Saturday morning, Paul, who does Academic Services at our school picked Sarah and I up to get supplies and look at grocery stores. The first grocery store he took us to was Bravo. This is the store that is the best place to get produce. We looked at prices, and compared them to American dollars-- The dollar is equal to about 45 peso's. (The calculator on my phone is going to be my friend! LOL) A lot of the foods were the same as in the U.S., but there was a lot less processed food-- that is shipped in, and it's very expensive. We noticed that there is half an aisle of chips and snack food, and half an aisle of pop, compared to several aisles in the states. The 2nd store was Nacional, which was very comparable to Bravo-- both relatively close (though not walking distance) from our apt.
We ate lunch at a sandwich shop called Yaway-- which is owned by one of the teacher's at school. I noticed that they played American Christian music, which was a nice comfort!! They had Lays chips, but I went went with the Platanos, which is comparable to a banana chip, but not sweet-- more salty. This was my first experience at ordering something, with the people being Spanish speaking. There were several times where Paul had to step in and interpret!
After lunch, Paul drove us around to a few teachers places-- it all kind of blends together, and it's going to take awhile to remember everything. I most likely will not be using Google maps, and will have to remember/find places through a regular map.
We went to another store-- I can't remember the name of it-- Paul's daughter Robin, who is 10, was with us, and told this story about a mermaid about the store-- It has an S in it's name, and neither Sarah or I can remember the name, other than it's the Mermaid S store! LOL This store is very comparable to a Wal-Mart, where you can buy pretty much anything. This is where we bought our supplies for the apartment (we have groceries at the moment, so that'll be another trip-- lots of fans, hangers, baskets, coffee maker (!!! -- both Sarah and I drink coffee, so that was a necessity. I brought 4 packages of Omaha Hill of Beans coffee with me, so I haven't ventured to Dominican coffee, but I've been told it's really good.), a few plastic assemble shelves for my room and the bathroom. I think we're also going to buy a microwave, but that will wait. We get to go to Ikea sometime next week to buy more household supplies. By the time we got home it was about 3:00 p.m, and I was completely exhausted!!
I unpacked both of my suitcases-- We are lucky to have huge closets, but I will have to buy some baskets to put some of my clothes in, as they are very deep. Shortly after, our 3rd roommate Kyla, who is going to be teaching K-12 Music (from Portland, Oregon) arrived.
A few other things I've found out,,..
- Women are not to wear shorts in public (Which I brought a whole bunch of, so I guess I'll be doing some shopping... )
- You can wear sleeveless, but there are certain places where you have to have your shoulders covered (church being one of them.) We can wear sleeveless to school.
- No shirts with writing on them in public
- Fans are our friends-- we're going to be putting a ceiling fan in our living room, hopefully soon.
- We're able to have maid services-- about $15 -- and they come once a week. Paul knows a nice lady that works for some other teachers, that hopefully we will be able to use. The majority of the teachers have these services.
- We have a neighbor downstairs from us that is an American Missionary from Pennsylvania that has been here for 39 years. Her name is Darlene Reimer. She has taken us in, and has helped us already. She knew the previous teachers that lived in our apartment as well. She has a Wii, and said we can use it any time.
- I knew that you have to put the toilet paper down in a trashcan, but I think it's going to take some getting used to. -- Hopefully if when I get up in the middle of the night, I don't accidentally put it in the toilet!
- We have a key to our gate, a key to the outside door, and 2 locks on our door.
- We can get water delivery services (the water is not drinkable)-- We have 3 big bottles, and then rotate them.
- We have a switch we turn on about 15 minutes beforehand if we want hot water. It lasts about 5 minutes. Last night however I didn't use it-- I was hot enough that it felt really good!
- I'm going to have to learn how the peso's work, as I'm sure I'm going to be teaching money with my kids!
- It is a bit nervewracking not knowing Spanish, and there is some fear for me with not knowing-- Paul said to not get upset if they get upset with you for not knowing what they're saying. It happens a lot. Neither Sarah or I know Spanish, so we'll be learning together. Kyla knows some, but not sure how much.
Church this morning, and then lunch at the Middle School principal's house. I think Sarah and I are going to venture out and go back to the Mermaid store to get a few more things after lunch. It's within walking distance-- 4 tenths of a mile.
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