Stepping Out of the Boat

Our New Blog

2007-07-09T22:47:00.000-04:00

We have decided that since our time in the Dominican has come to an end it would only be fitting to put this blog to rest as well. However, because of popular demand we will continue to blog on our new site:

www.johnandclaireroth1.blogspot.com

So please bookmark our new blog in your favorite as this will be the new site that we will be posting to.
Thank you.

Back Home In Indiana

2007-06-26T15:35:00.000-04:00

Well we have made it home. Our last few days in the Dominican were filled with goodbyes and on last times.

First of all I just want to let everyone know that the 6th grade graduation went off without any major disasters. Other than there being no electricity to the building when we got there and the fact that instead of Pomp and Circumstance they started to play the American national anthem as the students were walking down the isle there weren't any problems. I was able to read all names without butchering them to badly and all in all it was a nice ceremony.

On Friday after our last teacher day, Kari invited anyone who wanted to stop by for one last goodbye toast. We had a nice turn out and enjoyed one last conversation with everyone. We finished off our last night with a nice dinner together and some closer friends. It was a nice way to end our last day on the island.

Our last morning we spent loading all our final belongings into our suitcases and coloring in the final pie piece on our Doughnut of Doom. It was off the the airport where were all had a snack together before loading onto a plane for JKF. It was in JFK that we all had to say our teary goodbyes. It was sad to leave our friends knowing that we wouldn't be able to share the little things in our day to day lives with each other. But we all found comfort in the fact that we will see each other again someday soon.

Claire and I were then headed to Indy. However we had to wait on the runway for about 2 hours while the log jam of planes took off. We finally took off about the time we were to be landing in Indianapolis. When we finally did land it was storming out and had to wait on the ground at the airport while the lightening in the area cleared so a ground crew could come out and park the plane. Then it took about an hour and a half for them to get our bags off the plane before we were home bound. We got to Bloomington around 1 in the morning.

Since we have been home we have been living on cloud nine. We have enjoyed going to Wal Mart, eating at choice restaurants, sleeping in our nice soft bed, taking long hot showers, and hanging out in the air conditioning not sweating our brains out. Claire and I have also gotten new cell phones since we have been home. If you would like our new numbers just send us an email and we will be glad to pass it your way. This way we don't have to post them for the entire web to see.

We would like to thank all of you that have been reading our blog over this last year. The blog has been a very enjoyable thing for Claire and I to keep up on and a great way for us to share our story with you all. For those die hard viewers out there I just want to let you know that just because we are back doesn't mean that we are going to stop blogging. I am currently working on a new page that we will be using as this new stage in our lives begins. Once again thank you all for taking time to visit and share our stories.

The Leftovers

2007-06-21T10:17:00.000-04:00

Well we are in our final stretch here now that we only have a couple days left. We just wanted to catch you up on some things that we have done in the last week that were noteworthy enough to make the blog.

This last weekend we went to our last resort here on the island. Because we didn't want to travel far we went back to the Hamaca that is in Boca Chica. It was nice to get away one last time and spend a couple days on the beach. I have included a picture from the resort but figured there wasn't much that we didn't put on the last blog entry about the Hamaca.

On Monday, which was the first teacher day, the school took the entire staff to the beach for a staff party. It really was unlike any staff party I have ever been to. It was at a Nautical Club so we had the entire place to ourselves. After swimming in the ocean, enjoying the pool, and the conversations on the beach we had a BBQ together culminate the day. It was real nice to get away from school and see our co workers in another environment.

The last couple days we have been finalizing everything at school. Packing boxes, finishing any grading, entering grades on the computer, and so on. Claire and I are done with everything so we have been coming home extra early to finish getting our apartment ready to go. I have also been attending graduation rehearsal for the 6th grade graduation that is tonight. I found out yesterday that I will be the MC of the night with my 20 page script. Ahhh the advantages to speaking English. I will probably have to put a post tomorrow letting you all know how this worked out.

Other than this mild madness we are pretty much ready to go. Because of my graduation tonight and our plans to go out tomorrow night we finished packing our bags last night. So we are living in a somewhat empty place. I think we will be able to bring back everything that we want to. I guess we will find out on Saturday.

Zoo and Bowling

2007-06-17T21:01:00.000-04:00

Sorry it has been so long since we last posted. We have been super busy finishing up the last week of exams, making sure they all get graded, and then putting the final touches on the grade cards all while packing and getting ready to come home. Our last weekend in the city was actually last weekend, June 8th. Since it was our last weekend in the city we decided to try and fit in anything that we might want to do. So the zoo it was. We weren't expecting much before we arrived. We were told that there isn't much there and what is there isn't kept up very well. We decided to see for ourselves. The Lonely Planet book that has been our trusty guide around town said it was one of the largest in Latin America.

When we got there was considered hopping back in the taxi and heading right back home. It was in a really run down part of town for one. Secondly the nice little river running in front of the entrance was filled with trash, and thirdly there were men with fire hoses out front spraying and sweeping the trash away. We pressed on. With our entrance ticket we got a free ride on the train that took us around the entire zoo but it didn't leave for another 20 minutes and we assumed that everything would be in Spanish so we decided to walk.

We started down the road with nothing but a dense forest on each side of us and a few small cages with random birds in them every 50 yards or so. It wasn't until we reached the top of the hill did things start turning up. Once we reached the hilltop we quickly realized that the entire zoo pretty much ran in a large circle. We also noticed right away that there were no cages for any of the animals. This zoo ran on the open range method and the only thing protecting you from the animals was a trench about 4 or 5 feet wide and deep that you just had to hope the animal wouldn't decide to cross.

We had a great time walking around checking out all the animals. The were rhinos, hippos, buffalo, lions, tigers, bears, alligators, the list goes on. A few of the animals did have a little more of an encloser, such as the bear, lion, and tiger, but it wasn't much more than the rest. The circle that we were walking continued to go on and on and seemed to get bigger as we found ourselves taking side paths here and there to see other animals. Before we knew any better we had been there for a few hours, were drenched in sweet, and in desperate need of something to drink. Luckily we found a stand that served drinks unfortunately for us we were in the D.R. and nothing was cold. Thank goodness there was ice. After a quick rest were were back on the trail. This time to make the last leg of our trip through the bird area. When we finally arrived back at the entrance we were exhausted and even though we had talked about the idea of taking the train just for the fun of the ride we decided to call our cab and call it a day.

Later that night, after a shower, nap, and some dinner, we decided to head out for some bowling. There is a pretty big alley just down Lincoln and we had always talked about doing it we just never had made it down there. So today was the day. It is a surprising big place with alleys on two levels. Once we had our shoes and picked out our bowling balls we were ready to play. None of us are very good and we did have to contend with some unruly Dominican teenagers sharing the lanes next to us but we all had a great time. As we were finishing up our hour of bowling Roger, Holly, and one kids Roger helps support showed up and got in on the action with us. We finished the night off by playing cards at the bowling alley while Roger and Holly finished up their game.

It was a long day but we were able to check a couple more items off the list. The next thing on the list was one last resort trip the following weekend.

Living the Duality

2007-06-06T14:43:00.000-04:00

We haven't posted a new blog recently because we've been too busy living. We are simultaneously trying to live it up and experience everything one last time while feeling extremely excited and ready to move home. It's a strange combination that makes it so we are living a duality. At school, it's final exam time, which means vast expanses of time at school to do absolutely nothing for me (Claire). For John, it means lots of time spent babysitting. We have everything done - classrooms ready to pack up, grades finished, all books and materials inventoried - and now we just have to wait for the scheduled time for our finals, grade them, and enter the grades into the computer. I've finished two books in the past two days.

Tonight, we were supposed to go bowling and play games at this game center about 3/4 of a mile south on Lincoln, but John is sick. He has a temperature of 101.666666 (converted from 38.7 Celsius because our thermometer is in degrees Celsius). He's sleeping, and I'm blogging. I have a feeling we'll spend most of the evening in the air conditioned bedroom since there's nothing worse (when you have a fever) than hanging out in a hot and humid climate.

I'll now recount last weekend's activities through narrative and photos... the photos will be added later since Blogger is having trouble uploading them at the moment.

Last weekend, we went to the Colonial Zone for the last time. It was mostly uneventful, and we didn't take a camera since we already have thousands of pictures of that part of the city. We went to the market, shopped around, walked around the whole historical area, and ended with dinner on the square in front of the first governor's mansion. We found ourselves breathing the cool evening sea breeze and realizing that we might miss this part of living here...

But as soon as we had to haggle with rude taxi drivers for a ride home, the possibility of sweet nostalgic thoughts abated. We know that when we leave, the things we love about living here will grow in our minds and loom over the more numerous unpleasant things that will continue shrinking with relative inconsequence as time moves by.

Sunday, John and I went to the national aquarium. We had heard and read that it was nothing spectacular, but we wanted to go anyway. We had a great time together looking at the sea creatures and just being together. We saw so many kinds of fish in captivity that we had previously seen in the wild, or (more than the previous kind) on ice at the fresh fish counter in the grocery store. Some of our favorite things were Mero (sea bass), which we eat quite often, and which we now know is a GIGANTIC fish, the various cockroach-looking sea creatures like lobsters, turtles, and crabs.

The only notable feature of El Acuario Nacional is a tunnel that goes through the biggest tank. We went in and stayed in it for quite some time, but it seemes all the aquatic life prefers to make rounds around the outside of the tank, so when you're in the tunnel, you can't see anything.

The aquarium is right on the coast and has a lovely walkway along the rocky coast. We spent about an hour (or more) simply watching the waves crash into the coral and rocks below, spraying us occasionally with damp saltiness. We breathed the sea, soaked in the sun, and absorbed the rhythmic sound of the ocean knowing that soon we won't be able to feel, see, and hear those things as often as we want. Indiana, unfortunately, is landlocked.

Today is Wednesday, tomorrow is a national holiday, and then we'll be experiencing our last weekend here in Santo Domingo. We're spending our last weekend in the country at a resort. Hoorah! Hopefully John will start to feel better today or tomorrow so we can fully enjoy our last weekend in the city.

Checking Things Off...

2007-05-26T20:13:00.000-04:00

With only three free weekends left in our stay here, we decided we needed to check some things off our to-do list. Marte, a teacher at school who has been really friendly with us, has a membership to a club where we've gone a few times. He invited us again a few weeks ago, but it didn't work out. We wanted to make sure we went with him one more time before June 22nd. After school on Friday, we went with him to enjoy the pool, have a snack, and John even got to play a few games of basketball. He took his basketball shoes home when we went to Robby's wedding, so he had to play in flip flops, but he was still the best one out there. I cheered for him. The other players wished they had someone to cheer for them, I'm sure.

We stayed until about seven, then went home, showered, and went to a dance club called Club 60. It was GREAT!! We didn't take the camera, but John and I danced the night away. We have gotten so good a Meringue and Salsa that we can really hold our own out on the dance floor with people who have been doing this for years. John even danced with the other girls, and they couldn't stop talking about how good he was. We'll probably go back there again before we leave because it was air conditioned and it wasn't at all sleazy. It was a dance club for dancing - not for all the other things that happen at dance clubs (I'd like to remain blissfully unaware).

Today, all the other foreign teachers went to the beach for a day. We decided that we wanted to do our own thing, and that going to the beach the way they were going would be much more of a pain than we wanted. We're going to the beach for the whole weekend in a couple weeks, anyway. So - we decided to go see El Faro a Colon instead.

We started with lunch at our favorite nearby Chinese place where we can get two meals out of one. Jade has been one of the places we've gone frequently, so we thought it worthy of a picture. Then, we called a cab and headed across the whole city to El Faro a Colon, which is a gigantic memorial made to Christopher Columbus. His real name was Cristobal Colon, but for some reason, all the American text books call him Christopher Columbus.

This monument is apparently one of the only man made structures that can be seen from outer space. You see, it's a ten-story building made in the shape of a cross, and there are extremely high powered lights all along the roof. When the lights are on, the cross can be seen shining in outer space. They very rarely turn the lights on, though, because it causes power outages all throughout the city whenever they turn them on. Inside the enormous cross-shaped building rest (reportedly) the bones of Cristobal Colon. Spain and Italy both claim they have the remains, as well, but no one knows for sure. We paid 100 pesos (about $3) to get in and see the museum inside the cross-shaped monument.

The entrance is at the top of the cross, and in the center, where the four "arms" meet, there is a large marble monument that houses the remains. It is guarded all the time by an armed guard dressed in white. The bones are in the black box close to the ground in the middle of the monument. I'm standing by it in the picture to the right.

In the long hallway that makes the longest part of the cross, there are rooms containing artifacts from the native peoples of countries all over the world. We weren't supposed to take pictures in these rooms, but we did anyway. There were no lights on in the whole thing, so some of the exhibits were hard to see. We found it ironic that the memorial to Cristobal Colon would contain artifacts from native peoples from around the world since one of the things he did first on the island of Hispanola was to completely eliminate the native people who lived here. He eliminated them by working them to death and letting their language and culture fall into obscurity. No one knows what the Taino culture was like. He also brought Catholicism. I'm sad that the cross was a symbol of destruction and death to those people.

The museum would be really cool if they would turn the lights on in the exhibits. I'm not referring to the superpower lights on top - I just wanted to see the stuff inside the museum. If there wasn't a window in the room (and most rooms didn't have windows), we couldn't really see anything. It was interesting nonetheless. We can check it off our list.

After we had finished there, we called another cab and headed to the old Colonial section of the city where we walked around (about 5 miles of walking) to make sure we had seen and taken pictures of everything we want to before we go. Here to the left is on of the first hospitals in the new world. It was built in 1503 and was one of the only buildings in Santo Domingo that survived the raid by the pirate Drake in the 1600s. Now it is inhabited mostly by pigeons, and the roof is no longer there.

We looked at several other old churches (besides the first cathedral in the New World) and some other old buildings. The first monastery was destroyed by Drake the pirate, and rebuilt several times after numerous fires and hurricanes. Then, it became an asylum for the insane. It was all locked up, so we couldn't go inside, but our Lonely Planet Guide to the Dominican Republic said that you can still see the iron chains in the walls that were used to restrain the "patients" in the asylum. YIKES!

After a long day of walking (it was cloudy today, otherwise we might not have survived), we were sweaty and tired, so we got some pop and sat down on a bench in the square by the first church to watch people. We saw an extremely conspicuous group of about 40 Americans all in matching T-shirts milling around by the statue of Cristobal Colon. They were acting really annoying in the way Americans act annoying abroad, and John and I were a little embarrassed for them. For a moment, we wished we didn't look so much like Americans.

It has been a great weekend so far. Tomorrow, we might try to go to the national aquarium so we can cross that off our list, too.

A Weekend Full of Fun (and Sweat)

2007-05-20T17:31:00.000-04:00

Kari's twin brother, Jason, came to visit this weekend, so we all tried to show him a good time. It was a busy, sweaty weekend, but it was fun.
We're getting to the point when we want to try to get everything in before we leave. We're counting the days until we get to come home (five weeks!). This has been a great experience, but we can't wait to get away from all the stress and craziness at school and to come back to our comfortable lives that involve all the modern conviences (air conditioning, washers and dryers, etc.) and, more importantly, friends who share our values and lifestyle. We miss our friends and family and the positive influence they have in our lives. So... here we go with the weekend:

Friday night was our friend Roger's birthday. No one knows exactly how old he is, but we know he's somewhere close to fifty. We took him out for dinner to a place we like called Bob's. It was fun, but we spent so much time sitting around waiting for people to be ready that we didn't get to dinner until about nine pm. Then, when dinner was done, half of us were tired and didn't want to go anywhere else and the other half wanted to go out dancing. People ended up getting upset, and the evening didn't end on a good note. Even though we don't write about it in the blog often, that happens often.

Saturday was Field Day at school. In the USA, Field Day usually means that a school day is devoted to fun and games for the students - sports competitions, prizes, everyone wins, etc. Here, Field Day means that on a Saturday, the school rents out an empty baseball field, fills it with carnival-like games, and requires the teachers to sign up for two hours of service. Students come, eat Dominican carnival food, and play the games. All of the foriegn teachers signed up for the same two hours since we don't have cars and had to take a taxi to the location. John and I ended up in charge of the bungee-run game. When we got there at 10 (the whole thing was supposed to start at 9), nothing was ready. So, for the first hour of our time, we sat in the shade and talked. The second hour, we did our duty in the scorching sun. It was so hot that the bungee-run thing got too hot for the kids to touch. We were relieved of our duties a little late, and then we had lunch (Dominican hot dogs and ice cream) and took off for activity #2 of the day. By the way, Dominicans put really weird things on their hot dogs, but it tastes great. From what we can tell, here's a list of the toppings: catchup, mustard, chili, relish (all normal), fake squirtable cheese, marinated cabbage, mayonaise, onions, and little shaved fried potatoes. I'm sure they're terrible for us, but they sure taste good!

Activity #2 for the day (by this time all of us had soaked through our clothes with sweat) was to visit some famous caves close to the city called Los Tres Ojos (which means The Three Eyes). We had heard of them before but didn't know exactly where they were or anything, but we decided they were a must-see before we leave the island for good. It was a great experience! Here we are on the left descending into the caves. We thought it would be cooler down there, and perhaps it was a few degrees cooler, but the humidity was three times as pronounced. Our clothes stayed wet with sweat.

There were three freshwater lakes down in the caves, and we saw fish and turtles swimming around. What a peaceful place! We also saw some bats flying around. We were thankful for them because we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes. For ten pesos (about 3o cents), we took a little raft over to another cave and lake that opened up all the way up to the sky. It was really beautiful.

After we climbed out of the caves, we went for a walk in a pretty garden area that was above ground right above the caves. John took some nice pictures of flowers, and by the time we got into the taxi, we were all exhausted. It's amazing what heat can do to you. We were all zapped of all energy.

We wish we could have taken our parents to see the caves and garden.

By the time we got home and showered, John and I were both so exhausted that we took a 2

hour nap. It was heavenly after such a long day in the sun and heat. We planned to meet in Kari's apartment for a pre-dinner game of poker. We all put in 10 pesos (about 30 cents), so that the winner of the game would win the tip for the cleaning ladies this next week. We all give about 50 pesos for a tip. We had a fun time playing poker. In the end, it came down to John and Kari, and since it was passed time for dinner (again), John made decisions he would not have usually made so that the game would end. Kari won. I stayed in for a long time and won several big hands. Later, John told me he was proud of my poker skills.

We had decided to go to this place called Yatoba for dinner. For months, every time we walk passed it, I say,"I'd really like to go there sometime. It looks so nice!" Last night, my wish came true, and we went to Yatoba. It was my kind of place. I like classy restaraunts where the waitors are good, where the food comes out looking like art, where the table clothes and napkins are soft linen... it was wonderful! The amosphere was sophisticated, and my sushi was served to me in a very aesthetically pleasing way. It tasted as good - or better - than it looked. YUM!! Everyone else really enjoyed their meals, too, and here's the bonus: it wasn't even that expensive! We've got to go back sometime in the next five weeks.

After dinner, we had planned to meet up with the French teacher from school and her husband to go dancing. We ended up at this really seedy disco. It was too dark in there, and who knows what was going on in the middle of the dance floor. It wasn't very fun. The music was so loud that it was painful to my ears. But, we went somewhere new, and now we know not to go back. In the end, John and I went home with Pauline and Leo (the French teacher), and everyone else went to another dance place.

I think Jason ended up having an okay time. John really loved having him around because John has spent the last school year hanging out with only women. He really misses his guy friends, and it was great for him to be able to hang with a guy. He's been such a trooper this year! We can't wait to come home.

Going Dancing!

2007-05-14T17:38:00.000-04:00

We've been taking Salsa and Merengue dance lessons for quite some time now. Every Monday and Thursday, we walk about a half mile to Kiko's dance studio to learn how to dance like Dominicans... well, almost like Dominicans. We finally got to put our knowledge to the test on Saturday night when we went out to dinner and out dancing with some Dominican friends. It was a blast! John had more moves that most of the Dominican guys on the dance floor, and we were one of the few couples bold enough to go out on the floor when Salsa was playing. (It's a much more difficult dance than Merengue.) The picture on the left is all of us at a place called La Mora. It is a seafood place in a part of town that we usually steer clear of... it's not the most prosperous part of town. Our French friend, Pauline, and her husband and brother took us there. The atmosphere was nothing worth mentioning, but we got an incredible amount of good food for a very small amount of money. For 100 pesos (US $3.00), you get a plate mounded with fresh shrimp with a side of boiled yucca. It was great! (And the extra bonus is that none of us ended up sick.)

After we finished dinner around 9:00 pm or so, we headed to the dancing place. This is a very local and authentic bar/dance club that is frequented only by Dominicans (except for Saturday night when a bunch of foriegners showed up). We danced our hearts out, but neither John nor I have any idea what the name of the place is....

In the pictures, I'm in the blue shirt dancing with the tall handsome dude in jeans (John), and our friend Kari is wearing the pink and black floral dress. She and the other girls danced with the other men in our group as well as some random Dominicans who had enough guts to ask them. Only one was acting inappropriate.

It was a great place, but the music was so loud I could feel my clothing vibrating against my skin with the beat of the music. Needless to say, we didn't enjoy any conversation, stimulating or otherwise, because it was impossible to hear anyone talk even if they were shouting in your ear. It was also hotter than a sauna, which makes an unpleasant (that's an understatement) environment for dancing. John and I were both soaked with sweat. John's favorite phrase sums it up: "My back is a waterfall right now." It was so hot that my hair was soaked with sweat and my shirt was wet.... and when you dance you have to touch other people... gross! It was fun nonetheless.

Claire's Thoughts on the Weekend and Literature Fair Part 1

2007-05-10T18:48:00.000-04:00

Claire's Thoughts on the Weekend at Home:
I LOVED being back in familiar territory! What's that saying about a candy store and a kid? Well, that's how I felt in Walmart! So much variety! So many familiar things! Everything in English! It was fabulous. I really loved being back and seeing family and friends. I certainly didn't see much of John, but he got his much needed guy time. My favorite things about being home over the weekend:

1. Love from family and friends
2. Driving a car
3. Coffee that is smooth and tasty (instead of so acidic that it gives me an upset tummy)
4. Hot showers
5. Staying clean after my hot shower
6. Not being sweaty
7. Mom Roth's chicken salad
8. Sleeping under a down comforter
9. Feeling cool breeze on my face
10. Not having to hide from the sun

I could go on, but I think you get the point. I'm ready to move back.

The Literature Fair:
The past three weeks in school have been spent gearing up for today and tomorrow. I'm actually surprised that I'm still alive right now after the day I had (John,too). The Literature Fair at St. Michael's is a great idea, like so many things that happen there, but... well, it never goes quite like it's supposed to.
The premise of the Literature Fair is that every class in the school puts together some presentation having to do anything they've done in Literature or Social Studies class recently. John and I are both doing plays with our students. John's doing a cute play called The Phantom Toll Booth, and I'm doing a patched-together and modernized version of Romeo and Juliet. Unlike Shakespeare's version, mine is a comedy. If Juliet is giggling when she is supposed to be stabbing herself to death, the audience isn't going to be wiping their eyes because of the the tragedy of it all...
I lived through three performances of 9th Grade's Romeo and Juliet the Comedy That's Not Quite Funny Enough to Make You Laugh Out Loud today, and I have to live through three tomorrow. I think I have about a 60% chance of survival (up from my 30% chance this morning). The first one was so bad that I apologized to the audience afterward and thanked them for being polite. The other two were livable, but most definitely not sad or moving in any way. That's not entirely true... I do have two or three students in each class who did some work on their lines and are almost convincing. I was almost convinced, for example, that, for five minutes during the balcony love scene, Romeo and Juliet were actually in love. Everything else is less than mediocre. In fact, once today, Tybalt didn't even attend the Capulet feast, so he had no chance to get angry with Romeo and want to kill him later, which made the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt later in the play a non-sequiter. Oh, dear. Also, during a performance today (the one that the Director and Sub-director decided to attend, of course), the audience could see most of one of Juliet's breasts after she had died because the poor girl's dress was too big on her. Oops. Of course, we never got to practice with costumes before today because on the dress rehearsal day, only four people had costumes.

If you are not in any way acquainted with or interested in the plot and characters of Romeo and Juliet, I heartily apologize for the above paragraph. You only need know that I came home today completely exhausted and discouraged as did John... only he spent the whole day out in the hot sun trying to keep control of his students who weren't acting at the time, trying to tell them when to make their entrances and exits. We'll be happy when 3:00 tomorrow rolls around.

One of the third grades chose to do their performance on Eskimos (yes, I realize that is not the most politically correct word to use, but that's the one they used), and John had the pleasure of taking his class to see it today. When he walked into the room, this is what he saw: "snow" scenery painted all over the room, "snow" flying off the ceiling fan as it whirred above the little Eskimos, all of the little kids dressed from head to toe in winter garb - puffy down-filled coats with hoods up, mittens, snow boots laced up to their knees... and here's the kicker: the air conditioner in that room broke this morning and never got fixed. John spotted a chubby little kid whose limp hair was sticking out from under his tied hood... his hair was dripping sweat, and his round cheeks were red and shiny from the heat. What we wonder is why the Dominican 9-year-olds have such comprehensive winter garb.

We'll update you on the goings on of the second half of the Literature Fair tomorrow (with pictures)... if we survive.

A Weekend Wedding Visit

2007-05-09T20:02:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in the last post we got back to the city on Monday night from the resort only to have a two day work week before it was time to start thinking about the weekend. This wasn't just any normal weekend trip however; we were heading home. We had half of our bags packed well before it was time to go. Our plan was to take a bunch of thingsthat we aren't going to need anymore home making our trip in June a lighter one. On Wednesday night we finished packing and then had the luxury of sleeping in a little Thursday morning before heading to the airport around 9:30. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and after a small snag of being dropped off at the wrong airline counter, we found our way through the security check and onto the plane.

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.

The Hamaca

2007-05-07T21:05:00.000-04:00

This might be a little late and even though the resorts that we are visiting are starting to all look the same we couldn't let a trip to a resort just pass by without sharing it with everyone. It wasn't the most memorable trip that we have taken but it was still a nice little get away. We decided to take advantage of the Dominican holiday(a.k.a. a three day weekend) and head to Juan Dolio which is only about a half hour away. Another reason for our trip this time was that Kari's parents were flying in to spend time with her. They had flown in a day before and were waiting for us at the resort. We left as soon as we could after school on Friday hoping to get there around 3:30. However this is the Dominican and nothing ever runs the way it supposed to. On the way there we ran into a traffic jam that turned out to be a riot. After the police shot off some tear gas and the mob cleared the traffic began to flow. However, as the gas blew away the crowd return just as we were about to pass. We quickly sped by as we noticed fires in the streets and watched some cars get kicked on the way by. We never really knew what everyone was so upset about. What an adventure.

We finally made it to the resort, unloaded our things, and headed to the pool. After some floating around we got ready and decided to try the Mexican restaurant for the first night. It was nice to get to know Kari's parents while enjoying some good food that we didn't have to walk a mile to go get.

The next day we spent the day on the beach. This particular resort is located next to a bay so instead of playing in the waves the still water allowed from some excellent snorkeling. That first day Kari and I snorkeled around the bay and then headed out a few hundred yards to where the waves were breaking against the coral in hopes to find some other underwater creatures. The water was shallow and we were in luck as we saw all sorts of fish and other spinney sea creatures. The next day when I went back out with Claire I took along a Frisbee and was able to scoop one out of the water to take a closer look at it. Other than our little excursion the day was pretty uneventful, just the way we like it. In the later afternoon we would head to take a dip in the pool to get some of the salt water off before heading up to the room for a nice long hot shower and a nap. The last day we were there we decided to take advantage of some of the water sports the resort offered. I had my first go at windsurfing while we were there. It started off with Kari's dad giving it a try and then I went out to see if I could do it. Before long everyone had their chance. We were a little late for the instruction class that was offered so everything we did was an experiment. The lack of a good strong wind didn't help our cause any however, there was enough of a steady breeze to do the trick. After a few attempts I was able to go at it alone and travel down the beach a bit. The hard part for me was maneuvering it into the wind to get back to where I started. I am far from a professional, I would even go as far as to say I am far from good but it was fun to try something new and I would definitely be willing to give it another go the next time we head to the beach.

Like I mentioned earlier the resort was similar to others we have been to. We had Italian the second night, Dominican the third night, and the beach buffet for lunch and breakfast. We got nice tans and in my case a little burnt. The drinks were refreshing. The dance club at night was loud and hopin. And best of all the rooms were air conditioned.

The three days went by fast but we had a great time. It was a nice little get away before the crazy week that was to follow. After just a short two days at school we got ourselves ready to board a plane and head home for the weekend and a wedding. That story is yet to come.

The Jitter Bug???

2007-04-30T22:07:00.000-04:00

We have come to that point in the school year between spring break and the end of the year where the kids are crazy and the teachers are starting to put it in autopilot and holding on tight trying to ride it out. We are also in the final stages of our stay here, or so we keep telling ourselves. We have eight weeks left to experience anything that we have missed along the way. Until our time is up we dance.

We have been taking dance lessons for about 6 or 7 weeks at a studio that is about 7 blocks away from a guy named Quico. This is the same place that Claire and the girls took cardio classes earlier in the year. We found out about this place because he used to teach some sort of dance lessons to students at St. Michael's. Now he just keeps to the studio.

We are currently involved with a couple different classes at the same time. On Monday we go for Salsa and on Thursday we dance Meringue. The first few weeks were made up mostly of us standing in a line facing the large mirror in the front of the room as Quico taught us the basic steps. We worked on our few steps forward and back and our couple steps to the side. In the way of meringue, we learned how to shake our hips. The phase that followed consisted of us learning different steps in each dance and then practicing them over and over until we felt like we had it.

Now, before I go any further let me explain something. There are five of us, me being the only guy other than the instructor. This makes four girls and only two guys. Ever since those first couple lessons where we were all doing the basic exercises, the hour has been made up of me dancing the entire class while the girls rotate between Quico and I. The second phase that I was telling you about earlier weren't so bad either as we were taking our time learning each step. However, we are now to the point where all the steps have been learned and it's just a matter of putting them together. When we get to class now Quico just turns on the music and we dance for the entire hour. When I say "we" I mean I dance for the entire hour while the girls get to rest every other song.

If the physical exhaustion wasn't enough to do me in, keep this is mind. Along with being the token male of the group also comes the responsibility of memorizing all the moves and then learning how to lead each one. All the girls are in charge of is making sure they are keeping the beat with their feet.

I know you are probably thinking something along the lines of "at least you are getting your moneys worth" or "you are getting more practice" but knowing that we still have 3 weeks of classes left all I can think of is how tired I am.

In a completely unrelated story, but an instance that we thought was blog worthy, is that the leak in the apartment plumbing still has not been fixed. This means that plumbers had to come back into our apartment to rip up more of the tiles in our kitchen to find the problem. They again think that they have it this time. Until tomorrow, when they come back to fill in the hole and replace the tile, we are currently living with a giant hole that runs along the wall in our kitchen.

The morning after this second attempt Claire woke up to find the surprise of the month crawling in the bathroom, and no it wasn't a jitter bug. After screaming and waking me up Claire explained that there was a small snake looking bug crawling across the floor and that I need to take care of it. I got to the bathroom just in time to see it craw down the drain that is next to our bathtub. So I dumped some water down the drain hoping to flush it out. After a second or two it crawled back out where I was then able to scoop it up with the dust pan and put it into a Tupperware for a closer look. It turns out that intruder is a red giant centipede that is about as long as my hand from finger tip to the base of my palm. As we read online this particular centipede is poisonous but not fatal. If bitten swelling and a bad case of a flu like sickness would most likely be the result. We have since disposed of our brief pet and are now on the lookout for any of his relatives.

Ahhhh the Dominican

The Mercado Modelo and Dinner in the Colonial Zone

2007-04-22T10:32:00.000-04:00

We needed to take a trip back to the Dominican market before May 3rd (when we're coming home for John's best friend's wedding) to get some wedding presents and some things for ourselves. This past Saturday was the last chance we had before May 3rd because of trips to the beach and other things that have filled up our schedule. We ended up buying several painting for ourselves, the wedding presents, of course, as well as some amber jewelery. We hope to go back one more time before we come home for good. It's always a fun experience, although a little stressful because the vendors are so aggressive.

After we were done at the market, which closes at 5:00, we decided to stick around the Colonial Zone for dinner. Rebecca and John wanted to catch part of the Red Sox/Yankees game, so we hung out in a Dominican bar where the game was playing. They cheered with the Dominicans who were watching the game, and the Red Sox came out victorious. At that point, dusk was settling on the city, and we decided to head to the ancient square by the first governor's house (it was Christopher Columbus' nephew's house) where we hoped to have dinner. The old colonial streets were all lit up with the old fashioned lamps, and the heat had abated with the retreat of the sun. The atmosphere smacked of history and relaxation at the same time. We enjoyed our stroll down El Conde (a street built only for pedetrians) on the way to the square.

When we arrived at the square, the governor's house was all lit up, and there were people setting up on a stage for some kind of live music. We knew there were several cafe type places on the square, and we hoped to get a table outside since the night breeze was cool. We ended up going to this place called Harry's where we sat at a table right on the edge of the square. It was beautiful! We had a tasty dinner with lively conversation and some live Dominican music, and we left full, relaxed, and content to live in the Caribbean for another day. As I am typing this post(on Sunday), the rain clouds have rolled in, and there is a strong cool breeze billowing through our apartment. What a great day to stay home and read a book! School has been VERY stressful lately, and this weekend was the perfect combination of entertainment and relaxation. Perhaps we'll be able to make it through this coming week with less pain so that we can take off for the beach on Friday. Hoorah! (Actually, it's really sad that it's Sunday, and I'm looking past the week to next weekend. I want to love both my work week and my weekends - hopefully we'll be able to go back to that kind of life on June 24th, our first day after moving home.)

Movies, Doughnut, PTC, and A Leaky Pipe

2007-04-21T23:18:00.000-04:00

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.

Easter at the Oldest Church in the New World

2007-04-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

We live in the city that houses the very first church built in the "new world" by Christopher Columbus (it was really built by thousands of Taino slave laborers who died in the process), so we decided there was no better place to go on Easter Sunday than the oldest church. We had no idea what time the services were going to start, and that congregation doesn't seem to have a website announcing service times, so we just guessed. Sunday morning came, we got up and ready, and we were in a taxi on the way to the Colonial Zone by 8:45 am.

Easter Sunday came a few days after our adventure on Pico Duarte, so we were still recovering, in a way, and we were dragging a little bit. Rebecca and I both had a bit of an upset stomach, but we thought it was worth it to be in such a historically significant church on Easter Sunday even though there are few bathrooms to be found in the Colonial Zone.

We arrived to the Colonial Zone by 9 a.m. only to find out that the service started at noon. We were three hours early, and paying to take a taxi home and back to the church was not an option. So - we decided to sit around and waste three hours waiting for the church to open. Everything was closed, so we couldn't look around at stores, but there was one cafe that was open. We decided to have some fresh tropical fruit juice and some brunch. Then, we sat there and watched people for a very long time. Becky and I had tummy troubles from the end of brunch until we left the church.

We had waited around until 11:30, when the sun was starting to turn the city into a sauna, when we were feeling pretty uncomfortable and ready to go home, and we decided that it was silly to wait all that time just to wimp out a half hour before the service, so we stuck it out. Around that time, a man with a cart came around selling toys for kids. None of the toys were quiet, and some parents near us bought their little kids some ear-piercing whistles which were the bane of our existence for the last brutal half our of our waiting time. Parents here don't care if their kids are obnoxious in public.

Finally, the gates of the church were opened at about five till noon, and we went in. We decided to stay for only a little while since a) we had upset tummies, b) we couldn't understand a word of what was being said in the service, and c) Dominican masses are VERY long, and we had already spent three hours there. The time we were there in the service was definitely worth the wait, the discomfort, the incredibly shrill and unsettling whistles, and the oppressive heat.

While we sat in the church waiting for the service to start, I tried hard not to think of the complete historical significance of La Catedral Primera because it made me sad to think of how many native people died building it and of how the priests and other Spaniards who were overseeing the building were the only representation of Christ that those people had. It didn't work. Sitting inside the cathedral, looking at the hand-carved stones and the pieces of coral in the walls of the church, I was infinitely sad for the entire race of people who were killed off in a fairly short amount of time by the Catholic Spaniards who came to conquer the area.

Then I started to think about how many generations of people had worshiped God in that very place, how many songs of praise had echoed and reverberated through the long hall and out the heavy gates into the city. I thought of the countless priests who had given their lives to serving God and people in that church. I took in the aesthetic beauty all around me - the classic architectural style from centuries ago, the ancient paintings, the richly dark and heavy wood altar contrasting with the cool light color of the stone and coral in the walls, the slightly primitive stained glass windows high above us, the new and fresh flowers (bright red and yellow) adorning the isle and altar whose light fragrance occasionally wafted by my nose, the doves who had nested high up in the unreachable corners of the room looking down on us, the shafts of light shooting in through the tiny octagonal grates up by the ceiling and cutting through the dust particles to give the light a shape, the perfectly cut symmetrical slabs of coral that made up the ceiling, the mathematically sound patterns and arches criss-crossing all over the arched ceiling ... and I saw how all of those things came together to give praise and pay homage to God. How beautiful, and the service hadn't even started yet.

I appreciated the coolness that the stone building provided, the protection from the hot sun, as we sat and waited for the service to begin. A small and shabby-looking choir filed in at the front. I knew they were the choir because they were all wearing matching (and slightly dusty) polyester choir robes - really heavy dark red and beige ones. They lined up close to the front of the church, the first notes of a very old pipe organ sounded, and then, it seemed, I was transported to another dimention...

As the powerfully simple melody of the organ began to play, those polyester clad choristers transformed into a small heavenly host belting out a delicate yet passionate melancholy melody with intricate harmonies and counter melodies weaving in and around the soulful tune. Their voices filled the cathedral, resonating and reverberating so that it seemed I was breathing, touching, utterly surrounded by the full and magnificent song to God. It consumed all of my senses, and my imagination flew to the heights of heaven where I hope I get to hear and sing songs like that for eternity.

As the choir sang, some doves fluttered to and fro above us as if to say, "We agree! Sing on!" It was really a magical moment... sitting in that ancient church, thinking about how many people had sat where I was and witnessed a glimpse of heaven on earth in the form of song. How many thousands of times had that very song been sung by an equally shabby looking choir to produce such transcendence? I realized again (like I had at the top of Pico Duarte) my relative insignificance in the grand scheme. It's rather comforting, really.

As soon as the pipe organ ceased and the choristers were silent, a powerful echo and a holy silence filled the church. Then, the spell was completely broken, the transcendence removed, as a man walked up to the old poor-quality microphone in the front of the church and began to mumble into it. He was speaking Spanish, but even if he had been speaking English, we couldn't have understood a word he was saying. Shortly after, we decided to head home.

There you have it... Easter Sunday at the first church in the "new world" - we were really only in the church for half an hour, but it was spiritual and awe-inspiring.

Rancho Wendy (a.k.a Rancho Weirdo) and Pico Duarte

2007-04-06T11:39:00.000-04:00

Our adventure started on Monday April 2 as Rebbecca, Claire, and I rolled into Carrefour, a grocery store on the north side of town, at 10 in the morning. Marshall, the head honcho of Rancho Wendy, arrived shortly after to pick us up. With the girls in the front of the truck and me with the gear in the back we head a couple hours north to the ranch. Everything seemed normal enough until we arrived at Rancho Wendy. We quickly realized that the website is a bit misleading. (Blue text notates additions by Claire.) Actually, on the ride to the ranch, I was talking to Marshall about his website (the one we linked in previous posts), and when I first mentioned it, he laughed and said, "All lies! Ha ha!" I thought he was joking, but I wasn't sure, so I laughed. That's when I first wondered if we were in for something different than we expected. Also, we stopped to get gas on the way, and Marshall was displeased with the price of gas. He said to me, "I think I'm being had." I said in response, "I think we probably get had here about once a week, but there's not much we can do about it." Marshall shrugged. The situational irony of the conversation is killing me now. Back to John's narration:The room was a small little concrete room off the side of a run down house, right next to the "swimming pool" that didn't have any water in it. As you can see by the pictures, the bed and the shower/bathroom weren't exactly the Holiday Inn. The bed was lumpy and squeaked everytime you looked at it. The shower and sink didn't have hot water and there was only one good light in the entire place. There was a stream that ran next to the ranch but could easily have been jumped and was hardly something that you would want to take a refreshing dip (in since the water was a light grayish color). I would say the only redeeming quality of the ranch was the view. We were set in the mountains way off the beaten path. After getting settled in we started looking for something to do to pass the time. As you can imagine the options were limited. We mostly spent our time reading and napping. That was until Marshall asked us if we wouldn't mind helping out with some work around the place. Can you believe that? He recently had some guests that left some baseball equipment to be given out to the children in the neighborhood and he wanted us to sort it into piles so that he could give different teams each a set. Being guests at his ranch who paid to be there, we thought this was way out of the question but did it anyway probably more just for something to do. Here is a shot of Becky and I doing the work while Marshall stands over us telling us what to do. In the afternoon we decided to go on a walk down the road to check out the sights so Marshall sent a kid that works for him doing things around the ranch with us. It was a nice walk that followed a real river. While we were at the ranch we met a girl named Amie who had arrived about a week before us. She is from Colorado and was hired by a person at the ranch to help out with some computer business they had there. You see, Marshall has a side business that he runs out of his house. We aren't too sure of the details, but from what we could gather it is some sort of satellite business that is based in Portland, and he helps sell parts to computers here in the D.R. However; something happend and now he is being sued by someone and is in need of someone to help him try and cover it up. That is why Amie was hired. The funny thing is, the person who hired her quit working at the Ranch the day before she got there and was left to figure all this out on her own. She told us that she spent the first few days going over documents and speadsheets that Marshall had on file trying to get things straightened out. At the same time she was to be tutoring Marshall's 13 year old daughter Wendy 4 or 5 hours a day even though she isn't a teacher. Wendy has lived her whole life at the ranch, has never been to school, and basically gets to do whatever she wants. Amie spent the whole morning trying to get Wendy to answer "yes" or "no" to questions because she refused to talk. The whole thing was quite absurd. The air was thick with tension. Marshall was shouting at everyone - his wife, his employees, the minors he has working for him, Amie... who would want to spend time there to relax? The entire thing was a really weird deal. Amie was only going to be there for a month to help out. She has a minor in Spanish and was hoping to come and see the country and practice her Spanish. She is an outdoors person so she figured working at a place like Rancho Wendy would be a good way for her to go on some excursions. That is not what it turned out to be for her at all. Feeling sorry for her and knowing she was only going to be in the country for a month, we invited her to come back to the city with us and stay in one of our spare rooms until the month's end. So that was plan. She was going to quit on Friday, the day we got back, and come back to the city with us. More on this story later. That night we made a bonfire and tried to get to bed early because of our big day ahead.

After a not-so-great night's sleep that consisted of me having to get out of bed twice to throw stones at a barking dog, we awoke at 6 to get out of that place, I mean get a start on the day. We all rode in the back of the truck to the base of the mountain which was about two and a half hours from the ranch. When we arrived, Marshall had to talk to the guides and have them round up a few more mules because, for whatever reason, he thought that two mules for the three of us, a guide, and all our stuff was enough. We had to convince him otherwise. We ended up with five mules total: two for the gear and three for us,which meant we need another guide to come along. We had a quick lunch at the base camp, consisting of salami sandwiches on stale bread. The food was included in our price, and was supposed to be supplied, but while we were at the ranch, we had to go through and request more and a little better variety than a bag of rice and a bunch of dented cans of lasagna. Our choices weren't great but would have to make do. I never want to see Dominican salami again, let alone smell it or eat it.

Because the other mules weren't ready yet, we started off with one guide to Los Tablones, our first camp stop, about an hour away where we would wait for the other guide and mules to join us. The guides spoke no English, so I spoke a lot of Spanish during this time. It was great practice for me, and I realized how much my Spanish has improved since moving here. I did, however, end up saying many times, "We're so dirt," instead of dirty. Oops. We aren't sure why they put the first stop an hour into the hike and then have everyone hike for 10 hours the second day only to end up a couple hours shy of the summit, but its the Dominican and we stopped asking those kind of questions a long time ago. I found it especially fitting that the camping stops were in the absolute most inconvenient places. It just fits so well with the way everything else goes around here. Along the way we stopped at a river to take in the view and some pictures. It was only around noon and we had all day to get there so we figured we could take our time a little. We got to Los Tablones around 1. We were hoping to maybe swim and clean off a little, considering that this was day two without showering, but our gear was still no where to be found. It would arrive "ahorita," which means literally in Spanish "now-ish" but according to my experience it really means "I have no idea when" or "sometime within the next three and a half days". We ended up passing the time by laying on some rocks, skipping stones, and staring off into space. Finally around 4 our bags got to camp just as dark clouds and cold breezes rolled in. It was too cold to swim so we grabbed a quick something to eat and found our books to read. While we waited our guide picked some unripe mini guava and shared those with us. That is what I am trying out in this picture. When it started to get dark and a little colder our guides made a fire and prepared dinner. Using what sparse options Marshall pack for us they made a very delicious meal. It consisted of mostly rice, which the guide had to go back down the mountain to get more of because Marshall didn't pack enough, a vegetable call tayota that was growing near camp, and some spices of their choice. After dinner we sat around the fire waiting for 8 o'clock to roll around so that we could go to bed. We were waking up at 5 the next morning to get a start and figured 8 would be a good time to go to bed. Sleeping on the concrete floor wasn't very nice and having to keep an eye out for the rats that were around didn't help any of us get the kind of sleep one might need to climb a mountain the next day. I didn't sleep a wink that whole night. I was awake listening to the various and frequent bumps and scampers in the night. My imagination ran wild. When the alarm finally went off at 5 am, I couldn't have been happier. Nevertheless we were up at 5, packed our things, ate some stale cornflakes, and started up the mountain by 6. Our guides stayed back to get the mules ready and told us they would catch up to us. It was dark and cold but before long the sun was coming up, the blood was flowing, and we were shedding some of our layers.

About an hour into the hike the guides and mules caught up to us and it was then that we got our first chance to ride. We rode for another hour or so before coming to the next check point. If you click on the picture of Claire standing in front of the sign earlier in the blog you can see our trek and the stop points along the way. At the first stop, we got off just long enough to stretch our legs before it was back on the mules for a couple more hours of riding. We all had good intentions of walking part of the way but it didn't take much of walking up an eighty degree rocky slope before you were ready to let the mule do the work. As it turned out, our routine usually consisted of us starting from each check point walking about an hour until the mules caught up to us, then riding a couple hours to the next point. It was a good balance of exercise and rest. Just for the record, riding a mule is in no way "rest". I think it takes more muscle to stay on a mule going up or down that kind of slope than it does to walk. Along the way I was able to take pictures of the spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and a few shots of us riding on the mules. It was really cool to travel up the mountain and see the changing environments. We started the morning in a nice green wet environment and certainly noticed a change about half way up as things dried out and became dead looking. Another cool thing was to travel through the clouds and see the clouds rolling by. There were a couple times when we felt like Frodo from Lord of the Rings walking through the mist in a dead looking forest as things were eerily quiet. There was one time when everything was so quiet that I fully expected to see Orks charging to attack over the next hill. The mists and the trees and the trail all mixed together to create a trully fantastical environment. At each check point there was a sign that let you know where you were and how high you had made it. We made a point of taking a picture at each of these stops to commenorate the fact that we had made it. Looking at our pictures you will also notice a red flower that, unfortuanalty we can't remember the name of, Claire really liked. The flowers were blood red, and they caught my eye at every turn. They seemed to jump out of the forest at me because their color was so different from the rest of the surroundings. If we were in a novel, those flowers would have been foreshadowing for violence or bloodshed. I'm glad we weren't in a novel. They would pop up every now and then along the trail most of the way to the top.

Near the top, about 2 hours from the top, is a stop called La Comparticion where most people stay for the second night. It is similar to the place we stayed at the first night. However our guide knew of another camp closer to the top that was nicer so we decided to push on for that camp so that in the morning we wouldn't have as far to go to reach the summit. Before passing on through this camp we did stop to warm up a little with a cup of coffee. The guides there graciously made us some coffee, and it tasted so good! We were so happy to have it.

After the last hour and a half ride on a mule we reached a large flat area that surrounded the peak of mountain and after a short ride around this peak we found our camp. It was huge and far better than any place we had seen since we left that morning. Why more people don't choose to stay there we don't know but again it's the Dominican and we don't ask. This place had a very large building for sleeping, a seperate building for cooking, and it even had bathrooms. The stalls were just holes in the ground but it was better than what we had seen in a couple days. As the guides unpacked the mules and started making dinner we did some exploring around the camp and got our bags all ready for bed. By this time, our muscles were sore to the touch. OUCH!! We didn't want to wait until it was dark to get everything all set up. It was a lot colder on the top of the mountain than it was the night before. In fact, it was so cold that in the morning, there was ice on the ground. One of our guides, Eduardo, wanted to show us something:Along the side of the building we were sleeping in was a sign that had the names of the people that helped build the building. Our guide pointed out that he was one of the people listed and had helped build the place a few year ago. He seemed to be genuinely proud of his efforts and sad that not many people use the camp anymore. What a waste. As the sun went down so did the temperature so we stayed close to the cooking hut where the fire was. Our guides told us that they were sleeping in the cooking building. We should have taken that has a hint but thought that we were prepared for the night that was yet to come. After dinner, which was similar to the pervious night but with some canned pasta and corn added to it, we sat around the fire again waiting for 8 oclock to roll around. After getting all bundled up for bed (I put on almost every piece of clothing I brought excluding my swimming suit.) we all tried to lay down for a decent nights sleep; it was anything but that. Each of us woke up about every hour to try and warm ourselves up any way we could. I think each of us was wearing 3 layers of clothes and at one point in the night Claire and Becky zipped thier sleeping bags together in hopes that body heat would be the best way. Here are a couple of pictures of us at 1 in the morning. Finally at 2 in the morning when none of us could take it anymore, we gathered up our sleeping bags and headed to the kitchen hut were we woke our guides and had them get the fire going again. We asked them before we went to bed if that would be ok in case we were to get that cold and they were very willing to help us out in the middle of the night. We spent the rest of that night, all three hours of it in that hut huddled on the floor with our guides by the fire. One of our guides was sleeping under feed sacks because he didn't have a sleeping bag. Obviously, someone besides the guides is making all the money.

At 5 the alarm sounded and we were up and getting ready to head to the peak. It was a cold cold moring of gathering our stuff in the dark (all of our flashlights were out of batteries) but we were excited to get to the top. We put on our three or four layers, Becky put some socks on her hands, and Claire and I put some work gloves on that we had brought, and headed without our guides to the top. About 10 mintues from the top the sun started to peek itself from below the clouds. We had finally made it to the top of the Caribbean. It was the most spectacular sight I personally have ever seen. I am sure if you ask the girls would probably say the same. We stopped to take some picture next to the sign to make it offical and then went to explore the view. I don't know why but before we got there I was expecting some sort of flat surface where you could stand and look around. This, however, was truly a mountain peak. We climbed up some huge boulders where a bust of Duarte and a Dominican flag were. Climbing up for the first time to the very peak make my stomach turn because of how high it was. It wasn't set up so if you were to slip you would fall all the way to the base, but it sure was steep looking from up there. We took all kinds of pictures of the mountains and each other, I collected some dirt from the top, and we all just enjoyed the view. As the sun continued to rise and the clouds drifted the sights of the mountains would change ever so slightly. It was so beautiful to look around and watch. We were literally looking down on the clouds and around for miles in every direction. We spent about an hour up there look around and all agreed that we could look at that veiw every day and never get tired of it.

By now it was 8, and knowing that we had to go all the way down in before 2, we pried ourselves away from the top and started our descent. I was hoping to walk some of the way down because the thought of riding the mules the entire way not only made me nervous because of the steep slopes but also because my butt was still sore from the day before. The first leg of the trip, about 2 miles, I walked ahead of the group while the girls rode. I don't think the guides thought I would be able to keep up with the mules because they kept telling us how much faster it would be if we were to ride. But after beating them to the first check point, I made a believer out of them. I was so proud of John - the guides couldn't believe how fast he was. Becky and I couldn't have kept up with him. We stopped at La Comparticion, the first check point, for a quick snack before all getting on mules for the next 2 legs. We were in such a hurry to get down that (much to our displeasure) the guides were pushing us through the check points. I ended up walking another couple miles after riding for a few but the girls were real troopers and rode all the way down. We all rode the final three or four hours to Las Tablones. By the end of the time we were all completly miserable and had agreed to never ever get on a mule again. The trip downwas harder than the trip up in more ways than one . By the time we got off the mules for the last time at Las Tablones were were soooo sore and exhausted to the point of tears. I actually did cry. I was severely dehydrated, exhausted because of lack of sleep and pysical activity, had a terrible headache, felt feverish, hadn't eaten anything since 9 a.m., and I was more sore than I have ever been before in my life (I'm not exaggerating). Here is a picture of Becky and Claire right after climbing off their mules. This shot is from the previous day; the way you can tell the difference is that in this shot they have smiles on thier faces. None of us were smiling at the end of riding our second day. By the time we got to where we spent the first night we were ready to walk the rest of the way down. The only problem with this was that we were already behind scheudle and if we walked that last bit we were in danger of missing the guagua (a van) that was to take us to the nearby town where Marshall would be waiting for us. We didn't care about that at the time - we just knew that we weren't getting back on those mules. Finally sometime around 3 in the afternoon we made it back to base camp for some final photos with the guides. It had been three days since we had showered and for the most part even changed our clothes. We were hot, dirty, and extremly exhuasted. John's hands in the picture to the right are extremely dirty. I coined a new term for our hands: Frodo Fingers. There was dirt all over our hands - under our nails, in the little creases between finger joints, all over. We had Frodo Fingers. I hope never to have them again, although I enjoy using my newly coined term.We did miss the guagua, so other arrangments had to be made. Actually, Victor, the guy in charge of the guides and the whole system at the base of the mountain, came to meet us on the trail to tell us that the guagua had gone, but he had another way (you'll see) and we shouldn't worry. He was a delightful man who seemed honest and helpful. We topped off the crazy adventure that we had all had in the most Dominican way: three motorbikes were brought and we loaded all our things and ourselves onto the backs of them and rode 40 mintues in our own little motorcade through the small towns, around the mountains, and down the highway. The way John describes it, the ride sounds tame. It was WILD!! I was clenching my teeth and my whole body the entire time. We were zipping down MOUNTAIN roads, turing and winding down the mountianside on motorbikes with no helmets, no protection. It was CRAZY! I didn't look for the beginning of the ride because I pulled my had down over my eyes, but my had was a casualty (and Becky's too) of the ride. It blew off, and we were flying down the mountain so fast that by the time I conceptalized the fact that my hat had flown off, we were way too far away to go back. My backpack was so big that I had to wear mine as I rode on the back of the bike. It was tough because my abs were already tired from riding that mule down all day and whenever the driver accelerated my pack felt like someone trying to pull me off the back. But after 40 minutes and two lost hats, Claires and Becky's, we made it. We decided that instead of staying that night at Rancho Wendy like we were supposed to, we were going to ask Marshall if he would PLEASE take us back here to the city so we could get a hot shower and sleep in a nice bed. We didn't phrase it that way. Thankfully Marshall agreed. So back into the back of the truck we piled for another hour or so to the ranch were we gathered some things that we had left behind. When we got to the ranch we went looking for Amie to let her know that we were leaving a day earlier and to find out what her plans were. Instead we were given a note from Amie by another young guy who we hung out with on the front end of our trip explaining that she couldn't take it there anymore and had met another person from the States and they are now off traveling the country. She said in her letter that she would still love to come to the city and stay with us for a little while, so we will be seeing her again sometime soon I am sure. The last hour in the back of the truck was in the dark but we made it to Carrefour around 8 where we called a cab and headed home. We all showered, ordered in some sandwhiches, and watched a slideshow of all the pictures before heading to our nice soft beds where we each spent the next 10 or 11 hours. This morning we all woke up sore in just about every place you can imagine and got our clothes and everything else all cleaned up. Thinking back and looking at all the pictures over and over again I can't believe that we did all that. It is almost an out of body experience that you dream about. I am so thankful, even though it felt like we traveled through hell and back, to have this experience. And I am so thankful that Claire and I got to do it together. Amen! There's no other person I would want to do all that with. I think it's going to take us a few days to recover completely, but the whole experience was something I will never forget.

We ended up taking over 300 pictures of the trip that I am going to put on our Picasa link on the side bar of the blog. I tried to put captions with the pictures to let you know what is going on in each shot but some of the views just speak for themselves.

Coming Soon...

2007-04-06T11:32:00.000-04:00

We're currently working on a very long post detailing our crazy, inspiring, unbelievable, miserable, awe-inspiring, unpredictable trek up the highest mountain in the Caribbean. Stay tuned... (The picture is evidence that we actually made it to the top.)

Birthdays and Vacation

2007-04-01T15:21:00.000-04:00

This past Thursday was Kari's birthday. Since she likes wine so much, we decided to take her to this wine cafe that we'd heard of called Bacchus. It was recommended to us by a fellow teacher who said that this place has great wine, a nice atmosphere, cheese, bread, olives, nuts, and everything else that you might want from a wine cafe. Well, we took a taxi (because of Sonya's foot) down Churchill to the "cafe" and when we walked in, we realized that we were mistaken. It was a liquor store with some snacks and some chairs. Oops. We ended up staying because we figured it would be an experience. We had to choose the wine, point to the cheese and olives that we wanted from behind the counter, and then pay. We ended up sitting up in a little balcony area with padded seats and little coffee tables - but it cost 100 pesos per person for us to sit up there. I made the mistake of thinking the lady said that it cost 30 pesos (which is only $1 per person). Oops again. In spite of the oopses, Kari enjoyed herself.

Then, we had planned to take her out to dinner at a new Chinese restaurant a little way down the street. When we got there (at 6:30 pm), we were the only people in the whole place. Dominican dinner isn't until much later. Here we are (on the left) all sitting at different tables. It was especially fun because there was a glass lazy susan in the center of the table that held all the food so we could share all the dishes. It was truly scrumptious. We had a great time - and after dinner, we had an even better time with the camera and the lazy susan. We decided to put the camera on the table with the timer set and then spin the lazy susan to see who would get their picture taken. It was a good time. Simple pleasures are the best. Here's one of me (to the left) as the camera flew by on the lazy susan. We laughed a lot.

Then, we went back to the girls' apartment for some cake and fruit and a happy birthday song. The birthday girl isn't in the picture because she insisted that she has enough pictures of herself and only wanted pictures of the people at her birthday bash.

To the right is a picture of what used to be Beer House, an ice cream place, and an amusement park. The last time we walked by here, people were buying ice cream, drinking beer, and kids were playing in the park. We walked by yesterday, and it was all gone. Just like that. Things change fast here. According to the fruit vendor on the corner, some church bought the land and plans to build there. We'll see what develops.

Saturday morning, Sonya and Kari left for Peru, and Becky, John, and I went out for breakfast to celebrate Spring Break. We're ecstatic that we don't have to walk through the gate at school for a whole week! Tomorrow morning at 10 am, we're being picked up by Marshall Zipper from Rancho Wendy to begin our week of nature activities in the wilds of the Dominican Republic.

Monday, we'll hang out at Rancho Wendy - swim, take a little hike, and have a bonfire in the evening. Tuesday morning, we take off for the mountain to begin our ascent. We'll climb the mountain with (or on) our mules Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then, early Thursday we'll start the descent all the way to the base and head back to Rancho Wendy. Friday, we'll hike to a waterfall close to the ranch and then head back to Santo Domingo. Think of us while we're gone, and expect many beautiful pictures on the blog next weekend! Here's the website for Rancho Wendy if you want to have a look: http://www.ranchowendy.com/

Easter Fest, Spirit Week, and the Doughnut of Doom

2007-03-27T19:17:00.000-04:00

We've been so busy lately that we haven't really had much time to blog. One week from today, we'll be in the middle of nowhere climbing the highest mountain in the Caribbean. We're excited. This has been a crazy week at school... stay tuned for the details.

So, last Saturday, the seniors at school had a fundraiser called "Easter Fest". They invited all the kids from school and their families to the school on Saturday for food and fun. We decided to go over and take a look to see what was going on. We were somewhat surprised to learn about some commonplace Easter practices here that would never fly at home. Even though we don't have any pictures of this, it's a perfectly normal thing to (animal rights activists please skip to the next paragraph) sell live baby chickens and bunnies to the spoiled little children at Easter time. In fact, at school, they had boxes and boxes of baby chicks and bunnies just waiting to be snatched up by the greedy sticky fingers of the kids at school. They sold the chicks for 20 pesos
each, which is about 75 cents. Basically, all of those baby chickens will end up dead in a few days. Who knows about the bunnies. I saw one fat little kids squeezing his little chick so hard... well, the chick was making quite a bit of noise.

Spirit Week

This week at school, as mentioned in a previous blog post, is Spirit Week. That sounds perfectly harmless, I'm sure; however, that means that all the students pretty much run rampant for a week. I (Claire) have been assigned a duty post during the festivities that is luckily out of the line of action. I mostly read a book at my assigned post while the soccer games and other chaos goes on in other places. You see, the whole school day is smooshed into the hours of 8-12:30, and any teacher can tell you that students generally go nuts on any school day in which the schedule is different. At 12:30, everyone is supposed to change their clothes and cheer for a particular color team during a soccer game. Students can buy food and drinks while they watch the games and cheer. Today was the second day of this. John gets the pleasure of trying to keep track of his unruly students from 12:30 - 2:15. I'm happy with my post.
The whole school is covered with banners, posters, and ribbons of different colors. Each color represents one of the high school grades. It really is a fine idea - but not for a whole week. Here, if you haven't noticed, school is not really about class time and learning. It's about all the extra stuff like Spirit Week.

The Doughnut of Doom
This week, Rebecca, Sonya, John, and I decided to steal and use a great idea that a good friend of Rebecca's used during his time in Antarctica this past year. Chris, the friend, didn't really enjoy his time in Antarctica and wanted to count down the days until his time was done. So, he and his buddies down on the south pole decided to make a pie chart showing the time that had passed so far and the time they had left. They affectionately called it "the doughnut of doom". We have decided to take their idea and make it our own. Sonya was having a particularly bad day, and she exclaimed to Becky, "I think we need a wall-sized doughnut of doom!" So, we made one.
John figured out how to make a perfect circle on a shower curtain by making a compass out of string and two pens. Then, we did some math to figure out that there are 46 weeks in our stay here in Santo Domingo, but we could only really figure out how to make 48 sections in the circle. We made the divisions using John's compass and then labeled each one with the dates of each week we've been here.

Then, we took it over to the girls' apartment and colored in all the sections we've already lived through. We wrote down significant events and relived our time here until this point. From now on, we're going to ceremoniously color in one little section at the end of each week. We're counting down to June 23rd... that glorious day of homecoming! We also had a good time making the doughnut of doom. We're probably going to hang it somewhere in the girls' apartment. They have much more wall space than we do.

It always seems that we're making comments on the weather, but here, the weather really matters. In fact, sometimes it makes or breaks our day. The rainy season seems to have started, which means that it's cooler when it's raining, but it's also extremely humid when it's not raining. With rain also come mosquitoes. Huge ones. Mosquitoes like people who live in Indiana have never seen.

A New Addition to the Blog

2007-03-21T21:27:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share with everyone out there more of our experience here on the island. I know you are asking yourself, "How can you possible share more." Well I am glad you asked that question. I have recently gone through all the pictures that we have taken since we arrived here in the Dominican and put together an album on Google's Picasa to share with you. I originally wanted to share all of our pictures with you but alas there are just too many and computer space on the site just doesn't allow. So, for your viewing pleasure, I have narrowed it down to just under 300 pictures! I tried to choose pictures that we have not put on the blog already or even on the picture page but I am sure some of them you will see again. I also went through each picture and put a caption on most informing you of what is going on in the picture. The site will be linked on the sidebar of the blog here in the next couple days so feel free to enjoy at any time. Until then here is the grand unveiling of our new album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/john23r

This should take you to the correct page. Enjoy.

Wet Pain and Yellow Thunder

2007-03-21T20:04:00.000-04:00

The other day, I (Claire) came out of class sixth period and started down the stairs. When I got halfway down the stairs, I noticed that all of the black stair railings throughout the whole school had white printer paper hung all over them. The papers were shining so bright in the midday Caribbean sun while they billowed about in the breeze that it took me a few seconds to realize that there were words printed on all of the papers. All over the school, hung on three floors worth of open air stair railings, were bright white pieces of paper with these bold black words printed on every single one: "WET PAIN". I don't think anyone likes pain, but I wonder which is worse... wet or dry. I had a very good laugh right there outside in the middle of the school. I laughed loud and hard at how much those signs saying "wet pain" sum up our experience here at this "English speaking" school.

On the same token, next week is Spirit Week. All of us foreign teachers have yet to figure out exactly the function and purpose of Spirit Week, and all the details are equally hidden from us. What we have been able to glean from different sources around school is that we only have class from 8-12:30. Then, mass chaos reigns until 2:15. We think there are competitions - sports competitions - between the high school grades, and we guess the rest of the school stands around in the hot sun and watches - or they all run around like little barbarians and make trouble while the teachers go out for a smoke break. The latter is the likelier of the two. Anyway - the four high school grades are supposed to campaign for their color in order for people to support them in the competitions. They were supposed to campaign for the two weeks prior to Spirit Week; however, the signs just started going up a few days ago. The 9th grade color is yellow, and they chose thunder for their mascot. Imagine that. Yellow thunder. So, there are signs all over school now with pictures of yellow lightning bolts that say "Yellow Thunder". Some one should have realized that thunder is a sound, and sounds don't have colors before they made all those signs. Once again, I had a long, loud laugh.

March Madness

2007-03-17T20:29:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again - the time when the TV is on all day and evening with basketball jargon filling our apartment: March Madness. John is really excited - so excited, in fact, that basketball is what he is eating and breathing right now.

We both filled out prediction brackets - here I am holding my bracket next to the TV with basketball on. The only advice John gave me before I filled out my bracket consisted of a long string of statistics, the point of which (I think) was that most of the time, the team with the higher seed wins. At this point (halfway through the second round), my prediction bracket has more correct choices than John's. We think that's funny.

We are currently waiting for the IU/UCLA game to come on. John says that he doesn't know if he can take it if IU wins and advances in the tournament. He just wouldn't be able to survive if the one year that we lived in the Caribbean the Colts won the Super Bowl (which they did) and IU were to win the national championship. (I think he'll survive just fine, for the record.)

Life here has been pretty boring lately. It's getting hotter by the day, so it takes more to go anywhere. The heat is exhausting, let alone the fact that when we go anywhere, by the time we arrive, we're sweaty and red-faced. We long for home where we can jump in the car and go anywhere we please, where we can go see a play or a concert, where we can go out after dark without worring about our safety, where...... I could go on, but I don't think it'd be healthy.

Happy St. Patty's Day, by the way. There is certainly no Irish beer to be found anywhere around here. I celebrated by eating a salad for dinner because we didn't want to get all sweaty to go out and pay too much for a meal, because nothing else sounded good, and, most importantly, because salad is green. John celebrated by kissing me - but he has no explanation or justification of how that makes sense.

Rocky Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre, Cinq, Six

2007-03-14T21:30:00.000-04:00

John spent a good three days downloading the movie Rocky 6 on the Internet so that he and the girls could watch it. (I'm not much for watching men hit each other for entertainment.) So, tonight was the night... We all had dinner over at the girls' place courtesy of Rebecca, and I was watching dishes while the rest were waiting with eager anticipation for the movie to start playing on the computer. The familiar "Rocky" music began the film, but Hark! when Rocky started speaking, the words came out in FRENCH! A collective groan sounded throughout the apartment. Unbeknownst to John, he had spent all that time downloading a French version of the movie. Perhaps in three days they can have another go at it - in English this time. Here they are being disappointed in the picture with the whole computer/speakers movie setup.

In other news, I thought we were going to be able to go on a field trip Friday to go whale watching in the north eastern side of the island with the 9th and 11th grade, but because of the the way our school works - or doesn't - we aren't going to be able to go. We may be happy we didn't go because it is likely to be a big mess. A friend of ours here says that everyone she knows who has gone has spent most of the time vomiting in the bottom of the boat because of seasickness. Instead, John will spend Friday participating in March Madness! He's excited. I will probably read a book - although I filled out a bracket predicting Ohio State as the national champs... we'll see.

We got tried of our living arrangement during the weekend, so we decided to change it up. Pretty much, we're cramped into a tiny space, and nothing will change that, but we decided to turn the spare bedroom, which doesn't get used much, into the dining room, making the "living room" bigger. The truth is, we have one common area in our apartment that serves as kitchen, living room, and until recently, dining room. It seems to be working well so far. I really like the dining room now because the spare room is the sunniest and breeziest room in the apartment - and now we're actually using it for something.

Life continues in the way it has since we got here. The weather is getting hotter, and since this is "high tourist" season, the resorts are way too expensive for us. We're looking forward to our mountain climb that's coming up in the next couple weeks.

A special hello to Mom Pontius and Grandpa Verch who are spending the week together in Chicago! We love you.

A Unique Date

2007-03-11T20:12:00.000-04:00

Never in my life did I think I would have a great time on a date that involved going to a new grocery store and looking at all the food. On Friday night, we had the greatest date doing just that. We walked a little over a mile south to a grocery store we've never been to before. We strolled up and down the isles drooling over all the food they had from home. Most of it was so expensive that we would never dream of buying it, but we did splurge on dill pickle relish and a few other things.

On the second floor of the building with the grocery store was a high end home furnishings place. We walked through the whole store, once again drooling over the beautiful and clean things we don't have here. It's amazing what a little comfort can do. On the walk home, we stopped and bought some sunflowers. They're lovely. In fact, they're so lovely that they helped me get through a stack of the worst literary analysis papers I've ever read this afternoon. I just kept looking at the sunflowers and they filled me with the happiness I needed to finish grading my formidable stack of papers.

Last night (Saturday), we went to a new restaurant called La Lasagne - it's Italian, needless to say. We went with Rebecca and left the gimps at home. Sonya goes back to school on Tuesday this week, and she will be teaching all her classes in the library because she can't make it up three flights of stairs. That also means that no one can use the library for three weeks.

We're counting down until our spring break, which is the first week of April - Pico Duarte, here we come!

Life with the Gimps or The Impossibility of Having a House Plant

2007-03-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

On Monday morning, first thing, Sonya fell down at school and br

broke her foot. After much ado and a trip to the hospital, she arrived back at the apartment with this gigantic cast and news that she isn't allowed to leave the apartment for a week, and she has to keep the cast on for three weeks. She and Kari are planning to go to Peru over spring break - they've already booked their tickets and tour - and luckily, she'll get her cast off three days before it's time for them to fly out. That was a close one.

Now, she just has to live with being stuck in the apartment for a week straight. This is day three.

Today, Kari got two wisdom teeth taken out by a dentist here in the city, and she had a really rough time of it. Rebecca went with her and said that it was aquite an ordeal. So, tomorrow, Sonya will have some company at home. Kari will be eating applesauce while Sonya hops around on her crutches. At least they both have company.

The other night, just as I (Claire) was headed to bed, the electricity went out. Since the air conditioner doesn't work on our little battery, I went to open the windows and turn on the fan. When I got to the fan, I was surprised to find a fairly large lizard lounging INSIDE the cage of the fan. I didn't want to turn it on because I didn't want lizard guts to fly everywhere, but I really needed the fan. John ended up taking the fan out onto the landing outside our apartment to try to coax the lizard onto the outside of the fan so he could catch it and take it up to the roof. After a little while, he was successful. My plans to go to bed early were foiled yet again... and just when I was on the edge of the cliff of deep sleep, ready to fall off into oblivion, the electricity came back on and I had to get up and close all the windows and turn on the air conditioner.

It is virtually impossible to have house plants here - since the end of December. Rebecca and Sonya have been trying to keep basil plants alive and smiply haven't been able to. We recently bought a house plant, and we are taking care of it just like we were told, but it's dieing nonetheless. All of us have been trying to figure out why we can't keep plants alive, and the mystery was solved this week. I bet you're holding your breath to find out. Well, as it turns out, the ladies who come to clean our apartments like to take care of our plants, too - by watering them with the soapy and bleachy water they use to clean. So, our plants will die no matter how well we take care of them. Oh, well.

Retro Party!

2007-03-04T17:40:00.000-05:00

Kari decided to throw a 70s/80s retro party on our roof. She invited the whole staff of the school two weeks in advance with little flyers everywhere. She talked about it at school and lots of people said they were coming, talked about what they were going

to wear. Well, as it turned out, only three people from school came, and it was a much smaller party than we thought it was going to be, but it was still fun.

We all dressed up in 1980s garb and carried all our chairs up onto the roof. We decided that fashion in the 80s was not

complimentary to anyone's body type. We played some 70s and 80s tunes and had a good time. We found this out kind of late, but dressing up is not the Dominican thing - in fact, to go to a party dressed up like some one from a past decade is considered really weird. That's why no one came - oh, and because the Dominican teachers don't really want to get to know us.

Of all the people who dressed up, John was undoubtedly the best. He looked so rad. We decided that when we move home, we're going to have a retro party, and everyone who gets invited will hardly be able to wait long enough to put on their retro outfits and come to the party!

We Spoke Too Soon

2007-02-28T10:34:00.000-05:00

Apparently, Rebecca and Holly didn't have food poisoning - they had a violent stomach flu. I (Claire) am home sick from school right now because of the afore mentioned stomach flu - and believe me, it's violent! Here's hoping John doesn't get it.

The Eastside

2007-02-27T19:24:00.001-05:00

Our four day weekend has come to a conclusion. We had a great time exploring the east side of the island. In fact it was one of the best resorts if not the best resort that we have stayed at here on the island.

Our journey started early Saturday morning by catching the Bavaro Express out of town. We have never taken this bus before so it was lucky that Holly was with us. Navigating the bus station was a painless experience and the bus, even though it was a step below the Metro and Carribe Tours. The bus was air conditioned, showed a movie, and the ride was shorter than any we have taken so far. We were at the resort by 10 o'clock that morning. Because it was a little early for check in, we explored the resort and took a look in some of the gift shops that they had. Once getting the room keys, around noon, we headed to our rooms to find the best rooms we have stayed in yet. It had a king size bed, a living room area, a shower, and to top it off a huge bath tube. We were both really impressed with where we were.

After changing into our swim suits we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the beach. White sandy beach with bright blue and turquoise water. It was a magnificent sight. We spent the rest of the day on the beach catching some rays and doing a bit of snorkeling. The water was clear and the ocean floor had all sorts of shells and other interesting things to look at. After having our fair share of sun and topless sun bathers we headed back to the room for a nice hot shower. While Claire did some relaxing, Rebbecca and I went to make dinner reservations for the next couple nights and then made a stop off at the gym for some exercise.

After our showers we took naps because we had good intentions of heading to the disco later that night to try out some of our newly learned Meringue and Salsa moves. This sounds easy enough but Claire is yet to be lively enough at that time of night, 11 o'clock, to have seen the inside of any disco. For dinner that night we headed to the buffet. It was the largest selection of food we have seen yet. You name it and they had it for dinner. After filling our already full stomachs, because you are never really hungry at an all inclusive place, we watched the show. It was a normal singing and dancing routine, cheesy as ever. Then it was dancing time. We finally made it to the disco. After some convincing by Claire we finally made it out to the floor and indeed put our lessons to good use.

The next day we again headed out to the beach and spent the day going back and forth between the pool and the beach. Not much different than any other resort day. Relax and read on the beach, snorkel or swim in the ocean to cool off, take a walk on the beach, nap on the beach, grab a bite to eat, take a dip in the pool, grab a Pina Colada or something at the pool bar, and repeat. It was a grooling day but we made it through. One of the things that made this resort a little different than others and another reason why we never seem to be truly hungry come meal time was the ice cream machines that were always up and going, the crepes place you could stop at anytime you wanted, the snack stand by the pool that was open all day, and the popcorn machine that ran throughout the night.

That night for dinner we had reservations at a Japanese restaurant that does the cooking on a grill right there in front of you. It was a fantastic meal. We tried a little of everything and weren't disappointed with any of it. Sushi for an appetizer, glass noodles with shrimp and fish, fried rice with beef and chicken, and then ginger cake for dessert. Claire and I both agreed that it was the best meal we have had since moving here to the D.R. After being rolled from the restaurant we again headed to the disco, yes for the second night in a row. We again danced the night away, or at least an hour or so before deciding that the sun had taken its toll.

The next morning, Claire and I headed to breakfast where were were quickly realizing that no matter what meal you ate at the buffet the selection was enormous. Again, you name the breakfast food and they had it. We were hoping to meet up with Rebbecca and Holly but when they didn't show up for breakfast we decided to head to the beach and wait there. Much like the daily grind as the day before, Claire and I took our places at the beach. After a couple hours we headed to the pool where we found Rebbecca for the first time. She informed us that her and Holly had gotten really sick the previous night and still weren't feeling well. For whatever reason, because we all had the same things to eat off the same grill, Claire and I felt fine. Rebbecca felt better, she was out on the beach for a good part of the day, but Holly on the other hand spent the entire day inside. We enjoyed the routine of the day before retiring back to the room to prepare for dinner reservation number two, a French restaurant.

The menu for that night had warm shrimp salad as an appetizer then grilled lobster, duck, or lamb ribs for a main dish, and then mousse, eclairs with chocolate fondue, or assorted fruit for dessert. Claire and I each chose the grilled lobster since neither of us have really ever had lobster before. Unfortunately it wasn't very good. Both Holly and Rebbecca told us that it wasn't cooked correctly and was more mushy than anything. I am not sure either of us would have loved it anyway since neither of us really like sea food that tastes really fishy. The meal wasn't a total loss as the salad and dessert were good and after all the snacks that we had had throughout the day we didn't have that big of an appetite to start with. It was a long day and the sun had once again done us in. We got a little burnt and after our late dinner we were ready to call it a night.

The next and final day was a half day. The girls were feeling better, not great, but well enough to hang out on the beach. We spent the little time we had left reading in the shade and enjoying the day. We left the hotel around 12:30 and after the normal waiting at the bus station, enduring the many stops along the way, a rough bus ride for Holly, and a taxi ride back from the bus station, we made it back to our apartment around 6. Claire and I had a fantastic time. Like I mentioned we would classify this as one of the best stops we have made in our time here on the island.

As always after a trip like this there are some more pictures on the picture page so go check them out.

4 Day Weekend

2007-02-23T21:15:00.002-05:00

Just to let all of our blog readers know, Claire and I will be out of town for the next 4 days. Because it is the Dominican Independence we have a four day weekend that we are taking advantage of by heading east. We have never been out this direction yet because it is a little pricier. We are excited about going somewhere new and everyone here says that it is the prettiest place on the island. Check back with us the middle of next week for the pictures and the story.

Tonight we went to the bowling alley here in town for a small concert. We had never been to the bowling alley before mostly because we all just figured it was a run down place where you wouldn't want to spend alot of time. We were shocked when we went in to find not one but two floors of bowling with about 25 lanes each. Not to mention a food stand on each floor, video games, pool tables, and a sports bar. Here are a couple pictures I took real quick. We will be heading back there for a few games so I am sure you will see more later. The reason for our visit tonight was to support a coworker whose son was playing in a small rock band. Claire, Rebbecca, and I decided to go check it out. We had a good time doing something a little different.

I am off to bed. We are catching the bus early out of town. I will get back with you all in a little under a week.

A Dominican Carnival

2007-02-20T19:35:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Claire and I had to opportunity of experiencing a Dominican carnival first hand. February 27th is the Dominican Independence Day so every day for the week leading up to this day is a party here on the island. Because the carnival in Santo Domingo isn't until a little later we rode with some friends from school to a town about a hour and a half away called La Vega for the carnival.

We knew that it was a crazy party the moment we stepped out of the car. The town had multiple streets blocked off with vendors and very loud music lining the way. We started by walking up and down the road to check out all the places along the way before we settled on a place to watch the "parade." The vendor booths along the street go something like this: beer, food, toys/sunglasses, loud music, beer, liquor, loud music, repeat. Each music booth was put on by a different popular company on the island and was a glorified dancing area that had music playing so loud you could feel your clothes move. The top left picture is a loud music area. After a while of walking down the street one loud boom would fade into the next.
These carnivals aren't for the unaware, however. As you are walking down the street you have to be constantly watching out for people looking to hit you from behind. A tradition at the festival is to whip each other on the butt with inflated pig livers. Times have changed and the festival has evolved so it isn't inflated pig liver but a tightly stuffed pillow on a rope instead. Either way grown men are taking full swings at unsuspecting bystanders leaving marks as they go. Here is a picture of a vendor with a variety of "inflated pig livers."
After we were done exploring the streets we found a relatively quite place to settle and waited for the parade to start. The parade consisted of people dressed in extravagant devil outfits walking down the street posing for pictures and hitting people from behind. The longer the parade lasted the more crowded the streets became. Claire and our friend Pauline decided to stay close to a nearby fence for protection while the rest of us pushed our way to the front for the show. At one point it was a complete mosh pit with wall to wall people struggling to make their way through or avoid getting whacked.

Surprisingly we never saw any fights break out and everyone seemed to enjoy the music and the parade. Claire and I managed to make it through the day without getting hit. I wish I could say the same for a couple of our friends, Sonya and Kari, who will each have their own souvenir for about another week. We ended up staying for a few hours but we know that the party lasted well into the night with people dancing and celebrating in the streets.

Claire's opinion of the whole thing: What kind of person thinks it is fun to stand in the hot sun with four different kinds of music blasting so loud that it changes your hairstyle while thousands of drunk and sweaty people push you and step on your feet? Then, add to that the fact that crazy drunk men dressed as demons are running around trying to hit you as hard as they can on the backside with inflated pigs' livers. If hell were engineered just for me, it would very closely resemble La Carnival at La Vega. Needless to say, it wasn't my favorite thing.

My Opinion
I thought it was fun in a weird different sort of way. We knew going in about the potential dangers, but decided that the once in a lifetime opportunity was worth the risk. I mean where else can you get whipped by a devil wielding an inflated pig liver?

I have added a few more pictures of our day on the picture page so go check it out.

Ricky Martin, Etc.

2007-02-18T08:08:00.000-05:00

We never thought we would see Ricky Martin in concert. In fact, while we were standing amidst many screaming Dominicans during the song "Living La Vida Loca", John leaned over to me and said something to the effect of, "I used to listen to this song all the time when I was trimming Christmas trees as a summer job the summer after my sophomore year in high school, and I never ever thought I would see this guy in concert in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic."

I have never been much of a concert goer, unless it's a symphony or jazz or something like that. I don't understand why people pay money to hear some music and then scream at the top of their lungs through the whole thing or sing along so loudly that no one can hear the guy we all paid to hear. Really, that's how the entire concert went. Girls were screaming bloody murder through the whole thing, and when they weren't, the whole crowd was singing along at the top of their lungs. In a country where it is perfectly acceptable to sing loudly along with the music in the grocery store while you shop, it is all the more acceptable to shout along with a famous singer at a concert. In fact, everyone in the stadium knew almost every word to every song, and even with the massive speakers (I'm sure you can imagine), the crowd drowned out Ricky's voice. They sure loved him.

We did have a good time. The lights on the stage were entertaining, and there was some cool dancing. Interestingly enough, the show had an Indian/Hindu theme even though all the songs were in Spanish with a Latin beat. The concert was held in a baseball park, so we had hot dogs, pizza, etc. while we waited for the concert to start. The best part, I thought, came at the end after the concert: a 4th of July quality fireworks display. Spectacular!

Our neighbors, Danielle and Braulio, were kind enough to give us a ride home after the concert since they have a car. The traffic was insane - people driving up on sidewalks and disobeying every traffic light. It took us a while to get home. It was a good time, and now, we can say we've seen Ricky Martin in concert... whatever that amounts to.

ETC.: A few tidbits from life in the DR
We went to see a movie at the Acropolis yesterday. The movie was supposed to start at 2:50, and we arrived a 2:45 because we know from experience that the theater isn't even ready to sell tickets until 5 minutes before the first show starts. Well, this time, they weren't even ready after the show was supposed to start. We were standing in line at an empty ticket booth when 2:50 came and went. The girl whose job it was to sell tickets eventually came to the booth, messed with the computer for a few minutes, and then sold us our tickets. John remarked that there is no way on earth a theater would start the movie when the ticket booth hadn't been opened yet, which made perfect sense to me. We had been looking forward to having popcorn during the movie since movie snacks are much more affordable here, but when we hurried up to the snack counter, the employees were walking around aimlessly behind the counter or counting money in cash registers. There was no popcorn, and no one was even close to making any. The soda machine didn't even have fizz in it yet. We debated for a few minutes on if we should wait or not when we decided to check on our movie. Contrary to common sense, they had started it at 2:50. We had to forgo the much anticipated popcorn and go into the theater. We were just in time to see the commercial right before the movie started about "fresh popcorn" and "cold soda" waiting for you in the lobby... make sure you get some before the movie starts! The irony of the situation was almost overwhelming.

Our neighbor Baulio decided to get his girlfriend, Danielle, and orchid for Valentine's Day. He did all this research on how to care for orchids, etc. and then presented her with one on Valentine's Day. All week, he has been moving it in and out of the sunlight accordingly, watering it, and caring for it particularly well. Danielle thinks this is all great but for one thing: the orchid is fake. It's plastic, and Braulio doesn't seem to know - in fact, he takes great pride in it. She is trying to figure out how to tell him without hurting his feelings... we'll see how this unfolds. It sounds to us like something from a TV sitcom that no one would find believable, but alas, it is happening right here. It's too bad all that care is being wasted on plastic.

On our way home yesterday, we turned on to our street and saw that it was completely blocked off by a gigantic crane. Apparently, when people move in and out of apartments high off the ground, they hire a crane to lift their stuff up to their windows. Some one was moving into the penthouse apartment in the really tall building across the street. They were loading the huge box full - and I mean full- of stuff, hauling it up to the top of the building with the crane, and unloading it all through a window. Once they hit the building with the box. It didn't look like a very safe endeavor. We watched for about 45 minutes from our roof. It's amazing what entertains us.

Phone number change: 1-829-868-2613
To all those who never call us anyway, this is our new phone number. We've had our land line disconnected because we never use it and it was costing too much money. That's our cell phone number if any of you get a hankering to call us.

The Best Valentine's Day Ever

2007-02-13T19:37:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and we will be spending all afternoon and evening at school because we teach at a school that scheduled PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES, the most stressful and unenjoyable time in the quarter, from 4pm to 8pm on Valentine's Day.

People here celebrate Valentine's Day, but the school scheduled report card pick-up and parent-teacher conferences for that afternoon and evening anyway. We're planning to go out for a pseudo-romantic lunch, which is better than nothing. We'll let you know how it goes.

Scavenger Hunt

2007-02-11T11:53:00.000-05:00

Sunday February 11 is Rebecca's birthday so to celebrate, Kari, Sonya, and Claire organized a photo scavenger hunt through the down town Colonial Zone on Saturday. They made a list of things that we needed to do and take a picture of. Each task was assigned different amounts of points and bonus points were also assigned for doing a predetermined little extra something on some of the tasks.

We began by surprising Rebbecca with this birthday event here at our apartment around 3 in afternoon. The teams were then set, Claire, Rebbecca, and I versus Kari, Sonya, and Danielle, a friend of ours that lives in our building but teaches at another school, and we jumped in a cab and began to strategize on the way down town. We were dropped off at the square in front of the first church in the new world, settled on a two hour time limit to do as many things on the list as we could, and away we went in two different directions.

The first place we decided to go was to Columbus Fort to take a picture of us riding on one of the cannons. After Claire convinced the ticket takers that we were only there for one photo, we got our picture and avoided paying the entrance fee. We then headed down the street towards the governor's house for a photo when we stopped to buy some ice cream (left), which was also on the list. From here we went to do a couple of the random items on our list before heading back to the more populated street, El Conde. We needed to get money out of an ATM which was 1 point and if we got mugged shortly there after we would receive a bonus of 4 points. So we staged the mugging (right) with a stranger who was also getting money out of the ATM and received our 4 bonus points. Then it was off to find a Colmado to buy a drink, look for a stray cat, find a tacky souvenir to buy, and drink a beer on the street out of a brown paper bag. Although we never found any stray cats we were able to buy that drink, find a tacky Dominican drum key chain, and have our drink out of brown paper bag. Luckily for us we found some empty beer bottles with brown paper bags and staged a realistic looking refreshment break.

We made our way back to the square, regained our bearings, and headed down El Conde looking for a bar called Bobos that we needed to buy a drink at. Well, we found the bar but unfortunately it was closed. Knowing that it was close to the finish line we decided to stop on the way back to see if it was open. This time we lucked out and not only received the point for buying a drink - the most expenstive waters we've ever had - but also received 3 bonus points because we got a waitress to sign a napkin for us. While in Bobos we noticed a fountain and decided to cross another item off our list by getting into it.

Walking down El Conde we were able to take care of a good chunk of things on our list. We found a working phone booth and called the other team. Then by calling our friend Roger and asking him if his refrigerator was running we got our bonus points for a crank call. Dancing in the street soon followed when Claire and I were able to find a side street that wasn't too busy. Becky then got us our bonus points by dancing the to Bachata music with a stranger. After our dances we stepped inside a small little casino where we needed to play a slot machine. With another streak of luck we gained 3 bonus points when the machine we played hit a couple 7's. We put in 15 pesos and won only 45 pesos, which is about a buck profit, but got our points and continued on our way.

Next was a stop to get our shoes shined. However, the bonus points were awarded only if we were able to shine the shoe-shiner's shoes. Here is a picture of a very confused shoe shining boy watching Claire and Rebbecca shine his shoes. We then went to buy an empanada and some peanut treats all while keeping an eye out for a photo opportunity with Ricky Martin. I should let our blog readers know that Ricky Martin is having a concert here next weekend, which we are all going to, and had posters all over town advertising the event. We found our empanada and got a picture with some of it stuck in our teeth and also found some peanut treats, but the Ricky Martin posters were nowhere to be found. To improvise, we ducked into a CD store, located a Ricky Martin CD, and not only got our picture taken with him but received bonus points for kissing him on the lips.

At the end of El Conde there is a park that we had our picture taken in front of along with the guard that stands out front. Rebbecca is trying to tickle the guard to get him to smile for the bonus point. It was here as well that we found a police officer to put his arms around the girls for another bonus.

With time running out we decided to skip El Mercado Modelo and head back to the square to take a picture with the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral, find the Larimar Museum, and buy something at the Hard Rock Cafe. Before making it back to the square we got our picture taken with some Tiano art. Around the square we found a couple who had just gotten a souvenir from the Hard Rock and took our picture with them instead of buying something ourselves. The last two stops consisted of a photo with the Virgin Mary and a shot outside the closed Larimar Museum. We didn't get every task checked off, like the Monastery, the Hospital of San Nicolas, looking at a hotel room, and a few other random items, but we did hit the majority. At the finish line we met up with the other team and headed off for dinner where we tallied the score.

After we were done sharing all of our pictures with each other, the scores were totaled and we were declared the winners by a landslide. We all had a great time doing something a little bit different around town, and now we have all the pictures to prove it.

WE WON!!

Spring Break Plans

2007-02-08T18:08:00.000-05:00

One of the things that we look forward to every day at 7:15 am when we walk into the school is... SPRING BREAK!!! Today, we made our plans for that wonderful week that is coming the first week of April... and it's not the beach.

We thought there was no possible way that we would be able to climb Pico Duarte, the tallest mountain in the caribbean because you have to have camping equipment. Well, we found this place called Rancho Wendy that is run by an American family, and they specialize in making treks up Pico Duarte - and they provide all the equipment. We're really excited about it. In fact, the people from Rancho Wendy are going to come pick us up in Santo Domingo since we have no other way to get there. If you want to check out Rancho Wendy online, here's the link:

http://www.ranchowendy.com/

School just seems to be getting more and more ridiculous as the days go by. Tomorrow, John's students have a "bake-sale" at which the main item is going to be tacos, but it's so disorganized that today for the morning announcements, nobody even knew what was going to be served or how much the food was going to cost.

In the high school area, apparently kids aren't keeping their lockers locked, and the administration sees that as a huge problem. In fact, the problem is so big in their estimation that they have decided on a way to deal with it: While the students are in class in the morning, the maintenance staff go around and lock up all lockers that aren't already locked so the students can't get any of their books, homework, projects, etc. for class for the rest of the day. This means that half of the students in my classes have nothing they need for class. I guess the lockers are more important than education, right?

The Super Bowl Away from Home

2007-02-06T15:41:00.000-05:00

When we had made the decision to move down here, and we were sure we were coming, John said, "I just know that they year we don't live in Indiana, the Colts are going to win the Super Bowl." That was in August and here we are now 5 months later and wouldn't you know it - the Indianapolis Colts are the Super Bowl Champions.

We had a little party in the girls' apartment (because our apartment is too small to have more than two other peolple over) for the Super Bowl. we had tons and tons of food - so much that we still have some of it. We (and I mean "we" because John had to help cook due to the burns) made a gigantic pot of chili, and almost everyone else who came brought something.

We had a great time watching the game - but not many of the other people there were as interested in the game as we were. We ended up sitting close to the TV hoping that we could see and hear the important things. Lucky for us, it was broadcast in English, so we could understand the announcing.

There were many exciting moments: turnovers, fumbles, touchdowns, challanges, etc. Overall, we felt that the commercials were not that exciting this year.

We were so excited when the Colts won, but right after the game was over, we had a sad sinking feeling because there was no one else for us to really celebrate with. Oh, well.

There were a few more people at our party, but we didn't remember to take any pictures until some people had left. Here we are cheering for the home team - far from home.

New Pictures

2007-02-04T16:47:00.000-05:00

There are updated pictures on oue Picture Page

New Cookware and Disaster Strikes

2007-02-04T10:58:00.000-05:00

By using the membership card that we have at the Multicentro when we buy groceries, we were able to earn enough points to get some really nice quality glass cookware. The only thing we had to bake in before was a really nasty, rusty cookie sheet. So, yesterday, we got the new stuff, and naturally, I (Claire) wanted to use it to cook something.

I decided to go for baked chicken in the new chicken roasting pan we got. (Note: There were none of the normal chickens that we buy at the store, so I had to get a more scrawny-looking brand.)

Things were going fine until I had the chicken out of the oven, and I went to take the lid off of the roasting pan. We only have one oven mit, and it is so poor quality that you can't wear it, but you have to double it up before you touch the pan... so, I had the doubled up oven mit in one hand and a doubled up pot holder in the other as I very carefully lifted the lid off the pan....

OUCH!!! I screamed (apparently pretty loud since the girls heard it in their apartment) as the steam rushed out of the pan, burning all four of the fingers (not my thumb) on my left hand. I've never felt pain like that from a burn before, and I've burnt myself plenty of times while cooking. I was certainly traumatized. I ended up putting my hand in ice water for about an hour while John and I ate dinner. Here's the best part: the chicken was the toughest, worst tasting chicken I've ever had. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that McDonald's chicken nuggets (if that's considered chicken) would have been better. So I burned myself cooking something that didn't even taste good.

We read some burn care websites, and after a trip to the farmacia on John's part, we properly took care of my fingers. Three of them have minor second degree burns ( as evidenced by the grayish looking blisters), and my pointer finger felt better by this morning.

John is affectionately calling me "Claw" instead of Claire, and he prepared most of the food for our Superbowl party tonight. As for my fingers, they should be completely healed in a couple weeks, and until then, I have to take lots of ibuprofen and concentrate on keeping the burns very clean while I live in the dirtiest city I've ever been to. Needless to say, I will probably be referred to as "Claw" for a little while longer.

The Letter of Intent

2007-02-01T15:40:00.000-05:00

It's done. We've sealed our fate here at St. Michael's School. Yesterday morning, we had to turn in an official letter stating our intentions regarding next year. We decided not to stay. In the letter, we said that we had learned much from St. Michael's School, but that it was time for us to move back home and start thinking about settling down. At the end of the year, if they ask, we may let the administration in on more of the real reasons we have decided not to stay.

It felt strange to make such a big decision so far ahead of time, and stranger still to hand the letter to the secretary knowing that we can't change our minds. I (Claire) felt a little funny about it, thinking of the extremely remote possiblility that we might want to stay after all, but I became sure that we made the right decision after school when John told me about his day. He had the worst teaching day of his entire teaching career because of the way the students here act, because of the way they treat him. I'm not going into detail, but he was obviously miserable, and it made my heart break. He's decided that the only way he can make it through is to simply think of school as his job - what he has to do to make money - and forget what happens there after 3:00 every day. How sad! So, we're sure we made the right decision, and we are excited to get back to the public education system in the USA. Even with all its imperfections, it's the place we want to be.

So, if you're an administrator in a school in or around Bloomington, Indiana, and you happen to be reading this blog post, consider hiring the Roths - in spite of what you have read on this blog, we love teaching.

There's No Such Thing As A Boring Three Day Weekend

2007-01-30T18:05:00.000-05:00

Like the title says, there is no such thing as a boring three day weekend here in the Dominican Republic. We took this weekend to explore a part of the island that we had yet to discover, Cabarete. This little town is located on the north side of the island about 40 minutes east of Puerto Plata.
The five of us, Sonya, Kari, Rebbecca, Claire, and I, woke up early Saturday morning to catch the Caribe Tour bus. This is the same bus that we took when we went to Samana that lasted 6 hours because they stop in every little town along the way. This time around our destination was a bit closer and the ride only last around 4 hours. We finally made it to Cabarete around noon and checked into our hotel. This adventure was a little bit different than any we had taken in the past. This time we just checked into a hotel that was along the beach instead of staying in an all inclusive resort. The town of Cabarete runs along the coast for about a mile and lining the street are all types of hotels, restaurants, bars, and other tourist type places. This was probably the most touristy place we have been so far.
After checking into our hotel we decided to grab some lunch before heading out to the beach. We had lunch at our hotel restaurant that overlooked the ocean. After lunch it was out to the beach for some more fun in the sun. Cabarete is a little bit different than other beaches along this coast because it is famous for its wind. Along with this wind comes the best place on the island to wind or kite surf. Claire and I had both seen wind surfing before but kite surfing was something that we had only heard about. The site of all the kites in the air, once we got to the beach, was amazing. We both stood there trying to figure out how we could explain this incredible site to anyone. We tried to caputre the site with our camera and are more than willing to share with you what we have but trust me when I say that these pictures don't do it justice. If you click on the pictures here they do get bigger and you are able to see a little more in each one and I am going to put a short video of the kites on the video page if you are interested. At one point on Saturday afternoon we estimated there to be about 150 kites along the coast along with about another 50 or so wind surfers.
It was fun to hang out on the beach that afternoon taking in the sites. Claire and I walked down the beach closer to where more of the kite surfers were located to get a better look. There were people learning how to kite surf all along the beach while others were gliding along the surface of the water at remarkable speeds. I thought it looked like a lot of fun to learn but was told that it requires many lessons to really get the hang of it and since we were only going to be there a couple days I decided it would have to wait for another time.
Another great thing that goes along with high winds are big waves. I, more so than Claire, really like to get knocked around by bigger waves, so this was perfect for me. I was able to do some real body surfing over the three days that we were on the beach. Here is a shot Claire took of one of the waves getting the better of me.

On Sunday we took an Iguana Mama Eco tour to one of the National Parks in that area. The bus came and picked us up and took us back into this village that has an agreement with the government which allows them to live there as long as they help preserve the vegitation that grows there. It was here that the five of us along with a tour guide began our 2 and a half hour hike around the park. Along the way the guide showed us all types of fruits, flowers, and other types of plants that Dominicans use. Along the way we stopped by this families hut and chatted with them before moving on. In the picture the man standing in the white shirt was our guide and the lady of the house is there with her two sons. The highlight of the hike for Claire and I was when we got to this all natural lagoon that was located inside a cave. It wasn't very large but it was big and deep enough to take a quick little swim in. It was very clear and pretty cold but refreshing non the less.

During the evenings we would wonder down the beach looking for a place to have dinner. Each resturant that was along the strip opened out onto the beach and had tables out on the sand with torch lighting and music playing. We didn't find it too hard to find a fun place to eat. Here is a shot of us having dinner one night at an Irish pub, of all places, call Jose O'Shays. We all had a great time tanning on the beach, trying out new places to eat, and swimming in the ocean and pool. There really isn't a boring three day weekend around here.

Goodbye Mom P.

2007-01-24T12:40:00.000-05:00

Well, we've just said goodbye to Mom... it's pretty sad. My mom is truly one of my best friends.

Last night for her "Last Hurrah" we went to a place called Bob's - the same place we went for my (Claire) birthday dinner. We had a great time having a meal together, and Mom insisted on paying.

For her last dinner in the DR, she had a wrap with sweet plantains, chicken, and cream cheese. Since I have a cold, I decided to go for soup, and the soup of the day happened to be made out of a huge orange squash-like veggie that they have here. It was so creamy and buttery! I'm sure it helped my cold. John had his favorite: the applewood smoked burger. We like Bob's because, unlike at other places here, the food always tastes really good - like home good. I'm sure many of you do not find our dinner fare interesting, but for us, yummy food is always worth talking about. We had a wonderful time, and we hadn't even started feeling sad yet. Mom was ready to go back and have a quiet evening with us. Little did she know, however, that Becky, Sonya, and Kari had a surprise cooked up for her when we got home.

Earlier in the day, close to the time when we were measuring John for the tux he'll need to wear for his best friend's wedding in May (see right), Becky had called me aside and said she wanted to have a little surprise good-bye party for my mom. We stealthily made a plan, and my mom had no idea whatsoever. When we got home, Becky called out into the hallway and said she wanted us to come see something in her apartment. We had planned on having it on the roof, but the clouds passing overhead were ominous, and it looked like rain. So, I made sure Mom walked in first, and SURPRISE!!!

I tried to get a good shot of her looking surprised, but all I got was the back of her head. So, this is a shot of her feigning surprise as she loads up her plate with tropical fruit (her favorite - and luckily plentiful around here), brownies, and ice cream. Becky and Sonya did such a great job at the last minute putting this all together. We had a great time talking, eating dessert, and playing a silly game together. I think it was a much better way to end the time with my mom than having a "quiet evening" in the apartment thinking about the inevitable: she will be leaving tomorrow. Sorry about the blurriness of the picture on the bottom right, but the ambiance in the room involved many candles and not much overhead light, which makes for a great atmosphere, but not great pictures.

We all really enjoyed ourselves - and I certainly did my fair share of enjoying, too, because by the end of the evening, I knew I had enjoyed a little too much - done a little too much. My head cold had decided to attack. I felt so sick when I went to bed - I knew I had done too much for being sick. Oh well. How often does my mom get to visit me here in the DR?

Anyway, I ended up going to school today for two and a half hour and then coming home. I wasn't going to make it. Now, mom is in a taxi, or sitting in the Santo Domingo airport waiting to fly away from here for good. No worries, though, we'll be back in Bloomington before we know it, right?

Hoosier Gets a Haircut

2007-01-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

We've been having a great time these past few days with Mom Pontius. It's great having her around so she can see what "normal life" is like for us. (If you read our blog regularly, you know that there is no such thing as "normal" here.) We've been taking it kind of slow recently because I (Claire) have come down with my first Dominican cold. I haven't been feeling very well for the last few days.

We have pretty much been taking it easy: reading on the roof, watching football, going to the movies, etc. John noticed that Hoosier needed a haircut, and he needed to get ready for tonight's big game (Colts vs. Patriots). We (all of our teacher friends, mom, and Hoosier) are all watching it as I type. Half of us are rooting for the Colts, and half for the Patriots since Becky is from New Hampshire.

Last night, we went to EL CONUCO, a typical Dominican restaurant, with all the foriegn teachers and Mom P. It was really fun, and we have some pictures of it, but they aren't uploading to the blogger program for some reason. At this place, El Conuco, they have dancers who dance on a bottle. We went there once before just after we arrived in the country. It was decidedly more pleasant this time because it wasn't quite so late at night.

School news: Fire in the tech lab!! While I (Claire) was teaching class last week in the student computer lab, my students complained of a bad smell: burning plastic. Nothing happened, so we turned the computers off and left. The next morning, when John was teaching in there, his students complained of a smell, and then an outlet behind one of the computers started spitting sparks and smoking. At that point all the students went wild and ran around like crazy people. (There is no fire plan at our school so the studnets freak out with more gusto than the students we're used to.) Eventually, a small flame errupted from the outlet as the students ran around in the hallway spreading unfounded rumors about how the huge table in the lab caught on fire. Needless to say, now there is a fire extinguisher bolted to the wall in the lab.

Back to the Riu

2007-01-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

The resort that we decided to take Claire's parents to was the same resort that we had gone to over Thanksgiving weekend. We liked the resort, and with the reasonable price during this peek winter season, we figured to have another go at it. Sorry if some of the scenery in the pictures is a little repetitive from the Thanksgiving post, it's just so beautiful its hard not to show it off.

Claire and I took last period of the day off on Friday to ensure that we catch the earlier bus out of town. By doing so, we accomplished a couple things: 1. we beat most of the weekend traffic out of town and 2. we got to the resort early enough to have dinner. Just as we had gotten onto the bus and were sitting there waiting to leave, it started to rain, a preview of what was yet to come. We again took the 3 and a half hour Metro bus ride to the north side of the island to Puerto Plata. It rained on and off the entire way up. When we arrived at the bus station, we took a taxi to the resort, and indeed made it there in plenty of time for dinner. After dinner, Claire and I showed Brad and Gail around the rest of the resort. It was rainy off and on the entire night so instead of staying out, we decided to make our way back to the rooms for a game of cards. The shot of us in the room playing cards was a strategic camera placement on the part of Brad and me. Its almost as if someone was in the room with us.

The next day we were ready for some fun in the sun; unfortunatly, there wasn't a whole lot of sun to be had. After watching the drizzle out the window during breakfast we decided to head out to the beach anyway to see what the clouds had in store. We walked around a little while taking another little tour of the resort and then out to the lookout point. Sometime around midmorning the clouds broke, and we took our post out on the beach. About 15 minutes later the clouds rolled in as did the rain, and everyone went running back for cover. This phenomenon Claire liked to call the "mass exodus." Twenty or so minutes later, sun and back out to the beach. A half hour, rain, run for cover. You get the idea how much of the day went. Because of this we saw about a dozen different rainbows at various times throughout our weekend. If you look closely you can see a rainbow in the picture of Claire and I in the water. We didn't let the weather get us down however. We found a nice little table that overlooked the ocean that was covered and played cards in between our runs to the beach. Claire and I had gotten some card games when we were home over Christmas to play in times like these. There was a longer period of time in the afternoon when we were able to stay out on the beach and do a little swimming, so we were pleased. That night we had dinner at a little sit down place they had at the resort where we again got to see our waiter serve us some flaming ice cream for dessert. I took a little video of it and hopefully will have it up on the video page soon. Then after dinner we did what almost any resort tourist does....we headed to the show!!! Claire and I, having been to half a dozen different resorts now around the island, have seen just about all they have to offer. The same music is played no matter where you go, the skits all come from the same idea, and the dances are very similar. Really the only thing that changes from place to place are the outfits - and boy did this show have some outfits. To spare you some of the details let me just say that the ladies had more on their heads with their headresses then they did below the neckline. After the show we were too exhausted from running back and forth to the beach so we retired to our rooms to get a good night's sleep and dream of a sunny tomorrow.

The next morning the sun wasn't shinning. Again we sat at breakfast watching the drizzle out the window and spent the morning heading out to the ocean and back to our Rook nook. This is the term we developed for our little table with the ocean view because Rook was the card game we played. Finally after lunch the clouds broke for good leaving the rest of the afternoon for some nice sunny weather. It was nice to take a nap, read a little, and swim. If you hadn't guessed we spent the rest of the day on the beach.

Here in the city we don't get to take "hot" showers like we do in the USA, so when we head to the resorts this is one of the things that we look forward to the most. After our long day on the beach we were ready for our hot shower. Wrong. It turns out that a main water line that brought hot water to all three of the resorts on the complex had burst and there was no hot water anywhere to be found. So it was yet another cold shower before dinner. After dinner that night we decided to skip the "Magic Show" that was being performed and sit nearby and play some more cards. Because we had waited longer in our rooms for the potential of hot water, we didn't make it to dinner very early so we were all pretty wiped out by this point in the evening. Knowing that we only had a morning more to spend we decided to hit the sack a little early in hopes to rise a little earlier in the morning. When we got back to our room ...Eureka: HOT WATER. We both took extra long showers that night.

Monday morning (Claire and I took the day off) we awoke to some more dreary weather and did some running back and forth to the beach, but fortunately for us there was more sun than rain. We stayed until around 1 when we then caught the 2 oclock bus home. We then arrived safely home sometime just before 6. All in all it was a great trip, even with the rain. Because we weren't able to stay out on the beach all day we were able to do a few other things besides getting sunburnt such as taking mini walks down the beach or playing cards.

For those of you who don't know Claire's dad, Brad loves to take pictures. So we have a ton of pictures from this little trip. We are going to try and put some of these on our picture page so please check it out by clicking on "Picture Page."

A Few New Additions

2007-01-16T15:13:00.000-05:00

Hello to all of our blog readers. We are sorry that it has been awhile since we last posted. We have been super busy showing Claire's parents around and starting back to school.

Addition Number 1:

One of the things that we have been doing is trying to help our new friend Kari (who is Wayne's replacement) settle in. We had Kari over last week to give her the tour of our apartment and to show her how laundry is done. While in the process of showing her, she was telling us about the twin size bed that she has to sleep on. She told us that she was going to buy a new bed for herself that was big enough for her. When she asked the school for help showing her where she could get one, the school offered to buy it for her. So we then devised this plan: we would giveKari our double bed, and since the school was buying a new bed anyway, they could buy a queen size for Claire and I. Well, they went for it, and the next day, Claire and I received our new queen size bed. Yeahhhh a bed that I finally fit on. Here is a picture of the gang trying it out for the first time. Claire wants to let everyone know that we will be putting more pictures of our new bed on the blog once we get some sheets on it and it's all set up.

Addition Number 2:

The second addition comes from a Christmas present that my mom gave me. His name is Hoosier. A little over a week ago I took Hoosier out of the box and put some water in his jar. This picture on the left is what Hoosier looked like about 5 days later. His hair is supposed to continue to grow and then can be styled or cut. The picture of Hoosier on the right is what he looked like 4 days later when we got back from the resort. We couldn't believe how much his hair grew in such a short time. I am sure you will be seeing Hoosier in blog entries to come.

Addition Number 3:

John's new favorite thing, besides Hoosier, of course, is his new basketball hoop that his brother, Joe, gave him for Christmas. It is intended to be

hung on the back of a door, but we didn't have an available door, so John rigged it to stick on the wall above the doorway to the bedrooms. This way, there is plenty of room to shoot, and he'll never run out of trick shots with which to WOW his wife. Woo Hoo!

Fun with the Padres

2007-01-10T21:01:00.000-05:00

"Padres," for your information, is the word in Spanish for "parents," and we are having fun with the parents. They are enjoying some much needed relaxation after my brother's wedding and having a great time hanging around in the Latin/Caribbean culture and using their Spanish.

Today, while we were at school, they walked around town and came back with some gifts for us: small plates (we only have four huge ones) and a small step stool so that I (Claire) can 1) see into the cupboards and 2) see more than my eyebrows in the one mirror we have in the bathroom. I really love the stool.

After school today, we attempted laundry and helped the new teacher (who is finally replacing Wayne) get settled in. Then, we went out together to enjoy the Dominican atmosphere and American/Canadian conversation. We're glad the padres can hang out a little with the people we spend all our time with here. We want them to have a good idea of what we do on a regular basis.

John and I are just holding on until Friday when we get to forget about school for a few days (again) and take off for a resort. We're taking part of the day on Friday and the whole day on Monday - here comes another four hour bus ride!

2007-01-09T09:23:00.000-05:00

Mom and Dad Pontius have made it safely to the Dominican Republic and we have been tooling around Santo Domingo showing them the town. Here we are at the Columbus fort - again. :)

We're getting ready to take off and walk around the city together, but we just wanted to let all you blog readers know that they made it safe and sound, found their own way to our apartment, and are having a great time.

Dad is sick - we decided that when our parents come visit, it it must be time for dads to get sick. He has a pretty bad head cold, but we got some medicine for him yesterday, and he is on the mend.

Tomorrow is the first day of school - we've kind of been dreading it for a few days. But - lucky for us - we're headed to a resort on the weekend! Woo hoo!

We're Back...

2007-01-06T10:51:00.000-05:00

Even though we only left the country for six days, it's been a little bit of an adjustment coming back. I guess we got used to things going smoothly while we were in Bloomington. Things just never go quite as planned here.

Yesterday, we went out for my birthday dinner - yes, my birthday is in November, but John was so sick on my birthday that we couldn't do anything special, so we postponed it until we had time. We were so busy until now that it just didn't happen. We went to a place called "Bob's" that we had wanted to try. I had hummus, a smoothy, and ravioli with pesto. The pesto was certainly not the best I have had, but it was still a treat. John had a burger.

On the way to lunch, we decided to stop and get a new shower curtain because things here get moldy really fast... we needed a new one. So, we went to the Multicentro to get a shower curtain, and the only color they had was pink. Our bathroom is yellow and green. Still, though, a pink one works just as well as any other color, so we went for it. Of course, because this is the Dominican Republic, when we got to the checkout, we found out that the curtain we picked up didn't have a price and therefore we couldn't buy it. So, we had to stand there while some one went to get another curtain. Eventually, we successfully purchased our curtain.

Then, we went to pay some bills because they had arrived while we were gone. We never pay our bills in person because the school takes our money and sends people to pay the bills. Here, you can't send your bills in the mail or pay them online. You have to actually go to the company and pay the bill there. We knew that the companies we needed to pay had a little booth in the Multicentro, so we took our bills and our cash and got in line.

There were employees behind the counter and other people waiting in line, but after a few minutes, we realized that no transactions were taking place. Why? We had no idea... and still have no idea, but there was a sign on the counter that said, in Spanish, of course that between 2:30 and 3:00, you can't pay bills. Why? We have no idea. The employees were all there. WHY??

Lucky for us, it was 10 minutes to 3:00, so we just had to stand around until three o'clock when the girl behind the counter started to help customers... how Dominican!

After all that rigmarole, we went to Bob's for dinner, and then to another store where John got some shoes. We planned to stop at the video store on the way home to rent a few movies, but when we came out of the store where John bought his shoes, we noticed a nasty storm brewing in the sky - we were a mile from home. :(

We ended up spending WAY too long in the video store while it poured outside, but we were really excited about avoiding a severe soaking. We're learning. :)

We have been relaxing a lot in the past few days, which has been really great since we were so incredibly busy on our visit to the USA. Here is John doing one of his absolute favorite things: a puzzle. He's so happy when he's doing a puzzle.

Now, we are going to be preparing for my (Claire) parents to arrive tomorrow night. We can't wait.

A Whirlwind of a Visit

2007-01-04T19:40:00.000-05:00

We just got back from our whirlwind visit home. It's kind of sad to be back here, but on the other hand, it feels like we belong here. We had a wonderful visit to Bloomington... we thought it wasn't long enough, but upon reflection, we decided if it had been any longer, we would have wanted to stay.

It was so good to see family and friends, to feel normal for a few days. We enjoyed hot showers, a comfortable bed, good food, reading the paper in the morning, and watching football in English. It was hard to come back here.

My (Claire) brother, Joel, got married, which was the reason for our quick trip home. He married a lovely girl named Laura who fits in with our family wonderfully. We were so glad we could be a part of their wedding.

Here are Laura and Joel at their rehearsal

It was great to hang out with my brothers. They started a new "family" tradition that involves laying on the floor after every meal. I personally hope it goes out of style soon, but it sure was funny at the time. This is Joel, Jesse, and their friend Eric relaxing on the floor the night before the wedding.

Both John and I got to dance with Joel during the Dollar Dance. They sure needed the extra dollars to get to Wyoming where they'll be living.

We had a great time, and deep down inside, we're counting the days until we get to move home. A life full of adventure sure looks good from the outside, exciting and all, but when you're living it, things are a bit too stressful for comfort.

We got to buy some things that are really expensive here - like contact solution and a DVD player. We also got to see some friends and remember what it's like to hang out. It was almost too great.

Upon our return, we arrived at about 1:30 am to a stuffy apartment with ants all over our bed. We took lukewarm showers today and walked to the store, but on the upside, our chapped lips are already almost completely healed, and we got to drink fresh squeezed orange juice on the way to the grocery store.

Our Christmas in the Tropics

2006-12-27T08:09:00.000-05:00

We've had a great time here with Mom and Dad Roth. It's so fun to show them everything we do, how we live...

Here we are at Adrain Tropical, a famous Dominican restaurant that serves typical and traditional food. We had mofongo, a Dominican dish involving smashed yuca, plantains, pork rinds, and lots of garlic. It's unique for sure.

This is the resort we went to for Christmas. We took a four hour bus ride from Santo Domingo up to the north side of the island to Puerto Plata. We pretty much feel like we skipped Christmas this year because we spent Christmas Day on the beach - no presents, no snow...

Here we are at Christmas dinner - here, though, Christmas dinner is on Christmas Eve. The spread at the resort was amazing: shrimp, lobster, a suckling pig, all sorts of salads, Christmas desserts, veggies, good cheeses and breads. We certainly had our fill.

Here is a shot of the beach. We got a lot of rest and relaxation in while spending most of our time on the beach. The waves the first couple days that we were there were choppy but fun to bob in and ride on. Sorry this shot is just the beach, no one really wanted to be posted on the blog in just a swim suite.

2006-12-23T15:32:00.000-05:00

Today with the padres, we went to the colonial zone and had a blast. We saw Christopher Colombus' first fort, and this is Dad in a lookout post.

Here's the fort again. It rained a little while we were there, but it was much cooler than it was the last time we were there.

This is a picture of the inside of the first church ever built in the "new world." We went in even though we were wearing shorts.

Here's a "modern" nativity scene in the church.

Here we are resting on a park bench.

Everything is going great!

Mom and Dad Arrived

2006-12-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

Just in case anyone was wondering, mom and dad arrived yesterday safely. We have been around town a little already and are excited about the days to come.

Shakira Concert

2006-12-21T07:54:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple months billboards here in the city started popping up advertising that Shakira was going to be in town putting on a concert. I really didn't think much about going at first with all the school work that needed to be done and the fact that Claire really isn't into concerts like this, but then our friends across the hall got tickets and I decided that it would be fun to experience something like this while living overseas. So Becky found me a ticket from one of her students and we were all set.

The concert was on a Tuesday night, the night before our last day of school before Christmas vacation. Sonya had planned to go with some other people we know so

Becky and I met up with another teacher from school and caught a taxi over to the Olympic Statium where the concert was being held. Surprisingly it wasn't very far from where we live. After we were dropped off we followed the mob, and I mean mob, of people towards the front gate. Now I haven't been to a lot of concerts in the past but I am sure that there are better ways of getting people through the doors. When we got the the front gate it was completely dark and there was a huge crowd of people all standing and pushing each other towards the door. Figuring this must be the place we joined heard. About half way to the entrance we realized that there was a male and a female enterence so being the only male I was left there by myself to figure out how to get into the concert. I would guess that in this little enterence way there was about 50 or so guys just pushing there way in. I was being moved not by choice towards the door. Sucessfullly I made it in where I found the girls waiting.

Inside the stadium there are a couple of different types of tickets you could of had. One was for the seats. I am not sure if it was assigned seating but I doubt it. Another was a V.I.P. pass that entitled you a booth around the seating area that was air conditioned. The third was the ticket that we had, a general admission ticket to stand on the foor of the statium. In this first picture the large screen that is in the middle of the shot was a jumbotron and the backside of the lights and sound booth. The stage is behind this. Wanting the best show that we could get, Becky and I decided that we were going to try and get as close as possible. So we started making our way toward the stage. Obviously the closer to the stage we got the more crowed it became, but we kept pushing forward. We eventually settled on a place that was about 40 feet from the stage just off to the left. We both realized that it was possilbe to have pushed our way up to the front but we were satisfied with where we were. Now the waiting began. Becky and I waited for about an hour and a half for the concert to start. It wasn't the coolest experience that I have ever been in, in fact by the time the concet started we were both pretty much soaked through our clothes. With sooo many people standing soooo close together it didn't alow much room for ventilation.

At last the concert started. This was the first concet that I have been to where I didn't know a lot of the songs, mostly because the majority of them were in Spanish, but it was definatly entertaining non the less. Everyone around us knew all the words to every song and the girls never stopped screaming as loud as they could the entire night. Was people would move and dance little pockets of space would open up which allowed Becky and I to keep inching foward. I would say by the time the concert was over we had gained another ten feet or so closer t the stage. Here in the second picutre is a shot of another jumbotron that was next to the stage close to where we were standing. Another aspect to the concert was the fact that Verizon Wireless was sponsering the show so as people were entering the stadium they were giving those thunder sticks that had the Verizon logo on them. So everyone had those and were also making a ton of noise with them. I am sure I was hit in the head with those blow up sticks a few dozen times by the different people that were standing around me. Here are a few shots that I managed to take at differnt times throughout the concert. Sorry for the poor quality of picture. The camera we have isn't the best for taking shots of moving action in the dark. It was a great experience and a very entertaining show to be a part of. During the last song they shot off a confetti cannon and some fireworks that capped off the show. Now the fun of getting out was upon us. Thousands of people were now all pushing to leave and we needed to find our teacher friend that came along with us. Haha I know. We had set up a meeting place prior to the show so we started making our way there. It was slow goings as a sea of people pratically carried us in the direction of the exits. As we got farther from the stage the crowd began to thin out and we were able to walk again on our own free will. Now that the concert was over there was really no need for everyone to hang onto those thunder sticks that they had been banging around for the last 3 or 4 hours so most decided that the ground was a perfect place to leave them, along with any other item of trash they had. The ground was completly covered with garbage. So much so that walking was tricky because you could easily trip by stepping on a can or plastic bottle. In the last picture you can see the see of red that was left behind. We made our way over the meeting spot and were unable to find our friend. We decided to get something to drink and take advantage of the half empty arena and take some pictures. After which then we resumed our search unsucessfully. So we decided to leave and walk towards the front enterence of the stadium where we had set another meeting place in case we got seperated. Eventually walking through the bumper to bumper traffic jams we made our way to the meeting place and didn't find her. Our next plan was to walk a little ways up the street to where the traffic was thining out a bit and get a taxi home. So we started walking. The more we walked the more we enjoyed the cool breeze and dreaded the thought of dealing with a taxi. As I mentioned earlier the concert wasn't very far from our apartment, maybe a mile or two. So we just ended up just walking all the way back home. I ended up back home sometime after midnight. Come to find out the next day our friend had met up with some friends of her own and they ended up leaving the conert a bit early to grab a bite to eat. Go figure. Overall I would say that the experience was certainly worth every bit of the trouble. I had a great time.

What a Farce!

2006-12-19T17:44:00.000-05:00

What a farce school is! It's unbelievable what happens here during "Navidad," which literally means Christmas. Here, "Navidad" means the months of December and January. Everyone slacks off to the utmost. It's kind of frustrating when we are expected to get things done, but what can we do but roll with the punches?

This afternoon, I (Claire) had seven kids in my class.... and they all happened to be boys. Several students in the morning told me that they came to school today just for my class. Tomorrow is the last day before break, and one of my classes told me that NONE of them are coming to school tomorrow.

It doesn't help that tonight, there is a BIG EVENT: Shakira has come to Santo Domingo and is putting on a concert tonight at the baseball stadium. The concert will most likely go late into the night, and since fun wins hands down when it's up against education, everyone is using the concert as a great excuse not to come to school tomorrow. Everyone and their mother is going - including John. He just left. He has a ticket in the section where everyone stands and smashes up against each other to get closer to the stage - not my cup of tea. Expect a post on the crazy concert later.

So - you teachers back in Indiana whose principals think it's not good to show a movie on the last day of school before break because school time needs to be used for education, thank your lucky stars. We've been doing everything but educating for the past week and a half - really ever since the month of December started. How I long for the way we do school at home...

A School Christmas Party Like No Other...

2006-12-17T07:40:00.000-05:00

We should have known that this school Christmas party was going to be different when we saw the janitors wheeling cases of alcohol into the school early in the day on Friday.

In fact, here it's perfectly normal to receive alcohol from your students as a Christmas present. One of our friends who has worked here for a few years regularly receives bottles of rum. Her students bring it to school all wrapped up and pretty - John got a bottle of what we're calling Super Eggnog. It's not eggnog, but whatever it is, it is creamy, spiced in a Christmasy way, and absolutely full of rum.

We got dressed up for the party since we were told people go all out for Christmas parties (it's true). I (Claire) was especially proud of the job I did on my hair, so for those of you who are interested in those things, I've included pictures. Most women go to the salon before a party like this.

Like idiots, we arrived at the party when it was supposed to start: 7:30. We had been told that there is usually a raffle drawing for gifts at the beginning of the party to ensure that people arrive on time, so we arrived on time. We were the first people to get there. When are we going to learn? In truth, most people didn't arrive until 8:30 or 9:00 - and this year the raffle wasn't until the end.

When we arrived, the maintenance staff was all there, dressed up. I think they set up the whole party, but this year, unlike other years, they were going to stay and enjoy the party... then clean up afterwards. The separation of the social classes here is so blatant. The maintenance people sat at a table by themselves. I think they had a good time, but I felt so awkward about the whole thing. There is one place where social classes are all equalized, though: the dance floor.

The dance floor was in the middle of all the tables, which each had several bottles of wine ready to go. They were all gone within an hour, and the beer, rum, and whiskey was flowing. John and I aren't big drinkers at all - a glass of wine here, a beer there - and we were in awe about the fact that they had enough liquor at the party to drown an army, but they didn't have any water or pop - they had maybe two big bottles of Pepsi and Sprite. We spent most of the evening thirsty.

Back to the dance floor. Dancing is huge here, so naturally, they were blasting meringue, rigatone, and bachata music all evening. Everyone was dancing. In fact, John and I were in a dance routine together for the Christmas concert, and we did an encore presentation of that with the other teachers who participated. Then, the dance floor was open for everyone to dance. Older teachers were dancing with younger teachers, the directors were dancing with the maintenance staff, everyone was having a great time on the dance floor. They even had dance contests and fun dance games.

At one point I imagined what would happen if at a school Christmas party at home I even suggested that we all get up and dance meringue together. I think everyone would laugh at me, and then leave. Here, it just so natural. The dance floor is where all conflicts dissolve and all social barriers disappear. In fact, the best dancers, incidentally, were the maintenance staff. I call them "maintenance staff," but here, they're treated like maids and butlers - by administration, teachers, and students. I wonder - is it a coincidence that they have darker skin than the administrators and most of the teachers? Racism is alive and well here.

Now, we knew that dinner was going to be served at the party, so we came hungry. Little did we know that dinner would be a long time coming. Dinner wasn't served until 10:30, but when it was served, it was delicious! It was a traditional Dominican Christmas dinner: yucca, seasoned rice with lentils, tasty pork, some plantain goop wrapped in a banana leaf, cabbage salad, sweet potatoes (but here they're white and fluffy and not orange and heavy) and sweet milk and coconut desserts. It was fabulous!

We got to meet everyone's husband or wife and attempt to communicate half in Spanish, half in English. After dinner, at about 11:30, they did the raffle drawing. John won a present: a set of whiskey glasses. We are happy to have them, but I must say that we won't be using them for whiskey. That's like drinking nail polish remover (in my opinion).

All things considered, it was a great Christmas party. The best part was that it was outside in the middle of December, and the balmy breezes were caressing our skin as we celebrated Christmas together. (Here, they don't feel the need to be generic and call it a "Holiday Party" since everyone here is Catholic.) The party wound down at about 12:30, and the music didn't stop until 1:00. FUN!

Watermelon in December!

How many of you are eating fresh watermelon this time of year? We can't buy a regular sized watermelon here because we have to carry our groceries home from the store on foot, but we've just discovered mini-watermelons. They're sweet and firm and so summery and tasty! I ate half of it last night and am now preparing to eat the other half.

Toast!

2006-12-12T20:28:00.000-05:00

It has been really hard these past few days - school has been stressful, and we're sad because it's Christmas time and we're not home with the ones we love. I (Claire) was having a particularly rough day, working in the spare bedroom after school, when John said he was going to the store for some potatoes. We can't buy potatoes on a regular grocery day because we can only buy them in five-pound bags, and we can't carry potatoes as well as all the other food we need for the week.

In fact, this past week, we had a not-so-pleasant experience on the way home from the store. It's amazing this hasn't happened more often. As we walked out of the store, it started to sprinkle, and in a matter of minutes, there was a complete downpour. John wasn't happy at all... I was just laughing because it just figures that would happen. By the time we got home, our groceries were soaked, and we were beyond soaked. I took a picture of myself because John was too frustrated with the situation by the time we got home to take a picture of me. At least our bread didn't get too wet.

So, today, John said he was going to the store to get potatoes... When he came back, he said he needed to go help our friend Sonya with her computer, so I started cooking dinner (fish, broccoli, and bread). When he came back, he had a package for me - a wrapped Christmas present!

Low and behold, he bought me a toaster. I was so happy, I yelled and jumped up and down. I love toast, but I never realized how much until I didn't have a toaster. John got me a toaster!!! Now we can have toast!!!! HOOORRAAHHHH!!!! It's such a great toaster!
As usual, he was able to pull me out of my dreary mood. Tomorrow, we're having toast for breakfast! Toast with cinnamon and sugar!!

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This past weekend, we went to the Colonial Zone and the market. I got this necklace there. It's made of larimar, a semi-precious stone that is only found on the island of Hispanola, where the Dominican Republic is located. We decided that this necklace is going to be a family heirloom. We'll pass it on to our children, grandchildren, and so on... from the year we lived in the Dominican Republic. If you can't tell from the picture, it's a light blue color.

The Party Bus
Sometimes, we're blown away by the things here that are culturally acceptable here... like the way all men here stare hungrily at women on the street and make disrespectful coments and sounds.
Well, we found another thing: the party bus. Here, birthdays are a big deal, and the students at our school have huge, expensive birthday parties. We found out recently that the high school students often have birthday parties on party buses. Basically, they rent a huge bus that is stocked full of alcohol, plays obnoxiously loud music, and has room to dance, and they invite all their classmates to ride around the city stopping at bars and restaraunts until they are completely plastered. Tenth graders do this with their parents' knowledge. No one here seems to see any problem with it because the students themselves aren't driving themselves around. It's perfectly fine for teenagers to get incredibly drunk and stay out all night - as long as they aren't driving, they most certainly can't do anything they might regret, right?

The Christmas Program

2006-12-07T21:49:00.000-05:00

I think Claire mentioned in an earlier post a little bit about the Christmas program. I thought I would show you a couple pictures from the event. The first one is a shot of the massive stage that was constructed over the entire soccer field. This picture was taken the day after that is why there is trash all over the place. The other two pictures are a result of me being a male in this profession. Whenever there is some sort male part that needs to be filled I become the default. Here you can see me and a couple of my coworkers dress as the three wise men. If you can't tell I am the one in the middle. We had to walk through the crowed of people in the dark, make our way to the stage, and then veer off out of sight. I was asked to do this about two hours before the show started and was never given any kind of a run through. As you can see in the darker picture I was then the one chosen to go first and lead the others through the crowd. With the gigantic spot light in my face, all the pictures being taken, and one slightly wrong turn that interrupted the show momentarily we made our way to the stage and then out of the way.

A Truely Dominican Field Trip

2006-12-06T20:38:00.000-05:00

Every since the start of November there has been a reading contest going on within the elementary. The winners were the classes, in each grade, that read the most minutes over the five week contest. Me being the Language teacher I was in charge of collecting the reading logs and recording the minutes of both 6th grade classes each week. After the five weeks were over 6B, which is my homeroom, had the most minutes and won the contest in the sixth grade. The prize for winning this contest was never really relayed to me, I just knew that the winning class was going to be able to leave school for an afternoon and do something such as bowling or have a pizza party.
On Friday I was approached by the 5th grade Language teacher, who was in charge of the entire contest as well as the rewards, and asked if it would be alright for my class to receive their prize on Wednesday of this week. To any other educator reading this blog a 2 day notice for a surprise field trip might seem crazy but here in the D.R. that is equivalent to 2 months. So today was the day.
Now remember what I mentioned earlier, I had nothing to do with the prizes in this contest so I assumed that everything was getting taken care of by the 5th grade teacher.....foolish me. Yesterday one of my students mentioned to me the fact that they should have permission slips if they were going to be leaving the school. Silly me I thought that this key piece of the puzzle had already been taken care of. So after mentioning it to the office last period yesterday the permission slips were delivered to the room and the students were told to have them filled out last night and brought back today so that they could go. I thought that there was no chance that everyone was going to bring back that slip on one days notice.
Surprisingly everyone did bring the slips in today so we were ready to go....now if I only knew when were were leaving, where we were going, or when we were coming back we would have been in business. Finally at around 10 this morning I found out that they we were going to be leaving right after lunch around noon. It was almost comical how little I knew and how little everyone else did as well.
After lunch the kids were really ready to go... if only we had transportation we would have. At noon today I found out that instead of getting a bus parents were supposedly contacted and asked if they could drive students to the location (which I still wasn't exactly sure of). After doing some last minute running around I worked it out so my class could cram into the vehicles that were there to take the 5th grade class that we were going with. I being in the last car to leave the school with another teacher and a few students now had a new problem. The problem this time was nobody in the car knew how to get to the place that we were going and everyone else had already taken off. So we as well took off in hopes to catch up to the car that had left ahead of us. I being in the passenger seat was in charge of finding this car and then keeping an eye on it as it weaved in and out of the craziest driving you can imagine.... oh did I mention that just as we were leaving the school it started to downpour. Luckily we found the car and were able to follow it to the location which turned out to be a children's fitness center. After we circled the block looking for a place to park and then ran through the rain trying unsuccessfully not to get soaked we were finally there....then the rain stopped.
Picture in your mind what a gym would look like and then if possible think of the exact opposite of that, this is the place that we were in today. The room we were in was about half the size of a basketball court and if I would have jumped my head would have hit the ceiling. They had an obstacle course type thing with balance beams, rope ladders, and monkey bars set up in the room as well as a stereo with music playing. This was more than enough for the kids to have a great time. The person in charge would give them challenges to do on the course and then they did some aerobic exercises and like always some random running around. The students had a good time, the teacher on the other had were stuck sitting for two hours in the little waiting room they had out front. I did go back for awhile and watch what the students were doing but it was a long boring afternoon.
The trip back was a little less stressful than the ride over but we did cut it awful close as we arrived back to school just as the bell rang. It was certainly an adventure and just another example of how things are done around here.

Pirates in the Caribbean!

2006-12-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

We found out recently that there are still pirates in the Caribbean! In fact, just the other day, a ship was robbed by these pirates in Boca Chica Bay, which is very close to us. Isn't that funny? I doubt the pirates who robbed the ship at Boca Chica carried swords and scabbards, but they participated in the age old pirate activity: thieving.

Pirates aside, we've been having a particularly hard time lately because in the month of December, the workload at school has sky-rocketed, but there is no time to do anything because there are so many extra things going on during the school day - not to mention the fact that the students have completely checked out for the rest of the time left until break.

We're really missing all the Christmas stuff that we would be doing back home. We were just simply not going to decorate for Christmas here because it's silly to buy stuff when we're just going to leave, but it's so sad to come home to a barren apartment when it's Christmas time. So, we bought a tiny pre-decorated tree and some lights. Unfortunately, the lights we bought are flashing lights, which we didn't realize. They flash so sporadically that we call them "seizure lights." They are hanging in a very tacky and crooked fashion all around our living area, but -hey-it's better than nothing.

It's really sad to be here during Christmas time. We're trying not to let it get us down. We're just trying to think about the fact that John's parents are coming to visit in two weeks, and after that, we're coming home to Bloomington for a few days for Joel's wedding. Someone is going to have to shove us onto that plane when we're getting ready to come back here. We're really not going to want to come back after being home for a few days.

Last weekend, we went with a group from school to a city called San Juan to do some work for Habitat for Humanity. Here are a few pictures. It was nice to see another part of the island. The mountains were beautiful, as you can kind of see from the picture taken from the roof of the house.

As for the work, there were a few too many people and not enough work to go around, so we spent the four hours we were there trying to make sure everyone got to work. Basically, we rode a bus for six hours total that day and worked for four. It didn't seem to be the best use of time or resources, but we enjoyed the trip. Our construction experience from other service projects served us well.

We're counting down the days until school is out - only two or so more weeks!

A New Horror

2006-12-03T08:27:00.000-05:00

One of my (Claire) worst nightmares has always been the possibility of bugs getting into my bed. Well, that nightmare of mine was realized last night. Here in Santo Domingo, we live with colonies of small ants. They are everywhere, and no matter how many times you spray or how many ants you kill, they always come back stronger than before. Last night after a long day and a big meal, I was getting ready for bed, and as I pulled back the mosquito net, I noticed that our bed was crawling with tiny ants. I flipped my lid, then John and I sprayed around the room and changed the sheets. How much longer must I endure this? Only seven more months.

I know there have been bigger and scarier bugs in our bed than the ants because I've woken up with huge, painful bites - but I didn't see those bugs crawling on the bed. I only hope the ants decide to leave me this one small area of our apartment to keep as my own. I think I'm being unrealistically optimistic in that hope.

A Long Awaited Package...

2006-12-01T14:25:00.000-05:00

Thanks Lakeview!!! You sent us a package of awesome school supplies on September 23, and it arrived on November 30th! We're amazed that it arrived at all. We were so excited to see things like sticky notes, colored pencils, erasers, etc. It sounds so simple, but we really don't have those things at school.

Thank you Lakeview!!!

The box was gigantic and packed full of great school goodies. WOW!
We plan to give some of the colored pencils and construction paper to some of the poorest kids in the country when we go to work for Habitat for Humanity tomorrow in San Juan.

Right now, school is absolutley crazy. Apparently, in the month of December, school becomes an absolute joke. Tonight, there is a huge production at school called "Welcome Christmas" or something like that. All week, class has been interrupted by blasting music and children singing off-key Christmas carols. Children normally sing really off-key Christmas carols, but the difference here is that the voices are blasted through sub-woofer speakers loud enough to be heard clearly for a couple city blocks.

They built huge stage in the gym/auditorium/cafeteria - so huge that it looks like Aerosmith is coming for a concert at school. We'll take pictures and put them on the blog later.

Check out the pictures and short videos page for some photos of our Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving?????

2006-11-27T16:21:00.000-05:00

Well this was the weekend that we had been looking forward to for so long; it was too bad that it didn't get off to the start that we had hoped for. If you haven been reading our blog you will know that I (John) spent most of the week sick. Well I am now feeling better but it wasn't until after 6 days of coughing and high fever and a even a day and a half at the resort of not feeling well to cure me (the antibiotics probably didn't hurt either). We got to the resort Wednesday night in time for dinner. It was the nicest resort that we have been to since so far.

The rooms were nice, the food was excellent, and the beach was white and the water was blue, what more could you ask for. This particular resort was called the Rui and it was 3 resorts in one. We stayed at the middle of the three called the Merengue. We had access to all three places to eat and swim which was nice to have so many options. As you can see by the pictures, higher on the hill next to the resort was a gazebo which provided some amazing views of the place. The picture here the the left is a shot back down on the beach to where we were staying.

Thanksgiving Day this year for us was unlike any that either of us have ever had. I was still feeling a little under the weather that day and even though we still layed around at the beach that day we both agreed that we would rather be a little chilly with our families in Indiana. It was a bittersweet time that day as we thought about everyone back home enjoying the traditional Thanksgiving festivities. That night at dinner however they did serve turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy. No cranberries or pumpkin pie though. Here is a picture of me, Becky, Holly, and Roger, taken by Claire, at dinner. In case you don't recognize me, I am the sickly looking one in the corner.

By Friday I was feeling better and the sun was still shining. We were able to spend another great day out on the beach. Here are a few pictures of Claire, Becky, and I out on the beach. Check out my new swimming trunks. In my delirious state of mind I forgot to pack my swimming suit. Good thing there are shops on the complex. Also look carefully at the lady standing behind Claire and Becky on the beach, notice anything unusual? Here is a hint: there were surprisingly a lot of Europeans there who liked to relax a little more openly then we did.

During the evenings we opted for dinner reservations at the nicer places instead of the usual buffet. Friday night we tried the Steak place and then on Saturday it was Italian. It was a nice change of pace from the buffet and as you can see in the picutre some of the desserts came out on fire.

After dinner we would usually try to catch the show that the resort was putting on. It was mostly trashy skits and dances that for some reason the European guest liked. The last night we were there however they did some tradional Dominican dances that were very interesting and entertaining.

On the last day that we were there we decided to try some of the water sports that they had available at the resort. As it turned out it they had a kayak that was just perfect for both Claire and I to paddle around the bay in together. We had a good time together rolling around on the waves and trying to take in all the beautiful scenery. Sorry of the lack of picture but we didn't think that the open ocean, waves, and Claire with paddles would be a good combination to tackle with a camera aboard.

Like I said at the beginning it was an overall nice restful weekend vacation. We both agree that if it would have been any other 4 day vacation it would have been great but just the idea that it was Thanksgiving and we were feeling a little homesick made the stay a little less than ideal.

(I will try to put a few more pictures on the Videos and Picture page.... stay tuned.)

Claire's Birthday

2006-11-22T10:12:00.000-05:00

Monday was Claire's birthday. I think that Claire and I agree that bithdays here just aren't the same. I am not sure if it is the lack of family or the opportunities to celebrate the way we are used to. Luckily however we do have good friends across the hallway to help make the day seem somewhat special. As you can see in the picture Becky made Claire a birthday poster that was waiting for here when she was on her way to school. Later that night the three girls went out to get some Chinese and then Becky and Sonya made Claire some birthday brownies. If you are wondering why I didn't go with them to dinner it is because I was sick.
On Saturday night towards the end of the baseball game I started to feel sick and by Sunday morning I was completely down and out. In fact I haven't been to school all week. I have had a fever that has been around 100 degrees for three and a half days now. It has been miserable. I am starting to feel a little better now, thankfully because we are leaving for the resort in about 3 hours. I am just hoping that the car ride to the north side of the island is a smooth one. I can't remember being sick like this in a long long time. I am really sad that I missed Claire's birthday and that she had to spend her birthday taking care of me, but we will celebrate together on a day when I am feeling better.

Our First Dominican Baseball Game

2006-11-19T07:45:00.000-05:00

We have been hearing about Dominican baseball ever since we got here. We've heard that people here take their baseball seriously, but it's like a crazy madhouse at the games - people dancing merengue in the aisles, rowdy and loud crowds, etc. Well, we went to our first game last night, and we were sorely disappointed.

Licey, one of the two major Dominican teams, was playing in their home stadium last night, and when we arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the game, the stadium was practically empty. Apparently, Licey was playing the worst team in the league, and all the season ticket holders decided they would rather do something else with their time. As you can see from the picture here, we were practically the only ones there.

The dude with the flag is Roger, a Canadian who lives here who we met through Holly. We hang out on the weekends with them sometimes. We're spending Thanksgiving with Roger and Holly (right behind Roger) this year. The two young men in the front are two boys that Roger has practically picked up out of the gutter to feed, clothe, and educate them. Juan and Onasi are from the poorest and most dangerous part of town. I don't know how Roger met them, but for about five years, Roger has been taking care of them on the weekends and helping them with education and their health. Right now, one of them has a gigantic absess in his abdomen - not uncommon for the poor here - which would have gone untreated accept for the fact that Roger took them to the hospital and paid for the treatment. They were happy to be at the game, but they think it's cool to look miserable and bored in pictures. No matter what we did, we couldn't get them to smile for the camera.

Even though Licey was playing the worst team in the league, they got smoked. The die hard fans that were there at the game were not happy at all. We sat right behind the opposing team's dugout, so this picture is of them congratulating a player who just came in with a run. The Toros scored five runs, and Licey scored none. It was a pretty boring game.

In the true Dominican fashion, they push the alcohol like you woulnd't believe. I don't really know about basball in the USA, but I'm pretty sure they don't sell just about any kind of hard liquor you can imagine at baseball games. There were venders walking around with buckets of rum, selling it to the spectators. It was crazy. I (Claire) had a hot dog.

Here we are in front of the stadium. John was wearing his new Licey hat to show his support.

You can't see what this is a picture of because our camera stinks. In fact, almost all the pictures of the game turned out too blurry to keep. We need a new camera. Anyway- this is a picture of the "cheerleaders" who dance on top of the Licey dugout. I think they should be called pole-dancers instead. They shook their booties in every suggestive manner you can think of... no wonder women are so objectified here! It was about ten times worse than any cheerleader dance or even high school poms dance I've ever seen in the USA. We plan to go back to another game - maybe on December 8th when two major rivals play each other, although some people have told us that it gets dangerous at those games. We'll see how it goes. We know we want to exerience a real Dominican baseball game.

We Can Make It!

2006-11-18T08:46:00.000-05:00

Our main goal right now is to try to make it until Thanksgiving break, which starts Wednesday after school. We figure it's pretty much downhill from there until sometime mid-January.

We're going to a beach resort for five days over Thanksgiving, and then after that, Christmas will be here before we know it. At school, we learned this past week, that we might as well not try and teach anything between now and Christmas because there are so many activites at school that take kids out of class - not to mention the fact that tons of people take their kids out of school for extended vacations. Then, at the beginning of December, midterm exams start. Basically, the kids take one exam per day, and they come to school for only two hours during that day.

John's parents are coming to visit us for Christmas, and we can't wait to show them around. We'll be in the city for most of the time, but we'll be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at a resort. We thought there would be nothing more depressing than spending Christmas in our dingy little apartment.

After that, we're flying back to Indiana for a few days because my (Claire) brother, Joel, is getting married. John is an usher, and I'm reading in the wedding, so much of our weekend time of late has been spent trying to find an outfit for me for the wedding. Lucky John, he just has to wear a tux, but I have to try to find something for a December wedding while living in the Caribbean - not very easy. Shopping here, by the way, takes twenty times the effort of shopping at home, and if you know me at all, you know shopping is not my favorite thing.

Last night, Yvonne and her family took us to a mall on the other side of the river - in the poorer part of the city, and I found a pair of mauve shoes that I might try to build my outfit around. Here's a picture: (Carole, you'd love these!)

I think we're going to try to walk to another mall today, and then tonight, we're going to a BASEBALL GAME!!

Baseball is huge here, and we have finally gotten tickets to a game. We're going with lots of friends, so it should be really fun. We'll blog about it for sure!

A Haircut, Dinner Out, and a Party of Sorts

2006-11-12T13:10:00.000-05:00

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.

The Weekend: Installment #3

2006-11-11T09:39:00.000-05:00

You can probably guess most of what we did from pictures in the last couple installments but just to fill you in a little more let me add to the story.

We finally got to the hotel around 2:30. It was a long day of traveling but we made it and it was sunny. After getting a bite to eat and dropping our things off in the room we headed out for the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon there relaxing, swimming, playing the games the resort had to offer. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon. Later that evening we headed for dinner and then to the show. Becuase there really isn't much to do once the sun goes down at these types of places I think that it is fun to check out the show that they are putting on each night. Claire doesn't like the show and really I don't think that they are that great but the stupidity of it sometimes is the best part. From our experiences they usually have some sort of program for the kids before the evening show. This time we decided since we were already there to find a seat and see what they had to offer. To our surprise the kid show was fashion show where they had children that were staying at the resort ranging from 3 to 8 come out on stage in bathing suites and or other outfits and walk around on stage. We all agreed that it was a little bit too much for any of us. After the kid show they do some sort of game and call it the Ice Breaker. Again we were a bit surpirsed when the Ice Breaker turned out to be a balloon popping pervert show. After going two for two we weren't sure what the main event was going to be. Thankfully it wasn't that bad. It was a Back to the Future theme were in different eras around the world the "time machine" would stop and they would do some sort of song and dance. This was the typically cheesy show we were used to.
The next day was spent on the beach. That sums it up right there because not a lot went on besides some nice R&R. This was the night that just as the sun was setting Claire and I went on our walk around the resort. It was really pretty out there on this part of the island. Some of those sites you feel like you could just look at forever. That night we decided to skip the show and opted for playing cards by the pool and watching a movie in our room instead.
When we woke up the next morning we were hoping to get a couple more hours on the beach before we had to head home but mother nature had different plans as it rained for rest of time we had there. So we packed up our things about an hour earlier than we planned and head back to Samana to catch the first bus out of town.
We are really glad that we had to chance to see that part of the island and had the experience of the traveling on the bus (even though it was long and boring) but we also both agreed that there are other places we would choose before heading back to Samana that are a little bit closer.

Here I am taking advantage of some free nonmotorized water activities. It was fun to go out away from shore and paddle around in the waves for awhile.

There were all kinds of games to play. We played badminton for a little while and later tried our hand at shuffleboard.

As you can see the scenery was amazing. Claire and I took a walk around the grounds of the resort just before sunset and were able to take in some sights that a camera and a photo just can't do justist to.

Here is another picture from where we were laying by the ocean. Not a bad background to read a book by.

This is a picture of Claire on our walk. Just behind her if you follow the shore back and to the right you will come to the beach that we were were on.

Later on our walk I decided to try my hand at climbing a tree. This is as far as I dared to go.

This is the town of Samana where we were dropped off from our long bus ride. It was from here that we had to take a 30 mintue cab ride to get to the resort that we stayed at.

The Weekend: Installment #2

2006-11-08T14:52:00.000-05:00

Here are John and Sonya waiting at the bus station in Santo Domingo while we waited from 6:30 to 8:30 to get on our bus.

This is part of the view we had on our taxi ride from the station in Samana (six hours after disembarking from Santo Domingo). The area around Samana is beautiful!

This was part of our hotel, called Casa Marina Bay Resort. It was nice enough... our toilet wouldn't flush the whole time we were there, and Sonya's TV volume didn't work, but other than those two things, it was great.

This is a view of the beach as you walk toward it from the hotel. It was lovely, and it was nice that there was so much grass and not so much sand. Sand gets into every nook and cranny, you know. On the beach front area, there were all sorts of outdoor games you could play like badminton, volley ball, bocci ball, putt putt golf, and others...

It was a little clowdy when we got there, but not too bad. We enjoyed swimming in the small amount of time we had when we finally arrived.

On Sunday, we spent all day on the beach. It was fabulous. Then, on Monday, we had the morning to spend on the beach, but it rained the entire morning. We sat around hoping that the rain would stop, but it never did. The sea was really rough on Sunday as well.

A Weekend Away: Installment #1

2006-11-06T19:48:00.000-05:00

This post may need to be split into two installments - we'll see how it goes.

Today, Monday, November 6, is a national holiday here in the Dominican Republic, which means there was no school today. We decided a long time ago that we need to take advantage of the few three day weekends that we have to travel a little further from home.

This past weekend, we (the Roths plus Sonya) went from Santo Domingo (on the south coast) all the way up to the northeast corner of the country to a place called Samana. Samana the town was nothing special, but the ocean and the series of small islands around that area are lovely. We expected a four hour bus ride, but we had no idea how much of a pain it would be to get there.

Saturday morning, we left our apartment at 6:30 am to go to Carribe Tours bus depot where we planned to catch the 7 am bus to Samana. When our cab driver said (in Spanish) "Carribe Tours? We better go fast because there are tons of people there right now," we should have taken the hint. To make a long story short, we didn't make the 7 bus because it was already full when we arrived, but we did make the 8:30 bus, so we sat in the bus station for two hours waiting for our bus to leave. (It sounds so simple to just get on the bus to Samana at the bus station, but it's really very difficult to make sure you're getting on the right bus at the right time, that your luggage is in the right place, and that you get a seat together - very stressful!)

John and I both had upset tummies on the bus ride, which was absolutely horrible. I (Claire) have had an upset stomach ever since we moved here, and John goes through stages, but there is nothing worse than being stuck on a bus when you have to go. Once again, to make a long story short, the expected four hours we had planned to spend on the bus ended up being six hours. That's way too long to spend on a bus for a weekend trip.

When we finally got to Samana after countless stops along the way, we got dropped off on the side of the road with no bus station in sight. Later, we learned that the bus station was a little way down the road on the other side, and it was easier for the bus to let us off where it did. We found a cab and proceeded on our half hour cab ride from the town to our resort.

To Be Continued.........
PS Tomorrow, we'll put lots of pictures up on the Pictures and Short Videos page.

A Time Change, Church, and Dance Class

2006-10-31T18:55:00.000-05:00

Just so all of you know - all of you who live in the USA - the time never changes here. It gets dark at about 6:30 pm every night and gets light at about 6:30 am every morning. In fact, one of the political leaders decided to change the time here in order to match the US about five years ago, but after about two weeks, he decided to change it back because it wasn't working. From there on out, his term in office went downhill.

As you should know, the time changed on Sunday, and judging from the paragraph above, that shouldn't have had any effect on us whatsoever. I'll come back to the time change...

On Sunday evening, we had arranged to visit an English speaking church that we learned about from the husband of a teacher at St. Michael's. We were going to be picked up at 4:30 since church started at five. So, at around 3:30, I decided to take a shower and get ready for church. While I was in the shower, I heard a knock on our front door - it was Patria, the lady who was picking us up - wondering if we were coming down for church. Since we don't have a real clock in our apartment, we use our computer, which thought we were in Indiana, so at midnight Sunday morning, it automatically changed time. OOPS!! John and I rushed around like crazy for about two minutes, and I went to church with sopping wet hair, but we made it.

Church was GREAT!! Everyone there was incredibly sincere, although many of them had that "missionary" persona. If you don't know what I'm referring to, disregard that last comment. The church meets in a school building, and I would estimate that there were about thirty people there. We think that we will return there on weekends when we're in town.

We met a guy there named Paul who is Canadian and works at another school in the city. He's married and close to our age, although a little older, and we plan to hang out with him and his wife sometime.

Item number three: the dance class. I (Claire) am officially going to aerobics dance class twice a week. Tonight was my first night. I went with the girls and a lady from school. It was really fun, and it proved to me how much I need exercise. I'll try to take pictures sometime. It's the ultimate Latin aerobics class... lots of booty shaking. I'll be sore in the morning.

We hope you all had fun passing out candy tonight. No one really celebrates Halloween here and we're forbidden to at school, so we had the most boring Halloween of our lives. I didn't get to dress up like a tube of toothpaste this year, either, but I will someday!