Photo Blog

Hi everyone!  Things are going well in the DR!  We just got back from a nice weekend of R&R up in the mountains, where the roads that we drove up are pretty comparible to the superior hiking trail if any of you have been there.  We left for the weekend on friday after clinic and began the two hour drive up the mountain.  I believe we were up about 4200 ft.  I have never been up in the "real" mountains before, so this was a treat for me!  ILAC has a retreat center up on Jochilito in which we stayed at.  Spend friday evening just relaxing, playing cards and having reflection.

Saturday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and then hiked up and down the mountain to a very beautiful stream.  The hike was awesome, beautiful and the pictures that I am taking up here do absolutely no justice to how it actually is up here, but I tried.  Speaking of photos, here is the link to my kodak site!  I have 3 albums to look at, enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/photoPicker/albums.jsp#

This river was very beautiful, as I said.  Kelsey and I started running around the water and the rocks right away!  We jumped off the rocks into the little pools and had a great time.  Ironically this was the first time that we were all exposed to the sun for a long period of time, so I got quite burnt along with a few others in the group.  We relaxed here for an hour or so, just taking in the great scenery.  We were also graced by a few locals who were swining from trees and falling into the water and jumping from higher places than we were allowed to jump from. Those guys were crazy!  We hiked back up the mountain for lunch, and Kelsey and I decided to even run up a hill for some momentum on the way back. 

In the afternoon, we hung out with some locals between the ages of 15-21.  We shared about our culture in America and they shared their Domincan culture with us.  We learned to Merengue and some other dominican dance as well.  So guess what, they asked us to teach them some american dances.  Hmmmmm, the first thing we thought about was how we dance in the clubs.  Not so appropriate.  Well we taught them to swing dance and how to do the electric slide.  No great shakes.  Its interesting because they have specific dances that represent their culture, but we really do not.  It was kinda difficult for me, but I'll get it with more practice!    We also learned about animal sounds - yes, sounds rediculous, right?  Well it kind of was, we were all assigned animals and walked around with our eyes closed making the animal noises and tried to find the other people with the same animal.  We learned that the US and the DR have different sounds for the same animal so not everyone was able to find their matches.

Also another way to follow our trip is on our class blog at:

http://www.ptcrossingboarders.blogspot.com/