I was a little too specific on something in my writing - so there will be some edits today (like not including people's full first & last names)

Day 7 - Wednesday

I worked 7:30 to noon today.  It was nice to get off and know I had the rest of the day to myself.  I was ready to get in the ocean again and relax.  I'd hardly had time to do some of the things I'd really wanted like work on my journaling, read my book, work on the music for Rachel's wedding, or take a class at the gym.  We loaded up our journals and books and headed to the beach.  There was also a class at 6 that I told Clint I wasnted to try out.

We picked out our chairs on the beach and got out our books and began to relax and read.  I wasn't too far into my reading when I told Clint I had to get in it.  So we put our books down and went and got in the water.  The waves were not nearly as strong today and I wasn't as afraid to get out a little bit farther.  Of course I was still only about waist high.  I was proud of myself.  I also wore my sunglasses this day which kept a lot of water out of my eyes.  Clint would laugh because I would take a big gasping breath if I thought a big wave was coming in.  But a girl has got to be ready in case of going under.  But there was no going under this day - all pleasant experiences.  We stayed in the water for awhile.  I think we read some more after we got out of the water.  It was such a nice time.

Then we got cleaned up and headed to the main building so I could make it to the class.  We were walking around the gym area when I heard Clint say, "Hey that's Andy."  I'm trying to figure out why he would know an associate when I turn and see Andy and Lezlee [from Church of Christ in Texas].  I am so incredibly baffled.  Turns out Lezlee's grandmother, Millie, won the trip and gave it to them.  We stand around and talk for awhile.  I'm shocked that they are staying through Sunday, since they have nowhere to worship.  I know they realize how long we've been there, so I manage a way to throw into conversation our trip to Santo Domingo.  I wasn't trying to seem "holier than thou" but I wanted there to be no doubt that we had worshipped.  We gave them our room number and offered to meet up sometime.  We were very nervous about over-stepping.  they probably wanted some alone time.  Well, it was time for my class to start so I excused myself and Clint stayed back to talk.

It was hard for me to get started in the class.  The good part was that there was just 2 other people in the class - a woman and her young daughter.  The instructor never really showed us "how" to do anything, she just moved in front of us and we had to figure it out.  I got a few moves down, but some things I just couldn't keep up with.  I was actually glad when class was over.

By the time I got out, Clint was working out, but he didn't seem too sad that time was up.  He filled me in on parting with [our friends] and I was glad to know they had our room number, but we didn't have thiers.  That way it was solely their choice whether we were in contact or not.

We went back to the room and ordered room service.  Our stomachs had been a little weak, so we liked ordering something "normal" like chicken fingers and fries.  Plus, there are only so many times you want to make the trek between our room and the main building in one day.  I had fulfilled my quota.  My legs would get sore by night time, but I was glad for all the walking.  It was really good for me.

I also have to interject how entertaining the TV programming has been here.  There were not a lot of channels to choose from really.  Several were in Spanish and the majority of the rest were sports.  However, there was always some B movie from the 90's playing and I found them super entertaining.  At home Clint normally turns the TV off at some point during the night, but he had informed me he wasn't turning it off here - although it was never still on when we got up.  We finally saw the sleep timer turn on by itself.  That was really weird.  Some of my coworkers would tell stories of their TVs changing channels on their own.  So funny.  But we watched TV and went to bed.

June 10, 2009

Julia got up early and went to work at 7:30.  I slept in and rested until around 12:00 when she got off work.  I really had good intentions about going to work out at the gym while she was working.  I haven't much though.  I've been battling off a sinus infection.  I think its the same stuff Julia had a few weeks ago.  Lucky for me she still has some medicine that I can take.  Also, my stomach hasn't been doing great, but it's getting better.  It's kept me from feeling like working out much.

We ate lunch at one of the delis here then got ready for the ocean.  We spent the afternoon just relaxing on the beach.  We swam in the ocean for a bit.  We passed time reading, journaling, and listening to ipods while lounging on the beach.  We got cleaned up and headed back up to the main buildings.  There was a class at 6 that Julia wanted to try out.  It was in the gym so I decided to finally get in another workout while she was doing that.  When we were headed to the class, I saw a familiar person from back home.  At first I had to think if I was just seeing things.  Finally I decided I was right.  It was Andy & Lezlee from [TX congregation]!  It was so weird to run into them in the Dominican Republic!  Apparently Lezlee's grandmother sells Pre-Paid Legal and had won this trip.  She couldn't go so she gave it to them.  We agreed that we would have to meet up later and hang out.  I was nervous about intruding on their vacation, but they were up for it.  We parted ways and we went to the gym.  I worked out while Julia went to her class.  I watched her a little bit.  She was really getting it down, she could move really well.  We didn't feel like going all the way back to the room, getting dressed for dinner, and walking all the way back so we ordered room service.  Besides there was some more normal food on the room service menu.  We ordered the great chicken fingers and I also got some spaghetti.  It wasn't really good.  We watched tv and went to sleep.

June 8, 2009

We woke up at 5:30 to get ready to go to the bus station.  Roberto was already up and had made us some coffee.  We headed out and walked a few blocks, then caught another taxi.  This one was a little nicer.  We took the taxi to the bus station at Parque en Riquillo, near where we were dropped off.  The station was around the corner and a half block away from where we waited for Roberto the previous day.  It would have been a safer place to wait and I felt silly for not going ahead and finding it that day.  But I realized it's not safe to walk the streets aimlessly by ourselves.  We said our goodbyes to Roberto and boarded a bus that would take us to Higuey.  From there we would have to catch another bus to Punta Cana.  I was nervous about being on the right bus, but the worker repeatedly called out our city of destination trying to get people on to fill the bus.  What he was calling has stuck in my head - "Higuey, Higuey, Higuey! La Romana, Higuey!"

It was not an express route so we picked up and dropped off people all along the way.  This was a big bus like the one we had taken the day before.  We watched the movie "The Mask" in Spanish.  After that the worker put in another DVD.  This one was a series of ridiculous music videos.  I thought, "Dominican attempts to be cool rappers and singers are so lame."  I later realized that these videos were parodies meant to be comedic.  I still wasn't amused with being subjected to the local's versions of comedy.  I hope I never see "Miguel y Alejandro" ever again.  There was an old lady sitting across from us who got a kick out of it though, so it was funny to watch her.  I didn't sleep for the entire trip back.  I felt surprisingly refreshed and awake today.  The trip became more enjoyable and less stressful.

We arrived in Higuey and was dropped off on the side of the street.  Even though Roberto kept telling us to trust no one, we had to ask where the station was.  Again we were dropped off only around the corner and a half block away from the station.  We were dropped off in front of a Yamaha motorcycle dealership.  It stood out against the city.  Every dealership I saw along our way seemed to do so.  I saw Toyota, Nissan, Diahatsu, Ford, Kia and Chevrolet dealerships.  I guess I could get a job down here if we wanted to move here.

We go to the station and began asking for a bus to take us to Punta Cana.  It depended on which part and since we were going to the Moon Palace resort, we had to be on the specific bus that would go by there.  After asking numerous people we found one, but there were no seats left.  We sat outside the station and waited nervously for another one.  Some guy tried to sell me a cellphone.  Yeah right.  It wasn't long until another bus came, and we got the first seats.  These were much smaller buses.  As we were boarding a small boy came up to us and begged for food.  My heart stirred within me.  Children are my weak spot.  However, helping him would single me out as a tourist with money.  So by helping him I would be hurting myself.  I had to tell him no and ignore his repeated pleas.  He eventually gave up and left.  As we were waiting for the bus to leave, a man got on carrying a live chicken.  Me and Jules laughed to ourselves.  She's told me stories of the exact same thing when she lived in Honduras.  It was neat to get to experience as much of the culture of this country.  A girl dressed in a work uniform of the Moon Palace Resort also got on and all of my fears of being on the wrong bus left.

We left the station and drove through the country.  I enjoyed seeing the sugar cane fields where men were working the harvest.  The misty mountains in the distance were also a neat sight to see.  We began to pass excursion trips that the tourists from the resorts had taken.  There was a convoy of Jeeps.  We also passed open air buses full of white people.  Seeing them was so different for me after being submersed in the Dominican population.  Julia told me that they were on an excursion to see the "local people and their customs"  Also they paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars to take that trip.  I had to pat myself on the back.  Grand total we had spent about $70 and experienced way more authentic culture than those people ever would.

Our bus finally arrived at the Moon Palace stop.  The resort worker on our bus got off so I began to follow her.  The surroundings didn't look familiar but I was used to having to walk for a ways from the stop to get to your destination.  The bus worker stopped me though and told me that this was the workers entrance in the back and told me that as a client we wanted the main entrance in the front which was the next stop.  I was a little embarrassed for them thinking that I was "too good" for the servant's entrance.  Anyway, we got dropped off at the main gate and showed our bracelets to the guard shack.  As we were walking through, the guard flagged down a van that was entering and told them to pick us up.  It was almost a mile from the gate to the resort buildings.  When we got on the van we saw a familiar face, we saw a familiar face, it was Tone!  It was such a neat coincidence to see him again.  He was glad to see we had made the trip alright, we had talked to him about our plans that earlier night.  We got the compound and walked into the lobby feeling much like accomplished world travelers.  We had made it!!  I know the credit belongs to God for keeping us safe through our journey.  We walked to the Pre-Paid desk and all of Julia's coworkers were there.  None of them had to worry a second longer.  We headed to the room to get cleaned up and relax.  We lounged around the room and then got Julia ready for work.  She went to work at 6:30.  It was banquet night so she dressed nice.  At 7:30 I got ready and went to meet her.  We both went and ate at the associate's banquet with Julie and Jeff.  Some of the more prominent associates gave encouraging speeches.  After we ate we went back to the desk and Julia helped people prepare for catching their flight home the next day.  There was an old lady that wasn't with our group that came by and asked what this Pre-Paid Legal stuff was all about.  I thought, "Wow, what a great opportunity."  However, after we explained, she said, "So its for people who don't already have their own attorneys.  Sounds like a fancy name for a bail bondsman."  She would hear no other explanation and totally turned her nose up at us and walked off.

Her behavior just amazed me and I had to find the amusement in the way snobbish people act.  Since I've been here I've witnessed several instances much like this one.  Its sad to see the people treat the workers like dirt sometimes.  Sometimes they don't mean to, but they are being the definition of stupid white people.  One lady at a restaurant ordered 3 drinks one by one and sent them all back because she "simply cannot even drink this." Some people ask stupid questions.  When ordering his meal, one man said, "I'll have just whatever you like eating here," to the waiter.  I thought, well as a worker, he might not get the chance to eat this food much.  One time a bar tender broke a keg of beer open or something because a geyser of beer hit the 20 foot ceiling of the restaurant.  People began cheering and clapping.  It was mocking the guy and it embarrassed him.  Even though I'm a privileged guest, I try to remain understanding and not lose remembrance of decent humanity.

After the desk closed we went back to the room.  We were both tired.  We decided to watch "Take the Lead" on her laptop.  I fell asleep immediately.