8 weeks-- 2 months in the DR!

This week was a rather long week, with having Open House at school Tuesday night from 6:00-8:00. I was able to get a lot of planing done, with staying at school for that long! I had already met my parent's with signing contracts, so I didn't have anyone that came to see me. I did meet the parent of a student that I'm going to be tutoring on Monday and Wednesdays.
I'm one of the few that have air conditioning in my office/room at SCS, and am very fortunate to have it. After the AC not working on Wednesday, I don't think I can ever, ever, ever ever complain about the heat at school! I have to say I was a lot more tired after being in the heat all day-- and I drank so much more water than I usually do.
After school Kyla, Heather, Carrie, and I walked to Nacional for groceries-- On Wednesday's they have discounts on all the produce-- I'm still trying to branch out and try and new produce, but when I'm there, I still tend to get the same things I always get. Later that night, I discovered that I had sunburned my neck pretty good-- but by the next day it was fine-- I haven't sunburned since before school started-- So evidently I had gotten enough sun to get a sunburn.
We had our first earthquake drill on Thursday-- and it stills seems a bit strange to live in a place where they occur-- though I'm told that they don't happen very often here. After the alarm has gone off, all the students sit in the central area of the campus until the all clear.  I had my first Spanish after school on Thursday, with 30 minutes of grammar and 30 minutes of conversation. I actually wish it could have been longer, because it's all very interesting to me, and I want to learn as much as I can. Our teacher Grammar teacher Victoria taught about the alphabet, cognates (words that sound similar in Spanish and English), and Ruth our conversation teacher (who doesn't speak English) taught about Saludas-- Greetings, and Goodbye's. I've been using the app Duolingo for several weeks now, and I do think it has helped-- I'm slowly learning words-- but I need to work on having my brain "freeze" whenever someone talks to me in Spanish. I do so much better when I read the words to both understand it and speak it, especially if it's a long word.
Friday, Sheila, the MS principal invited people over to her house for banana splits and games. They had the game Pit, which is one of my absolutely favorite games. I grew up playing it as a kid (though I can't actually remember with who), and then in college I played it with friends- we actually had to go to the basement of our dorm, b/c we would get too loud in our room! It's a trading card game, and can get really loud (and lively)-- There was 8 of us playing-- after a few games we even added spoons to the mix, to make it even more competitive! It was so much fun! I was able to talk a bit of Spanish too, and listen to conversations, which I'm still to the point of understanding a few word here or there, but it still exposes me to the words.

Yaway is becoming one of my favorite places to eat-- it's similar to Subway (but so much better!!)-- in that they have sandwiches, chips, and even fries. Tonight Kyla and I ordered it using the online delivery service-- puntodelivery.com There is a list of about 20ish restaurants that you can order from, and they deliver to you. The last time I ordered was several weeks ago, and we ordered pizza. This time we ordered 2 sandwiches, chips, and drinks-- Evidently there was a miscommunication, b/c we got lemonade (I wrote Limon, meaning the Lays Limon), 2 sandwiches, Doritos, and fries. It was still good, just different than we thought it was going to be! We were also talking that we needed to get some condiments ( to have on hand (like ketchup for the fries and mustard). I opened up the fridge, and discovered, we actually do have ketchup and mustard!! (It must have been here when we got here). Kind of tells you how much cooking we actually do here (or that we just aren't cooking with ketchup or mustard)! We do actually cook-- but it's something we need to get better at shopping and getting ideas to make. We're not exactly sure if our refrigerator is working the way it's supposed to, as our food seems to be getting moldy, quicker than you would think. Last night I was making a mini pizza with cassava bread, which is made out of yuca. I put pizza sauce and orange peppers on it, when I saw that the lid of the tomato sauce had mold on it. So in the trash it went.... (I normally top it with cheese and put it in the toaster oven.) 

This morning I made my coffee, and as I poured my milk in, I noticed it was a bit, either really bubbly or possibly curdled? I'm not really sure. But I didn't want to chance it, so I didn't drink it. When you buy milk here, it is not refrigerated. If you've ever bought almond milk in the states, you can buy it off the shelf, and then you refrigerate it. I haven't actually the milk here plain-- I've only had it in coffee or smoothies (Which we now have a blender!!) It is the same way here, but all of the milk is bought without being refrigerated (the same with eggs). 

My brother mailed me coffee from Hill of Beans, and I got it this week. I tried the toasted coconut cream this afternoon, and it was just as good as the other flavors.