I think I have the best job in the world. This past weekend the neighborhood comittee- junta de vecinos- had a fundraiser for chairs and tables. What did they do to fundraise? Put the whole community on a bus for $150 pesos and went to the beach for the whole day! By far the best fundraiser I have ever been to.

The best part about it was that we got to have some quality bonding time with our community members, which makes it all the harder to leave on Sunday. They are already starting to tear up when they talk about me laeving on Sunday, and I am really goign to miss all of them as well. They keep asking me when I will come back to visit, but sadly I have no clue when I can since I still don´t know where I will be placed for the next two years and how far away from them it will be.

Don´t worry everyone, I took lots of pictures of the beach and I am sure one day I will put up the pictures of me and my Dominican family!

I think I have the best job in the world. This past weekend the neighborhood comittee- junta de vecinos- had a fundraiser for chairs and tables. What did they do to fundraise? Put the whole community on a bus for $150 pesos and went to the beach for the whole day! By far the best fundraiser I have ever been to.

The best part about it was that we got to have some quality bonding time with our community members, which makes it all the harder to leave on Sunday. They are already starting to tear up when they talk about me laeving on Sunday, and I am really goign to miss all of them as well. They keep asking me when I will come back to visit, but sadly I have no clue when I can since I still don´t know where I will be placed for the next two years and how far away from them it will be.

Don´t worry everyone, I took lots of pictures of the beach and I am sure one day I will put up the pictures of me and my Dominican family!

I am currently living with an older couple in the country side. The Don -man of the household- is completely deaf. When I was talking to the Dona about how my parents are also hard of hearing she looked at me completely shocked. ¨But your parents are young,¨she said, ¨the Don is 101!¨ I couldn´t believe it. I mean I knew he was old, but 101!?

That officially makes him the oldest man I have ever met in my life. And every morning he gets up at 5 am and goes out on the farm with his machete to cut down plants and take care of the land! After asking around there are quite a few people in the area who have surpasses the 100 year mark.

I, of course, had to investigate more into this phenomenon. Do Dominicans know the secret to long life? Is the fountain of youth actual here? Did Ponce de Leon go to far North searching for it?

I decided to ask my technical trainer. He informed all of us that the tranquil lifestyle and less stress working environments probably to contribute to longer life spans. He also said that for a lot of the older people they don´t actually know the year of their birth, so they might be 100, or they might actually be 90. The margin of error is probably about 15 years.

Whatever the case is, my Don is old and still healthy and working hard. He has also become one of my favorite family members, even though he is almost completly deaf and I am sure has no clue why this American girl is living with them. He is a very sweet man and talks to me regardless if I don´t understand and if he can´t hear.

Didn´t mother always say never ride on a motorcycle with a strange man? Well sorry mom, but that is how I get around in the DR!

They are called moto conchos, and it is like a cheaper taxi service available here in the DR. Almost everyone needs to take a moto concho, because the bus routes don´t go everywhere us PCVs need to go.

Not going to lie, I´m a bit of a whimp. So when it came to riding on the back of a motorcycle I was terrified! After the first few rides I realized its not so bad afterall. Only a few more rides and I am sure I will be fearless!

Safety does, of course, come first. The PC issued us all our personal helmets, and if we are found not using them we get the big BOOT- no exceptions.

I know everyone was waiting for news about a Dominican boyfriend.... so here it is.

I do have an admirer, but it is a frog. Every night for the past few nights the same frog enters my room, we still don´t know from where, plants himself on the wall near my bed, and watches me sleep from outside my mosquito net. To say the least I absolutly LOVE that mosquito net! By the time I wake up he is always gone, but has returned every night thus far.

So there we go, my Dominican boyfriend. All of the Americans have told me to kiss it and maybe it will turn into a prince, but I´m not kissing any frogs. The Dominican kids I live with don´t seem to know the story, so it looks like we will have to have some fairy tale sharing tonight!

I am currently half way done training! Yay!!! Things are going great and I am really getting close with the family I am staying with here in the campo. I am currently staying with an older couple who own a farm. Two of their sons live right next door, which has been great for me because their grandkids also live with them and have been great! The grandkids have taught me dominos, how to dance, kept me company, taught me dominican songs, and shared so many great stories! It is definitly going to be hard to say good bye to them and they are already planning my return visits--FYI family they want to meet you all.

In other news, training has certainly kept me busy and I´ve been learning a lot about the local businesses, culture, and of course as always trying to improve my language. This past week we got to visit chocolate factories, go to some ecotourism sites--including the 27 charcos or waterfalls which I highly reccommend to those who are into adventure tourism-- and have been attending local community meetings. We have even been so integrated into the community that we were invited to the community fundraiser activity to participate in a museum trip.

For all of those who think the idea of me climbing up a waterfall and then jumping off a giant rock is ridiculously funny...well you are right. I fall when I walk, so lets just say I definitely was the person who struggled the most with the physical aspect of the waterfalls. However, it was beautiful and I highly recommend it, especially to those who are into adventure or eco tourism.

Also, for those of you who are wondering, I still do not know where I will be placed for my 2 years of service or who I will be working with, but I will know by the end of October and will be sure to keep everyone updated!

Contrary to what I am sure most people think, I am not always at the beach! In fact, I have only been to the beach once, and it was only for a few hours. The first two weeks here I didn´t even see water, and I was in a port city (and when I did see th water that was there it was so unimaginably polluted and covered in trash that my heart broke)! When I did go to the beach it was very pretty and the water was clear and warm, but that is not my daily reality.

I have been in the dirty, hot capital. I have been to the hot, gossip filled, animals running wild country. I have bathed in rivers and with buckets. I have gone to bed at 8 because there is no electricity and what else am I going to do? What I have not done is gone to the beach every day and sat out in the sun.

I am sure those days will come. After the demanding training is over, once I am established in my community, 6 months from now I will be able to take a few days vacation at the beach and enjoy the clear caribbean waters. But for now, I will just have to keep reminding myself that I am on an island, even if I don´t see water for weeks.

In the US I do not have good hair. It is thin, greasy, limp, without body, sometimes different colors. I have never been praised for my hair in the US, in fact it has always been quite the opposite.

So imagine my suprise when people come up to me here just to say ¨God bless your hair.¨ Apparently here I have ¨pelo bueno¨or good hair, and people are absolutly amazed by it. The 8 year old granddaughter of my Doña constantly tries to touch and play with my hair. They are amazed that I don´t have to straighten it, or that I wash it every day, or that it dries fast and without curls, or that I don´t use gel.

I do have to admit, that it is kind of a relief being in such a humid and hot country and not having to worry about frizz. So I guess for the first time in my life I actually like my hair, and other people seem to as well.

YES!!!

Despite what my Placement Officer told me about how I am going to have to eat meat, I have not eaten meat yet, and have had no problems with being a vegetarian.

Sadly, I have kind of eaten meat....well a type of meat anyways. In about everything I eat I get a healthy dose of ants. They are everywhere! In between the creases of the bread, in every plate I have received, on every glass I pick up. I even got bitten on the lip by one when I went to drink something!

So as long as you don´t count the accidental ants that I am eating, yes I am still a vegetarian.

I am now at CBT(Community Based Training) in a VERY small town in the middle of the mountains called Los Claveles. I am now officially in the campo (country) and suprisingly it is a breath of fresh air. Still often without electricity, no phone service, no internet, bucket showers....but it is somehow so much better than living in the capital.

There is less trash, the people are all very nice, and I live on a mountain with an amazing view. I don´t think it really hit me as to how much I´m in the country until a donkey ate my homework. I had to do a mini community diagnostic with a group of two other volunteers. It was a LOT of work, and in the end I was really proud of our results. We had to use old fashion posterboard paper and markers to do the presentation. So picture this...us on the floor surrounded with markers and paper, a very strong wind blowng everything away and us constantly trying to catch the pieces of paper, a group of about 15 kids from the town hovering over us, talking about us, and ¨helping¨ us. It was at times well, frustrating. So after I finished one of my presentations I put it off to the side, and while I was starting the next one the wind blew it away without me noticing. By the time I did notice, the donkey had already devoured half of it.

That was when it hit me......I am in the country, and that was freaking hilarious.

Other country oddities... the chickens and turkeys run in and out of the house, we are the most talked about thing in the whole area, we have our own fan club of young boys who follow us around and try to confess their love for us, and gossip spreads fast.

I have 4 more weeks here so my internet usage will be very limited and my phone signal is non existant, but I miss you all and I am having a great time!

So I have mentioned the Doñas a few times so far in my blog and I am sure some of you are wondering what the hell a Doña actually is.

The term Don (for male) and Doña (for female) come from the Spanish term for someone who owns land or their house and is the owner of their own property. In the DR the terms are used more common than in other Spanish speaking countries I have visited which used Señor or Señora.

So far from what I have come to understand, the Doñas here are some powerful women. They are typically older women who are the mothers/grandmothers of the family and these women are well respected. Apparently if you want to get something done, or if you have a problem, or if you need to meet someone, you go to a Doña. They even told us that in order to make sure we are safe in our communities we need to befriend the Doñas!

Of course, being the feminist that I am, I am all about Doña power! I have even seen it in action. In my previous host family in Santo Domingo, my Doña was young, but a force to be reckoned with. I have to go now, but I will be telling many stories later.

So for the past few days I have been sick. High fever, achy body, minor soar throat, tired all the time. The worst part about being sick here? Having a 102 fever when it is 95 and there is no electricity (which means no fan)! The best part about being sick here (if there is a best part about being sick)? Having the best health care I have ever had in my whole life.

While I am here I have two doctors on call all the time, a hospital that can take me at anytime with very nice rooms, access to a lab that can do any test, and its all for FREE! Within about 10 hours of my fever I was having tests done in a lab and being driven around in an air-conditioned car.

So what did I have? Well it was most likely strep, but the results are not in until tomorrow and since I feel better will be leaving today for my at site training--in the middle of nowhere. I was given antibiotics right away, and according to initial blood screening they know it was some sort of an infection (probably strep knowing my track record even though I got those evil tonsils out).

It could have also been Dengue! Dengue is one of the two diseases carried by mosquitoes here, the other one being Malaria. While we take pills and sleep under mosquito nets for Malaria, the only prevention for Dengue is bug spray. In fact about 1/3 of all volunteers in the DR get Dengue while in service! When Aaron Williams came he told us he had Dengue three times! Cheers to tons of bug spray!

In the DR there are tarantulas! So far since I have been here I have seen one alive, and one dead. These things a HUGE, hairy, and really creepy. The worst part of it all is that they bite and they JUMP as high as 6 feet!

So what am I supposed to do when I see one? Run away. That's right, the advice they gave us was to simply get as far away as possible and then call one of the Donas (I will explain what that is later) to help us!

I will be sure to take a picture as soon as I can find another one!

I am sure that many of you are wondering how I shower if there is no running water and oftentimes no electricity. In short, I shower with buckets. There are large containers, covered so mosquitoes don’t breed in them, placed by another large bucket, next to that large bucket, a small container to pour water on my head and the rest of my body. Although the water is cold, it actually feels great after sweating all day in the hot sun! It is cold in the beginning, but after the first few drops it stops being so torturous and starts being enjoyable. The only thing is it takes me forever to get the shampoo out of my hair!

One of the good things about it being so hot here is that is very normal for people to take two, even three showers a day! And we all know how much I love my showers!

Yesterday Aaron Williams came to visit us at our training and talk with us, after he met with the Vice President of the DR of course! For those of you who don’t know who Aaron Williams is, he is the new director of the PC, appointed recently by Obama.

So why did he come to visit the PC in the DR you ask? Aaron Williams was a former PC Volunteer in the DR and while in his service he married a country native! His speech was by far the most motivational part of my training thus far. He talked to us about what he wants to do with the PC, and how he wants to change it and grow it. Apparently out of the 14,000 applications only 4,000 positions were available for the past entrance, which makes me feel really good about my resume! I can only hope that he will be able to grow the PC as he promised and make the application promise slightly better than what I went through!

So far I have come across many creepy crawly things: lizards, mosquitoes, cockroaches the size of mice, giant butterflies (which to me are creepy crawly things), weird bugs and insects. These things are to be expected in a tropical climate but the thing that scares me the worse is worms….

In our medical handbook there is a whole section on the possibility of getting different types of disgusting worms. The kinds of worms that live in your lungs and then you cough them up, swallow them back into your stomach, pass them through the intestines, scratch your ass, then pass them back into the lungs and stomach. GROSS!

Of course I am going to avoid these things as much as possible, so I have stopped biting my nails and am taking all precautions as much as possible. Wish me luck!

Here electricity comes and goes, but this is intentionally. Each neighborhood has a designated time in which they are given electricity. Where I live, in Los Cocos, we have electricity from 11am to about 3pm, and then from about 7pm to….well I don’t know until when because I am always asleep by 9! The hours work out for me because at night I get to watch my favorite telenovela, which I will talk more about later.

Unfortunately, I am currently left without any electricity. The other night a cable fell and cut out electricity completely. Sparks were flying and the cable was just there hanging loose. Apparently this is not uncommon, and according to my Doña oftentimes people do a poor job so that you will have to pay them to fix it. She told me a story about an electrician who came to install electricity a couple years ago and how he intentionally used a bad cable, which then of course broke. When they called him he said that they needed a 20 foot cable and that he had one and would sell it to them and then they could pay him again for fixing what he didn’t do right the first time. You got to admit it, as a business strategy it is pretty ingenious, cruel and immoral, but ingenious.

My first day was exhausting. We had staging (training before leaving the country which now seemed kind of pointless) until about 8:00PM and then they gave us $120.00 for food, so of course we went to an expensive restaurant. From there I had to repack my bag so I could prepare a small backpack for my first night without my suitcase, as requested at staging. I got a half hour of sleep and from there left for the airport at 2:30am! The flight didn't leave until 7:35am, but as we learned it takes a very long time to get so many people through an airport.

I arrived in Santo Domingo with a few hours of sleep that I got on the plane, and they took us directly to a church that had rooms (maybe it used to be or still is a convent). We went through some more training information, ate dinner, got some shots and wonderful nightmare causing malaria pills, and then went to bed. From the very first night we had to sleep with mosquito nets, which will continue from now until I leave. I actually enjoy the mosquito nets a lot. Not only do they keep out mosquitoes, but they also keep out lizards, spiders, cockroaches, and anything else you don’t want in your bed with you. The following day we went to the training center, which is absolutely beautiful, and had a whole day of more information and training sessions. At the end of training we were picked up by our Doñas and taken to meet our new families…….which I will talk more about soon.

I am a procrastinator. I procrastinate meals, phone calls, meetings, papers, work, school work, replying to emails and messages; hell, I've even procrastinated writing this blog entry. Combine this wonderful personality trait with one week left before I leave, four days of which will be spent at the beach, and I find myself in a dangerous situation.

This brings me to the golden rule of procrastination: The more daunting the task the more time spent procrastinating. For me, the two are exponentially related. Cube the time it should take me to complete the task and you will come up with the time I will actually spend procrastinating. So you figure packing two suitcases for the duration of 27 months that combined weigh under 80 lbs should take about five hours...well cube that to 125 hours and you've got the time I've been wasting procrastinating. 125 hours = 5 days......yep sounds about right.

Right about now my procrastination expiration time is approaching, and it couldn't come at a better time. I am leaving in a week. Shit.

Before I being the packing process I must start the final stage of procrastination: the list making. Here is the list of things I am bringing. ANY suggestions are welcomed.

Solar Shower (to give me hot showers)Crank-powered flashlight/AM FM radio/phone chargercomputer with new computer case and computer lock

day pack backpacktwo pairs nice jeansthree pairs dress pantstwo weeks supply of socks and underwearsandalsdress shoeshigh heelswater shoessneakersfour button down shirtsfive or six business casual shirtstwo pairs exercise pants, 4 t-shirts

rain jacket

pull over jacketmoney beltquick dry towelearplugswater bottle

baseball capumbrellawallettoothbrush, toothpaste, retainer, floss

tamponssoap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, lotion, makeup

medicationsscissorscan openerhairbrush, bobby pins

mp3 playersheettupperwarefinancial and staging paperwork3 skirts or dressesplastic bagstravel alarm clockcamerabatteriessewing kitsunglassesusb driverazorOkay, so that might be too much. Please help!!

I was a Resident Assistant (RA) on and off for four years at Northeastern University. During this time I became accustomed to many of the hardships that come along with the RA position including but not limited to: being on the job 24/7, being a public role model, dealing with "gray area" situations, being a "fish in a fish bowl, " learning new vernacular in the form of acronyms, having no say in where I live, not getting paid, and going through a massive amount of training.

Now I realize, after sifting through all of the expectations and schedules that the Peace Corps has given me, I am pretty much faced with two more glorious years as an RA. Mind you, this is not necessarily a bad thing. I did pretty good as an RA, made tons of friends, enjoyed the challenges, and I've been living that lifestyle for so long now that maybe it will make the PC transition easier.

So here is how the two positions compare. In the Peace Corps I am: on the job 24/7, a public role model who cannot drink or smoke in public, assigned a vague job title that involves 'flexibility,' "a fish in a fish bowl," learning new vernacular in the form of the Dominican dialect, having no say in where I live, not getting paid, and going through an even more massive amount of training (3 months in fact).

I can only hope that I will enjoy the Peace Corps just as much and make just as many great friends.

I found this in my teaching materials and decided to share it with all of my teacher friends who are as dorky as me. A lovely poem done by George Bernard Shaw.

Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners

I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough?

Others may stumble but not you

On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through.

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,

To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird,

And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -

For goodness sake don't call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat

(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not a moth in mother

Nor both in bother, broth in brother,

And here is not a match for there

Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,

Just look them up - and goose and choose,

And cork and work and card and ward,

And font and front and word and sword,

And do and go and thwart and cart -

Come, come, I've hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive.

I'd mastered it when I was five.

Before leaving for the Peace Corps I have two online classes to work on. The first is getting my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate and the second is Rosetta Stone in Spanish. The Rosetta Stone was given to me for free by the Peace Corps in an experiment to see if the program works and if they should give it to future PC Volunteers prior to service.

I signed up for the free Rosetta Stone trial out of part curiosity, part sizing up my competition. After all....keep your enemies closer. If Rosetta Stone actually works as well as they promise then it would be my competition as a language teacher, the whole reason for me taking the TEFL Certificate program.

So is it as good as they promise? Should I really be concerned? Can Rosetta Stone replace all language teachers and put me out of a job?

I have been teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL, ESL, ELL....whatever they decide to call it this week) on and off for about four years now. I like it, and beyond that I found it's something I'm fairly good at. Although it may not pay as well as working for a multinational corporation (my Master's degree was in International Business), it gives plenty of opportunities for traveling and living abroad. In a online community for ESL jobs I've seen postings for teaching in Chile, Mexico, Spain, Italy, China, and Korea, among others.

So I began my Rosetta Stone experience weary of its abilities yet still somewhat hopeful that it would improve my Spanish. What did I find? Rosetta Stone did not help me at all. Reading a novel, talking to my friends, writing to old friends, even studying an advanced grammar book in Spanish would have been a better usage of my time. For advanced levels of Spanish, Rosetta Stone lacks a real challenge. At the advanced level of language learning production of language and exposure to advanced sentence structures is much more useful than "He throws the ball to her." (El le tira la pelota a ella.) Even at level 5 of Rosetta Stone, the program has such predictable exercises that I can answer the questions without reading.

What I do see is how Rosetta Stone can help beginners. The program contains the vocabulary, repetition, picture representation, speaking, listening, reading, and writing exercises necessary to learn the basics of a language. Despite this, there is no way that a person can reach fluency with the program, for that you need immersion and a trained language teacher who constantly challenges you in the areas you need.

In short, language teachers do not worry. Our jobs are safe.

Although grammar may be something of a hobby of mine, words are not. My vocabulary is embarrassingly limited and my spelling atrocious! (Just to prove this point I used both a dictionary and a thesaurus to write that sentence.) So for the verbally challenged such as myself I will explain the title of my blog.

The word ramble has several different meanings

1) walk, stroll, wander, able, saunter, roam....

2) digress, to go off on a tangent

Feeling in a particularly punny mood the other day I decided to use the word ramble for its descriptive qualities of both travel and communication. Thus....Expedition Ramble.

The byline "An Internet Account of an Itinerant" I cannot take credit for. The word itinerant means traveling, nomadic, roaming....and was brought to my attention by one of my two friends whom I consider to be walking dictionaries, Shane Lloyd. The other walking dictionary? Sobaika Mirza. If I ever write a book these are the two people I would want editing it.

For years now I have been opposed to blogging. But just like my battle to resist the MP3 player, my inner battle between modesty and blogging is over. RIP modesty....another one bites the dust.

Modern technology 2 --- Adria's Modesty 1

(I consider my continued reluctance against Twitter to be a victory on my part.)

It isn't that I think poorly of blogs, or even bloggers for that matter, its that I simply don't get it. I don't get who would want to read what I have to say. Even more so, I don't get who reads ALL those blogs! I mean really, there are a LOT of blogs out there. Does anyone even know what the proportion of bloggers (writers) to blogees (readers) is? It seems obserd that so many people are writing to....well....no one! I mean who actually reads these things? It's beyond obserd even....it's.....well it's narcissistic!

To think that I have anything to say that other people want to read is narcissism at its best. Not to say that all bloggers are narcissists, but I am not a specalist on any of the topics I will be discussing, nor I am a journalist, hell I am not even a well respected professional. To me blogs done by commonfolk like myself are online journals or diaries, at their worst, and online editorials, at their best.

What I do get is the hypocrisy of everything I just said. I just blogged about how I don't like blogs. That is extremely hypocritical, and I get that. So I guess the only thing I have left to explain now is how exactly I succumbed to the blogging world and how I hopefully can justify my own apparent narcissism. Thus, I leave you with my reasons for blogging. Judge me as you will (I know I have).

Reason #1: I need to write a journal.

In about a month's time I will be serving in the Peace Corps in the beautiful country of the Dominican Republic. In the past when I have traveled, I always regretted not keeping a journal. Sometimes I would start one, but I could never keep it up. As a result I have an abundance of blank-paged books with only about ten pages of written information. I am hoping that in keeping my thoughts on the internet I will a) lessen the amount of journals I carry, and b) have a devoted circle of friends and family memebers who will force me to keep up with the writing.

Reason #2: I type faster than I handwrite.

I know it seems like a simplistic, almost pathetic excuse for creating a blog, but I will attempt to validate it nonetheless. My hand hurts after writing for so long. On top of that, my mind thinks much faster than my hand could ever document. Therefore, typing is a better medium in which to express my thoughts.

Reason #3: I need to practice writing.

I just finished my Master's degree. I took almost no time off between my Bachlor's degree and my Master's program. This is the first time since I was 4 that I have not been in school. Keeping in mind the old adage, "If you don't use it, you lose it," this is a scary thought. I like to write, and over the many years of my education I like to think that I have gotten quite good at it. Writting is one skill I do not wish to lose. So I will use this as my practice, and as such I expect anyone who actually reads this to keep me on my toes!

Reason #4: My friends and my family (erm Mom) have requested updates.

And here it is, my final reason which I hope will justify my blog and erase the shame of being a self-labeled narcissist. I am writing this blog for the completely selfless reason of putting my close friends and family members at ease while I live abroad for the next 27 months (insert angel face with halo here). I know what you are thinking, "But Adria, can't an email do the same thing? Why don't you just write an email?" And to you ponderous reader I say, "NO!" I am horrible at keeping up via email, and writing one email to evey person in my life takes a lot of time. Not that I don't think you all aren't worth it, you definitely are, but that my time on the internet may be limited in the DR and thus a mass media update serves me the best.

With that judge me as you will: narcissist, hypocrit, both, selfless angel who only wants to put her mother at ease....whatever. I wrote my first blog and it is too late to turn back now.