Sunday, October 31, 2010

Reformation Sunday Big Parade!

Friday:
-School
-Nap
-Date with Amy
-Bed

Amy and I went on a date Friday to this Italian restaurant Katie recommended to us. It was actually very awesome. The food was delicious. I had a pork fillet with Gorgonzola. Yum. Amy had fettuccine with shrimp. Also yum, but not as much as mine. The ambiance was also really great. It had kind of a Bohemian decor, with lots of interesting lamps and wallpaper, eclectic furniture, lots of color. But the best part was the waiters. They had those long aprons that go to the floor, so at first it looks like they are wearing robes, and they had these little hats on, and they all have darker skin, and with the Bohemian kind of decor, we walked in and had to make sure we weren't out for Indian food. But we had a great time and will definitely be back. When you all are visiting, remind us to take you there.

Saturday:
-Brunch
-Girls/Guys day
-H20
-Dancing

Katie's birthday is on Tuesday, and she wanted to celebrate this weekend. So in the afternoon, the girls went to a salon to get their nails done, leaving Andrew, Guess, and I to entertain ourselves. So we walked to the mall to eat some KFC. That evening we went out to H2O. I think I wrote about this before, the liquor store that acts like a bar? It was great. Keith came with and a couple of Guess's friends. They both happened to be teachers, so there was plenty for us all to talk about. After drinks and nachos, Keith really wanted to go dancing. So we went to this bar, but when we got there, I noticed two things. There were no single women (sorry Keith) and no one was dancing. They played merengue, bachata, salsa, and reggae-ton (Latin hip-hop), but I guess the people there only wanted to dance to merengue and bachata. So it took a while for the dance floor to warm up a bit. But we still all got to dance, and Katie and Amy took turns dancing with Keith, so it wasn't a total bust.

Sunday:
-Church
-Piano lesson
-Grocery shopping
-Brunch
-Nap
-Pineapple carving
-Dinner at church

I got to give my first piano lesson today. There's this kid at the church in Moca who took some lessons from the missionary's wife. Their hymnal is notated using a melody and chord symbols, not 4-part like ours, so he's learned to read chord symbols, not a staff. I think we're going to work mostly on some improvisation techniques and get him used to reading music from the staff, especially bass clef.

In the spirit of Halloween, Amy and I picked up some pineapples from the store, took 'em home, cut off the tops, hollowed them out (which is more difficult to do than with a pumpkin. 1 word: core), and cut some faces in them. Pictures coming soon.

There have been 3 baptisms recently at the church, so to celebrate, they had a dinner tonight. The turnout wasn't nearly as good as the last one. About half. But it was fun, still, and there was plenty of good food. Amy was learning some of the songs the kids were singing. I didn't get it. Maybe I'll get her to post about that sometime. Maybe I'll get her to post anything at all. We'll see.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Christmas Program

So preparations are beginning at SDS for the Christmas Program. I snatched up responsibility for the Nativity section instantly. I've already written a script and chosen music. It will be mostly just Bible recitations with some students acting out the readings. There will also be a choir of students that will sing some hymns thematically tied to the readings. The best part, is that this section of the program will be performed by the 4th and 5th graders. I'm so excited! I auditioned the two classrooms the past to days to decide which students will be narrators, actors, and singers. I think we start rehearsing next week.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Christmas note:

I guess plain white stars and angels are far too boring for Dominican trees. Many families here use rainbows.

Monday, October 25, 2010

A Full Weekend

On Friday, a bunch of the teachers went out to see a play at a local theatre. It was free, so of course everyone went. It was in Spanish, so I didn't get much of it, but you could get the idea. It was called "Hombres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios," in English, "Men on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown." It was weird. And inappropriate. But interesting. It gave us all something to talk about later. It was a comedy/commentary about men and women. So you can imagine it got a bit bawdy at times.

After that, we got cachapas,(YES!) and some of us went dancing! It was just a bar, so they didn't charge a cover, so FREE DANCING!!!! They played some music and also had a live band. Awesome.

On Saturday, Amy and I went to Calle del Sol, which is the downtown area where there are lots of stores and street vendors. We got umbrellas and Amy got one of these cute hat things the women wear here. When we tried to take a concho back, they told us that they weren't going that way and we had to walk a few blocks to take one going the other direction. We thought he was wrong, but we followed his directions anyways. The next concho said they would take us there, but we quickly realized he was going the wrong direction. We thought maybe he was going to take us his whole route before we got to our stop, but when we got to the other side of town, he made us get out because he wasn't taking us any further. >:( So we asked people around there where we were, and found a different concho that we knew went really close to our apartments, and asked him if he would take us. It was a long ride, but we finally got there. We had just gotten out of the concho and were walking down the street when we met up with Andrew, Beth, and Keith heading to the baseball game we were all going to that night. So then we got in another concho to a baseball game. For those of you who don't know, baseball is HUGE here. Everyone loves baseball, plays baseball, goes to baseball games, everything. The game was kind of a bust, since the home team got their butts kicks. But we tried to make the most of it. There were several of us there, and the final innings quickly devolved into a water/rum fight amongst us. After that, we got some yoniqueques (pronounced "johnny-cakes") and went up to the monument, which Amy and I had never done. It all helped us forget our misadventures earlier.

Sunday was so exciting at church. They had power again! (they hadn't for several Sundays, so I hadn't been playing) And there were TWO BAPTISMS! And Pastor Alex had a great sermon about original sin and the importance of baptism especially for infants.

Last night also saw round three of a vicious Hand and Foot epic between the women (Amy and her roommate Katie) and the men (Guessly, Katie's boyfriend, and me). It's men 2:1 right now. We'll keep you updated as the drama unfolds.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Inscribed!

Today was a big day.

1st: I joined a gym! I really like it; it's nice but not too expensive. The hardest part is getting home. The right concho doesn't drive by it very often, so you have to wait for a while. Which leads me to my next point...

2nd: I rode a motoconcho for the first time today! Katie took me to the gym to help me talking to the secretary and filling out paperwork, and we shared a moto home. It really wasn't that exciting. Concho rides are much more treacherous I think.

Also, people are coming to visit over Christmas!!!!!! Amy and I are so excited!!!

For those of you still trying to decide when the best time is to plan your visit, keep in mind that our Christmas break begins Dec. 18th. Or just come whenever, that's what Karmen did. Book your flight today!

Monday, October 18, 2010

No Christmas Until After Thanksgiving

Unless your country wasn't settled by Puritans. In that case, apparently, the magic day to put up Christmas decorations is October 18th. There are lights sprouting up in apartment windows all over. Our neighbors downstairs kind of jumped the gun a little, though. They've had a snowman stocking on their door and a huge bowl of poinsettias on their coffee table for weeks.

...I don't know if they've ever seen a snowman before...

Friday, October 15, 2010

Fun with ELLs

(English Language Learners)


SPOILER ALERT!!! IF YOU WANT TO READ "BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE" AND BE SURPRISED, STOP READING!!!!!!







I've been giving my kids writing assignments that coordinate with the novel we are reading, Because of Winn-Dixie. In the last chapter we read, we found out that one of the characters' brother drowned the year before. I decided to have them write an obituary for the boy. We read some real examples of obituaries for children and took notes of things we needed to include. They learned the phrases "tragic accident" and "survived by." The thing is, the book doesn't give much information about the boy, so they had to make a lot of it up themselves. This included names. We knew the boy's name was Carson Wilkinson, and his sister's name was Amanda, but we still had to invent middle names, and the names of parents, grandparents, and the pastor. When your students come from a different culture, they use all sorts of inspiration when choosing names. I got many culturally confused creations such as "Carson Miguel Wilkinson," "Amanda Maria Wilkinson," and "Pastor Jose Daniel." The confusion continued beyond cultures into gender with "Amanda Alexander Wilkinson." But it was so special to see a student's "light bulb moment" as one of my 6th graders "made connections" across subjects and brought us "Carson Magellan Wilkinson," and "Mr. Cartier Wilkinson." In reality, I think it's just because his desk is right next to our timeline.

A better day than yesterday

Dear friends,

I started a blog last night and lost it when I was interrupted before posting it. I was writing while waiting for Steve to arrive at my apartment. When I finish tutoring he comes over to visit and bring me my computer, which I had started leaving with him after school so I didn't have to take it on the guagua. Well, he got there and yelled up just as usual for me to come down and let him in, but as I started my way down the automatic gate was opened and he got in and came running up the stairs. All he said was, "I got mugged."

Everyone is okay, don't worry! It wasn't even a frightening experience for him. This is how it happened: Steve had just arrived at my gate and was about to call up when two men pulled up on a little motor bike. One stayed on, the other jumped off, pulled out a gun just so that Steve could see it (seemingly fake but Steve was wise not to test it), took my computer bag, got back on, and they drove off. This all happened in about three seconds, because the street is fairly busy and that's about the longest you will get between cars.

Please don't worry. I was nervous to tell anyone because I don't want you to think we are unsafe. They made no attempt to hurt or threaten Steve. Chances are slim that the gun was real and even slimmer that it was real and loaded. The good news is that, although it was my new computer which just arrived with Karmen last week, the computer held no important information beyond some recent grades which I had just turned in and some lesson plans. Thankfully I do have my old one still, which is in rough condition but holds so much more valuable information.

I gave the police all the information that came with the computer and they say there is a new system that tracks them, like cell phones. I have been told many times though that the police here are so corrupt that if they do find it they most likely will keep it for themselves and if not they will probably make me pay a good deal to get it back. I'm really trying not to get my hopes up. The only other things lost to me were the computer bag, which cost $20 at Walmart, and some papers that I had already corrected and entered in the grade book, and a few pens. Nothing irreplaceable.

It was really a good wake-up call to remind us that we are living in the city and we do need to be careful about what we take with us when we go out after dark. We are so thankful that it was not a dangerous situation and that nothing more valuable was taken. At 3:30 today the police are going to call my roommate to let us know if they've found anything. We will just have to wait and see what they come up with. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

On the upside, we celebrated Columbus Day (Dia de la Raza) here at Saint David today so there was a presentation in the morning and we were left to spend the day planning (and perhaps a little blog-writing) after 9:30. The presentation was excellent. We will put up some pictures at some point to share the excitement.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Diagnosis, please?

This one especially goes out to those retired nurses and nursing students in the audience. (you know who you are)

So, under my right eye was extremely tender today. I mentioned it to Amy and she pointed out that the bottom edge is red and puffy. We're thinking maybe a tear duct infection? I think that just means I need some antibiotic?

On a happier note, I realized just minutes ago that tomorrow is Thursday and not Wednesday like I thought. Isn't that happy?

Monday, October 11, 2010

Advertisement

So Karmen is wrapping up her visit. She'll be leaving tomorrow around noon. I figured I would recap our adventures with Karmen as a sort of commercial to persuade all of you to make a similar journey.

Karmen arrived Wednesday night. We picked her up in a taxi and brought her back to the girls' place.

She went to school Thursday and hung out with Amy in her classroom. She also got to see me teach Amy's kids a music class. That evening we got yaroa (french fries, meat, cheese) and headed back to my apartment and hung out with Andrew and Lisette drinking beer/rum-and-cokes/red wine, depending on your preference.

She loved school so much, she decided to come back on Friday. Friday afternoon was a nap followed by a trip across town with Lisette to a club she recommended. It was a great venue. Still loud, but not as bad as the other place. There were plenty of places to sit, the dance floor wasn't too crowded, and they even had live music later in the night. It was so fun.

Saturday was beach day. We took Karmen to the beach at Sosua. It was nice weather, not too hot, but the sun still came out some. The waves were huge, so we played in the surf for a while, until they got the better of us. Karmen and Amy both took their fair share of hard spills. Amy lost her sunglasses to the sea, and we've all been cleaning sand out of our hair since. But it was so much fun. We got drinks and food. Karmen ordered a Coco Loco, which we'd never tried, but it was inexpensive and sounded kind of fun. It turns out a Coco Loco is a coconut opened up with the milk still inside, some ice, and maybe grenadine, or fruit punch, something like that. No alcohol, but plenty of fresh coconut milk. Amy and I know what to get next time. We walked along the shops at the beach and Karmen picked up a polished coconut shell necklace and two paintings. (Amy got to practice her haggling skills) As we were walking back, we stopped at an ice cream place and tried Tres Leches Cake ice cream.

We took Karmen to church in Moca on Sunday. She loved it. Unfortunately the power was out almost the whole time, so I didn't get to play, but that meant I got to sing, which I enjoy, too. When we got back we took her grocery shopping and made some breakfast tacos. That afternoon we went to Plaza International (a mall) and walked around. The girls bought some new sunglasses and Latina jewelry. We rented a movie and got frozen yogurt. That night was spaghetti with Dan in Real Life.

Today was another day of school with Karmen. She really is excited about teaching English abroad now. After school we went down to Calle del Sol, which has a lot of street vendors and markets, but it was getting a little late, and everything was closing up. So we stopped for some more frozen yogurt (it is so delicious, you pick out some frozen fruit, and they blend it up with yogurt. amazing) and walked until we got to the monument. There we found a stand we had been to before and had cachapas for dinner. (you remember these, the cornmeal pancakes filled with meat, veggies, and cheese)

Tomorrow, she'll stop by school in the morning and take the taxi from there to the airport.

It has been so nice having a guest. Amy and I get to show someone all of the great things we've discovered. And Karmen's been a great guest. She really appreciates all of the adventures we've taken her on.

It's a long time until Christmas. Plane tickets will be cheaper if you come down in, say, late October? November? Just think, it could be your name, not Karmen's in this blog. It could be you having all of these fantastic cultural experiences. Come, discover Santiago. Book your flight today.

Plea

In 6th grade, we are reading the book "Because of Winn-Dixie." In the book, the girl tries a candy that tastes like root beer and strawberry. When we read that part, I realized something very sad. There is no root beer in the Dominican Republic. We(two students from America and myself) tried to describe the flavor, but, as you can imagine, it is very difficult. I was thinking it would be a fun surprise to have root beer at the party when we watch the movie, but I don't think you can buy it here. If anyone feels brave enough to attempt sending a two-liter through the mail, you could try. I would simply ask people visiting over Christmas, but then we couldn't have our surprise until second semester. Another less daring alternative would be to send root beer flavored candy. But that would be fun, too, since it was candy that the girl ate in the book. I say it would be brave partially because I'm not sure how sending carbonated beverages would go. It is also a brave undertaking because the postal service here is extremely unreliable. Amy's roommate Beth has received multiple packages from family and friends, but when they give her a list of the items they sent, she finds that things are missing. So, I'm saying send me things, but I also warned you.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Behold!

I am, even as I write this post, uploading about 20 pictures and 2 videos to the Flickr account. Enjoy.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Diversidad

My class is up for flag line this week. That means my students are in charge of raising the flag everyday, and we are supposed to do a presentation of some sort for the whole student body. We've been preparing for the past couple weeks.

The values we are focusing on for October are Diversity and Identity. The class talked about ideas about diversity and based on what they said, I put together a little script. I also threw a little choreography at them. Since the value of the month is Diversity, I decided we'd have to dance to Hairspray! So they're doing a little "You Can't Stop the Beat." They are having a lot of fun doing the choreography and the spoken part. It should be pretty good. We perform it on Thursday. I'll hopefully be able to get a video.

Our first visitor is arriving on Wednesday!!!! Amy's friend Karmen is coming to visit us until Tuesday. We are so excited. We get to act all experienced and acclimated while we show her around.

Well, I'm finishing up a batch of muffins here, and they're just about done. So I'm going to go. Have a good day, everyone!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Church

This weekend has been relatively uneventful. And while it is one of the most exciting things we do on a regular basis, I think you all get sick of hearing about what we eat. So I am devoting this post to tell you all a little more about the church we attend here in Moca.

There is a missionary here, but only temporarily. All they are doing is finishing up training some seminary students, and then they will leave. The church in Moca is almost completely self-supporting. There are two native pastors and another guy that I'm not sure what his position is. I think he might be like an elder or staff minister kind of thing. Anyway, the way they've trained their pastors is really cool. They split up the duties. Pastor Alex preaches on Sunday, while Pastor Nelson is specially trained in liturgy. He is in charge of running the service, choosing the hymns, and giving the readings. This means he was able to be trained much quicker than if he had been trained in all of the duties of a pastor.

While the church is Lutheran, and obviously so from the altar hangings and pastor garments, there are many striking differences between a WI Lutheran church and a DR Lutheran church.
-The sermon is more like a Bible study, with audience participation, asking questions, raising hands, things like that.
-Communion wafers are actually pieces of saltine crackers.
-There are no ushers: communion is just a come up when you're ready, offering is not passed (I'll explain later) and people just get up and walk around once the service is done.
-Offering is significantly more important to the members here than in the States. A basket sits on a table at the front of the church. The members make a line and one by one go up to the basket, have some quiet and personal meditation time, and leave their offering. This time is extremely important to the people at the church.
-When the meal is served at a fellowship time, the women sit and talk and watch the children while all of the men of the congregation are busy dishing up plates and handing them out along with serving beverages.
-At the end of a service, before leaving, everyone greets everyone else and wishes them God's blessings, sealing it with a handshake or cheek kiss depending on the gender.
-There are chihuahuas poking their heads in the doorway at the front of the church in the middle of the sermon.
-There is a cat poking around through the congregation during the service.
-The only music is provided by a keyboard and a computer. Provided there is power or the generator isn't broken.

TEASER: We have more pictures of the church coming soon. Of special note is a video of a baptism of a newborn baby we got to see today. Ha. Now you'll be coming to check the blog daily!