How long is TOO long?

Ok so my placement of pictures sucks..I still dont know how to use this program..but this is me with my adorable parents at the discoteca! And below are Kelsi, me (yes i know i was burnt to a crisp), and Robyn

So, we have only been living in Sabana de la Mar for about 2 weeks, but I am starting to think that we are overstaying our welcome. We are already being recognized all of the place. For example, some old guy rode by on a motorcycle yelling, ¨Hola, Sarah!¨even though I´m quite sure I have never met him. Two days later, some old guy at a fruit stand asked me if I would be his wife and I, of course, replied ¨No, gracias,¨but he also creepily knew my name. Moreover, while riding in the rear of Elisabeth´s truck the other day, we had a bunch of strange people wave to us. One was from a group of guys we had met outside of the discoteca. We call him ¨Vote for Pedro¨because he was wearing the Napoloean Dynomite Vote for Pedro t-shirt. When we asked him if he knew the movie, he GAVE us his shirt (we did not, however, keep this charming souvenir). The other person waving was this CRAZY woman who accosted me in the bathroom at the discoteca. She kept telling me that she thought we were Spaniards because her husband works with Spanish people or something...basically, she kept trying to have a conversation with me in the middle of the world´s grossest bathroom (as if the fact that there are no stalls isn´t bad enough, Robyn also witnessed a woman who peed over a drain on the ground..in front of everyone!) which somehow lead to her asking me if I would dance with her son..which was possibly one of my most awkward moments to date! Looking forward to making many more insane acquaintances!

¨Los Cocos Locos¨..everyone who lives in the Los Cocos Barrio of Pantoja

Caño Hondo..not to be confused with cuño hondo

On Saturday, our beloved trainer Elisabeth treated us to a trip to Caño Hondo. It is about a 30 minute drive through the campo to get to this amazing site that has SEVEN natural pools. Being Peace Corps volunteers, we worked really hard...sitting by the pool, reading, swimming, drinking piña coladas, etc. It was totally awesome. Plus, our trainer is one of the most lovable people alive and learned much of her english from Jerry Springer (which used to aire in this country). She warned us, in her dominican english, that when she gets mad, she has a lot of ¨colorful¨language that she learned from the show such as, ``you crazy pyscho bitch¨..etc. During our technical training this week with a visitor volunteer, Robyn raved about our lovely triped to ¨cuño hondo¨..which unfortunately translates into a female body part.
Today we took the 1 hour boat ride across the Samana Bay to Samana. We had a picnic lunch and walked across a humongous bridge. The bay is SUPER gorgeous and we pretty much just hung out in the water (as usual). Unfortunately, spf 80 cannot even fight off this equatorial sun and I am as red as a TOMATO...which is why I have earned the nickname ¨cangrecito¨(little crab). Hopefully, I can post some pictures of Samana soon so that you can all be jealous.

Home on the Range

Before I describe my awesome trips to Caño Hondo and Samana, I would like to share a few anecdotes about life in the pueblo. I have described to many that, instead of a ¨compost toilet,¨we have a bathroom that is connected to my room and my ¨parents´¨ room. The only separation is a SHEET...which makes privacy pretty much impossible. Suprisingly, I have already grown accustomed to having the bathroom be a public activity.
In other news, I saw my first CUCARACHA yesterday. Unfortunately, it lives in the refridgerator! So maybe I will be eating ¨cockroach soup¨ like some of you suggested. Other than that, my family is absolutely hilarious. My host brother, Hosmy, is 10 years old and spends the entire day outside making bikes with machetes. He comes in every evening completely filthy and his mother yells ¨bañate¨every 5 mins (telling him to bathe). He isn´t allowed to sit at the table when he is dirty..but he usually prefers to remain dirty and eat his dinner on the floor. He has appropriately earned the nickname of ¨child-dog.¨ He is also desperate to go to the US because he is convinced the snow has to be the most amazing thing on earth. He wanted to know if you can surf in it, swim in it, bulild caves in it, drown it it, etc. He then went to the freezer and got the ¨snow¨from the freezer. I showed him how to make snowballs and now he just throws them at his sister.
My host mom and dad LOVE to dance so they have been at the discoteca every Saturday with us. They are also constantly looking over me and telling me which guys are ¨tigres¨and which ones are ok for us to befriend. They laugh at me for saying things like ¨Are you eating chicken hand?¨instead of ¨chicken claw¨which is awesome. All in all, my casita is SWEET.

I finally started a blog!

I know that I vowed never to create one of these stupid sites because I never have anything interesting to say, but I have grown weary of writing emails with no response (hint hint!). I am in my fourth week (I think) in the Dominican Republic and, so far, it has been an insane experience! I spent the first couple of weeks in Pantoja, outside of Santo Domingo. I lived with Doña Maria, who is really sweet and an AWESOME cook..though her dominican spanish is nearly impossible to understand. Our most fun adventure was to the river. We loaded up about 20 people from our barrio and (sorry mom and dad), I rode in the back of a beat-up flatbed truck down the highway. The river was a bit fishy but really fun. Everyone was drinking MamaJuana...which is an awesome drink that people make at home using rum, honey, and some spices.
For my PCV visit, I went to Sosua on the northern coast. The volunteer´s site was RIGHT on the beach! It was sooo awesome. On Saturday, we went to Cabarete, which is a touristy beach that has lots of great restaurants and bars. Booze is really cheap so you should all come visit!
Now I am in Sabana de la Mar which is also on the coast, right across from the Samana Peninsula. The beach here is gross, which blows, but we have plans to go to at least one nice beach while we are here. Last Saturday, I went to the discoteca with my host parents and fellow volunteers. As my beebs would describe, there were many ¨creepsters¨lurking about but, all in all, we had an awesome time dancing bachata and merengue...though I am sure that I look like a complete moron. Anyway, I wish that Jenny were writing these because her tales are always much funnier. I think that I might email her and have her convert my stories into a good blog!