That's right. Even thought it isn't an official holiday in the DR, we got to celebrate it three separate times. Once at school, once with a student's family, and once on our own. You will be brought the details in 2 installments. I will begin, and Amy will finish.
Wednesday was Thanksgiving at school. The first time the school has ever celebrated it. It was huge. The whole school, 1-12, sat down all together and ate a giant meal that the high schoolers organized. It wasn't the traditional meal, but that doesn't mean it was bad. There were at least 4 or 5 different kinds of rice, turkey, chicken, pork, a ton of different salads (pasta, lettuce, potato, fruit, everything), and these Dominican casseroles they call pastelones. It took most of the afternoon to get all of the kids down there, get them their food, and get them dessert, but everyone really enjoyed it. There was also a nice presentation a few students gave right before the meal to give a little of the historical importance of the holiday. It was very successful and will probably become an annual event.
Thursday was the actual day of Thanksgiving. After a half day at school to finish writing our final exams, we were picked up by one the student's fathers and all of the American teachers celebrated the meal at their house. Amy will fill you in on this. Pictures of the house coming soon.
Today, Sunday, saw mine and Amy's first solo Thanksgiving. We tried to duplicate a real American meal as closely as we could. The only thing that was missing was the pie. We couldn't find pumpkin anywhere. But we bought some turkey, not a whole one, we were able to buy a few slices. Yes. The supermarket sells slices of a whole turkey. I don't know how you go about slicing up a turkey, but we got three slices of a turkey. Potatoes were easy, and we found fresh green beans. We settled for stove-top stuffing (but it was good, instead of just adding water, we used the turkey marinade), and bought a can of jellied cranberry sauce. The tricky one was sweet potatoes. We couldn't find them in the store, and we knew they have them here. We finally found them, and if you look at the pictures, you'll see why we didn't notice them. They're more than a little different than our orange potatoes. It all went really smoothly and was quite delicious. The only bust was the dessert. We tried making Tres Leches cake instead of pie, but the recipe we found is no good. You're supposed to make the cake and then dump a bunch of this milk mixture on top, so it's actually soggy when you eat it. It's usually very good. But not this one. The cake was so dense, it wouldn't soak anything up. It sat and sat in the milk mixture, and not one drop of it got inside. We tried eating it, but it was like eating a really heavy bread. Those of you coming for Christmas, don't worry. We're looking for a new recipe.
I'm uploading pictures of our Thanksgiving adventure as I write this. There are also beach pictures, egg salad pictures, and pictures of the house we were at for real Thanksgiving on the way. Probably shortly after December 1st when my Flickr limit is refreshed.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Whoops....
I know I promised a post last week, so I am very sorry. To give an adequate excuse, I will honestly say that both Amy and I have been sick. Over the weekend we both contracted our own version of this nasty cold. All the Dominicans call it "el gripe," but it's just a hardcore cold with sinus congestion, sore throat, coughing, enlarged lymph nodes, and exhaustion to go along with it. On the plus side, yesterday Amy bought this medicine from the pharmacy that had a decongestant, pain reliever, and all sorts of fun things in it. It was a powder you dissolve in hot water and drink like tea. Ours was limon flavored and quite delicious. Why has the US not figured out how to make delicious medicine? We were both pretty wary, since Dominican over the counter drugs tend to be stronger than American versions. Amy didn't like the effects that much, but I didn't notice anything negative. Of course, I mostly just slept, so I don't know if my opinion is that credible. I'm feeling much better today, but Amy missed school. Hopefully that means she will have recovered significantly throughout her day off.
School is getting crazy. Our semester is almost over. Exams start next week. Which means we have to have all of our subject matter taught by the end of tomorrow. And all of our exams in by Thursday. And study guides for the kids by at least next Monday. Grades are also due next Tuesday. So we need to track down missing assignments. Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving at school, which comes with its own set of craziness. We also are rehearsing for the Christmas program. And the kids haven't had a break since Columbus Day, and the weather is changing, and it was a full moon, and they are ready to be done, so they're all crazy, too.
I suppose our illness isn't much of a surprise, considering.
But Thursday is a half-day in-service day, and then we will be hosted by a student's family for Thanksgiving dinner. And then, LONG WEEKEND!!! AT LONG LAST!!! Those of you in the states, you don't know how lucky you are to have mid-term break.
School is getting crazy. Our semester is almost over. Exams start next week. Which means we have to have all of our subject matter taught by the end of tomorrow. And all of our exams in by Thursday. And study guides for the kids by at least next Monday. Grades are also due next Tuesday. So we need to track down missing assignments. Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving at school, which comes with its own set of craziness. We also are rehearsing for the Christmas program. And the kids haven't had a break since Columbus Day, and the weather is changing, and it was a full moon, and they are ready to be done, so they're all crazy, too.
I suppose our illness isn't much of a surprise, considering.
But Thursday is a half-day in-service day, and then we will be hosted by a student's family for Thanksgiving dinner. And then, LONG WEEKEND!!! AT LONG LAST!!! Those of you in the states, you don't know how lucky you are to have mid-term break.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The 3rd Man
Remember when I wrote about hanging outside the guagua on the way to church? Well. Today I caught a guagua on the way back from the gym. This already is a very impressive feat. All of the guaguas are always full, so I need to take a concho part of the way and then walk. But today I got a guagua! It was full, so I got to hang out the door again. But this time it got extra tricky. It was not just me, but also the doorman, and then we picked up another guy! So three of us were hanging out the van door. The vehicle was riding so low, they couldn't close the passenger side door properly and had to stop to put air in the tires. It was intense.
Sunday was Family Day. The PTA puts it together every year. It's kind of like a carnival, with food stands and games and activities. They usually have it at some park, but this year the venue was different. One of the families at the school owns a ranch in the town. And when I say ranch, I think I mean resort. It has a pool, (complete with bridge and waterfall), about 10 horses and all of the facilities to train them, a gigantic patio, and a paintball range. After checking out the horses(first things first), Amy and I volunteered to man the soda stand for an hour and then we got some food. They also had a dance competition at the end of the day. Miss Jennie had asked Amy and I to bring some swing music to show off our moves(since there would be no way we could compete in latin dance). We did that before the dance competition, and everyone had fun. We also got to impress our students. ;) We had a lot to do that day still, so once we were done with our demonstration, we had to scoot. But on Monday during flag line, some of the members of the PTA presented us with medals. Apparently we had won the dance competition!
Yesterday in my classroom was a very special day. We finished reading the book Because of Winn Dixie several weeks ago, but I was waiting to watch the movie. I waited until I had some root beer candy to share with them. So yesterday we watched the movie and had a "Winn Dixie Party!" At the end of the book, there is a party and we tried to duplicate as much of that party as we could. This included egg salad sandwiches (enough to feed 24), root beer flavored candy, and punch (made with fresh grapefruit juice!). The kids like all of it! I was afraid either the candy or the sandwiches wouldn't go over well, but they loved it all! And they had fun watching the movie since they were able to recognize all of the scenes, characters, and even predict some of the lines.
Well, that's enough for now. There is more excitement coming this week. Reading Marathon is in full swing, and I'm sure either Amy or I will post something before the week is out.
Sunday was Family Day. The PTA puts it together every year. It's kind of like a carnival, with food stands and games and activities. They usually have it at some park, but this year the venue was different. One of the families at the school owns a ranch in the town. And when I say ranch, I think I mean resort. It has a pool, (complete with bridge and waterfall), about 10 horses and all of the facilities to train them, a gigantic patio, and a paintball range. After checking out the horses(first things first), Amy and I volunteered to man the soda stand for an hour and then we got some food. They also had a dance competition at the end of the day. Miss Jennie had asked Amy and I to bring some swing music to show off our moves(since there would be no way we could compete in latin dance). We did that before the dance competition, and everyone had fun. We also got to impress our students. ;) We had a lot to do that day still, so once we were done with our demonstration, we had to scoot. But on Monday during flag line, some of the members of the PTA presented us with medals. Apparently we had won the dance competition!
Yesterday in my classroom was a very special day. We finished reading the book Because of Winn Dixie several weeks ago, but I was waiting to watch the movie. I waited until I had some root beer candy to share with them. So yesterday we watched the movie and had a "Winn Dixie Party!" At the end of the book, there is a party and we tried to duplicate as much of that party as we could. This included egg salad sandwiches (enough to feed 24), root beer flavored candy, and punch (made with fresh grapefruit juice!). The kids like all of it! I was afraid either the candy or the sandwiches wouldn't go over well, but they loved it all! And they had fun watching the movie since they were able to recognize all of the scenes, characters, and even predict some of the lines.
Well, that's enough for now. There is more excitement coming this week. Reading Marathon is in full swing, and I'm sure either Amy or I will post something before the week is out.
Friday, November 12, 2010
0 comments
How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel like you are on a little island far away from home? Does that question guilt you into commenting?
Another long week has passed by and we are counting down the days till Thanksgiving. (Only 8 school days!) Today my students read a "story" to the school at flag line, which is our start of the day national anthem/school hymn/announcement time. They did okay, but not as well as they do in class when no one is watching. It's a lot of pressure for those little ones to stand up in front of a big group.
Tonight we went to a place called Game Studio. It was a pretty upscale place, but the appetizers and drinks were half off. The occasion was my roommate Ally's birthday, which actually happens on Monday. They decorated our tables with balloons and even provided a cake- which had a layer of guava jelly in the middle:) One room is like a restaurant and the other is like an arcade. We played a bunch of games too and won ourselves two ring pops, one bag of skittles, and a box of nerds! Pretty exciting.
Tomorrow we are going to the beach with Katie and Guess (we'll see how that goes with it being so cold here now- in the 70's and 80's!), and Sunday is Saint David's Family Day (which includes a dance competition) so stay tuned for more updates this weekend. And remember- commenting can take less than a minute!
Another long week has passed by and we are counting down the days till Thanksgiving. (Only 8 school days!) Today my students read a "story" to the school at flag line, which is our start of the day national anthem/school hymn/announcement time. They did okay, but not as well as they do in class when no one is watching. It's a lot of pressure for those little ones to stand up in front of a big group.
Tonight we went to a place called Game Studio. It was a pretty upscale place, but the appetizers and drinks were half off. The occasion was my roommate Ally's birthday, which actually happens on Monday. They decorated our tables with balloons and even provided a cake- which had a layer of guava jelly in the middle:) One room is like a restaurant and the other is like an arcade. We played a bunch of games too and won ourselves two ring pops, one bag of skittles, and a box of nerds! Pretty exciting.
Tomorrow we are going to the beach with Katie and Guess (we'll see how that goes with it being so cold here now- in the 70's and 80's!), and Sunday is Saint David's Family Day (which includes a dance competition) so stay tuned for more updates this weekend. And remember- commenting can take less than a minute!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Hurricane!
No, actually this is just rain. But since it's a very cold 73 degrees this morning and it's "really windy," we have decided to stay back from church. It was a very difficult decision to make since we will have to go two weeks now between seeing our dear Dominican WELS family there, but Beth has a bit of a cold and it has been ages since we had a traditional English service so we will do our own here at the apartment.
Things on my end have been crazy as usual, which is why I haven't written. Thanks to those of you who commented on the absence of my entries- you gave me the encouragement I needed to get back on here and write again.
Steve covered most of the exciting things that have happened. Other than all that, my life is mostly just school and tutoring. The wild child I have in my classroom has been diagnosed with ADHD, but the psychiatrist will not prescribe anything until he's 7 and he's only 5 (supposedly...) The good news is that he made some serious improvement this week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He has decided to no longer hate me because I'm white (yes, he used to tell people that) and realized that even though I am white I do love him (he used to say I didn't for that very reason). Now actually he likes me better than his Dominican teacher. The bad news is that on Thursday and Friday he goes back to his old self. I think the week just gets too long for him. It doesn't help that his mother is really upset with the school for something that happened on the bus (out of our control) and that his backpack got broken at school (mostly his own fault). She has gotten him pretty riled up about these things too, which happened quite some time ago and never bothered him till now. Apparently his mother threatened not to bring him back so we'll see tomorrow...
*********************
That's a break since this is kind of actually a new one... It is now night, and we've had a long, fun day. This morning's church service in our apartment was really nice. We had a hymn sing that lasted till 11. Then we waited around for a break in the rain and went to Lisette's house. She had a party and made us goat, yucca, and rice to eat. Dominoes were played, conversation was lively, and it all ended in dancing- a classic Dominican party. Then we did a little grocery shopping and made some dinner. Later as Steve was thinking of leaving, my roommate Ally invited us to join for s'mores. She, Miguel (her boyfriend), and Beth were roasting marshmallows over candles! The chocolate was Dominican :( and the graham crackers were cinnamon (odd) but they were so delicious! Don't worry, I got pictures!
Now it's time to get some sleep before the start of another week. Is it almost Christmas break yet? Ally put up some lights on our balcony and it's really setting the Christmas mood. Good night dear ones and may God bless you this week!
Things on my end have been crazy as usual, which is why I haven't written. Thanks to those of you who commented on the absence of my entries- you gave me the encouragement I needed to get back on here and write again.
Steve covered most of the exciting things that have happened. Other than all that, my life is mostly just school and tutoring. The wild child I have in my classroom has been diagnosed with ADHD, but the psychiatrist will not prescribe anything until he's 7 and he's only 5 (supposedly...) The good news is that he made some serious improvement this week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He has decided to no longer hate me because I'm white (yes, he used to tell people that) and realized that even though I am white I do love him (he used to say I didn't for that very reason). Now actually he likes me better than his Dominican teacher. The bad news is that on Thursday and Friday he goes back to his old self. I think the week just gets too long for him. It doesn't help that his mother is really upset with the school for something that happened on the bus (out of our control) and that his backpack got broken at school (mostly his own fault). She has gotten him pretty riled up about these things too, which happened quite some time ago and never bothered him till now. Apparently his mother threatened not to bring him back so we'll see tomorrow...
*********************
That's a break since this is kind of actually a new one... It is now night, and we've had a long, fun day. This morning's church service in our apartment was really nice. We had a hymn sing that lasted till 11. Then we waited around for a break in the rain and went to Lisette's house. She had a party and made us goat, yucca, and rice to eat. Dominoes were played, conversation was lively, and it all ended in dancing- a classic Dominican party. Then we did a little grocery shopping and made some dinner. Later as Steve was thinking of leaving, my roommate Ally invited us to join for s'mores. She, Miguel (her boyfriend), and Beth were roasting marshmallows over candles! The chocolate was Dominican :( and the graham crackers were cinnamon (odd) but they were so delicious! Don't worry, I got pictures!
Now it's time to get some sleep before the start of another week. Is it almost Christmas break yet? Ally put up some lights on our balcony and it's really setting the Christmas mood. Good night dear ones and may God bless you this week!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Tomas
I hate Tomas. Yes because of the havoc wreaked on poor Haiti, but also for more selfish and trivial reasons.
Last Friday was Sports Day. No school, just taking the kids to the park for some friendly competition from 8-12 and then an early weekend! How great!
Except Tomas ruined everything. Because of all the rain scheduled for Friday, Sports Day was "postponed" (in parentheses because postponement implies rescheduling, and we'll see if that actually happens...) and we thought hey, day off! No way. Full day of school. And we only found out 36 hours before. And grades were due the same day. So my Friday was spent with the kids who actually showed up for school and didn't really want to be there and had basically started the weekend in their brains already, trying to figure out stuff to keep them mildly productive.
Oh, also, as mentioned earlier, grades were due, too. Apparently this was on the calendar we received at the beginning of the year, and we expected it since we have to give grades every month, but usually not for another week. Those of us who are less vigilant of our calendars were rather caught off guard this Wednesday. So when I wasn't in class, I was frantically trying to track down grades from the multitude of sick students I've had the past 2 1/2 weeks.
So I had resigned myself to this sad Friday, but hey, at least we should get to see the edge of a hurricane, so that will be fun, right? No. It sprinkled on and off all Friday, and today the sun came out for a bit. What a tragic waste. So all of you biting your nails worrying for us, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but all that happened was the dampening of the hem of my pants.
Last Friday was Sports Day. No school, just taking the kids to the park for some friendly competition from 8-12 and then an early weekend! How great!
Except Tomas ruined everything. Because of all the rain scheduled for Friday, Sports Day was "postponed" (in parentheses because postponement implies rescheduling, and we'll see if that actually happens...) and we thought hey, day off! No way. Full day of school. And we only found out 36 hours before. And grades were due the same day. So my Friday was spent with the kids who actually showed up for school and didn't really want to be there and had basically started the weekend in their brains already, trying to figure out stuff to keep them mildly productive.
Oh, also, as mentioned earlier, grades were due, too. Apparently this was on the calendar we received at the beginning of the year, and we expected it since we have to give grades every month, but usually not for another week. Those of us who are less vigilant of our calendars were rather caught off guard this Wednesday. So when I wasn't in class, I was frantically trying to track down grades from the multitude of sick students I've had the past 2 1/2 weeks.
So I had resigned myself to this sad Friday, but hey, at least we should get to see the edge of a hurricane, so that will be fun, right? No. It sprinkled on and off all Friday, and today the sun came out for a bit. What a tragic waste. So all of you biting your nails worrying for us, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but all that happened was the dampening of the hem of my pants.
Monday, November 1, 2010
As Per Request
Pineapple pictures are uploading as this is being typed.
As to dancing, if you take the trouble to come down here and visit, the least I can do is make sure you get to go dancing. :)
As to music, I had to download the one song to my iTunes. I just need to have access to it 24/7. The title is "We No Speak Americano" and the artist is Yadena. I don't know the name of the "brrrddddmmmm!" one. And I doubt googling "brrrdddmmmm!" will yield many results.
Also being uploaded are some pictures of the Columbus day pageant, so you get to see some really cute Indians!
As to dancing, if you take the trouble to come down here and visit, the least I can do is make sure you get to go dancing. :)
As to music, I had to download the one song to my iTunes. I just need to have access to it 24/7. The title is "We No Speak Americano" and the artist is Yadena. I don't know the name of the "brrrddddmmmm!" one. And I doubt googling "brrrdddmmmm!" will yield many results.
Also being uploaded are some pictures of the Columbus day pageant, so you get to see some really cute Indians!
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