie theatre. We were able to project the screen onto the side of the stairwell that stands a little taller than I am about as wide as I am tall. Friday night the four of us, minus Kari, had a good time watching Little Miss Sunshine. Saturday night we had plans for another go at it but some light rain moved us downstairs to the girls apartment. It was a good thing that we didn't try to wait it out because it rained for most of the night. Even though it was slightly hotter in the girls apartment we again had a good time hanging out watching The Prestige together. Sunday night the sky was clear and we figured that since we had it for one more night we might as well make it three nights in a row. Overall we had great time with this. It was something new to do and more importantly it got us out of our hot apartment.


Later in the week we were able to finally hang our Doughnut of Doom in the girls apartment. It had been a few weeks, already, since we had created our countdown so we ceremoniously colored a few more sections before hanging it for display. As of today we have nine weeks left.

Wednesday was the third installment of Parent Teacher Conference at the school so we had a half day only to return at 4 and stay until 8 that night. We are all finding that the more the year progresses the less effort the students and the parents are putting forth. This was apparent after the drastic drop in appearances by parents from students in each of our classes. Oh well I guess. It made the night easier for all of us. Thank goodness we only have one more of these to sit through, too bad it is the eve of our departure from the island. I think I speak for everyone when I say we would rather be out celebrating than sitting in our classrooms handing out final report cards.

And finally in the continuing saga that is our lives, we ran into yet another problem. This time it didn't directly effect us but instead the apartment below us. A few months ago our friends that live in that apartment mentioned to us that they had begun to notice a very small water stain on the ceiling in their bathroom. Not thinking much of it at the time we told them to keep an eye on in and let us know if it got worse. Well- a fast forward to the present. Now with a huge water stain with a constant drip we all realized that the problem couldn't wait until we all left for the summer. On Wednesday we had some plumbers come over to our apartment while we were at school to see if they could find the source of the problem. When we got home that afternoon we found that they had knocked a basketball size hole in our wall and then entire length of the floor under our kitchen window had been broken out and pipes dug out. The good news is that they did find and repair the leak. The bad news is that they needed to let the pipes sit a couple days to ensure the leak was fixed. So we were unable to use our stove or kitchen sink from Wednesday to Friday when they were supposed to come back and fix the hole. On Friday Claire came home from school a little early to let the plumbers in. However, they were unable to find matching tiles and could not help us out until the next morning. So early Saturday morning again they came and spent the next four hours filling in the hole and replacing the tiles. Now there are no leaks and everything is back to normal, but our stove still doesn't work and we can't get a hold of anyone to help us. Claire really wants to be able to use it... Just another little bump in the road of inconveniences here in the Dominican Republic.