Sushi in the DR!

Yesterday one of my Puerto Rican friends that lives here in the DR returned from a short trip to the states so group of us went out to celebrate. We went to the cutest and tastiest sushi joint I have ever been to. I loved it :) Who would think a place like that would be in the DR?!?!?

Today I experienced my first dental service of the Dominican Republic. After school I waited at the dentist for a few hours (they are so timely here) to get my first dental cleaning. It was interesting to experience this in a different country. Luckily, my dentist spoke some English, but I decided to have him talk Spanish the entire time to practice my Spanish. It worked out pretty well and I learned a lot but at times we spoke more Spanglish than anything.

The dentist was similar to the U.S. I went to one of the nicer ones here to get a good quality - but it's still not the quality of the states. Hopefully it will keep me out of trouble until I can get a more thorough cleaning later :)

My students at school have been a HANDFUL this week. OK, that is an understatement. I have had some major discipline problems and it makes teaching a difficult thing to enjoy. It's frustrating because so much happens behind my back in the Spanish language that I am not aware of. The students are not allowed to speak Spanish in class or they are disciplined, but somehow things always get said and there are words that I am not familiar with yet..Not good.

I hope tomorrow will be a better day after several kids spent time in lunch detention and many parents were called. I hate doing that, so do the students.

One exciting thing about the class today is we are starting Pen Pal's with my sister's 4th grade class. I gave each of my students a name and they wrote a rough draft letter today. They are all so excited and the letters they wrote were wonderful. I can't wait to start the exchange! The students were all thrilled as well.
I posted a picture of my surfing adventure above..I had my friend finally e-mail it to me. It's the only one I have because I could not take my camera to the beach or it would have got stolen. I think I may have found a friend who is looking to get rid of a surf board too, so I might begin my training 

Pray for me this week to be patient with my class and remember above all I am here to love on the students and share God’s love with them. As frustrated as they may make me, I need to look at the big picture and not lose sight of it. Also, as I continue working towards my master’s class in the evenings and the workload it brings pray for me to manage my time wisely. Finally, there have been complications with a water bill for my apartment and they have not been able to resolve it since the beginning of the year. If my landlord will not comprise to fix this in the next week or two then the school has told me that I will be moving (the last thing I want to do right now) so pray that things can get resolved so I don’t have to go apartment shopping here because it could potentially leave me hopping around to different teacher’s apartment s until I have my own place again. With the pace life is here – that could be a LONG time.
ONE MORE THING..(Always got to save the best for the last). Tomorrow, October 15th, is my sister’s birthday! I hate not being able to physically be there for it. If money grew on trees I would fly home just to say happy b-day and give her a big hug..but I can't - so if you see her around please give her a hug and tell her HAPPY BIRHTDAY! She ROCKS. She’s one of the best teachers ever and I’m blessed to have her advice, encouragement and support during my time here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPH!!
(The picture below is Steph, her husband Kyle, and dog Lilly)