Can you hear me now, more like can you read my text now?

Why do Latin Americans love the Blackberry so much? I'd only lived here one week and the school took the new teachers on a little field trip to the mall so that we could all get cell phones. I'd already decided that I was going to splurge on my VERY first smart phone and that it was going to be an iphone! I'd spent the last couple of years with a $20 prepaid phone and I was ready to move up into modern times. There was a group of 6 teachers that were iphoners and we patiently waited in the typical 3rd world country line so that our smart phone dreams could come true...

Sounds simple, right? Well, as you know, absolutely nothing is simple when there is no customer service and we find out that the ENTIRE country is OUT of iphones! OUT. Not like, oh, we don't have any at this location, let us call another store, BUT all the stores in every city of this country is OUT OF IPHONES! Seriously? Can't we just float some over on a raft from Miami? Are you SURE?

Ok, so when do you expect to get a shipment? That question is like asking a Latino man to commit to monogamy with his wife, you're gonna be led around in circles and lied to and convinced that it is your fault that the shipment never makes it. Who knows? Damn, and I was all set on this purchase, had worked myself up to being a proud owner of an iphone, now what?

Blackberry?

Aren't Blackberrys for trashy people, you know super low class? Oh, most people in the DR have a Blackberry, figures.

Ok, I'll take a damn Blackberry.

After a couple of months I've developed quite an open love affair with my BB. Yes, we are on initial terms now. I can received instant notices, you know, important ones, like my facebook notices that some has "liked" one of my photos. I can find myself on a map and mapquest my way to an adventure. This is great. And to top it off I actually really like having the tiny keyboard. I bought a touch screen phone and honestly I never use the touch screen. My hand are either too cold or too hot and sweaty to touch any screen. Yes, I love my new phone.

So? So this morning I woke up and my phone had no messages to report... huh? That is WEIRD, because, you know I am super popular and all my junk email gets delivered overnight and in the morning I have at least 9 new messages from Amazon, Old Navy, and my bank. This is strange, what is going on? I fiddle and fiddle and even try the BB website... nothing. Huh, did my school not pay my bill? (yes, my school pays my bill) I'm about to throw my phone against the wall when a group of students walk into my room and I vent my frustrations... hey guys, what the freaking freak is going on with BB? OH MISSSSSSSS!!! You DIDN'T hear??? The WHOLE system has crashed! BB IS DOWN!

Wait, what? Next step... Google News... Blackberry:

BlackBerry outage blamed on 'extremely critical' network failure

Blackberry outage spreads to U.S. and Canada

BlackBerry outage runs into third day

I guess I'll have to use my computer to check my emails... The phone part is actually working, but who uses the phone part of the BB?

Cathedral Metropolitana Santa María de la Encarnación

The OLDEST cathedral in the Americas is located in the Colonial Zone of my new city, Santo Domingo. Construction began in 1512 and was completed in 1540. Have you read Pillers of the Earth? I can't help but imagine the work that went into this massive church. I think of all the different people that contributed to the construction. The thick walls are made of limestone, which makes sense because that rock is readily available here. Here's an areal view of the church... obviously I didn't take this photo:

I read somewhere that Diego Columbus, the son of Christopher, set the first stone. 

In the church plaza there is a statue of Chris, pointing north.

That's one of the church entrances in the background there. This is my first time hanging out in the plaza during the day. It was pouring earlier, so not many people out and about, but this place can get packed. At night there are artists hanging around, people drinking and of course feeding the nasty pigeons.

The church was open and set up for a wedding, so we snuck inside for a few minutes...

Looking towards the alter. The inside is huge and, in typical catholic fashion, a bit creepy. 

Looking down the aisle at another exit. Surrounding the sides are several chapels, some with dead people, some with statues and one at the end was being used as a storage area for what I can only assume is going to be the nativity for Christmas. 

Do you think there is going to be a rhino, or unicorn is this scene? I'll come back and check it out and let you know.

I needed a good cleansing

Don't you hate it when people talk about the weather? I remember my grandmother would write me letters about the weather, and it was really cute, but I thought, geeze, I hope I don't turn into a person who talks about the weather, and here I am, updating you on the weather.

I woke up to pouring down rain and although we get monsoon heavy rains, they usually don't last very long, so after an hour of rain I decided to check out the current satellite image... 

Looks like we're in for a bit more rain before the days out. 

Here's a closer view...

eeek

Response to a stimulus, still?

Sometimes you get in a routine and forget where you are living, and then on the way home, as you zone out, you almost walk into two chickens, and then it hits you, my life is a bit different. Sometimes I'm reading a book and could be anywhere and then I get up and the electricity has gone out and the water pump stops working for a few hours. Oh, yeah, my life is a bit different. I'll be listening to some music and then the avocado man with the horse cart goes walking by. I wonder how long it will take before I don't notice those small wonders of living 3rd world. When will I be able to walk by an enormous pile of trash, listening to the scurrying of rats, and not think, oh, yeah, I live abroad. In many ways this is the most normal of my overseas homes. The internet works, I have a real phone, there are actual roads that are actually paved here, the grocery store carries a huge variety of items, I can ACTUALLY get mail!! I have to say the mail thing has changed my life. I knew that I missed mail, but I didn't realize how much. It costs me a bit for the service, but it is totally worth it. Thank you CPS, you have made my life better! I know material things aren't supposed to matter, but there is something to be said for being able to get your favorite smelling candle delivered here.

Being home this summer made me realize that I don't have a home anymore, and I need to do a better job making my foreign home my actual home. This is where I live. I will have my DR residency soon and I think I'm ready to give up my US residency. It's actually quite scary.

I'm loving my solo apartment, but am wondering if it may not be a good idea for me to live alone anymore. I've always been a thinker, close to obsessor, actually and well, having my own place again, for the first time in two years, I realize how little thinking I did in Bolivia, and well, that may not have been a bad thing.

Botanic Gardens here in Santo Domingo

My first field trip of the year! Thanks to the school having a science assistant I am able to do things that I would not have the time to do, like jump through hoops and organize field trips! My AP Environmental Science class is 11th and 12th grade students, an awesome, bunch. I know you want to think your kids are well behaved at school, and sometimes they are, but this is just one of those classes that I would be proud to be seen in public with! A rarity when you teach high school! So, with a little help, I organized a field trip to the Botanic Gardens here in Santo Domingo. We left at 7:45 am (school starts at 7:30 am) and spent the morning with an American woman who lives here and studies the endemic and migratory birds of the DR. Although my camera is awesome, it didn't serve me well to photograph many birds :( I did, however come away with some great nature shots!

There's Kate Wallace, aka the bird lady. She moved down to the DR in '94 to serve in the Peace Corps here and has never left! She is active in the local ornithological society and has her own tour company for bird watching. She graciously came to our school last week and gave a presentation about the local birds and here she is at the Botanic Gardens with us!

The Hispaniola Parrot

DR's national bird - the Palmchat. 

Those little guys at the top of the tree are hummingbirds!! They migrate here! Seriously cool, I know...

The West Indian Whistling Duck

Fern spores

View through the palms

Spiked protection.

Giant caterpillars!

Huge trees - yeah, I should have written down the name...

My class of angels :)

Punta Bonita near Las Terranas

Ok, you see that little peninsula on the northeast corner of the DR, the one where Las Terranas is located? Well that is where I spent my first 3 day weekend. All the new teachers arrived on August 10 and we've been working, working, working without a proper break, and well, you know how us teachers get when there aren't many breaks... 

Just a 2 1/2 hour drive from Santo Domingo and you can be in paradise on this tiny, but largest island in the Caribbean. Las Terranas itself is a small 3rd world town that just so happens to be surrounded by pristine beaches. This side of the island in the Atlantic Ocean, but let me tell you, that it's all Caribbean. The crystal clear, warm, salty water lapping up against super fine grained sand lined with palm trees. I'm convinced that it's the palm trees that make all the difference for the paradise feel, well, that and the bright blue, transparent pool of goodness that is the ocean here. 

Do you see the bay that is on the other side of Las Terranas? The side with Semana? That is the bay that the Atlantic Humpback Whales migrate to every winter so that they can either mate, if it's a mating year, or give birth, if it's a birthing year. Apparently the bay water is so warm and void of life that they aren't here to eat, they're here for protection, and because they parasites that suck off their bodies in the northern Atlantic cannot survive here and they die, relieving the whales of the pests. This happens from the middle of January to March, so if you are thinking of planning a trip to visit the DR, you might want to think of that time. Of course it's more expensive, but I'll let you know if it's worth it. I'm planning on spending my 40th birthday up there!