Green House Aparta Hotel Santo Domingo

Hello All,
Sitting here listening to the pouring rain, and it's bright and sunny outside!  Typical weather for the DR.  We visited Santo Domingo over the weekend, just to catch up on some rest and relaxation.  Unfortunately it wasn't that relaxing--we stayed in a hostel with big cockroaches and a manager that was a little off her game.  We did get some shopping in, and I'm happy to say that for the first time in two weeks, I ate some good food :)
Friday was a rough day for us ...

... t have food.  Now we are staying with some friends of ours who work at an orphanage.      I went to school with my new friend Chase.  Most of the kids are nice.  Alot of them are orphans and don't have alot of food to eat.  I saw one of their houses.  It was very small and they didn't have much stuff.  They go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground.  I miss you.  I am wearing a brace on my arm because I fell on it and almost broke my hand.

... and beautiful nature (can you get enough), plus the historical sites of the first European settlers in the Americas (besides the Vikings, of course !) and cute little villages. I'll drive back through the mountains, planned arrival in Santo Domingo on Sunday, the day before my flight back to Denmark. I better enjoy the last week of the Caribbean, before it's back to colder (aaaahhhhh....) climates - and see if I can get my mosquito kill tally over 2 million !

... a large dirt-bike/small motorcycle and picks people up like a taxi...this is the primary mode of transportation in all cities and towns. They will even take you from one town to another, but I feel that it is rather dangerous to go on the highway on one) to meet us at the bus station (cultural note: the Spanish word for bus is autobús, but here they refer to it as the "gua gua"). So Victoria and I walked over to the bus station ...

... The restaurant is designed for large groups to share their meal. Each fish weights several pounds and the lobsters king crabs are too expensive and i am in the mood for fish not invertebrates! So the waiter does me a favor. He finds me the smallest fish and then splits it into 2 and grills one half of the fish for me. The fish is grilled superbly, but eating 2 pounds of the same stuff doesn;t work for me. I get bored and get full at about the same time.

... of the town. There are already so many impressions! So many new things. We drive along the sea. It's still amazing... I already know that I will come back! So we arrive in our hotel and I move into my single room. Like an hour later we go out for a dinner. In the lobby we meet some guys from Usa. Was very funny to talk with them. We take place onn the next corner in a ...

... them. Please please please any help you can give with either of these projects would put a big smile on my face and the faces of a lot of Dominicans too!! If you may be interested in buying a purse, please let me know so I have an idea more or less of how many to bring home with me. Well, I am going to wrap this up now but stay tuned for pictures of the purses and the half marathon! Take care everyone. Love Mags

... gave us a going away party, because we are leaving for the capital tomorrow morning. They went all out for this, that i´m not even sure how to do it justice in writing. They all cooked separate dishes, which we fabulous, and all that, but then they had a surprise for us. So after eating, this group of beautifully dressed dancers comes walking in and starts performing for us ...

... the only white girls that needed sun there, I guess! But it was a good day. I wore SO much sunscreen and all that, and yeah, I´m still sunburned in areas. It could have been much worse, though, at least I´m not ghostly white anymore. Next week, we have Tuesday off because it´s a holiday here, so we´re spending the day touring the city some more, and then on Thursday I´ll be going to visit a Peace Corps girl who is ...

... and I was out of there pretty quick. Day 5 found me floating around different rooms. I stepped in for Tilden and had a better experience with a patient under local anesthesia. He was an older guy (60ish) who had never had an operation. I joked around with him and had him in stitches (I know, I know) through parts of the operation. The next patient I was with wasn't too much of a talker, he just wanted me to hold his hand through the operation. Overall, it was an ...