Cervesas and Guaguas and Playas...Oh My!!

This was definitely a fun-filled...and interesting weekend!

On Friday, we had a free day, so 5 of us decided to hop on a guagua and take the two and a half hour trip to a beach called Cabarete. We got there, and the beach was beautiful! We all haven't been to the beach in a while, so we were slowly but surely losing our golden, Dominican tans (okay, maybe not golden...but I am working on not glowing white!) So, our main objective for the day was to soak up some rays...the only problem was that there was rain in the forecast, which usually doesn't mean much because the weather is rather fickle and ever-changing here! We layed out on the beach right away, and within 20 minutes, rather ominous looking clouds started rolling in. We didn't make a move though because, like I said, we were desperate for sun! It stared to lightly sprinkle, but what does a little rain hurt? Really, it just served to cool us off nicely :) We stuck it out for a little while until it started pouring, at which point we took shelter in a restaurant set on the beach where we got drinks and an awesome pizza! As we were sitting in the restaurant looking out at the ocean, I was feeling a little sad about missing out on the beach when we were so dang close. So I decided to do the one thing I knew could fix our dilemma....I ran out of the restaurant, down the beach, and jumped in the ocen! We all had a blast swimming in the rain!!
Right after that, we made our way to the street to get on a guagua to come back home, and that was an adventure in and of itself! The guagua we got into had at least 25 people packed into a van that is only supposed to hold 14...needless to say, our little group of five was packed quite tightly together and the ridiculousness of it got me laughing. Anyone who knows me well knows that I do not have the most inconspicuos laugh...there is my snort and then there is the deep wheeze that occurs when I can't breathe, but I desperately gasp for air. I started laughing so hard that I definitely started wheezing! All of a sudden, we hear someone behind us with a thick British accent say, "What on earth is that noise??" (Simultaneously, we were asking ourselves the same question because it is not everyday that you hear a British accent in the middle of the Dominican Republic). It was then that we turned around and met Steve Martin (no, not the Father of the Bride, but rather a man from London who moved to the DR seven years ago to retire). He was a lovely man and he let us all know the benefits of retiring and moving someplace where the cost of living is dirt cheap :) We also met a man on the guagua who told me that he was crazy for me and would like to marry me...But that is a whole other story!

It's funny because that day we spent more time on the guaguas getting to and from our destination than we did at the actual destination, but that just goes to show you that your joy really should be found in the journey!

The next day, Saleena and I were invited to go with her papa and his co-workers on a company trip to a beach called Ensenada. We jumped at the chance to go to a beach without the APU group because we need to practice our Spanish every chance we can get! We got on the bus to head out to the beach at 9 that morning, and the first order of business was to open up the cooler at the front of the bus and pass out beers to all of the employees... and that continued to be the theme for the rest of the day! I rarely saw someone without a Presidente in their hand! Saleena and I definitely got the sun we were looking for the day before...we both got rather burnt. But, we also got the Spanish practice we were looking for! It's funny because a lot of people here like when they meet Americans because they want the chance to practice their English, but we have to explain that we came here to learn and study Spanish, so they need to help us practice our Spanish. Sometimes I will have conversations where the person I am talking to will speak in English and I will speak in Spanish so we can both practice! I had some of those kinds of conversations at the beach that day, but after awhile when someone would speak to me in English I would say "No entiendo. Yo solo entiendo espanol!" That ended up working because a lot of the people really appreciate that we so badly want to learn their language. On the bus ride home Saleena and I were really tired so we tried to sleep, seeing as it was a three hour bus ride! This goal quickly proved to be impossible though because the men on the bus were still having their fill of beer, thus the noise level on the bus rose dramatically. It didn't help when a man from teh back of the bus came up and sat on the cooler in front of our seats telling us that we were not, in fact, allowed to be tired and that we needed to talk to him! All of my desire to sleep completely left me when I saw the bus driver with the steering wheel in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other!! Things are so very different here!! Now don't worry too much... because as you can tell, I made it home safely :)

On Sunday we had our three hour long church service (it is crazy to me that three hours of church no longer feels like a long time!), went back to my tia's house and ate lunch, then headed to Mao, which is a town in a more rural area about an hour away from Santiago where mi abuelo lives. We sat on the porch and drank the best lemonade I have ever tasted and ate green bananas. You may be thinking, "Why did you eat bananas that weren't ripe?" But here, they have bananas where they do nothing to speed up the ripening process, so they are completely natural and they stay green...yummy! After, we went to the river right near my abuelo's house to go for a swim...or rather, a sit :) I have gotten very good at just sitting while I have been here! Dominicans will be the first to admit that they are not the most active people, so it is completely natural to go to the river, find yourself a spot to dig in and resist the current, then just sit there and let the water hit you...While we did relax, we also found time to get in a big splashing fight with my entire family too, which was quite a sight to behold! The family decided to change before we got back in the car to leave, which meant creating makeshift dressing rooms out of towels we all switched off holding up for one another. Normally, not a big deal...I did that all growing up when my family would go to the beach... However, as a small, white girl in California I did not create quite as much of a stir as a now tall, white girl in the Dominican! As I have said before, Americans here often become the spectacle, and it was no different on Sunday. As Saleena and I changed behind the saftey of the towels held up by our families, we gained a bit of an audience with some boys who made it no mystery that they were hoping the towels would mysteriously fall or fly away. Luckily, our families were quite vigilant in keeping us safe from the prying eyes, but that didn't keep them from laughing at us for the scene we had created!

We drove back to Santiago the long way so our families could show us all of the different products grown throughout the countryside...I love how here, going the "long way" or stopping on the side of the road to pick up pinecones (yes, we have done this!) or spending an extra 45 minutes after church to take everyone home or being late to work to have an important conversation with someone aren't even second thoughts here. Here, time almost doesn't exist because the importance is found in the event itself...not what time it was supposed to start or what time it should be done so you can move onto the next thing...I'm convinced that if someone took all of the clocks out of Santiago, no one here would put up much of a fight ;)

Kisses and hugs!! (I'm so excited that I will be able to start giving these in person so very soon!! Only 2 weeks and 3 days left!!)