Stepping Out of the Boat

This time we decided to fly into an airport other than Miami. We have flown through there every time we have gone back and forth now, and we have never been impressed (in fact, it's been quite unpleasant). So we decided to try Newark airport instead. It was interesting when we boarded because a Dominican family (mom, dad, grandma, and three teenage children) were sitting next to us, and they had obviously never been on an airplane before that day. As we were coming into the airport we began to hit some turbulence that we didn't think much of. Both Claire and I have flown countless times, and neither of us has ever gotten sick on a plane. We didn't realize how bad it was until we noticed the daughter of the Dominican family with her head in a bag. Then just as we were a few hundred feet from the ground, the plane took back off again to circle the airport. The pilot said "busy runway", I say rookie pilot who wasn't quite sure of himself. While we were circling the airport for a half hour or so other people started getting sick as well. The flight attendants were tending to a passenger sitting a few seats ahead of us. He really wasn't doing very well. It is a good thing we had headphones and books to read to keep our minds off of what was going on around us. After finally landing we enjoyed the Borders that was inside the airport and all the English version textbooks that were inside before heading to Detroit to meet my parents.

We got to the Detroit airport around 11:30 pm and found my parent and all our suitcases. The final leg of the trip was a two and a half hour car ride that took us to my parents house. Even though we were exhausted, it was nice to spend the time visiting with mom and dad.

The next day, Friday, we woke up and all headed to Bob Evans for breakfast. Claire has had a craving for a Belgian waffle with raspberries for about a month and since there really is no good place to go for breakfast here in the city we took advantage of the situation. At breakfast we met up with Joe, Narissa and Jamie. We had a good time catching up on things, and Claire and I had a great time enjoying our breakfast choices.

After breakfast I met up with a friend of mine, Josh, to go pick up our tuxedos while Claire went with my mom and Jamie to pick out some fun snacks at Wal Mart. I wasn't able to be around my family much for the rest of the weekend. I didn't plan to be around considering I was in the wedding and we had a lot to do in the next couple days.

Josh, Brooks, another friend, and I went and got our tuxedos before heading to where Robby works to say hi to him. We made a day of it hanging out in Ft. Wayne before heading back to the rehearsal.

The rehearsal was much like every other rehearsal I had ever been to. You meet the other half of the wedding party, you practice standing while the pastor goes over the ceremony, and then you walk up and down the isle a few times so you know where you are supposed to go. From here we all headed over to the dinner. Robby's parents own a Conney Island restaurant in Angola so we used that dinning space for the meal. It was at the meal that I got the chance to see and talk with the rest of my friends, Cole, and Jason. Robby passed out his gifts to his groomsmen, a few inside jokes type items, and Kristen gave her bridesmaid their gifts. Then it was our turn to give an early present to the bride and groom. We had all pitched in to get them one of those new Nintendo Wii game consoles. More than the fact we wanted to watch them open it was the fact that we, the guys, had intended on going back to an apartment later that night and we all wanted to give the new game a try.

After the dinner we met up at the apartment where the fun really began. Living here in the Dominican Republic, not only am I surrounded by women working in an elementary school, but every other foreign teacher that I hang out with is also female. Don't get me wrong, I like each one of them and I am glad we all get along as well as we do, but there is so much finger nail painting, salad eating, chick flick watching, and birth control conversations a guy can have before he needs a break.

For those of you that have never heard of a Nintendo Wii or have never seen how one is played let me explain it to you or the pictures are going to look totally bizarre. To control your player in each game you must act out the motions you want your character to do. So you are given a controler that is similar to the remote you use for a T.V. which gives off a signal to a sensor located on the console the picks up your movement. The Wii system comes with a game that includes a variety of sports such as baseball, bowling, boxing, tennis, and golf. We had a blast trying all these different sports out and competing against each other. As you can see by the pictures, watching a person play the game is just as entertaining as playing the game itself. The first picture that I have included on the left is of me, Cole (far right) and Mike playing tennis. Then just below that is Josh showing off some of his bowling skills with Robby doing the same below him. Then on the right side is Jason showing us his perfect strike while Cole and Josh are taking each other on in the ring for a boxing match. This party lasted until 5 in the morning before we decided that it might be best to get a few hours of sleep so we wouldn't be sleeping in front of the wedding guest later that next day.

We were up at 10 ready for breakfast, showers, and a few more frames of bowling before heading to the church for pictures. We all got ready at the church around 2 before the it was our turn for pictures. The wedding was nice and went off without a hitch. A few little confusions by the wedding party on where we needed to go at certain times before and after the ceremony, but nothing that we all didn't figure out on our own.

From there we took a few more pictures and then all headed to the reception which was in a pavilion at the nearby 4H fairground. It was decorated very nicely and the food wasn't bad either. The rest of the time was spent talking to people I hadn't seen in a year if not longer and some dancing. We said our goodbyes to the people at the reception somewhere around 9:30 and by the time we got back to my parents house and pack our things we were in bed by 11.

The alarm unfortunately went off at 2 am because we need to get back to Detroit by 5 to catch our early morning flight. If you haven't been keeping up that is 6 hours of sleep the first night, 5 the second, and 3 the third for me. We were both zombies the entire trip home. The good news is we did make it back to Santo Domingo around 3 where we pretty much relaxed for the rest of the day.

We had a fantastic time, even though it was so rushed. While I was out visiting with the guys Claire's mom and Jamie, along with my parents, were able to spend time with Claire. We both feel that this trip, with as little sleep as we got, recharged our batteries and gave us what we needed to make it through this last month and a half on the island.