Hey, so I´m learning some culture about life in the DR. First is that never plan or expect anything here. Time is relevant, things will always change at the last possible minute, and you just have to be ready to roll with it all!
I´m saying all this because last week, I along with Robyn, and Zy were suppose to be doing a week long taller(teacher workshop). Well, about 3 days before this was all suppose to happen, the teachers had a meeting, and decided to change everything up and have us help them make didactic materials for their classrooms instead. Ok, not a big deal...I spent a lot of time on my presentations, but I can use those another time for the tallers I give to my teachers. So, we go to meet with these teachers to help them prepare for their summer camp, and out of 20 teachers that were suppose to show up, 3-5 would show up on a daily basis, and the 3-5 that would show up, they were all an hour to an hour and a half late. Welcome to the DR, folks. Key lessons to take away from this: patience, flexibility, and always bringing reading material along for the long waits.
The week was good, though, I got to see my old host family, and all of our friends from back in Sabana de la Mar, so of course there was a lot of dancing going on, too. Our friend, Bam Bam is determined to teach me how to correctly dance bachata, and he taught me some new turn moves, so I guess the trip wasn´t in vain :)
The hardest part of the trip was that Robyn gave me a bicycle that she wasn´t using, which is so great because I need one, but I wish I had the process on tape of getting that bike across the country on guaguas, taxis, and buses. It was an ordeal, and this bike will never leave my site again!
So Jen and I have a new ¨best place to be hit on in the DR¨. Today we were at the mall in Santiago, in the bathroom, drying our hands, and a guy walks by the door, and was like ¨wow, what beautiful girls!¨ We were like, what the heck, we are in the bathroom, gross, go away! We realize that we are a walking show for the people here and get the most riduculous comments and come-ons of all time, but some places should really be off limits.
On a random side note, last night as I was brushing my teeth, I saw the largest rat in the world crawling up the wall. I don´t know how I kept it together or how I was able to stay in the house that night. I don´t know how to accurately describe my fear of mice and rats, much less the ginormous rats that live in this country, and it was the first time I actually saw one in my house. Lord help me...send some rat poison!! :)
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