Blake's done with his first exam! He did really well and he's already geared up and studying for the next one!
Ok, 10 random things to tell you about our life (more to come):
10. Our stove/oven. Every time you want to use the stove or the oven, you must turn it on and light it with a match. We are pretty sure that the temperature gauges don't work, so the oven works at approximately 350 degrees F, we think...and the stove top is always at the highest setting...we think.
9. Hot water. If you decide that you want to take a hot shower, or more realistically, a shower with spurts of hot and cold water, as opposed to just cold water, you must flip a switch to turn the hot water "ON" in the kitchen. If you forget to turn the switch "OFF," the meter stays on because we have a slow leak in the kitchen sink.
8. Electricity. You pre-pay electricity here. What happens is you have a meter in your kitchen that tells you how much electric you have left. If you are running low, you walk up to 7-11, buy some electric, get a really long code to enter into your meter, and walk home and enter the code in. Its pretty simple, but kind of annoying.
7. We miss cow's milk. I think the first thing I'll do when I visit home is drink a glass of milk. The milk here is in containers, on a shelf, and while some people say it tastes "exactly like cows milk," it does not. Blake's favorite so far is the powdered milk that you add warm water to, then put it in the freezer for a few mins, so he can have it for breakfast. I'm not impressed with it.
6. It rains every day..and this is the dry season supposedly. I've heard that it gets much hotter and more humid, with no breeze, so we are content with the current weather conditions, but are not looking forward to the following months.
5. The mosquitoes here have it out for me. I have been taking Benedryl pills non-stop to keep my fever down, because I constantly have at least a few lumps (yes, I mean lumps) where I have mosquito bites. Blake on the other hand, is mosquito-bite free, except for his ankles.
4. I went to a beach called Batibou beach last Saturday, where a part of the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was filmed. That was pretty cool, and its a really nice beach. I look forward to visiting it again soon!
3. Blake's love for local foods and being adventurous with them. He bought a local yam at the market one Saturday (which basically looked like a large log). He soaked it in water, salt and vinegar for 45 minutes to kill the parasites, then peeled it with a potato peeler, chopped it into slices, and boiled it for an hour and a half. Now it looks/tastes a little like mashed potatoes, but really???
2. The local market. This is one of my favorite things about the island, but you have to get up REALLY early on Saturday morning for it. This is basically the only time during the week that you can get fresh fruit and vegetables, and eggs, without paying a ridiculously high price from a local shop in our village. I get up really early to go (5:30 am), but its worth it.
1. Blake is in love with Bello hot sauce. Its a Dominican hot sauce, but he will basically put it on anything. Just to clarify, its the yellow one, he likes the red one too, but the yellow one is the one I have to stock up on. So far I really like two local things here - passion fruit, which I make a yummy juice with, and Kubuli beer, its a strong tasting lager, kind of similar to Shiner Blonde.
The random facts are interesting. It puts life in perspective, like the pieces of life I take for granite (i.e. cow milk). By the time you come back, you will probably take beaches for granite.
ReplyDeleteThe Progressive Dinner is a good idea. I wish we knew more people in our complex or near by so that was feasible. DFW is way too spread out to pull that off.