10/28

Our swearing-in was really nice!  Chris Lambert (the Deputy Chief of Mission for the United States Embassy) who is a RPCV, was here to  give the government oath…got to shake his hand!  Not quite sure why that was exciting for me, but it was.  Some Dominican government official was here, too.  It was a really exciting time.  And the cake afterwards was great.

We all went out after.  Amazing!  It was such a great time.  The bar that was rented out played American music and had 2 for 1 drink specials (terrible terrible idea).  We all danced the night away.  Ended up in a casino at some point.  Just watched people gamble, don’t have the money to actually do it.  Made it home by 2.  Didn’t make an appearance until just before noon the next day.  Pretty certain that my dona thought I was dying.  Oh well, she’s hosted enough trainees, she knows whats up.  She told me this is what happens every year.  Ha.  Anyways, the night was a blast.  I’m going to miss so many people come Saturday.

A few of us went shopping for stuff for our site today.  We just got paid for the month of November.  We were in a nice section of Santo Domingo, and saw things we haven’t seen for weeks.  These two things combined, I essentially lost all control and ended up eating Burger King…Yogen Fruz (delicious frozen yogurt that you get to put stuff in)…Taco Bell…and a Frosty from Wendy’s…all in the span of 5 hours.  I’m absolutely disgusting.  And probably 200 pounds.  But we justified it with the idea that we won’t be able to do this again for a very long time, and we won’t be spending much money once we’re in our sites.  In the end, it felt like a typical Saturday in college full of greasy fast food (attempting to make peace with our stomach’s after the bad decisions from the night before).

We have our cholera session on Friday, and I head out on Saturday.  I don’t think I’ll be online for a while.  Maybe in 2 weeks, maybe.  So phone will be the easiest way to talk to me.

Love and miss you all.