Day 3

OK, where were we? The next day, a few more people began to show up and the group started to take shape a bit more. A guy named Joe, also going back to a senior year at Dartmouth, got in that evening. I suppose this is a good time to mention that over half of the people here are female, which is nice on the one hand, but hanging out with a bunch of chicks all day can be tiresome. One needs someone with which to discuss important things such as Ben Wallace signing with the Bulls and also someone to watch Zinedine Zidane do one of the most boneheaded things I've ever seen in a championship event. We decided it was the equivalent of charging the mound in the 9th inning of the 7th game of the World Series with the game still undecided, among other things. But I digress.

The rest of Thursday was pretty similar to Wednesday: getting further acclimated to the town and country, sitting around talking, and of course being hot. By this point I think I've somewhat adjusted to the climate, but it was tough initially.

By Friday, almost everyone had arrived, including the 20 or so people from BYU. The BYU kids are all very nice and friendly, but the contrasts between them and the rest of us (what I call the heathens or other such things) provide for some interesting interactions and discussions.

Anyway, Friday night included our first trip down to the beach restaurants and bars. There are some pretty nice places down there to eat and drink, but if you know how to do it right you can have a night out on the town very cheaply. There are a lot of 2 for 1 dinner specials, 2 for 1 happy hours, and also less upscale places to eat and drink. I enjoy a place called Sandro's for dinner because you can have a basic chicken, rice, and beans meal for less than $4 including tip. Another thing to consider is that the bars all spill out onto the beach and have tables on the beach and people trapsing back and forth all over the place. So its possible to buy a cheap Presidente (the national beer) or a cuba libre (rum & coke) and walk up and down the beach or meet your friends at a table somewhere.

So my first taste of the nightlife was pretty sucessful, if uneventful. Uneventful is probably a good thing as it means everyone had fun and also got home safely. The main strip is a generally safe place, but one just needs to be a little more careful than during the day and not walk alone in any dark areas of the beach.

Alright, I'll pick it up at Sat. and also keep summarizing a lot more because, as you can see, there's a lot of repetativeness to my days here. You don't need to read, and I don't want to write, about every trip to the beach or even every day in camp when I get to that point. Basically it's going to eventually be when I have something different or interesting to write about.

Thanks for the comments, keep them coming. Also feel free to send me e-mails. To answer a question, the typical Dominican greeting is hola, or buenas dias (nothing to special). I haven't come across anything distinctively Dominican at this point.

Hasta Luego.