7. Navidad

Well, I survived my first Christmas in the Dominican Republic! It was a bit of an emotional ride but what the heck, this whole experience has been. I was fortunate enough to video chat with my family, aunt, uncle and cousins along with a few friends so I did get a little piece of home which was great.

As you would assume, Christmas here is different in many ways. The celebration consists of "Noche Buena" y "La Navidad" on what would be our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Noche Buena families cook big meals and spend the evening drinking and dancing. La Navidad consisted of more drinking, dancing and in the evening everyone wears a new outfit. Looking at the BIG picture, it is easy to find similarities - family, music, food and cooking but it was NOTHING like home.

Family. Over the past few days, my little community of about 200 people has practically doubled. My house of four people has turned into a house full of eight people, three of them being grown adults (and all eight of them sleeping in just two beds). Two of my Dona's sons came in town for the holidays with one of their spouses. One of them is the father of Aumendi (my little brother) who also has another child, a three year old little girl named Yubelacy. Up until this point I was unsure of where Aumendi's parents were. It is quite common here for grandchildren to be living with their grandparents and it is all for different reasons. Aumendi's mother explained to me that when her family left my community for work, Aumendi hated his new community, there were no kids and the pace of life in a bigger neighborhood was too much for him. She then brought him back here to live with his grandmother and go to school here. He is five years old and has made a decision to live away from his mom, dad and little sister. It was really neat to see them interact. I have watched Aumendi get picked on and pushed around by a lot of kids in the neighborhood and this week he and his little sister have been inseparable. His dad also took him to the big city and bought him a new outfit for La Navidad and a water gun so he was the coolest kid on Christmas Day and he looked adorable in his new outfit and his little loafers which he hated! It was also great seeing my Dona surrounded by her sons. It reminded me a little bit of home. She really is a wonderful woman!

Yubelacy y Aumendi

Aumendi in his new Navidad outfit!

Music. The music here is completely different to say the least. One of my favorite things about Christmas back home is the music. Within the first hour of my Dona's son arriving he pulled out four enormous speakers into the front yard of my house. Yes, my Christmas was full of music - BLARING bachata, meringue and reggaetone having nothing to do with Christmas but singing about finding an American to give you a visa. Merry Christmas! So yes, this year I woke up on Christmas morning to bachata music and looking out into my front yard to people drinking rum!

Food. I haven't seen my Dona outside of the kitchen in the past three days. She works so hard and manages to keep a smile on her face throughout it all. We had a HUGE meal for Noche Buena which consisted of roasted chicken, apples, potato salad, empanadas, pasta, bread, hen and other birds that I am not sure what they were. Everything was really good. It was a little strange because she served me first and I ate dinner at a table by myself staring at a wall but it was really good otherwise. Definitely not like Christmas dinner at home but all in all it was a good meal. In terms of drinking, it is a major past time in the Dominican Republic. Not too many people drink in my community on a nightly basis but they have made up for it over the past few days. I can look out into my front yard now and it looks like my old college house, empty bottles everywhere. Everyone drinks, age doesn't matter. As I am writing this, there is still music blaring in my front yard with about 15 guys aged 22-30 drinking and my Dona keeps sending out platters of food for them to eat. She has been whispering a countdown to me over the days... "in two days they are leaving" "tomorrow, we will be alone and it will be quiet again".

My Dona w/ part of my x-mas dinner!

So yes, Christmas was definitely different, the 85 degree weather and constant sweating made it easy to forget what was going on back home and now it is practically over, just a few more hours of these same 10 songs I've been hearing over and over. Anyways, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and I was thinking of all of you!

On to other things. Overall, the past month or so has been good. I am feeling more comfortable in my community and everyday a new kid warms up to me and screams my name when passing by. All of the children are on Christmas vacation so that has been fun. Usually the days are quiet because they are at school but I have been busy being pulled in every direction. Like I have said, the first three months in my community is supposed to be spent building trust. We are not supposed to start any big projects but only little things. I had planned on starting English classes but I have put that on hold and instead put on a cricket tournament and will hopefully do a volleyball tournament in a few weeks. The cricket tournament was fun. It was a bit disorganized as I had expected. I had two boys in the community round up teams over the course of a week and I would check in with them everyday. The day before the tournament I asked for the list of teams and both the boys had put themselves on about three different teams. Each of our cricket teams had only two people so I had to explain to them that they can't be on more than one team because it is impossible to play on two teams at once. They continued to tell me it was fine and I continued to tell them it wasn't, that it doesn't make sense. We worked through that and ended up having about 12 teams. It was a learning experience and definitely a case of trial and error but all in all we had a good time and even painted our faces. I gave the winning team each a little pack of silly bands and I can't explain what a hit they were. Now everyone is asking for all sorts of tournaments, dominoes, baseball, volleyball, basketball etc.

Cricket Tourny

I am still in the process of interviewing people in my community. It has been hard to get things done over the holidays and I think it will be hard over the next week or so as well. The pace of life here is slow on any given day, and then throw in the holidays and it is basically a lost cause to even attempt to accomplish anything right now. So for now, I am just going to have to put some of that to the side.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am very impatient when it comes to time. Not much else phases me but if I am running late, I get anxious. If you tell me you will pick me up at 7:30, nine out of ten times I will be standing in my front yard waiting for you but if you are five minutes late, I will be on the phone asking where you are. I hate being late and there is no such thing as being late here. Actually, there basically is no such thing as time in the Dominican Republic so it has been trying. I experienced the same thing when I was in Tanzania and I promised myself I would try to not get so caught up with time upon my return but it did not work out. I understand it is a different culture and blah blah blah but 9:00 still means 9:00 wherever I may be. For example, I get a phone call asking me to attend a meeting in my community with the senator of the nearby city and a few Brazilians whom are investing in nearby land, "it is very important you attend because it would be great for my community because it will provide jobs" ok great, meeting starts at 10:30, I will be there and so will two other volunteers that live in neighboring communities. The two other volunteers arrive in my community at about 10:20 and we then wait for my project partner to finish getting ready. By the time she is finished it is close to 10:45 and we are all getting anxious because we are late and we have a 15 minute walk ahead of us, I mean this is important, it is the Senator right? We would look awful showing up late. We arrive at the location to find that nobody else is there other than two men setting up a tent. Ok, great, its 11:00, we are late but where is everybody, I thought this meeting started at 10:30? Time passes, nobody else has showed up. We are all kind of looking at each other as each minute ticks by. At about 12:15 people start coming and fifteen minutes later, the senator, the Brazilians and his entire entourage show up. I still don't understand. The meeting was supposed to start at 10:30, it was now half past noon. All of the Dominicans were told 10:30 but they didn't start arriving until 12:15. Was 10:30 just a joke? Why not just say 12:00 or 12:30? How did the Dominicans know that 10:30 really meant 12:30? Yes, it may sound petty but when this happens a few times a week and you are sitting in the Caribbean sun dripping sweat, it does get frustrating. Then I have to remind myself - who cares, I have nothing else going on, I have nowhere to be, this is why I am here. It is hard though and to me, 10:30 will always mean 10:30.

I have one last, quick story to share before I go hide my head under my pillow because my ears are bleeding from this music. A few days before Christmas, one of my favorite little boys, Franlin, was told to pack his bags because he was going to spend some time with his mother (he also lives with his Grandma here). This has happened a few times with other kids, some have returned, some haven't, I haven't quite figured it out. I think Franlin will return at some point, I will let you all know when that is. Anyways, I was going to help him pack and he pulled out his bookbag and this is what it was!

Rock Chalk!

That about sums it up for now and below are a few more pictures. I will be spending my New Years in Cabarete which is in the Northern part of the country with other volunteers so I will let everyone know how that goes! Have a wonderful New Year!!

Fanlin y perro @ the river

Playing Cricket

Me, Franlin y Marielis

Me and some of the girls @ the beach!

6. Los Vasquez

I have finally sat down to write this so here it goes....

A lot has gone on since I last wrote.  I finished training in Constanza, swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, said goodbye to two familes, gained a new family, visited my site, moved into a new home, moved into my site, spent my first two holidays here (Halloween and Thanksgiving), visited two different beaches, went to a baseball game and much more.  I do not even know where to begin.  Constanza feels as if it were ages ago and although I have only been in my site for about a month, I feel as I have been here forever.  Below are some pictures of some of those things and then I will tell you all about the "here & now".

Spaghetti Dinner w/ youth group. Mayo, ketchup & noodles!!!

Mural w/ our Youth Group in Constanza

Balloons for going away party in Constanza!

My brothers & dad - Santo Domingo family

Brothers and Dona - Santo Domingo family in San Crisbol

Swearing in - Sara, Tina and I

My Santo Domingo family.  My Dona couldn't make it so they brought some of the neighborhood boys.

The youth sector @ Swear-In

It was sad leaving Constanza and now that I am away I miss it even more.  Being in the mountains was unbelievable and also having so many of my friends in such close proximity made it that much better.

The ceremony for our Swear-In was very nice.  The country director, Romeo Massey, Christopher Lambert from the US Embassy, one of our lovely Dona's and a fellow volunteer all spoke.  We sang the national anthem of both the US and the DR and then said our oath.  Many of our host families attended and cheered us on and best of all, we made it through training!

So....

My House

I am officially in my site, Los Vasquez where I will be living for the next two years of my life.  I have been here a month so I am still learning but it feels like I have been here longer.  I guess that is an advantage to living in such a small community...I met everyone on my first day.  I am living with another host family for three months and then I am free to move into my own house if I choose.  To the right is my house.  I live on the top!  I am quite comfortable here, they give me privacy, we have the only toilet in the community and the house is centrally located.  I have a Dona and a Don, Fela and Valentin, and a five year old brother, Aumendi.  Fela and Valentin are older....Aumendi is not their son but their grandchild.  I have yet to figure out where the mother is but supposedly she will be here for Navidad.  I like my family here, my Dona runs the house.  I can't understand anything she says but she seems nice.  She spends her days cooking and cleaning.  It took Aumendi a week or so to warm up to me but now he is good to go.  He can climb trees so fast.  He goes to school from 8:30 to 12:30, comes home, my dona takes off all his clothes and goes and runs around in the street in his underwear for the rest of the day.  Sometimes I will be sitting outside and see him fly by on the back of a motorcycle and a few minutes later he will fly by in the other direction on the back of a horse, he is hard to keep track of.  He gets picked on a lot and I think it is because he doesn't have any siblings so I try to help him out when I can, I am his new sibling after all AND I'm American so he has the coolest sibling in town!  My family has a lot of cows, chickens, roosters and other flying animals that I am not sure exactly what they are.  All the birds walk around in the house.  It is kind of strange to be eating a chicken when the other chickens are bopping around my feet waiting for me to drop them some rice or a piece of their friend.

Water Source

Aumendi

     Los Vasquez is small, but there are more houses than I thought.  It is spread out and the houses are somewhat clumped together.  The main source of income is agriculture.  Everyone has orange trees, grapefruit trees, yuka, plantains, beans and passion fruit.  Rice, tobacco and sugarcane are all pretty prevalent as well.  From my understanding, when they need money, they will go and pick some fruit and go to the bigger towns to sell it.  It is definitely not a steady source of income.  My family has a toilet.  Everyone else has latrines or the great outdoors.  The main problem here is water.  Not a single house in my community has running water.  So I have a toilet but no running water, so I have to bucket flush.  I am getting better at it everyday.  Once I master it I am going to move out and master the latrine.  The water source is probably a 10 minute walk from my house and much much

My road (the men on horses were moving cattle)

further for others.  Not only is it far, it is dirty as you would probably assume from the picture and keep in mind the people who don't have a latrine just go to the bathroom wherever they please.  Anyways, my electricity is pretty dependable, it is only out for about a total of an hour per day.

The first three months in my community is supposed to be easy living (in my terms, not peace corps terms) - not much work, just trying to build relationships and for me, working on my spanish!  I spend a lot of my day at my neighbors house because there are a lot of kids around that area.  We play dominoes, we play their version of cricket, we throw rocks, I try to teach them some english and just chat.  I am hoping to help with english classes in the elementary school next week and soon enough the kids will have Christmas vacation and it will be a good time for me to get to know all of them better and basically just play outside all day.  I am hoping to set up a volleyball and/or cricket tournament over their Christmas vacation and then the rest of my time will be spent doing interviews and focus groups with members of the community for my community diagnostic at the beginning of February.  Oh, and I have been trying to get them interested in building a tree house but they think I am crazy.  I tried to explain to them that kids in America build houses in trees...I am sure you can imagine how that went over.
Los Vasquez is about a 30 minute motorcycle ride from the city of Hato Mayor.  The campo is named after a family, the Vasquez...that being said, I think about 80% of my community is related.  I gave up on trying to figure it out.  The lady that showed me around literally told me that every single person was her cousin...."mi primo, mi prima".  Who knows.  It is a tight nit community though which will make it a great place to work.  The kids have NOTHING to do and I think that is where I will step in (eventually).  Form some sports teams, some youth groups and hopefully build them a basketball/volleyball court someday down the road, for now, I'll stick to grapefruit hunting!

Brandy & Isabelita catching breadfruit

Digging the seeds out of the breadfruit

Breadfruit seeds (pana)

Roasting the seeds.

As always, there are other things I would like to contribute to this blog post but I am not creative enough to incorporate them into my writing without making it 80 pages long so I am going to go ahead and list some other things...

- Every morning my Dona gives me 2 pieces of bread with cafe, hot chocolate milk, water and juice.  I have never had anything different.  Lunch consists of rice, beans, chicken and sometimes pasta and on really bad days I'll get sardines mixed in pasta where I am completely unable to eat around them.  Dinner is eggs, either hard boiled or drenched in oil, with mashed platanos.

The River

- We have a really nice river near by.

-There are TONS of tarantulas where I live and they can jump six feet.

- Everyone thinks my freckles on my arms and legs are bug bites.
- For Thanksgiving, we went to a country club in the capital and had a day full of activities.  Basketball, dominoes tournament, swim relays, a big Thanksgiving dinner, happy hour, a hilarious talent show and then a dance competition.  It was sad not to be home and I missed everyone a ton...and I of course gave thanks to each and everyone of you at dinner, it took forever.  And I got robbed.
- I am really hoping to buy myself a horse or a donkey or possibly a bicycle.  My mind keeps changing but the bike is almost completely out of the running.  I just can't decide.  Horse, donkey.  Donkey, horse.  I have even made myself a pro's and con's list.  We will see.
- It is hot here.  It does get cold in the middle of the night but the days are about 85.  Caribe sol.

That is all for now.  Again, sorry for the delay.  Shoot me any questions and thanks for reading.  Love and miss you all.  And as always, thanks for sending me things, it is always a special treat!

The Caribbean Island I live on.

Thanksgiving

Booo Cubs!!!!

Donkey

Part of the women's group.  I attended their meeting I am pretty sure they spent the whole time gambling.

Some of my favorites.  Brandy, Franlin & Kikito.

Cuti in a tree.

Me with coconuts

Average day, sitting in a plastic chair, Hanging out with the kids.

Isabelita 

5. Apologies!!

Sorry I have been so bad about updating....I have not been able to get to the internet with all of the rain from the hurricane and now that I am here to update, I can not upload any pics and I have a ton of people hanging over my shoulders watching and reading (although they can not understand what I am typing) what I am writing.  So I am going to have to take a raincheck for now because I am too rushed to write about everything that is goin on in my neck of the woods.

All is well here though.  I am enjoying my site, playing a lot of dominoes and keeping my eye out for a donkey that I may be able to purchase....my whole town is making fun of me but we will see who is laughing when I am riding down the street on my donkey waving!  No rides for anyone if they keep making fun of me!

I will write a post soon once I have reliable internet and I am hoping it is some time before Thanksgiving but I have a feeling it may not be.  It will be a good one though and I will put in some pics for everyone to see!!!

Peace!! xoxo

4. My placement!!

Hola!!!

I have some news to share with you all....I found out where I'll be spending the next two years in the Dominican Republic!  I'll start by giving you a run down about how they told each of us.  This past Friday was an extremely long day.  We had spanish class, then found out our placements, and after lunch we had a test, we had to give feedback, we then had a few lectures from a current volunteer and then we had to meet with our nurse.  The day started at 8am and we did not finish until about 8pm, after our meetings we went to a volunteers house to have dinner for her birthday, it was a LONG day!  Back to our placements - the youth director, Adele, came up the mountain to tell each of us where we will be living and a brief overview of our projects.  The process was a bit nerve wracking.  There were chairs set up in a circle with one in the middle.  Whomever was in the middle was told where they will be going and each person was given two minutes to receive as much information about their site as possible.  They then put a tac on the map and the person in the middle then picked a star that had another persons name on it.  We did this for all 25 people.  I was second to last so it was a long hour waiting to have my two minutes!

Adele, the youth leader, giving placements.

Your one and only hearing her placement.

My name and site.  R is for RURAL, N is for NO PREVIOUS VOLUNTEER, 50/225 is for 50 HOMES and 225 PEOPLE!

The map w/ my tac, top left!

I am going to a place called Los Vasquez.  Below is a picture of my tac on the map but it is difficult to see, I am the white tac in the upper left corner.  Los Vasquez is in the East, I believe it is around an area called Hato Mayor.  I've tried to search for it on the computer but have not had much luck.  This is what I do know in terms of location: it is about an hour, hour and a half, North of La Romana which is on the Southern Coast.  I am about two hours from the capital, Santo Domingo and I believe I am about an hour and a half to two hours from Punta Cana which is on the East Coast.  I hear Punta Cana is a great place to vacation for all of you who are going to come visit me!!  Either way, the country is small enough so nothing is too far!  As you can see from my picture of the map (kind of), I am a little isolated from some of the other white tacs.  The white tacs are only people in my group that are also in the youth sector.  I am not sure how close I will be to another volunteer but I would guess about 30 minutes away via bike - if and when I get a bike.

Here are the few details I know about my site, I am doing a bit of speculating because as I said, we were all only given about two minutes of information.  Los Vasquez is an extremely small community which they call a "campo".  There are only 50 homes and 225 people, I keep trying to compare this number to something but I am having a difficult time.  I am thinking the town itself is a little bigger than the cul-de-sac I live on in St. Louis, it has about 40 more people than my graduating highschool class, the whole campo could fit in a SMALL lecture hall at KU and it is probably about the same size as a few of the parties we threw at my college house, 1212!  It is hard to put into perspective and I am juggling these numbers but either way, it is tiny!  I believe I am in one of the smaller placements so each volunteer will have a different experience.  My community has been promised a volunteer for three years, that is a tall order!  I can picture it now,  my community will be soooo excited for me to arrive and little do they know, the volunteer they are 

getting will barely be able to communicate with the..."hola, me llamo Libby"...silence, more silence and more silence!  It will be interesting to say the least!  Good thing I have gotten my practice with awkward situations!  Although my introduction to all 225 people in my community may be brief, I will have a big smile on my face and I know they will be so excited to have me there for the next two years!  Ok, moving on, I got the impression that my project will have a lot of opportunities to work with sports.  I was told that they really want to build a sports facility and just recently they bought land for this.  At this point I would like to share a phone conversation I had with my beloved mother when I was telling her about my placement and this newly purchased land!

Me: I guess they bought land in the past few months and I am supposed to build a sports facility or just lay a concrete slab for a basketball court or something, I don't really know...just a place for them to play soccer, volleyball and basketball or something.

My mom:  Ok great, we can do that!  Let me know when to send the brothers down - They can knock that out in a week!

Me:  Mom, I think I am supposed to build it with the community and it will take a while.  I don't think I hire a construction team or my brothers to come to the DR to knock it out in a week!

My mom:  Ok, either way, we will make your campo just perfect!

I have no doubt about this, especially with all of the support from all of you back home!  Hopefully over time I can start a sports team or two... perhaps a girls volleyball team and maybe a boys basketball team if I can gain their respect by draining a few three pointers....only time will tell and I would not put money on that happening!

Here are a few other projects that were mentioned in my two minutes: 

Escojo - Escojo is a youth group that focus' on sexual education.  Peace Corps started this years ago and it is one of the most popular projects and there is a lot of support through Peace Corps.  The point is to give informative charlas on different topics to the group in hopes to graduate all of the members and they will then become "multipliers" of the information.  Escojo is one of the few projects that recieve funding and the Peace Corps puts on both a regional and a national conference!  It is very clear that the kids here are hungry for the information.  Speaking of Escojo, our last spanish presentation was based on an Escojo charla.  My group did our presentation on gender vs. sex, we did it for our community and this past Monday we went to the highschool and presented it to the students (all in spanish)!  It was really fun and they seemed to love it!

Ok, back to my placement.  There was also brief mention of a Sala de Tarea which is sort of an after school program.  It is a chance to get a small group of children and teach and work with them using alternative ways of learning (something different than copying words off the board) by doing arts and crafts, playing games etc.
 I was also told that the first lady opened a technology center in a neighboring pueblo which may be a good place to do computer classes and of course, use the internet.  

Here are a few last details... I was told that there is a river at the edge of my campo, this makes me a bit nervous because I am thinking they may have told me this because it will be my source of water...I just hope I have a toilet, knock on wood!!!  A current volunteer also told me that they have an extremely strong dialect.  Basically she said that they will be using words that don't exist and that I will not be able to find in the dictionary.  The advice I was given was "try not to pick up the campo dialect because when and if you go back to the states and get a job where spanish is involved, people will ask where the hell you learned spanish".  Great!

So that's the news about my project site!

I am still in Constanza for training.  We have about two more weeks left here.  I leave Constanza Saturday, October 16th and go back to Santo Domingo...that Tuesday, October 19th, I go visit my project site (alone) until Sunday.  I will bring all of my belongings and move into my third host families house.  Sunday, I return to Santo Domingo and we swear in that Wednesday, October 27th and then the real deal starts!!

Here are a few odds and ends:

-It has rained everyday for the past two weeks.

Me, Sara and Claire getting ready to go out in the rain!

Sara, Me and Stacy on a bola (hitching a ride in the back of a truck) in the rain.

-My spanish class is now on our fourth teacher.  I am still struggling a bit but it is coming along slowly.  I am going to have to fend on my own soon enough so it will come! 

- Speaking of Spanish, I am also struggling with my English these days.  I think my mind is so confused it is having a tough time deciphering which language is which.   Somedays I intermix both languages, it is weird. I would guess you may be able to tell from this blog post.

-I have recieved two cards!  It was great to get something from home.  I got them right after I found my placement so it was perfect timing!  Thanks June!!!

-My group went on a hike last weekend.  We hiked up the mountain and then hiked down to a river and swam.  It was freezing!  I did take a little tumble, I think it lasted a full minute.  I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants, it was a close call!

GuaGua ride to our hike.

Sara and I at some point of the hike.

Zach, Sara and I in the river. 

Myself and some other volunteers on our hike!

-I have spoken to a few people back home and there were some questions about my address.  My address is posted on the right hand side of my blog.  The packages will be sent to this address even when I am at my permanent location so that is the one to use.  If there are any changes, I will let you all know.

-I've been helping my Dona learn English.  It is kind of refreshing because it is a good way for us to relate considering neither of us can remember or pronounce the proper words in the others first language.  I am also grateful I am learning Spanish rather than English, English has to be impossible to learn.

- The other day I was given bacon for dinner.  I was pretty excited but then I saw this spikey hair all over it.  It was awful and then I had to try to explain to my Dona that it is not her cooking, she is a great cook, I am just not very hungry etc. etc.

Lastly, I would like to wrap this up by telling you ten things that have gotten me through training (thus far):

1.)  Watching and borrowing stupid movies including:  It's Complicated, Music WIthin, French Kiss, Iron Man and Marmaduke.  I personally bought Marmaduke on itunes.  All of the volunteers gave me a lot of trouble for this but hey, It did provide me an hour or two of relaxation.  Money well spent!

2.)  Feeding/sneaking my host dogs, all four of them, my food/meals. (Spike, Ernie, Princessa and Lassie)

3.)  Taking walks to get tostados, pizza (with corn), and/or hamburgesas about once a week to have a little break from rice, beans and salami.

4.)  The other Peace Corps volunteers and my trainer.

My group, youth volunteers.

5.)  Casa de Maria - This is the woman's house down the street where we all use her wireless internet, play cards, hang out and play bananagrams.

6.)  Becoming friends with the local colmado owner.  The colmado sells everday items - bread, avacado, doritos, coke, cheetos, rum, presidente (the beer here) and crachi bars.

Me with a Presidente.

7.)  Wearing my clothes inside out.  

The reason my clothes are now being worn inside out, the blue sweatshirt (I am wearing it as I type, inside out).

8.)  My rain coat

9.)  Deodorant - the showers are freezing, I dread taking them.

10.)  Internet, speaking and hearing from my family and friends and reading the comments on my blog!  The more comments, the more motivated I am to write :)

Thanks to everyone reading!  I hope I am providing some good information, shoot me any questions or anything you all would like to know about.  Love and miss you all everyday.  Also, start getting passports and/or visas to come visit me (even if it is in a year or so), don't wait until the last minute (friends, this is directed to you)!, Mom, Dad and brothers, tell Harvey, Wilson, Norman and Larry I said hello!!  FYI -  I might get a puppy when I have my own place - nothing like adding a street dog in the mix!  

xoxoxox