I've been in a reflective mood lately, but my thoughts have mostly been in pictures or fragments of phrases in a combination of languages and haven't yet been translated into inspiring blog-worthy thoughts. So, we'll see how this goes.


My preschoolers are amazing. Seriously, the best. On Friday Katie split our class in half and I went outside with the four-year-olds for a coloring activity. I love those kinds of situations when I have no help so I have to get creative with my wording if there's something I don't know. That could have sounded sarcastic but I'm totally serious.
I'm hoping to take my camera with me on Monday so hopefully I'll have some pictures to post of them next time.


Our dad at this new house works in the capital and only is home twice a month, so we met him for the first time last night and made some delicious tacos. Jen and I volunteered to cook that night, unfortunately we are not extremely familiar with the taco making process here, so we still needed some help from Kati. [this could potentially be confusing: she is my mom in Mata Gorda and Katie is the profesora at my preschool] So we had fun in the kitchen with her and my younger brothers.
Speaking of my bros, you still need to meet them.

All three of them are crazy and awesome and I love them.

Hiking to this waterfall was our excursion today. I had a sweet little chat with Corrie today. I love her. Also, I saw a tiger-striped butterfly. So amazing.

Sorry I don't have very much for today, my thoughts are still a little scatter-brained. Here's hoping for an exciting blog on Tuesday!

Life is Beautiful...

As I write this entry, [10:30 p.m. 10/25/10] I'm listening to the first Christmas song that I've decided not to skip on my iPod. I know some people have rules about waiting until after Thanksgiving, but at my house I believe after Annie's birthday Christmas music is fair game. Therefore, Christmas music has been 'legal' for a couple weeks now, but nonetheless, I almost hit skip when David Archuleta began singing Joy to the World to me. Up until this moment, my reaction has been to skip every Christmas song, because they make me miss home too much. But there is too much good Christmas music for me to fit it all into the nine days I have at home before Christmas. I'll just have to begin my Christmas season in 88° weather this year :)


And, I think I'm able to listen to Christmas music now [Norah Jones is still not a possibility though, unfortunately] because I feel so comfortable and at home here. I'm so grateful for my family/preschool/church/community here in Mata Gorda. The first three or four days here, though exhausting, have been some of my favorites of this whole trip so far. 


Friday: move-in day


Such beautiful, joyful, giving people in this community. I spent pretty much all afternoon playing UNO and making bracelets with the kids. By the end of the first day I had already received tons of hugs, some flowers, a bracelet, and a whole stack of paintings. SO many precious kids here. And my three little brothers here are the BEST. When we first arrived they were SUPER shy, but by the end of the day we were throwing stuffed animals and paper airplanes back and forth to each other over the wall between our rooms.


Saturday: RAFTING


Only 6 of us girls from our team decided to go white-water rafting, but it was one of the best decisions of our young lives. We had a BLAST. Our guides [Luis y Carlos] were crazy and hilarious and [praise the Lord] super strong and therefore able to get us through the crazy rapids without any injuries. At the beginning I think we did a decent job of following their instructions in español, even though almost all of the directions began with a [adelante, atras, abajo] but in our moments of panic, they had to whip out the english to get through to us in a hurry. 
About halfway through, we got out to do a little cliff-jumping. All of us girls jumped off the 25-foot rock, [most of us screaming] and then Luis did a gainer [back-flip] like its the easiest thing in the world. It was amazing. Like I said, our guides were crazy and intentionally held us under a rapid at point and tried to flip our raft multiple times, but thanks to our wit and agility [ha] they only succeeded in tipping us once at the end. Also, one time we rammed a rock and Margie just popped out of the raft, but before we could even tell what was happening Carlos grabbed her vest and yanked her back in. [So glad those guys were pros]. I'm also SO glad that I went on this excursion, because I totally forgot how much I love rafting. 

There are a bunch of pictures on facebook too, but I thought I would share a few of them here.

I haven't taken any pictures at my home or the preschool yet, but I'm sure I'll have TONS in the future. 

Sunday: iglesia Dios es Amor


Out here in the campo we meet for church in the afternoons. So, after we cleaned the church a little in the morning, had some delicious lunch and took a siesta, we moseyed on over to church. Mis amigos out here in the campo know how to worship like David. More than one song mentioned fiesta [Hagamos una fiesta en la presencia del Señor] During this song, I looked back to see all three of my brothers break dancing behind the rows of chairs. They know how to party in the presence of the Lord. I LOVE them. 


Monday: preescolar


Really good first day at preschool. I was thankfully able to communicate almost everything that I wanted to say. [I'm going to need to review those commands again though]. Im working with Katie and the younger ones [3s and 4s] and they are all SO precious. Today we learned the letter A and colored and played with blocks and on the playground and ate lunch and napped together. 
Que bueno.


Megs, I hope you get lots of rest and feel better real soon. 


Gotta wrap this up now, time for a skype date with Jordan :)

my twin

Today is a rainy day in Jarabacoa. 

And right at this moment, I could TOTALLY go for a chick flick with my sis, because I miss her.

I hope that people in Greenville at the high school girls basketball games cheer extra loud for my sis in my place for these games I'm missing the rest of this semester. Go show em whats up sis ;)

We just watched Holes [well, most of it, the disc was a little scratched]. I forgot how much that movie makes me smile. Especially Zero. Also especially the fact that Dulé Hill is in it. Never even realized that before.

Megs, thank you for today, and for every other day of my life when you know exactly when I need to hear from you.

The supper bell just rang, which is wonderful. Because Milagros and Carlos and everyone else here at the base are the best and they make us delicious food. LOVE it.

----

Also, Miriam and WIlliam came for dinner tonight. I love talking to her because she is so loving and never judges me when my Spanish is a little slow and slightly off. William beat me in tag though. Again.

Yeah, we're cool. [Well, he is :]

I'm loving this group time in the evenings. I'll definitely miss my team once we move back in and see each other way less often...

First of all...
I hope the beautiful Miss Hannah Ruth had the most wonderful birthday ever yesterday. Miss you my friend. Lots.


Secondly...
They tell me we were only gone for a week of travel, but I don't believe them [side note: I was watching Castway last night with Margie and they were all at the big long table for Christmas dinner...Pretty much, I can't wait to see you all again :] But anyway, travel week I think actually lasted approximately 3 weeks. 
We packed SO much into this last week. [One too many museums and one too many caves] BUT, it was an absolutely incredibly amazingly wonderful week. Lots of group bonding time including some hilarious games of Psychologist, Mafia, and Silent Football. Those times with the whole group during meals and in the evenings...definitely one of my favorite parts of the week.


Day 1-- Best part of day uno=Los Tres Ojos. I would love to live under a canopy of trees like this. 

Day 2-- [Aunt Annie, Hope your birthday was wonderful :] El Hombre Dominicano museum was sometimes interesting, but heat, exhaustion, and a guide speaking Spanish too fast makes for not the greatest combination, however, the contemporary art museum before that was really sweet. Also, that evening we went to a SUPER fancy Italian restaurant on the rooftop overlooking the plaza in the colonial zone. So. sweet.

This was one of my favorites at the art museum, the detail is incredible. [Jordan, I wish we could have made up explanations together here too. But the Dominican contemporary art I saw was way more creative...no popcorn in wheelbarrows :]

Day 3-- Gotta love hanging out at the beach while most of our friends back home are in classes. [Sorry to rub it in, kind of, not really.] The hotel on the beach fed us a mountain of rice and beans and chicken and we played some frisbee and football in the ocean and relaxed and tanned...well, burned. 

I'm a little embarassed of my sunburn here, but its turned to a tan now, and I really wanted you to see this cute little seven-year-old who dominated when we raced each other swimming. 

Also, she is just absolutely precious. We sat on the shore and looked for seashells together

:) 

Day 4-- I have mixed feelings about living it up as a tourist for a week, but Los Haitises and the all-inclusive resort where we stayed for a couple nights was indescribably beautiful. I would love to show you a picture of the resort, but I wasn't kidding when I said it was indescribably beautiful. You can't really capture it on camera. We took a sweet hike there through the national park.

Here's a couple of my roomies when we got dressed up for dinner. Love those girls.

Day 5-- Kayaking around some islands. Won. der. ful. ness. I didn't take my camera out there in case we tipped, so this picture is kinda far away, but just picture some scenes of beautiful green islands in the Caribbean from Pirates.

Day 6-- Beginning of the day...God was definitely looking out for us, and that story needs to be told in person. End of the day...Hard Rock Cafe. [Chicken Club sandwich and apple cobbler, where have you been my whole life?]

Day 7-- Too many hours in the vans on the way back to Jarabacoa, but good topics of conversation, great company, and driving up a 45 degree angle hill in a stick shift while weaving through cars made it a pretty great trip back to the base.

Today was the first full day of ministry class. [Apparently there is a trend these days of fun awesome professors named Kent who are brilliant in philosophy and life.] So class was great today and now I'm watching Pirates of the Carribean and just did a load of laundry. It was actually a blast doing laundry, its been a while since Japon was too sweet and insisted on doing it all for us. 

Hope you all are enjoying all the wonderfulness that is fall.

the banquet

I can't believe that everything that happened yesterday actually fit into a 24 hour time period. 


In the morning, we packed, I wrote my 5 page paper (because my procrastination followed me over on the plane), had a delicious last lunch with the fam, and said our goodbyes. That was sad, I don't really want to talk about it. 
No, it wasn't too bad because they made us promise to come visit every Saturday. So we loaded up the van and hugged them and the tears managed to contain themselves behind my eyes somehow.


Then, took the Spanish grammar final. Yikes. And we presented our final projects to all the classes (so our whole team).


THEN, we had an amazing banquet and all the classes presented something, but my FAVORITE part was when Arelis came up and spoke to us. We were all pretty afraid of her but we loved her at the same time and she is seriously amazing. Her final words to us almost made me cry. And then all the ISLA teachers gave us a gift with a t-shirt, I got this cute little yellow bracelet with my name on it, and then one of the professors painted a canvas for each of us, they are beautiful. 
So, something you should know about Arelis. She studied and loves philosophy. Which made me love her right off the bat. So I told her in my card to her that I look forward to the day when I know enough Spanish to be able to discuss philosophy. SO, when I went up and hugged her during the banquet she said someday we'll discuss philosophy.


It made my night.

newsies....

good news: I just smoked two final exams for my Spanish vocab and conversation classes.


bad news: Tomorrow is the final with the queen of Spanish grammar and I doubt I'll be able to say the same thing.


good news: I just met my mama out in Mata Gorda [she will actually probably be more like a sister or friend because she is 29, but I already love her] and only the middle one of her sons was there, but he is ADORABLE. And the mountains out there? Wow, can't wait to share pictures with you. Also, we saw the preschool and some kids playing outside. All I can say is that I'm more excited than ever, and even before I saw it, I was through the roof excited. So now its at an unmeasurable level of excitement :)


bad news: Tonight is la ultima noche con mi familia en Jarabacoa. Our mami already told us she was going to leave the house before they pick us up so we wouldn't see her cry. And I'm sure there will be many tears tomorrow, but we will come visit on Saturdays, so its not goodbye for good.


good news: Tonight is la ultima noche con mi familia en Jarabacoa. So, we're going to hang out and take pictures and stay up late with Leo. Wonderfulness....


I have more news, but its time for Bible Study...

¡¡¡¡WUEPA!!!!

I have no idea how to spell it, but thats how they say wow down here. I love it. 


Incredible birthday yesterday:
I had only been up for an hour and it was already wonderful. Mamí came up saying '¡¡felicidades!!' and kissed me on the cheek and gave me this beautiful needlework wall hanging, it looks like its of China or somewhere in the Orient and I love it and she is SO precious and thoughtful. Then, Mom, Dad, Maria, Grandpa and Grandma called, it was SO good to hear from you all. I miss you guys like crazy. And, since I was on the phone with them during breakfast, Jen fixed my cereal for me and cut up my banana and poured sugar on it. And THEN Leo and Bebo spoon-fed me. Airplane noises and everything. I LOVE my family here.
After church we had a potluck at the school next door with more delicious food. Then, siesta at Leo's, except it was one of those days where it is almost too hot to even fall asleep and then when you wake up, you can barely even move because of the oppressive heat. Luckily it cooled down a little bit before our dance party last night. Leo and Bebo [my sibs] and a bunch of my cousins taught us some merengue y bachata. And we had a Americanas vs. Dominicanos dance off [needless to say, we got schooled][Also, dancing is the best. I wish the world resolved all of its issues through dance-offs]. After three hours of dancing, we were so exhausted and hot that the cup of water Leo dumped on me [Dominican birthday tradition] actually felt quite wonderful. 
This family is SO much fun. Great birthday...

Leo

Bebo

Joshua

I took pictures with everyone at our party, these are just my sibs and my nephew, but I'll hopefully make a facebook album sometime soon-ish.

Also, can I just say, that lunch today was delicious.
In the States, I'm pretty much a purist, but here, I've been eating everything together lately, and its really good [yeah Grandpa and Grandma, feel free to rub it in, except I withhold the right to convert back to my purist state when I return, if American food doesn't mix all together as well as Dominican food does] But today we had rice and ham and fried eggplant and banana. And I combined it all. [Dad, do you do that when you're here? Because you know how we are and I'm a little shocked that this is happening].