Snakes and Such

Monday November 15, 2010

Day 73

I worked at the office today and did the usual office day things.  I worked on translating a letter in to English which is harder than it sounds.  Using Google Translate can be helpful but half of the things come out incorrectly.  What I usually do is read it first in Spanish, then put it into Google Translate and then edit the translated copy, using the original Spanish copy.

When we were coming home after picking up the kids from school, panic erupted in Residencial José Contreras.  The kids had gone through the front door and Teresa and I were walking to the back door when Teresa spotted a snake.  The snake was skinny and probably about 18 inches long.  Teresa was so scared and wanted me to kill it.  I am not afraid of snakes but I also didn’t want to kill it.  I moved it out of the pathway with a stick but Teresa still wouldn’t walk by it.  The neighbors heard Teresa yelling at me to kill it so one guy came out to help her.  I was laughing because it was the most harmless looking thing ever.  I was more worried about keeping my lunch out of the food safety “danger zone” so I left the neighbor to deal with the snake.  In the end the neighbor killed it and Teresa thinks I am some kind of weird person for not being scared.

Tuesday November 16, 2010

Day 74

I was supposed to go to the clinic today but worked in the office instead.  I worked on translating something and then had a statistics lesson with Teresa.  Teresa gave me some things to practice and I really missed my TI-83 calculator. 

Later in the day we went to the Dominican Fiesta Hotel to meet someone that Teresa knows from Americares.  The young woman was just here for the day and will go to Haiti tomorrow.  Teresa worked with her after the earthquake and wanted me to meet her.  She was very nice and seems to have a really interesting and exciting job.  She is from the US and speaks English so that was fun too.

Good news: we finally got to go to the grocery store.  I was getting nervous about my yogurt and cereal situation.  At Bravo I was so excited to see all of the Thanksgiving-themed things they had.  They had turkeys, cranberry sauce, canned pumpkin, stuffing and a bunch of other things.  I guess I didn’t need my brother to bring me my pumpkin and cranberry sauce after all (thanks though)!  I didn’t get any Thanksgiving food because I didn’t plan the menu yet and didn’t have a list of ingredients.  I will probably go back next week.

Fun Facts:

1.       Turkey is popular here on Christmas.

2.       The public taxis are always full of people and today I saw one with 7 adults in it, including the driver.  (The record before today was 6 adults.). FYI these are old, small cars.

3.       People at the grocery store like “sampling” everything.  For example, today I saw one lady opening up a face cream and using it on her face and then putting it back on the shelf.  I also saw a guy “sampling” nuts from a big barrel. I think they need the free sample stations like the have at Costco.

Peace,

Jaclyn