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].

"Un pedacito de casa donde quiera que estes."

...thats what the little tagline on my delicious little strawberry-filled short-bread cookies said today. And that's just what I need right now. Gracias Florentinas galletas. And thank you, all you people who make up such an incredible support team for me. And I'm so thankful that I have your love and support and prayers and that I can carry you with me in my heart and have "a little piece of home wherever I want to be."

. . .

This morning I went to Anija to interview a teacher and her class. 

It. 

Was. 

The.

Best.

It got me all excited all over again for the next half of the semester when I get to work in a preschool everyday.

Can't. 

Wait.

And, this morning was the best because I got to go to William's class [my professor's son] and he is just awesome. 

[Spidey in the front row was cracking me up]

[William is the one in the front row with the red shirt under his Anija shirt. Way cute.]

A few of my favorite things....

I really don't like cheesy blog titles, but I love that movie, so I decided to sacrifice for the cause.


But for real, here are some of my favorite things about being here so far [and really just a few because I can't think of all of them right now]:

• our fort and the mountains outside our window every morning
• ice cream and my journal in my hammock 
• playing Dominoes with our mami and papi
• my jar of honey roasted Peter Pan peanut butter...thanks mom...and my Trader Joe's sweet and juicy mangos...those are almost gone...sad day
• tostones, arroz, salon, y pollo
• that Megs and I still have duhj moments even with an ocean between us
• Papi's laugh 
• playing tag with my professor's 8 year old son after class [and a little bit during...shhh]
• hearing God unmistakably in people around me, trees, music, butterflies, and mountains
• dance party with our siblings and cousins
• that skyping with Jordan in the morning, even for 10 minutes, gives me energy for the whole day

my vocabulary and conversation class...the conversation part is never hard with a class full of girls :)

The FORT