Rubios

It's tough here because everywhere we go, we are rubios (blondes). We are Americans and we stand out no matter what. People stare at us constantly, almost to the point where sometimes I want to scream. I hung out with some friends today, all of which are proficient in lots of languages. I feel dumb because I only know two. Between the four of us we had English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. People kept coming up to us to ask where we were from. We just kept throwing out new languages. It was a fun game.

I have to learn Portuguese next. Maybe I'll head to Brazil after the Peace Corps to take on that task. Then I will remember what it feels like to learn a new language again.

There are lots of people in our group of volunteers that don't even speak Spanish very well. I'm thankful that I have already accomplished that task, because it makes moving into a new country and new home so much easier. Some friends here are so exhausted from trying to learn the language that they don't even want to hang out with others at night. I remember feeling that way in Costa Rica.

Things are going great here. Besides the ridiculousness that is the hot weather here, I really like it in the DR. Sweating is a constant. Life is sometimes boring and without your own "life" you sometimes feel like a child again, but that is to be expected when you move into a new country and live with a host family. Today we just needed to get away from that, so we took a trip outside our barrios (neighborhoods) and explored a little. It was a good feeling. The one good thing about loosing your sense of freedom is the care that you receive in return. I haven't even poured my own glass of water in the past two weeks if that tells you anything.

I am going to cook dinner for my family tomorrow night though. I'm making spaghetti with homemade sauce and Italian sausage. It will be a nice change from rice and beans.

One more full week here. Hopefully we will know something mid-week as to definite plans for heading to Honduras, but right now, it's looking like things are going to be fine.