Chapter 2, did these past three weeks really just happen?

Here I sit at the terminal in NYC waiting for my connecting flight back home to Minneapolis and all I can think is, "Did these past three weeks really just happen?!"

My last week in the Dominican Republic was fairly relaxing with not much planned besides seeing Pablo in the evenings.  He has stayed just as serious as ever and inevitably decided to bring up marriage!  No he didn't propose after three weeks but he needed to get a gauge of whether or not we had serious potential.  The things he says to me are just so sweet.  How the two of us would make beautiful children or how I'm the kind of person he's always been looking for.  Throughout our conversations, I've learned that he is no Rico Suave.  Apparently several girls have thrown themselves at him but he just wasn't interested until I came along. I don't know how this can be true except for my hair, I swear my hair has magical powers!  I also know this boy sure isn't interested in a green card but I'll get to that later. So we had a few social gatherings and a few one on ones this week but the milestone moment was when he asked me to meet his mom.

It was a Sunday evening when I went to his house expecting to find his mother and one of his brothers that currently live there.  Well I found them along with all six of his siblings and their families! Luckily they didn't all show up at the same time!  His mom is so so sweet and his sister made a flan just for me.  I was quite nervous not only because of the language barrier but because it hadn't even been three weeks and he wanted me to meet his mother!  Pablo too was nervous because he reminded me several times that he was poor and didn't have many things.  This has never been an issue for me but it was interesting seeing where he lived.  He has a small house with concrete floors and a small kitchen.  You could see the panels of the roof from the inside and there were curtains for bedroom doors.  The bathroom was connected to the house but through the outside.  His mom has a fetish for plants and flowers so I did the polite thing and asked her all about her plants while she showed me everything she had both inside and out.  I had to practice a few Spanish phrases before going to meet her including, "you have a lovely home" and "you've raised a good son".  Overall I think the evening went pretty well.  Everyone was just so sweet!  I did find it interesting that the next day when I saw Pablo he didn't tell me anything about how it went or what his family thought of me, or of us, and I was too nervous to ask.  The following day I did get brave and I asked. That's when he hesitated but replied briefly that they said I seemed sincere.  I can only imagine that they stressed to him how fast it was to bring a girl home and the fact that we live in two different countries which comes with different languages and cultures!  Maybe Pablo will divulge more a little later.

One thing that Pablo and I struggled with throughout the week was how to be alone!  I'm staying with Lindsey and Alberto so obviously they are home a lot and can't just crawl in to their room unless it's actually bed time.  Pablo lives with his mom so that's not an option either.  On Friday night we had a group activity planned with Alberto, Lindsey, Maria and Marco.  Maria and Marco had a sick baby so we ended up going with Alberto, Lindsey and Alberto's cousin Eli.  Lindsey and I wanted to try a new restaurant while Alberto couldn't resist another night at Tablon with his oh so coveted Burrata salad.  The two restaurants were next door to each other and it ended up being Lindsey, Pablo and I for dinner at the new place.  How awkward!  The musical was loud, Lindesey was clearly a third wheel, the menu was overpriced and the one affordable thing on the menu, being a hamburger, wasn't even good!  Lindsey tried to make conversation with Pablo as he is very shy when others are around.  We finished the night with the five of us bowling but Pablo and I barely interacted because he's just so shy with other people. You could almost cut the awkward tension with a knife.  When we got back home Pablo chows to leave right away because Alberto's cousin and aunt were at the house.  I understand we can't make out in front of other people but I wish he would just stay with me to talk even while other people are there.  This isn't the first time he's left early because people were around. It's not that he's rude, it's really that he's just so shy!  But with me alone, he's much more himself.

Finally the day came that I was really going home.  Pablo had meetings for church that night and couldn't show up at Lindsey' to say bye to me until almost 10pm!  I was getting a ride to the airport from Alberto's cousin, Eli, and he too showed up before 11 while I didn't need to leave until 12:30am.  Lindsey and Alberto knew that their cousin always comes over early to play video games and it's not like they could tell him he's not welcome because that would be rude.  So when Eli arrived, Pablo and I decided to go outside and sit by the pool.  We stayed there for about 30 minutes until a security gurard showed up and told us we had to leave.  Now where we were going to go?!  We ended up sitting on the stairs outside of Lindsey's apartment but every time Pablo went to kiss me there was some loud noise or someone coming!  All we could do was laugh about this the whole night while Pablo kept asking, Why tonight? Why the night she is leaving? When can we just be left alone?

Amongst the craziness of finding a place to be alone, we did have some serious conversation.  Remember how I said Pablo has went from the L-word to the M-word?  He has now mentioned the possibility of marriage several times as he says I have the qualities he's looking for.  I have been dreading asking him something because for me it's all too soon but at this point I had to know!  I had to ask if there was any chance of him moving to the U S of A?!  Once I finally did, he acknowledged that his life is in Santiago, his family, his school and his potential career.  Pablo has eight months left of law school after which he already has two connections for jobs here in Santiago.  On the other hand, Pablo also acknowledged that my family and career were in the US.  He said I was more established in a life there whereas here he was just getting started.  This is all very true, I've already finished my Masters degree and have been a school psychologist for several years.  Granted Marriage and family are what's most important to me so I could live anywhere for a couple years but I couldn't stay in Santiago forever.  If only he knew what the US had to offer, sometimes I'm shocked he has no idea. You could tell Pablo was unsure of wanting to move but what can you expect when Santiago really is all he knows?  He's never left the country so of course it would be hard.  But then Pablo said the sweetest thing.  He'd leave it all behind for me!  At least that's what I think he said in Spanish...He said he'd wait for me for one, two, three years, whatever I needed.  He really thinks he's found the one and I , well I...I'm not so sure.  Need I repeat that it's been three weeks and two different countries?  But what I do know is if I stayed in this country any longer, I'd be falling in love with this guy!  Man this kid is so adorable!

It was finally time for Eli to take me to the airport and Pablo surprisingly came along.  I was happy he came but I felt so bad for Eli to be our awkward chafferer.  Pablo carried my bags and kissed me goodbye while Eli on looked because he needed to wait to take Pablo home.  Pablo even stayed to watch me walk through customs before going to my gate.  It was clear that Pablo has never been to an airport and this was a whole new world for him.  The only time he has travelled was for his mission for church and that was just in the southern part of his country.

Here I sit at the terminal in NYC waiting for my connecting flight back home to Minneapolis and all I can think is, "Did these past three weeks really just happen?!"Wait!  I just noticed I've already missed a call from the DR!  He's called me already and I can't call back because I don't have international calling.  He was probably checking to see if I made it home safely.  Little does he know my flight was delayed and I won't be home until 6pm.  I do hope we get in contact soon.

Chapter one of my first short story!

When Love breaks all Laws

Lingering stares, adorable smiles, two different countries

There I was, an all American girl, staring into the eyes of a Dominican man in the city of Santiago when he told me he loved me.

It all began when I came to visit my best friend Lindsey and her family who had recently moved to Santiago.  We had a huge itinerary planned to explore all over the country and we did.   However little did I know that Lindsey and her husband Alberto had a blind double date planned for me the night I arrived!  There we sat, the four of us, at dinner at one of Alberto’s favorite restaurants Tablon, which faces Santiago’s Monument.  I cannot begin to tell you how awkward this was!  Now would be a good time to mention that Pablo, my date, doesn’t speak any English and I am lucky I have a high school level knowledge of Spanish!  Alberto did most of the work carrying on the conversation with Pablo while Lindsey noticed that Pablo sure did smile at me a lot from across the table.  After dinner things loosened up just a little as Pablo took photos of my friend and me around the Monument although the language barrier was still apparent. 

The following Monday Lindsey and Alberto invited Pablo over for game night with another couple, Maria and Marco.  This was fun but still mainly consisted of the most adorable smiles and little communication.  Oh and yes his smile is adorable…his whole self is actually rather attractive! My flight was scheduled to leave in two days but I was thinking about staying longer for the Enrique Iglesias concert in Punta Cana.  This helped bring up something to talk about this evening. “So you like Enrique Iglesias?” I responded in the affirmative, Marco then tapped Pablo on the shoulder and chuckled while making a short comment in Spanish.  Thinking that he was making fun of my love of Enrique, I turned to Alberto and asked what he said, to which Alberto responded, “He just told Pablo that he should be taking notes.” Marco continued to ask several questions about myself and loudly stated: “Hey, I’m just trying to help my friend here.”  How awkward…language barrier or not!

Two days later this group of six of us had a very pivotal movie night.  Of course Lindsey and our friend, Maria, had arranged the seating just perfectly so Pablo would sit by me. At this point there was an obvious mutual physical attraction.  Who doesn’t want an attractive man to cuddle with during a movie?  So as much as I like to let the guy make the first move I leaned back on the couch and put my head on the pillow just enough to give him the opportunity to put his arm around me but he didn’t.  I sat through the first part of the movie just watching his little hand, and by little I mean ginormous hand, sitting on his leg and watching it twitch and move towards mine.  Finally he got the guts to just do it and it went from hand holding to resting our heads together while all scrunched up on a little couch.   Not to mention all of the other non-verbal communication that occurred from lingering stares to adorable yet prolonged smiles.   Sometimes when we stare for so long, I get this huge pit in my stomach and just think, OMG you’re so attractive. After the movie, everyone strategically left and both of the guys made sure Pablo knew he could stay as long as he wanted.  We managed to carry on a bit more conversation and shared more really amazing smiles.  He asked if he could take me out to dinner Friday night so we could have the chance to talk more and get to know one another. Then both the inevitable and almost unbelievable happened.  He kissed me!  I mean he really kissed me and we enjoyed the rest of our evening.  Of course immediately after our make out session I ran into Lindsey’s room to tell her all about it!

Apparently Island time occurred on Friday when Pablo showed up 45 minutes late for our date.  Only after the date did I find out Pablo left a message with Alberto that he’d be late but somehow this slipped Alberto’s mind to tell me. We went to the mall for some food but he also saw the movie theater in the mall and asked if I’d rather do that.  Since I was no longer hungry from the butterflies in my stomach and the lateness I decided a movie would be fine.  I could tell this man didn’t watch many movies with how fidgety he was and he didn’t even know who the main character, Wolverine, was.  He put his arm around me and held my hand again and we were comfortable on our date.  At least physically comfortable…we still struggled to make conversation but were slowly progressing.  When we got back to Lindsey’s house, you can only guess what happened when we sat on the couch!  We were simply making out when Pablo stopped suddenly and told me he needed to go, or at least that’s what I thought he said with my limited Spanish.  After a minute he began kissing me again which followed by another even more sudden stop and a firm statement that he needed to get home.  He stood straight up, walked to the door, turned in what seemed like an attempt to kiss me goodnight but stopped himself, and continued for the door. I didn’t feel like anything inappropriate was going on but I sure felt like Potiphar’s wife when Joseph fled the scene in biblical times!  He didn’t even say goodbye like he did the previous night.  He just walked to the door and left.  I was stunned.

Somehow after all this drama, Pablo got the nerve to ask me out again.  Unfortunately he got stuck cleaning the church this evening so I decided to go and help him.  He walked me home holding my hand and kissed me good night at the door.  Alberto’s aunt was over so I didn’t invite him in and luckily this prevented any more action from occurring too soon.  We sure didn’t need any more fleeing of the scene!   I was too nervous to address what had happened the previous night especially with my poor Spanish so I decided to just let us naturally try and move past it.

On Sunday night Alberto and Lindsey invited Pablo for dinner at their home.  We all had a good time together and once again Lindsey and Alberto slipped away to their room allowing Pablo to stay over as long as he’d like.  By now we were getting much better at communicating and realized that we have the same goals for religion and family.  We also couldn’t deny the physical attraction.  However was that enough?  Are we compatible as a couple?  How can we know when we don’t even speak the same language?  He doesn’t know the small things that make me who I am.  He doesn’t know the quirks in my personality that have come from my parents.  How is our relationship going to work when we both have families and jobs in different countries?  He’s in law school here in Santiago and all of his siblings reside here.  I have a career in the US and know that I can’t spend the rest of my life in the Dominican Republic…

There we sat after dinner trying to make conversation again.  Nicole understands quite a bit of Spanish!  If only I knew just a little bit of English.  I really really am enjoying spending time with this girl.  She’s beautiful and her hair, oh her hair!  I know she’s intelligent, she loves to laugh and I know she has the same goals for her future family as me.  I haven’t dated much but there have been plenty of interested girls.  Nicole is just different.  Maybe it’s the way she smiles or maybe it’s the way she laughs.  Maybe it’s her confidence or maybe it’s just her hair!  All I know is since she’s been here; I want to see her every day.  So of course after dinner, after we talked, I leaned in and kissed her.  I really like kissing her.  As we stood up when she was about to walk me to the door I took her in my arms and said “I love you.”  I said it in English just for her.  I was pretty quiet and unsure if she heard me so I cupped her delicate face in my hands I said “I Love you Nicole.”  She replied with a smile, an awkward giggle and finished her hug goodbye as I was leaving.  She smiled at me the whole way out as I walked to the elevator.  I smiled back but when I got in the elevator I hung my head low as I knew she didn’t say it back.  I looked up to see her still watching me and gave her a half smile before the elevator doors shut.

“Lindsey!  Lindsey!” I shouted as I stormed into her bedroom.  “What’s the one thing that would freak me out in this situation more than anything else?”  “He dropped the L-bomb!”  What was I supposed to do at this point?  I don’t love him; I don’t even know him!  But I want to get to know him and I’ve already extended my stay in the country once to do just that.  I’m supposed to leave in less than three days and now I’ve really got to get out of here before this gets any more out of hand!  At least that’s what I thought at first…after talking to several people I was somehow convinced to extend my stay again just one more week.  I only had to pay the $200 change fee for my flight and I had no major responsibilities in Minnesota for the week.  Alberto and Maria were probably my biggest influences in staying.  Alberto spoke from experience when deciding he wanted to marry Lindsey about why I should stay.  He told me if there was a chance that this could be my husband then what’s $200 and one week?  Why not use the time wisely and get to know him even more because you never know if this could be the one.  And if it’s not the one, is it really a struggle to lose $200 and spend another week on a tropical island?  Maria was also a strong influence reminding me that the most important things in a marriage are religion and family and since we have that, we have a pretty good shot.  I of course know that it takes way more than that for a marriage to be successful but Maria may have been onto something.  I decided to Skype my friend, Rachel, as the voice of reason as to whether or not to stay an extra week.  Rachel didn’t seem to be very reasonable this evening.  She too said if we already know that our big goals in life are aligned and we have a physical attraction, the only missing piece is whether or not we are compatible as a couple.  Why not take a week to continue working on that piece in person before going home and continuing the relationship via email?  Honestly, why is no one but me mentioning the fact that we live in different countries and speak different languages?!  Nonetheless I changed my ticket once again and extended my stay.

Stuetz/Gonzalez Dominican Republic Extravaganza!

Christina Stuetz came to visit me!  If that's not exciting enough, check out what we did!  Christina is my friend that I drove 18 hours across the USA with,  drove to Missouri when she moved there, took several camping adventures with and more so we know a thing or two about vacations!  She is the itinerary master so came prepared with a great list of things to do in the DR all over the island.  Luckily she came the week after I quit my Saturday job so my weekends are now free and easy.

Day one: Santiago
We began our journey by staying in town and buying souvenirs at Mercado Modela in the downtown.  It's a big market that sells several things native to the country like tostoneras and amber.  We practiced our bartering skills and got Christina some good things to take back to the states.  We ended our day with a double date at one of our favorite restaurants, Tablon Latino, directly across from Santiago's monument of which we walked around after.  Did I just say a double date when Christina came here alone?  I'll get to that excitement later...

Day 2: 27 Charcos

We got Joaquin a babysitter and headed to Puerto Plata to jump off some waterfalls!  It's such a cool excursion!  We read that doing all 27 is for the more advanced jumpers and hikers so we just did the first seven.  I for one, was terrified so was grateful we just did the first route.  They give you a helmet and a life jacket and the guides are so strong to help get you up tough spots so I wasn't as afraid as I thought I'd be. Luckily Jesus and his cousin Manny both got the day off so they could join us.  The waterfalls were so beautiful and every single one had a natural slide to go down!  I chose to slide every time because I was too scared to jump but the slide was terrifying in itself and everyone with said the slide was scarier than jumping so I'm happy with what I accomplished.  I would even go back and do it again and I never say that about anything involving heights!  After the waterfalls we stopped and took photos of Fort San Felipe and found a random beach I can't remember the name of.  Christina tried her first Mofungo in the picture.

Day 3-4: Santo Domingo

We got a hotel and headed down to Santo Domingo, the capital!  Our first stop was Boca Chica beach with beautiful soft white sand but sadly not enough of it.  It was overrun by restaurants, bars, and people selling stuff everywhere.  We couldn't even enjoy our lunch without being asked to buy everything from everyone.  The beach waters were so blue and beautiful as well.  It's a shallow beach without waves so good for families and little Joaquin.  

After the beach we walked around La Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo.  We saw different historic places and forts about Christopher Columbus as I believe the DR was the first place he colonized. This part of the city has a Spanish influence and my favorite part was this cute little street lined with outdoor cafes.

The next morning we took photos outside the LDS temple which really is a gorgeous temple.  It was closed for maintenance but luckily security let us in for a few shots. 

Next we headed to Tres Ojos.  Tres Ojos are some fascinating caves with three lakes inside. Please note the two sleeping stray dogs in our photo! 

Day 5: Sosua

Sosua is probably the closest beach to where I live but still a good hour and a half away.  It took a little longer as we decided to drive through the mountains!  Sosua is on the way to Puerto Plata and we already travelled the main road so we wanted to see the mountain side and the GPS said it was faster.  This was a terrible idea.  Although I enjoyed seeing where so many people lived in their little houses and outdoor showers, it was not an easy drive.  It was so bumpy and so windy that I spent the majority of the time figuring out how to stabilize Joaquin's head in his car seat so he could fall asleep.  Not to mention we all wanted to vomit.  However now we had that experience and needless to say took the other way home.  Sosua was another pretty beach.  Christina and I decided we weren't as impressed with our three beach choices as everyone told us we'd be.  We have seen more beautiful beaches in the outer banks North Carolina and Florida.  I do believe the DR has some of the most beautiful beaches but I think you need to go to a resort for the full effect and of course there's many other beaches we haven't seen yet! We still need to see Punta Cana, Samana and Isla Sauna which are supposed to be amazing!  Granted what we saw was still very pretty, it is the coast after all!

In the midst of all these adventures, Jesus and I were busy playing match maker with a tall, dark, handsome, single, law student and extremely good quality Dominican Man whom we met at church.  We began our set up with a double date with Christina the night she arrived.  Then we had him over at our house with another couple for family home evening.  Then he asked Christina on a date as just the two of them.  The dates continued occurring as did a few besos and a complicated yet enjoyable love story commenced.  Christina extended her stay in the country to see the Enrique Iglesias concert which we never made it to so instead she spent more time with her new summer fling.  Is it a summer fling?  Is it more?  Is it less? Will Christina extend her stay even longer? Did I mention they don't speak the same language?  You'll have to read the short novel I plan on writing for a future blog post as this plays out.  Here's a couple photos of the lover.  The last photo was us playing stalker in church trying to take a photo while he sat up on the stand during the beginning stages of the relationship...Oh did I mention he's a member of our Bishopric?!  But yes, he's single.  Christina says he looks much cuter when he smiles bigger so she'll work on getting a better photo of the two of them on their date tonight.

For another adventure we went to Jarabacoa and hiked around mountains, waterfalls and lift bridges.  We even stopped for a little trot on a horse. I could see myself taking a vaca to a resort in this area because it's all so pretty and relaxing.  It's a different kind of vacation than the beach.   They have white water rafting and tubing and other excursions if I'm feeling adventurous as well.

And finally a little blurb on our food adventures.  Here's a little restaurant we found behind someone's house with traditional arroz con adoules y pollo guisado.  We also stopped at this lady on the side of the road selling torta de maiz for dessert!  I'm only showing these photos because we were without Jesus this day and he never lets us stop at places on the side of the road or restaurants that don't look hopping because one: he is very protective and has to keep us safe and two: he is kind of a foody! ;)

Random Dominican Observations

I haven't updated my blog in a while and everyday I think about it and just want to write something worth reading so I've been holding out.  So I'm just going to start and see what comes out...

Did you know living here in the DR is often a throwback in time?  Can you imagine walking along the street and seeing men in full army uniforms with shotguns walking around?  There's no war going on, where am I?  Turns out this is just one of the ways to patrol the streets with extra security and now that I've been here a while it's not weird at all and does make me feel safe.

The mops here are the big white cotton strings that hang down off the stick, the ones you have to wring out by hand, know what I mean?  That's kind of a throwback in time I think.  But let me tell you the Dominican women know how to mop soooo good and I have never seen a tile floor so clean!  It also sure is nice having someone do it for me but we finally asked our cleaning lady to just come once a week starting next week.  That will now be more affordable and convenient!  Sometimes fashion is a throwback in time but not always.  Many Dominican women have very gorgeous long silky hair that is very high fashion.  But at the same time for a throw back I see a lot of scrunchies and 80s hair bows.  My friend just made me a little bow clip and at first I didn't know how I was going to wear this thing but I am going to remember that it's normal here so I will try and flaunt it.  I don't know if I would call the clothing fashion a throwback as much as I'd say it's just different.  Everyone tucks their shirts in which actually looks nice but I have never seen so many tight t-shirts tucked into skinny jeans.  I'm excited to try it but I need to be wearing the write pair of pants and buy a cute belt!  The fashion is also very colorful so I enjoy going shopping for new colorful things.

A few colorful items that have been added to my wardrobe since moving here.

Church also has it's throwback in time. You don't see as many scriptures on Ipads nor do you see the lessons being taught online.  There are manuals for everything and even some older manuals.  I'm a counselor in the Young Women Presidency and The President has to provide the girls with personal progress books herself and then get reimbursed rather than the stake just providing them all.  Things are just a little different but different is not bad.  There are excellent people at church and the Leadership is good even when everything isn't the same as how it was for me in MN.  I've been struggling with some organizational things like why isn't mutual the same night for girls and boys?  Or why didn't the young women have opening exercises together on Sunday? Or why did our standards night start over an hour late while part of the reason was so the Young Women president could put extensions in her hair?! I had to realize that although I can help with some organizational things I need to focus on bringing the young women closer to Christ as that is what's most important.  Seriously though even with my small complaints, we really have a great congregation!  Oh but one more thing...the singing...we don't have a piano and every hymn is sung in about ten different keys.  So one day someone heard me sing on key and although I'm not fantastic, I can sing on key and now I've been asked to sing on several occasions!  I sang with some of the teenagers two weeks ago and the compliments I got were not how good we sounded but I was given thanks for staying on key even if the group didn't follow me.  It was quite hilarious and I'm going to keep doing it hopefully with some more experienced adults than just the excited teenagers loving the attention. ;)

Some of the young women I teach on Sundays not to mention in Spanish...alone!

The other day I mentioned a few complaints on Facebook because I missed Target and sushi (which is very normal but as sweet many responses were it seemed like people thought I was in a major struggle to be here.  Yes it's a third world country and yes it's hard to be away from home but really everything is fine here.  I don't live in a third world area.  I have a luxury apartment, I'm making friends, I'm teaching English, I'm working out, I'm happy.  Please come visit and see where I live, it's a great vacation!

In other news, Hurricane Chantal did not turn into a hurricane and bypassed our city. Although I'm sure some of the ares where the rains came hard weren't so lucky as there are many shacks for homes and I do feel for and pray for those people.  We also survived our first earthquake!  Jesus felt his office shake and called me to tell me there was an earthquake.  The actual earthquake was in the middle on the 1-10 scale and over an hour from our home.  Although Jesus felt it, I was oblivious in my concrete apartment.  We got a little food storage started just in case.  It's what I like to call a realistic food storage of snacks rather than a barrel of wheat I don't know what to do with.  I also finished teaching my English class so my Saturdays are free to explore the country!  I'm planning to start teaching another younger group of kids in August!

Our food storage beginnings

My English class I taught

One frustration for five Appreciations!

Soapbox warning ahead: Want to know one of my “favorite” parts about being here?  Every time someone from here or the US says “You’ll be fluent in Spanish by the time you’re done living in the DR!”  Now let me preface this with my Spanish is coming along fine and I do understand a lot.  I can get by in daily tasks of taking a taxi or going to the grocery store, etc.   I may even take some lessons for extra practice. However living here for two or three years does NOT guarantee fluency especially when as a family, we speak English in our home.   Most people that have moved to a new country and learned the language were studying the language simultaneously or studied it right before they left.  I studied Spanish a number of years ago (I can’t even remember how many) and I am LUCKY that a lot of it has come back to me.  Think for a moment about all the people in America who aren’t fluent in English.  Just because you live somewhere doesn’t guarantee fluency.  Maybe I’ll become fluent, maybe I won’t but I don’t need the added pressure with a false precedent.

Now that I’m off my soapbox…let me tell you some of my new appreciations since being here!  I love the rain!  I was always indifferent to the rain in Minnesota…in fact it was almost a hassle.  But here I love how strong the rain gets and I love the breeze it brings to the normally hot weather. I love how beautiful the curtains look when they blow through the large glass doors of our balcony.  Check out the attached video to see what I mean. I also have an appreciation for mountains!  I live in the middle of the mountains and they are so gorgeous to me.  One of the few other places I’ve seen mountains is Utah and those are much more brown (still beautiful) while here they are more green.  It’s even cool to see it raining at the top of the mountains when it’s not raining in the valley below.  I also have an appreciation for taking baths.  Personally, I’m a shower taker but when the tub is filled with bubbles and jets, it’s not so bad!  I’ve also grown fonder of swimming. I’ve always loved it (or at least playing in the water) but here I have been practicing my stroke and noticed I have become a better swimmer.  I also have a new appreciation for exercising since my new work out class started.  The trainer is so good and honestly going to this class is probably my favorite part of living here!  It makes me so happy and makes me feel so good about what I’ve accomplished afterwards. I’ve enjoyed other work out classes but none have pushed me as much as this. I am hoping to get visible results but if nothing else I can already feel non-visible results like extra strength and endurance I didn’t have before. 

View of the mountains

Finally I can’t forget the appreciation I have for being a stay at home mom!  I love so much being able to be with Joaquin.  He is literally my joy, not to mention, the strongest baby in the world lately!  I wish everyone appreciated how hard stay at home moms worked!  I don’t even have a full appreciation because I have help three times a week. When we first moved here we didn’t bring anything besides our clothes and I was spending a lot of time shopping and trying to set up our large apartment.  With the craziness of that and a baby we hired someone to help us clean (at first we were the only ones in our apartment who didn't have help).  She is fabulous and I’ve learned a whole new way of cleaning actually.  Joaquin needs so much attention that I can’t leave the room to clean without him or he is ready to knock down the TV, the fan or cry because I’ve left his sight.  Even with help, I still find my self so busy because when he naps I want to write my blog or study for the English class I teach or set up doctor appointments for the family or whatever other errands need to be done.  I will actually have a stronger appreciation for stay at home moms soon because we are going to stop having the lady clean because she’s a little pricey and we can’t afford it.  I heard you can get someone to clean here for $8 a day which would be reasonable three times a week but the person we hired costs more than that so we are just going to do away with it all for now.  Now that I have enough to get by in my apartment I have more time for cleaning and everything else while Joaquin takes his naps.  I feel settled and a lot less stressed than in the beginning so I’m ready to handle my normal life again!

My strong baby!  We helped him to his feet first but he's already able to get up on his knees and will likely be to his feet on his own any day now.

Things are starting to happen for me!

I think the thing that makes this adventure living in the DR hardest for me is that I call it an “adventure!”  Although it is…I need to remember to call it home.  I often think about how things will be when we move back to the US but that is dangerous thinking for me because I need to remember I live here right now.  I’ve gotten a lot of advice from people that have studied abroad or served a mission here or moved here to teach English…all adventure kind of things.  While I do appreciate all of the advice, I feel different because I didn’t come here as a young college student or someone looking for an adventure.  I came here as a thirty year old mother whose husband got a job and I am here raising my family.  It’s just a different scenario.  However let me now tell you that things are starting to happen!

First, I picked up a job teaching English part time.  I figured since I’m a teacher by trade, why not use my skills to get out of the house, do some good and meet more people?  So that’s what I’m doing and so far I really like it! I teach a class of 15-ten to twelve year olds. The school serves pre-school through high school so it seems to be doing rather well.  I’ve only taught for three weeks and already love the kids in my class.  During the week I am on call to go to the corporate office in a different city and help the Director teach adults but I haven’t had to go yet.  I am really looking forward to a different professional atmosphere to teach in!

I don't have a good picture of all my kids or the whole school yet so this will have to suffice.

 I also joined a very intense work out class at my apartment.  There are about 6 or 7 girls that come and we all work with this trainer cycling through sit ups, push ups, lunges, running and more all non-stop.  I have never felt so much pain from working out and I seriously thought I was going to puke the first day.  I was in pain the rest of the week but the classes have gotten a little easier each time and I really love it. 

This is an accurate before and after of how I feel on a daily basis in this class

Last night I also received a calling at church!  I am going to serve with the young women as a counselor in the Presidency. Serving with the youth is always fun and they are more likely to speak English than the older people.  For those of you who aren’t LDS, in our congregations, people are given different callings (jobs) to do to help the congregation function.  People teach Sunday school, work with the youth or the children, keep track of secretarial duties and other responsibilities.  None of it is paid and it is all done by service including the Bishop who leads the congregation. Jesus also received a calling and will be teaching in the Elders Quorum.  Although he is bilingual, he thinks in English first so is nervous to teach in Spanish but I’m so excited for him to do it!

Tonight we had another couple and their baby over for Family Home Evening.  (There’s some more LDS jargon…Family home evening is a time for families to get together typically on Monday evenings to share a spiritual thought, play games, eat treats, do family planning, go on outings or essentially whatever you want).  This couple is great! For the spiritual thought, we talked about families and how we’ve been entrusted by the Lord to raise new little spirits and then we played some “Minute to Win it” games at our house and ate pizza. Thanks Katy for the minute to win it FHE idea!  It was so fun to get to know this couple better!  We’ve met a few other young couples as well so I am going to try and be my ”social butterfly” self and bring us all together.  Nothing will me the same as when the Showleys, Lines, Gilles and Druckers got together often in MN but you better believe I am going to try and make something happen!  And maybe these moms can come hang out with me during the day since I think we all don’t work full time…cross your fingers for me!  

One minute to pull all the tissues out of the box one by one using one hand

One minute to grab a peso out of each panty hose leg and your hands must work independently not touching the other

One minute to get two oreos in your mouth from your forehead using only your facial muscles and no hands