Tales from Paradise

Do you feel rain?

2008-04-28T11:49:00.003-05:00

Another month has finally come and gone. My departure date has been established: June 25. Even though classes end officially on the 13th of June, I have to stay to hand out my grades in person to the kids on the 24th of June. Why on Earth we need 11 days to do end of year tasks like grades and cleaning I will never know. They tell me that they have bought the ticket for the 25th so hopefully it will be a good flight and I will get home the same day I leave. I'm ready to be back. I miss my family, my boyfriend, my friends, my everything!

School has been unsupportive or most things that any normal school would be able to support a teacher in. We're still on our own for discipline, most supplies. But whatever, I'm hopeful that the school will continue to improve. There is honestly only one way for this school to go and that is up. The changes and programs that we have made this year will hopefully continue next year, but probably won't. The new principal is from England. They're probably going to get rid of all the English teachers that are not from there and get new ones from England. The poor kids are going to have a hard time adjusting to the many differences that there are between British and American spelling and pronunciation. Oh well. Not my problem.

The old saying "April showers bring May flowers," also holds true here in the Dominican Republic. This past weekend has been the rainiest I've experiences in all my time here. (that includes hurricane season).

This weekend my friend Albena and I drove to Santo Domingo for the Aventura concert. This is a good 4 hour drive. We stopped in La Romana to grab a coffee and a palmera... I ended up getting on a road that turned into a one way. Driving the wrong way on a one way where there isn't even enough room for one car is a bad thing. Luckily we made it out of there alive.

Just outside of Santo Domingo it started to look like rain. We called ahead to see if it was raining and got a no, so we continued. The clouds turned orange and purple. You can imagine the storm we got while driving through the capital. Making matters worse it was Friday and everyone (literally everyone) returns back to the city. Problem 1: it was a down pour and I couldn't see. Problem 2: Bumper to bumper traffic. Problem 3: the road lights were turned off. Problem 4: we got stuck on a detour and didn't know where we were. SO here's what happened because of all of that. First we got stuck in a traffic jam and ended up being rear ended by a mini-bus. We couldn't get out of the car first off because what would we do, demand he pay us? and second because it was pouring out. Then because of all the water the available land and drainage systems were overloaded with water and the water started pouring into the streets. It wasn't too bad at first, but the water kept coming and coming... pretty soon it was splashing over the windsheild. For a good 15 minutes we were in water up to the door handles. The car was floating at times.... if you thought it couldn't get worse, the car filled up with water almost up to my knees in the front and in the back it was full all the way across where people put their feet. I was literally driving with one hand and with the other tossing water out of the car with a cup AND honking the horn to try and keep the bus in front of us moving. I knew that if we would stop we wouldn't get started again. Why didn't I pull off the highway? Well, there was no where to get off, walls on both sides. As soon as we could get off the road I did. We found out today that where we waited for 2 hours for our dominican angels to arrive is one of the best places to get mugged, car jacked, and find prostitutes and drug addicts. We're lucky nothing happened.

As I said our Dominican Angels came and picked us up. We ended up staying in a hotel instead of with our friend. She couldn't figure out how to help us (or even cared to) so we had to ask people we met a few weeks ago to come and help us. They ended up helping us out more that weekend.

The next day, guess what happened. We got all dressed up to go to the concert. While waiting outside I thought I felt a few sprinkles. Needless to say, by the time we had finally gotten into the concert with a beer in hand waiting for the show it started to rain. And rain. And rain. And rain. We waited an hour and 45 minutes in the pouring rain for it to let up, but it just got worse. Lightening and thunder too. We had no coat, no umbrella, no plastic bag to cover ourselves, and NO SHELTER TO GET UNDER. I was soaked to the bone. Not a single piece of my body was untouched by the rain. It was ridiculous. So in heals and all we walked out of the concert to try and get a taxi home because of the weather. :( so no concert for us. Then I realized that I only had one pair of pants with me which were soaked... so no night life either that night.

I forgot to mention that while coming into the concert the security guard took my battery pack for my camera and while coming out told me that she lost it. So now, I have no way to use my camera.

AND while we were leaving for the concert Albena got stung by a bee.

So Sunday morning we woke up early and decided to get the hell out of dodge. We had had enough of the SD for one weekend. Albena and I took a taxi to where we needed to catch the bus. We get there, realize we have no cash and that they don't take cards so we had to leave and find an ATM. While walking to a store Albena's shoe broke. So I left her on a corner with the bags by herself so I could go get the money. Finally we got back, got out tickets, and came home (where almost upon arrival it began to rain).

Today we learned that the bus stop we left from is known for trouble and extremely dangerous. half of the people that go there apparently get either mugged or assaulted in one way or anything. The location is known for it's concentration of drug dealers and prostitutes. Good thing we were there during daylight. And yes, I do realize that I left Albena waiting on a corner. Good thing no one wanted to screw with us!

Moral of the story: even when you think it's bad, thank your lucky stars it isn't worse.

Monthly Post

2008-03-27T09:06:00.002-05:00

I'm getting a bit lazy with my updates. I'm going to try and be better with updating for the remainder of my time here. Which by the way has yet to be actually determined. I am hopeing to be home sometime during the week of June 16th, but my contract is not officially up until June 27. Oh well... either way I'll be home eventually and I'll be able to see most of you at Courtney's graduation from high school party. Since she's been accepted to Green Bay already she BETTER graduate. We'll see.

This past month was hugely busy. Albena and I had visitors every week pretty much. Even better her mom is returning on April fools for another visit to the country. Hopefully my mom and the sisters will be coming for a visit towards the end of my stay here to help me move home. There are still 80ish days that I am here, plenty of time to come and vacay in the beautiful resort ville that is the Punta Cana/Bavaro region. When mom and dad were here we took a day trip out to the Samana penninsula to visit with the humpback whales who come to the area to rear their whales before taking the long trip back north to their normal whaling grounds. Interesting fact: the adult whales fast the entire time they are here because the fish that makes up the bulk of their food intake are not present in these waters. They only come down here because it is wayyyyyyyyyyy too cold to have babies up north. I almost agree with them after the winter you are all having. We also ended up taking a horseback riding trip through the Dominican counrtryside, through rivers and up and down mini-mountains (no not hills) in order to get to the Limon Waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful.

Work is going pretty great since the last post. I'm comfortable in my duties and am working on my goal for the month of March of professional development; I have a few articles almost ready to submit for the U's TESL newsletter. I've been having a hard time deciding what my next move will be when I return home. Will I go ahead and go back to school for my TESL Masters now or will I try and find a job for a year or so. What I know is that I will be back in EC for a while so Jason can take advantage of the experience and benefits from his job at Menards. He put a major part of his life on hold for me this past year and I am willing to rearrange a few things I had planned for him. I'm just happy to be coming home and I'm excited to see what this year brings in every area of my life.

Uhm, It's been starting to get warmer here... I've got a decent tan going for a white european girl. A few new things I've done lately include a dissappointing deep sea excursion, traveling to the capital, and getting sick during my week long vacation UCK. I haven't been that sick since I drank bad milk at the restaurant I used to work at.

I hope you all had a great Easter. I'm still eating some easter candy that my mom and dad brought me :) and my kids are enjoying playing with their bunny ball that Albena's mom sent down for us. It's absolutely ridiculous seeing the kids rolling this ball with a bunny inside of it. They absolutely LOVE it. "Can we play with the bunny ball?"

2008-02-18T11:36:00.002-06:00

It has almost been a month since my last post. I'm not doing too well at this journaling thing. I've been busy with work and tutoring and well... that's about it. A lot has been remaining consistent here in PC since the last big earthquake.

I'm working now with a reading club 2 times a week. There are 30 students and about 15 that come each time. I read a story to them and then we do different extension activities. It took a lot of paper work to get this club going. They want to have all these afterschool organizations, but they make it SO HARD to do them! We've met 2 times now. It's going pretty well!

Uhm... I'm looking forward to my visitors next month! My mom and dad are coming from the 5-10, Albena's grandma comes from the 8-15, Albenas dad comes the 16-23, Albena's friends are coming the beginning of the month and I may have a few more visitors the week of spring break (hopefully!!) I'm waiting to hear from them... I'll actually send them an email after I finish this. March will go by quickly because of this. Then it will be April and I will be 2ish months from home.

What else... This weekend was pretty boring. I went grocery shopping in Higuey and bought some nummy things to eat. Some of my treasures were whipped chive cream cheese, Feta cheese, corn cakes, oatmeal milk, and proschutto... however it's spelled. I make some pretty tasty pitas with some of that stuff. And I've taken to requiring a good night-cap while I'm watching everybody love's raymond-- Oatmeal Milk with Vanilla. Hopefully I'll be able to find that back home. I spent Sunday doing laundry, grades, and lounging around watching movies, reading, and doing crosswords. It was so nice to have alone time like that.

Well, I'm actually teaching language arts right now so I suppose I should get to that. The students are starting to calm down a bit. I'm giving them a pop quiz today after they finish their reading as they were no reading nicely with me as a group nor participating in the questions. This isn't a punishment, but it gets them quiet and lets me not get upset.

It's been a long long time

2008-01-29T13:22:00.000-06:00

It's been well over a month since I've last posted and a lot has happened.

I returned back to the US for a visit with family and friends and to celebrate the holidays. Before I could get to the festivities, I graduated from college. I finally finished college!! Whoo Hoo! I graduated Cum Laude. :) Fancy fancy... made the Deans List last semester, too! Not the Uncle Dean list, but the other kind ;). Because my flight was three hours delayed the night before the ceremony, I didn't get to take part in all the pomp and circumstance. Christmas and New Years were nice. It was good to see everyone again. I had a hard time spending time with people because I knew in the back of my mind, that I was going to have to say goodbye to everyone very soon. It was much easier to be a hermit. Proabably a decision I will regret in the future, but oh well.

I came back to the DR on the 7th of January. It seems like forever ago, but I've only been here for 23 days. Not fair... feels like a month. My kids have been a bit calm this semester. I redid the seating chart with them and it seems to work better. I'm holding my classes military style as well.. it's hard, but I have to. We're learning about the election process in the USA this month and next month. It's kidna fun to work with the kids on this topic. We'll be starting out mock elections in Feb. Since I'm not in school myself this semester I'm able to spend some time working on special clubs, celebrations, and activities for the students in the school. I have finally gotten approval to being my English Reading Club. It should be a lot of fun; already 7 students have signed up and signup goes until Feb. 5th with the group starting on the 7th. Two of the other English teachers here and myself are taking on the Spelling Bee, 100 day celebration, and spirit days for the school. There is absolutely nothing for the students to look forward to. And we've proposed things in the past but have gotten shot down. This time we're just going to go ahead and do it without waiting for the 2 week turn around from our superiors. Something has to be done. Another thing we have in the works is a motivational reading program--similar to Pizza Hut's Book It. Hopefully that will be up by the end of Feb. as well. Can you believe that there isn't a program like this in the entire Dominican Republic. I'm sure other schools may have something that they use, but nothing that is nation wide like Book It is.

My school days themselves are a little less hectic. I'm teaching 2 less hours a week that fall semester. Apparently my schedule was wrong last semester... oh well. I'm still tutoring M-R until 7pm... so I have 12 hour days 4 days a week and then on Fridays I'm going to start tutoring another student after school for a few hours. There are so many kids here who need help... I feel horrible that so many people in their lives before me have failed them.

I live for the weekends here in Punta Cana. Every weekend I spend 1 day cleaning my apartment, doing laundry, and some school work and the other day I spend at the beach with Albena. It's fun fun fun! I promise to come back in the summer with a tan! I'm already the same color as a few of my students! We usually go to the puntacana hotel beach. I love to lay out on the beach with my book. It's so relaxing. We eat at the hotel too. You can get a fancy drink there (no umbrellas :() or my favorite, the Long Islam Ice Tea (should say Long Island, but they have long islam on every single one of their menus)

On a technological note: my computer is pretty much shot. It's a miracle of Juan pablo Duarte that I'm even able to see what I'm typing right now. My computer monitor has decided that since I've finally gotten an external keyboard that works, not to work. The images jump around to the point that a person could get a seizure. Then the images will freeze, screen turns black, and then that's it. Game over. But today was a good day for my computer, it's been workin gthe entire time! I'm very happy with this and that's why I was able to write something.

My parents are coming to visit in a month and a half! Very exciting. My sister may come sometime too! I'm working with bridget to see if she can come. I'd love to have more visitors!!! (HINT hehe)

Take care!

2007-12-02T13:55:00.000-06:00

The twelve days till I come home
There are twelve days till I come home and I still have much to do….
1 Giant term paper
2 Bags to pack
3 Things to make for my coordinator and librarian
4 Tapes of myself teaching
5 Nights left of tutoring
6 Final exams to give and grade
7 Hour flight
8 Eggs in my fridge to eat
29ish Christmas presents to make for my kids
10 Days of school, and
12 sets of 24 hours

It can go without saying (but definately needing typing) that I am more than excited to get home for the holidays! This Christmas is goign to be busy! Jason and I have 4 Christmas holidays to go to. We have Green Bay with my Dad's family on Sunday, then Christmas with my mom and dad on Monday, then back to Green Bay on Tuesday to be with his family and that Friday I have Christmas with the girls+husbands+babies, and at some point we are having Christmas with my mom's side. And before all this happens I have to save money, graduate, finish shopping and loose 5 pounds. I have 12 days. I think it'll happen!

2007-11-27T14:39:00.000-06:00

So I’ve been pretty much sucking in the update department. I get started typing an update and my internet goes out. So what has taken me months to figure out is that I have to write my updates at home and then try and load them during the school day when the net is working. If you’re reading this, I was successful in my endeavor. A lot of exciting things have been happening lately. I’ve been finalizing things with UWEC to make sure that I’ll be graduating in December. Just got a scare from my advisor today telling me that I need 1 more credit in two of my 3 minors. I worked through the courses and am pretty sure that I resolved things. I do not want to drag out what should have been a 4 year deal into a full 6 years. Heck, for 6 years I could have gotten my masters. Anyways, So I’m finishing up my 12 credits this semester. 6 of the credits I have done so just 6 more to finish. I’ll finish one of my 3 credits by Thursday this week and then I have a ginormous paper to write for the other 3 credits. Anyone feel like writing a 40 page paper?

Thanksgiving was pretty chill here in Puntacana. Albena and I went to La Yola for happy hour. It was nice! We got 2 for one drinks sitting on the ocean at the marina with the sun setting. I have to say that the best part of that was the mini bowl of cashews they gave us. J It’s the little things that count. Anyways, saw a gull catch a fish out of the water. It was really pretty. I’m sure the fish thought otherwise. After we finished out drinks we headed out to the pizzeria at the hotel. We got out normal Mexican pizza and nachos. Our coworker Christine joined us for supper. She’s from outside of Chicago so she was happy to have some American to share Thanksgiving with. I should mention that Albena is from Canada so she wasn’t especially excited to be celebrating our Thanksgiving (especially since we didn’t do anything for her Thanksgiving…. But then again… Canadians only have fishing and moose to be thankful for right?)

he kids are getting along better. My morning class is wonderful. My afternoon class gives my headaches and makes me black out occasionally. My head really really hurts with them. There are only 3 girls in that class and the rest are boys. I don’t think I could live in a home with just boys. I would probably cry myself to sleep every night. I’m still working really hard with the kids on forming a community and emphasizing respect for ourselves and others… but when this kind of behavior isn’t reflected in the cities or in the homes it’s pretty hard to make a difference. I suppose all I can do is try. The students are learning a lot. I’ve really noticed how they’re reading more fluently. We do a lot of reading and they’re improving their phonics and subsequently their spelling because of it. We’re finally onto multiplication in math. Should be fun J We’ll start division in January. Final exams are the week before I leave. So most of December we’ll be reviewing.

Hmm what else. I haven’t been doing much traveling…at all. I’ve been doing my best to save money and work hard on my school things. I am going to try to get to Santo Domingo before Christmas. I was invited to travel with one of the teachers and her kiddo over there… but then again, she continues to try and set me up with her brother. Might be a little awkward.

Just a tropical storm. How are you?

2007-10-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

Hey. I know it's for horses, but it is quite possible one of the nicest simplest greetings known to man. It's much quicker than a hello, cooler too. It doesn't necesarily require a response and such doesn't push a person into a conversation that they might rather not have. Hmm... 'hey' might not be the best greeting for my current situation then. I'd like to share with you what I've been up to and deffinately want a response, that is if there is anything worthwhile to respond to. But I'll let you be the judge of that.

School: I get to graduate! Hooray! I'm leaving work for home on the 12th of December and will be home until the 4/5 of January. Graduation ceremony is on the 15th so I thought, "What the heck, I can use a little pomp and circumstance in my life" and decided to do the ceremony. I think it'll be nice. I've been working on my school work [pause] NOT. I need to use this 3 day weekend coming up to get stuff done. I was invited to go with a coworker to her family's home in one of the more humble areas of the country, but I declined and will go another time. It's probably better to stick around here with the weather that we've been having.

Weather: It has been feeling like I'm living in Seattle or London... granted a "dominican-town" in Seattle of London but still. All the rain has been comforting and rejuvenating. I love the rain here! It cools the air so much! I was even cold this morning... but then the kids came in and I started to move around. Night time has been pretty chilly, cool breeze. Now remember, a cool breeze and chilly air for me is 70F nothing like that of home. I hear its been getting pretty chilly... frost yet? We haven't seen the sun for about a week here because of the storm that went through. There was a lot of damamge and a few deaths in the southern region. It's too bad that that also happens to be one of the poorer regions.

Work: Work is continueing to be, well, work. Some days are better than others that's for sure. The kids are beginning to get their acts together. I've started doing a couple management things that the kids are responding well to. I just started yesterday with a new one. I get the classrooms attention and say "I'm going to close my eyes and count to 5 and when I open them I want to see all my students doing ....." First time I did it I think I was more surprised than they were. They all had done exactly what I had wanted them too! They're a playful bunch of kids, so I just have to play more with them to get them to do what I want. We sing and chant a lot in class. I need to start having the kids move around more. We aren't in our desks all the time, but putting our chants and songs with movements will be more fun I think (and a more memorable learning experience). We've been having an awful lot of bullying in class this year-- lots of fighting, tears, and more Dominican swear words than I care to hear. So I went on the NEA website and found a great activity for teaching feelings. Every Friday we have class meetings where I do a sort of guidance counseling program with the kids. The actual counselor never comes to have discussions with the kids so I'm taking it into my own hands. Last week we each colored a paper doll so that it looked like ourselves. Then in our circle we passed our doll from one person to the next. Each time a student was passed a new doll they had to put a little tear into it or put a mark on it with a pencil. When the doll came back to the person that it belonged to they were able to see the affects that disrespectful actions have on a person. Every time we made a mark or a cut it symbolized a disrespectful thing. A lot of the students ended up in tears and were upset. They then had to try and fix their dolls, but you can't undo everything. That was on Friday and Monday and Tuesday have been going better. This may have had a little something to do with it.

I've been struggling with a student and his home situation. Abuse of a child is one of the most monsterous things I've had to deal with here. I'm learning a lot about the Dominican version of child protective services. It's been a learning experience... and that's about all I can legally say about it.

Social Life: I've been watching a lot of movies lately. I think I've almost seen every episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. TBS and I are great friends. Lets see.... I've been waiting for payday so I've been laying low for awhile. Most afternoons my friend Albena and I get together for coffee. She's been teaching me Bulgarian. I know a few phrases. Maybe after grad school I'll go there are teach (hehe wonder what Jason would have to say about that one ;) ). The other day I went to the bowling alley to get a beer with my friend Cindy. Well I didn't want a beer. I asked for a diet coke with grenadine in it. What I got was a Presidente Light with grenadine in the bottle. Talk about funny! I drank it rather than create an embaresing situation for myself and the mesero. It was a pretty pink and will definately make another apparence on my palate on Valentines Day.

Hmm... what else... not that I'm counting or anything but I believe that there are 42 days or so until I come home! Too cool... too cool. Actually it'll probably be too cold. Good thing the MOA is right across the street.

Fall

2007-10-06T18:24:00.000-05:00

I’ve been told lately that we’re apparently in the Fall season here in the Dominican Republic. While you Wisconsinites are enjoying your sweater-esque weather, falling leaves and temperatures, I’ve been enjoying daily rain showers that bring the temperature down to a tolerable seventy-somthing and overcast skies. For example, this past week has been primarily overcast and drizzly-ie *see London*, but this morning I woke up to a totally different situation. Unlike the past 7 mornings, this morning I woke up got out of my ice cold morning shower and started to sweat. Just like the good old days back in July, August and September. The humidity and sun were back to their normal naughty reindeer games and I was back to my normal sweat drippy self. This didn’t last long… we are on out 2nd rain shower of the day at it’s only 12:15. Hopefully we’ll have a few more today, too.

It's the weekend, and this weekend I’ll be laying low. I’ve got a lot of prep work to do for my classes. The school I am teaching at is in the process of being accredited with the New England School Association. Hopefully this means that the school will be making some drastic changes in the way it functions. My friend who teachers 1st grade told me that at the beginning of the school year, only 1 student could write their name. I think she’s gotten them over that hurdle, but they still cannot sing the alphabet, have no idea how to write their letters and talk like little squeaky birds. Needless to say, the kids can’t read yet. So there is definitely some kind of problem with the education these kids are getting in preschool (to be read the lack of education). Instead of being concerned about the kids education, the school seems more concerned about outward appearances: are the kids standing straight during the flag ceremony? Are their uniforms tidy? Are their weeds in the lawn? Is there dust on the windows? When they should be more worried about the fact that they claim to be a bilingual school yet more than half their faculty doesn’t speak a second language, all “official” documents are in Spanish, all meetings are conducted in Spanish… Oh and did I mention that the kids don’t have water in their water fountains? There are two copiers for 2year olds- 12th grade and they’re both broken? There is no printer readily available to the staff. Or the fact that we often loose water in the bathrooms and the toilets don’t flush and the kids can’t wash their hands. Wonderful. But I shouldn’t be complaining. I should let my friend who teachers 3rd grade complain. During the past 2 weeks she has had 5 days with no electricity: no lights, no fans. I hope they have that fixed by now. I have to say I am happy that this isn’t directly affecting the director or her husband who, unlike the rest of us, always have water available to them and have it brought to their office in a glass glass on silver platter. I’m not kidding.

So yeah, I’m laying low. I swept and mopped, washed all my dishes. Bought some avocado and cantelope from the fruit guy today. I’m working on getting my laundry done. I started trying at 9am but both the washers have been tied up since then… maybe this afternoon I’ll get my chance.

What else… Oh Jason finally got his passport J J Mom and dad have theirs, too! I’m happy that I’ll be able to have them come down and share this place with me for a little while. No matter how much I complain, It’s a beautiful country with plenty to see and do… you just have to get out their and do it (and close your eyes or your heart to all the poverty around you).

I’m working on getting all my pictures uploaded onto Snapfish and soon you’ll be able to see me and what I’ve been up to!

All for now,

Allison

Wow.. That went quick!

2007-09-30T17:25:00.000-05:00

Hello adoring readers. Apologies for the lack of posting on my part. My computer broke again and I haven't been very successful with getting it fixed. This month has been full of a lot of work, but also a lot of play.

Work: My kids are making progress. I think for the most part we've finally gotten to a place where they respect me and we're able to have fun with what we're learning. I'm looking forward to getting a lot done with the kids. We have some really fun activities planned for this week. So, if the kids are willing to get stuff done, we'll learn a lot and have fun doing it! I'll write more about the kids some other time.

Play: What I really want to type about and what I think most of you would like to hear about. Two weekends ago now, I went to a all inclusive resort for a weekend. We got in at a super cheap rate. All you can eat-- deffinately got my fill of nummy deserts and breakfast sausage.

All you can drink-- tried a Tom Collins and drank a HORRIBLE bloody mary. All the air conditioning you can stand-- we had it on HIGH. We only paid $98 for the night (divided by the 3 of us). The beach at this resort was so much different than the beach here in Punta Cana and it's only maybe 30 minutes up the coast. White sandy sand and big waves!

On Friday (this weekend) I went with two of my girlfriends here to a place called Soleis. To get to Soleis you have to drive through meandering higher class apartment complex on the beach. You park in their parking lot and then walk through these condos scattered along the beach. Then from inbetween the condos and some palms soleis slowing begins to appear. It's this amazing little oasis on the beach serving mixed drinks, wine, beer, and delicious deserts. THe seating at this place includes your normal tables and chairs, but we sat at one of their raised platforms in the sand. THere were 2 long padded bench seats facing eachother with a mini table in between. The platform has wood framing over top on which there were long sheets of white cloth drapped and blowing in the wind. Talk about a romantic place to get sloshed! The moon was out in all its glory. Waves were splashing up onto the beach. IT was the kind of night where the ocean wound up looking like mercury. Beautiful!

Here it the view from where I was sitting at Soleis. Turn your head sideways ;)

First Day of Classes!

2007-09-03T13:05:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of classes. They're done finally! The kids, as you can imagine, are crazy being back at school and were asking from 8am on if it was time to go home yet. The kids have drastically varying levels of English knowledge... much greater than I had expected to find. There are about 14 kids in each class. We were missing a few today which is apparently to be expected. I taught Math and Language Arts today... and by taught I mean... well ... we did some ice breakers and played some math games... didn't get into the material at all. We still don't have the language arts or math books for the students. Absolutely ridiculous. My room is kinda messy. The kids bring materials to leave in the room... There are a lot of bags of stuff in my room that I'll have to sort out once the kids have gone. There are 11 minutes until class is officially dismissed for the day.

Anyways, time to plan etc. for the rest of the week. I am so hot in my uniform, as soon as the kids leave this shirt is coming off!!!

This is a school NOT a business

2007-08-31T16:09:00.000-05:00

I left school last evening with great intentions. I made a to-do list so that I would make the most of my last day of paid prep before the kids come on Monday. I was only able to get 3 of my things done today and here's why.

But first an explanation: In the DR, no, in Punta Cana we are "all" about image (substance comes second (I added that part)). We have been spending the last 2 weeks decorating then redecorating our rooms because of this frame of mind. 1 week ago, the wife of the owner of all Punta Cana properties came to view the school. Apparently she left our school director in tears over the not-so-constructive critisism she left in her wake. "Only public schools put things on their walls"... whatever. So she wanted us to put tagboard behind the things that were on the walls... so there are still things on their walls. Anyways, this morning I spent prepping and tackling my todo list. We had a long meeting and then went for lunch "cafeteria-wait-in-long-slow-moving-line style". After having just gotten my food and heading for my table I find myself being beckoned to my classroom as the Dona has arrived to view the rooms and it's my turn. Talk about being scared. I was trembling! It actually wasn't too bad though, I only had to change one thing (which I just finished doing). However, after lunch I noticed that there were teachers going in and out of one of the american's who has been sick's classroom (she still isn't at school today... poor girl). I ran over there to make sure they wern't taking her things and found myself being talked into staying there and preparing her room to be checked by the Dona... well yeah... I wound up having a lot of work to do in there since she's been gone for a few days now.... Just finished redecorating her room with the help of a few coworkers. She's going to be upset when she sees her room I think. Now that I'm thinking abuot that... I cannot remember if Ciro unplugged the hot glue gun.... I suppose we'll find out on Monday!

On top of everything, they ran out of water today. I was SO pissed off (pardon the language), but there is absolutely NO way I, pampered american, can work without water especially when it is in the 90's. I left and bought 6 bottles of water and a ring pop. 2 bottles for me, 4 for other people, and the ring pop for my friend Jose that works in the office. I think I needed to blow off some steam.

But anyways, I heard that the Dona wants that us teachers come to school with makeup, hair nicely done, hair cuts, perfume, etc. HELL NO! If they get us some air conditioning I will invest the time into doing that, but I cannot imagine that happening anytime this weekend. Also, apparently the dona gave one of the coordinators a box of Nair and told her to have the women with facial hair problems put it on before Monday. Wow, huh? But I also heard that Oscar de la Renta is going to give all of us perfume to wear to work, so that would be nice. Especially since I am out. Of well, Estinque de Allison isn't that bad right?

Good News/Bad News

2007-08-29T18:32:00.000-05:00

I always like to get the good news first when it comes to these sorts of predictaments. The good news is: my computer is fixed after nearly $300. I'm so happy to finally be able to get some work done at home and at the cafe near myhome. It'll be nice to stay connected to friends and family again. The bad news is that two of my closest friends here in the DR, Kyle and Cindy, are really sick. They were admitted to the hospital this morning and will hopefully be discharged tomorrow. Still no word as to what is ailing them. They're suffering from dehydration and lots of other side-effects from some illness: parasite, food sickeness, dengue, ameobas... Lots of fun options. Hopefully they'll be able to be treated quickly as soon as it's id'd and then released!

On a lighter note: I'm tossing around a different way to share pictures with everyone. Expect complete access to all my photos (that are 'net safe ;)) in the next few days!

I Promise...

2007-08-27T08:36:00.000-05:00

that as soon as my computer is fixed I will be much better with weekly updates! As the previous sentence already alluded to, my computer is still on the outs. It's actually out of town! I believe it is in Santo Domingo waiting for a part that is on backorder.... so we'll see. Maybe I'll get my computer by October. Since the hurricane came through we've been without internet at school as well. Actually we've been without access to the computers. Apparently the computer lab manager wanted some time to set up the computers and get things ready for when the kids come. So anyways, that's over with. I have internet today for the first time in a long time. Can I just say that it is absolutely wonderful!

So speaking of the hurricane... when Dean passed through I was on a car buying road trip to the northern shore of the country with my friends Cindy and Jose. We spent one night in Moca (which is one night more than I think I'll ever want to spend there again!). We got into town at 10pm and had to wait until midnight to check into our hotel room as there were people using it for a few more hours. Yes. We stayed in a very questionable location. We slept on top of our beach towels there... dirty dirty dirty. Didn't shower. So with the time that we had to spend before getting some shut eye we did what apparently every 16year old in the republic does instead of waste their minds on video games: we drank at the gas station. Obviously the best place to drink and dance... obviously. After the car buying experience in the morning we drove on to Puerto Plata for some much needed R&R. Stopped at a Expat Cafe called Sam's in Puerto Plata. Got my picture taken with a wisconsin liscense plate! GO ahead! Ask me how excited I was.... I was very excited :) Had a fantastic steak salad and bloody mary. Anyways, our hotel was an all exclusive that we got on a deal. When the hurricane came through we were sitting under a tiki hut next to the pool drinking pina coladas. Granted it was raining solid sheets, but it was still a vacation.

So anyways, school starts next week. Our uniforms, white boards, English math and social studies books, all haven't arrived. Talk about organization. And... they changed the color of the pants to dark blue or black... guess who doesn't have pants those colors and who isn't going to be able to find anything in the country that would fit her. Oh well. I'm going to wear jeans, brown, or else come without bottoms. Their problem not mine. :)

Long time no type

2007-08-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

Hello my faithful readers (to be read as: family and friends),

My computer is still out of service, so I am typing a little summary of the past few days and will join the pictures to the post later. On Saturday we took a little excursion with the school. We went to los altos de chavon (google it for more information). It is a beautiful little recreation of a Spanish colonial city perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking a river that leads into the ocean. I have lots of pictures from there.

These past few days at work I've been busy working on the 4th grade curriculum for the parents and the year plan for my Language Arts, Math, and Social Studies. It's been fun organizing everything and getting an idea of where I'm going to be taking these kids this year. I came here expecting to only be teaching English, so I didn't bring any resources for myself as a teacher or for the kids in the other subjects. You have no idea how much I wish I could drive over to borders and pick up a few books. No idea at all! But beyond that, things are going better work wise.

I've got a good group of American girls that I hang out with pretty regularly and then there are the guys that we've added to our little group. One of the girls's husband has come up from El Salvador to stay here permanently with her. He has already helped me out once with guarding my house while I was at work (and people were doing maitenence) and I am sure there will be many more times. We have two close friends who are from the Dominican. They're 27 and were both planning on becoming ministers, but now they're teachers and they're fantastic. (one of them owns a car and the other will be taking classes in the capitol; they're going to come in handy!) And then there is 'de Clet or how every one would spell that. Which, by the way, is his last name. He is one of the French teachers here (from Haiti). He's pretty hilarious. I also have Anthony, who has appointed himself my guardian here. He is a civics and ethics teacher here. He's from St. Kit's originally but has traveled and lived all over. Let me tell you, the gawks from dominican men sure do diminish when we're with the guys. I'm happy for that!

Eat some pizza for me and read a good children's book about early western democracies for me :). That's what I'd do if I were you!

2007-08-03T10:04:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note that I am without my laptop as of Wednesday. It's sorta borken :(. So I'll write as am able. Time to get to work. Hope all is well!

Week 1 of 52

2007-07-28T19:21:00.000-05:00

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

I'm Here!

2007-07-22T17:46:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-07-16T12:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-10T16:02:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-07-08T22:12:00.000-05:00

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.