Week 1 of 52

It has been a busy week here in Puntacana! I am starting to settle in fairly well here. The pace of life is actually something I can become accustomed to. The Dominicans take their time with everything! No need hurrying. I like that. Besides, it's too hot to rush here! This week I have been kept busy arranging my apartment and doing things with human resources for the resort. They checked my blood; made me an ID card; I signed some papers; and I opened a bank account, too! Today, however, was my first real carefree no hassle day. We spent the entire day at the hotel lying out at the pool and treking along the beach. The 'we' that I'll often refer to is my group of girls here: Kyle from DC who is teaching 1st grade, and Cindy from LA who is teaching elementary music. There is a fresh water lagoon that we also visited this afternoon. It was so beautiful there!! The bottom was slimy shelves of rocks of varying shades of green and brown. There a fist sized tropical fish that live there and a momma and baby turtle, too! I'd post up some pictures here, but I didn't bring my camera as I was swimming in the lagoon!! We spent some time hanging out in hammocks and tanning at the pool. I however burned. Not quiet Kentucky fried, but I'd say I'm pretty well toasted.

I am right now at a little French cafe in the plaza across the street from my apartment building. They have free internet and nice, cheap, red wine. The first night we came out here we spent a lot of time talking to some of the locals, but then we ended up talking to the owner. Wow... my advice to you: Always talk to attractive French men who own businesses :). He ended up brining us a Chocolate Fondue with a banana-ish bread for free! It was amazing. Who would thought I'd be relaxing in a french cafe in the Dominican Republic? Not I... not I.

We start work on August 1st, but school doesn't start until September 3rd. Crazy, huh? I think so. We apparently spend the entire month of August planning and coordinating. I suppose it will be a nice way to get my bearings and such.

Also, a free offer: if anyone would like to come and visit, you are welcome to stay in my place. May I suggest that you bring an air bed in your other bed though. And you'll have to wait to do anything until I get done with work, but you are welcome to stay in my apartment, which is quite cute. Cozy and cute

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I'm Here!

We'll I'm here. It's pretty nice! Everyone has been very welcoming to me. Some of the teachers came and picked me up at the airport and I'm having supper with one of them tonight. I mentioned that I had studied abroad before, but that this is my first time being abroad without my friends or family and the man I was talking to replied, "Well, now you have family here." So that was nice. Deffinatly. My apartment isn't finished yet, so I'm staying at the resort tonight-- For FREE! It's breathtaking here. Not as hot as I expected it to be, but I'm sure I'll be sticking my foot in my mouth for that comment in no time.

I wish you all could see what I'm seeing. It's so beautiful here.

Here are some pictures from my trip so far:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2091555&l=8f1a7&id=59501177

Farewell!

I am not sure why they call 'goodbyes' good. I guess it does make sense. It is much better than just a 'bye' I suppose. I had a lot of goodbyes this past weekend at my going-away party.



The party was a lot of fun! The only bad thing is that I wasn't able to visit as much with everyone as I would have liked. I got to spend time with friends, family, and coworkers! It was really great to see the Sylvan peeps! I am going to miss working with them a lot. I know I will see my friends and family when I get back, but who knows when I'll get to see them again. Maybe at a wedding??


I bought some great books for my classroom yesterday. "Do you want to be my friend" by Eric Carle, "John, Paul, George, and Ben" by Lane Smith, some Step into Reading books and a few Mad-Libs all made the cut. The Carle book is great because there are no words. This type of book really lets the students use their imagination to create their own stories... it's also a great way for me to determine the students expressive vocabulary and their general ability to use English. The Step into Readings and the Smith book are great because of their cultural relevancy. Three of the four speak directly to our country's past: Presidents and Statue of Liberty. The other book is about loosing teeth. There are a lot of neat activities to do with that topic. Fun times.... maybe I should speak to a dentist about getting some toothbrushes donated. Hmm...



More pictures: http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090380&l=5bd06&id=59501177

Summer School

I've been TAing in an ESL K-1 Summer School classroom for the past 3 weeks. I have 2 days left with the students before I head out for what I am affectionately now referring to as 'the island'.

Anyways, we have been learning about climates and today we were learning about rain. So, the students made raindrops.


Really cute idea: it's crayon shavings (mostly blue, green, and purple) ironed in between two pieces of waxed paper with a construction paper border cut into a tear-drop shape. They turned out pretty nicely. The hardest part was getting the kids to understand what the objective was with the sharpening of the crayons. They wanted to show me their pointy crayons, but what I wanted them to show me was their big pile of crayon shavings. The crayons broke pretty easily in the pencil sharpeners we had the kids use. It took 1.5 hours to complete the project.



The students really liked this project. Lots of "oooooo" and "ahhh" and clapping after each one was ironed.


Tonight mom and I are finishing up the gardening before the party on Saturday. I think the yard is going to look pretty nice. My nails might not... I'll probably still have dirt under them!

So, I recently received my departure date and time. That really starts to make the trip true... My flight is June 22 at 6:30am. Wow, early.

I've been busy trying to wrap things up in preparation for moving. I'm working on an article (or two) that are due to be published before December: Second Language Phonological Development in Adults; and then something about student motivation. Another thing I'm working on is getting my independent study project approved for August through December. I'm going to be looking into salvery's impact on the Dominican Republic today, specifically on their government. AND I haven't even unpacked from when I moved home from the apartment yet.

My going away party is on Saturday this week. It should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to having my friends and family around and of course I'm looking forward to cooking for people. I'm making my friend Nicole's pork and Kristi will be bringing her amazing sugar cookies.

This past weekend I spent with my friend Gina and her family. Gina and I went to Lacrosse for the evening. We ate at Buzzard Billies; I had craw fish and alligator. Num num (or if you're Jason, it's like I ate the contents of a swamp), alligator tastes like chewy chicken. Then we went down to the river and came back up and had ice cream at The Pearl. It's a cutesy old ice cream parlor. Saying goodbye to Gina's family in the morning was hard. I love her family! They're such free spirits and very accepting of everyone.