The Count Down

Those of you who have my mom on Facebook know she has been counting down our home coming. I think the count down started at 64 or something.  Now it's at 16...... SOOO crazy!!  It's been a little challenging to not check out here and start planning our time back at home.  It's a hard balancing act because we need to prepare to go home but we want to finish our work here strong.

We have been doing a lot of organizing for Phil and Donna.  I attacked both of their offices and did some serious magic!  Chris attacked Donna's computer and organized it as well!  Why does it always seem easier to clean other people stuff.... and it was even kinda fun!!  I made sure to get rid of the large garbage bag of "crap" so that they couldn't rifle through it and retrieve things they "might use later".  haha

We now have 4 more English and Spanish classes left.  We taught this week and it was nice to get back into it.  It's great to see how much our students have grown to know and that they didn't just loose it all over the break.  You might be wondering why we only started this week instead of last week? Well apparently Dominicans tend to take an extra week off and slowly start coming back to school when they please.... lol.

We went to our first Dominican wedding this weekend.  The invitation said 5pm. We asked the groom (Franklin, our translator) specifically when us white people should actually show up.  We were told 5:45pm (because he wasn't planning on being there 'til 6pm).  We showed up "late" (6pm) walked down to the ceremony area and realized we were the ONLY people there so far. We waited and watched family members slowly leave after setting up the reception area to go start to get ready.  We waited some more and started a "what-time-will-the-wedding-start" pool. It started to get dark.... the street lights came on.... the tea lights set up hours before were now creating a great effect around the ceremony area. Finally at 7:30pm it started!! (For those of you who aren't quick at figuring out time differences that is two and a half hours AFTER the invite said and an hour and a half after the groom was supposed to show up).  It was a beautiful wedding overlooking the ocean.... too bad it was too dark to see it though. hehe.

Food was amazing and the love between the couple was felt. Some people were still showing up (for the ceremony) after 8:30pm.... very different! During the reception Franklin sang a song to Naty or God (I'm not sure which because I didn't understand the lyrics but Naty seemed to enjoy it). Chris was videotaping the wedding and after the song the wedding party (24 people) all ran up to the front where Franklin and Naty were and did a very energetic song with choreographed dance moves.... it was cool and scary at first.

I forgot to mention a little while ago of my spider viewing!  I was going to downstairs in our house to grab something but I needed to turn on the lights. As I reached for the light switch I saw in the corner of my eye a HUGE spider. I started screaming and ran/tripped up the stairs.  I continued to have a panic attack while Chris went down stairs. All I could hear was the smacking of the wall.  Chris was persistent and patient and eventually killed it! (This is Chris writing now: I know sometimes people exaggerate when they tell stories about spiders but for real this thing was the size of my outstretched hand. Also, the sucker was fast and decided it would be best to hide behind our book shelf so I had to move the whole book shelf in order to kill it.... it was a process)  I didn't sleep great that night.  A few days later Chris I drove the grocery store and as we got out of the car I noticed on the parking median one of the same HUGE spiders.  I again started freaking out and I actually made Chris move the car because I was scared that while we were in the grocery store it would get inside the car... lol!  I am thankful those have been my only two sightings.  But those spiders are HUGE!!!!!

I have been in contact with my work and my official return to work date is Feb 21st!  I am looking forward to going back since I do love my job and love what I do!  I am also excited for Chris to get into the swing of being a stay at home dad without me there during the day. A part of me is worried Abriel will love him more...... and I am a tad bit jealous!  We have been so spoiled here being able to spend everyday and all day together.