Raul's learning to cook! ;)

Raul's best creation yet!

My best creation yet!

According to Raul, anyway...Fried calamari, roast potatoes, and salad. :)

House cleaning...

This mop is my worst enemy! I don't understand why, but its the only kind of mop they have here. If everyone in Santo Domingo can have a BlackBerry, I don't understand why the latest in mop technology hasn't hit yet! I miss my mop with the squeezing contraption and sponge at the end! This thing seriously makes cleaning so much harder. Maybe its because so many people have cleaning help, so they just don't really care?

Oh, and the cleaning help...wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I finally said yes to it, in order to do some deeper cleaning that we hadn't gotten around to yet, like cleaning the shelves in the cupboard and kitchen drawers. Well...it didn't really happen even after she worked for many, many hours. Raul said we just need to be here kind of supervising and guiding the cleaning, but then what's the point? The actual cleaning isn't what's hard, its the time it takes, right? But if we have to be here supervising, then I just think we might as well do it ourselves...Raul is really set on having his shirts for work ironed and I said, just pay me what you would pay her and I'll iron for you. ;)

Raul and I had his brother and his family over for Father's Day. We had tacos with all the fixings, a big salad and a flan/bread pudding combo for dessert. Yum!!! Raul wouldn't let me put any seasoning in the "guacamole"...so I said it was just mashed avocado, lol. Every place has its own spin on different kinds of foods, right? But everyone liked everything, especially the pico de gallo and salad dressing (Patti's recipe!). :) Pics of the tacos and Raul's nieces. They are all super sweet and funny, we even Skyped with mom and dad for a few minutes!

Raul had a sale in La Romana, a beach town a couple hours away, so we went to lunch on the beach after. We ate shrimp linguine and chicken "Gordon Blu" ;) (and Presidente, of course).

During the huge storm, a lot of places in the roof were leaking. There wasn't so much water leaking down to the furniture, but lots of paint chips fell during the next few days. Each time we would clean, everything would have little white specks all over it a little while later. We started saying it was snowing in our apartment...Here is Raul finally biting the bullet and trying to sweep off all the remaining "snow." :)

Our clothesline...we have had some laundry issues. Maybe its the lack of warm water or it was all the rain, but we have to do another load this week of clothes that came out "smelly"... :( I never thought I would say this, but I kind of miss NYC laundromats! Supposedly they don't really have them here, but I'm still searching! Or maybe splurge on our own washing machine!

Today's lunch...

Pastelon de platano maduro and my first rice and beans :)

Rain!!!

Its been raining for probably three days straight. I think its from Tropical Storm Bonnie, but I am having a hard time finding news about that. Some things in the apartment got wet from some windows we left open last night and just in general, everything feels damp. I can't get any matches to light and our clothes won't dry that we have hanging up...I hope we get to dry out soon. :)

Visiting students in Gaspar Hernandez

Building furniture!

Charles Sumner deserves to get his name spelled correctly...

From- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/p_sumner.html
"Sumner also clashed with Grant -- this time successfully -- over Grant's plan to annex the Dominican Republic. Grant saw the annexation as a way to solve two problems. The all-black nation would provide a haven where freed slaves could live in peace -- without being harassed by angry Southern whites. And the Dominican Republic not only contained valuable natural resources, but was a market for American goods as well.

Sumner vigorously opposed Grant's annexation plan. He felt that African Americans should be protected from Southern wrath instead of being forced to move away. In a scathing Senate speech, Sumner also pointed out that annexing the Dominican Republic would dissolve one of only two black-led nations in the Caribbean. It was, he said, a matter of a large, powerful nation picking on a weak defenseless one."

Interesting cultural difference...

Sorry if this is too much info, but when I went to the HUGE grocery/Target-like store yesterday looking for tampons, I found a looooonngg aisle of maxi pads and just three or four kinds of tampons!!! I should have taken a picture, I think it was actually a little bigger than the salami aisle. ;)

Today's lunch- mashed yucca, mero with tomato/garlic/lemon sauce, broccoli, and a little river crab if you were willing to do the smashing... ;)

Our first meal on the new stove- tacos!

Me and my favorite palm tree out the front window

Raul and our new stove/oven

Patio #1...waiting for a hammock and more plants

Rocking chairs...we have been sitting here a lot after we eat, so nice. :)

Living room

Here are some pics of the house and all the furniture we bought. Yay for IKEA Santo Domingo...don't know what we would have done without it!

Silver Coast Tour

We had some scary car trips yesterday...We visited some of my students who are here in this little campo town about 3-4 hours away. We had drama with the there bus (it almost caught on fire and we were on highway waiting for 2 hours!) so we were late and didn't get last bus out so we had to take little "caro publicos" (really run down, drive WAY too fast, pack WAY too many people in cheap taxis) from Gaspar Hernandez to Sosua, then to Puerto Plata, then a medium sized bus to Santiago, and then FINALLY a big bus back to the capital. But it was worth it to see where they lived. We were well fed and left with a big bag of fresh fruits and seafood (well, river crabs, lol).

Charles Sumner or Charles SUMMER Ave???

Do you know of any American named Charles SUMMER worth naming a huge avenue in Santo Domingo after?? I searched and didn't find anyone. All this time I have been wondering, do they mean Charles SumNer?? Sure enough, when I looked him up, Wikipedia says he helped block the annexation of Santo Domingo under President Grant. It makes sense they would name a big avenue after him, right? But they spell it SUMMER everywhere! What in the world?!