Rain, Rain DON'T Go Away!!

As you can see, I have put a little twist on the good ol' children's song "Rain, rain go away!" That is because here in the Dominican, rain is a blessed event! It has been raining pretty heavily off and on for the past three days, and I am LOVING it!! It has rained here before, but this is the first time that the rain has actually made the weather feel cooler....by cooler, I in no way mean jeans and sweatshirt weather (it is currently pouring buckets and I am wearing a sundress and flip-flops, feeling quite comfortable!), but I definitely don't feel like I am dying of heat stroke just by walking down the street!

Along with the rain, another blessed event has occurred here in the DR, and that is the arrival of Mister Joshua Prince!! He got here last Wednesday, and it has been so much fun to show him where I'm living, what I am eating, how I get around everyday, and of course having him get to know my wonderful family here! Mi familia loves "Josue" (that's how you say Joshua in Spanish...Mi mama attempted saying "Josh" the first day he was here, but the attempts proved to be futile ;) ) He comes and sits in my classes everyday with me and gets to go to my family's daycare with me after school for lunch and after we usually tool around town or go back to my house and sit on the front porch (seeing as that is the coolest place in my house!) I think Josh may be seeing that his girlfriend is a little tougher than everyone may think ;) He has gotten to brave the elements with me, experience the common occurence of sickness here (we both have colds right now :/), eat the sometimes questionable food (we had sweet mashed platanos with ground beef the other night!), and the plentiful bugs (one kept Josh up the second night he was here...hehe!)

This past Saturday we went to the prettiest beach I have been to since we've gotten here!! It is called Playa Grande, and it was a three hour bus ride away, but the drive was definitely worth it! The sand was beautiful and soft, the waves at the beach were actually substantial (unlike all of the others so far), and the water was cool enough to be really refreshing! We also decided to be adventurers and made our way out to these sharp rock formations where we had to go through little rock tunnels that filled with water when the waves came in and climb onto rocks that were entirely too sharp and had sea urchins hiding in the most clever places! Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the most intelligent decision I have ever made, but it was SO MUCH FUN!! It just goes to show you, sometimes a little risk is a good thing :)

We also got to go to a Dominican wedding on Saturday night, and it was another interesting experience! The culture is so different here, so why wouldn't the weddings be radically different too?? I just feel as though not as much pressure is put on the event itself here, so it is completely fine to show up over an hour late (as we did) because it is safe to say that the ceremony probably won't start until two hours after it is scheduled to start. No worries if you do happen to show up while the ceremony is actually starting because you can just walk down the aisle as the bridesmaids do to get to your seat (yes, that actually happened!)When the ceremony finally does start, because it is held in the same place the reception is, they decide to cut the work in half and just have everyone sit at round tables to watch the ceremony. Round tables are much more conducive to socializing, so it is not uncommon to hear people making polite conversation DURING the ceremony. Although a little unorthodox to me, the weddings here most definitely follow the laid back Dominican style of things!!

So, I am definitely enjoying the time that I get to spend here with Josh, but I will admit that the days are seeming to move quite a bit more quickly while he's here, which I am not a huge fan of :/ But once he leaves, I will be over half-way done with my stay here!! Can you believe it?? I sure can't!