gallos y dominoes

hola amigos!
much has happened in the last couple of weeks, and i´ll try to give a life recap. first, that last mailing address i posted was a big fat lie. if any letters were sent, chances are it could reach me, but i´ll post the new one soon...i´m an idiot and forgot it in my house. no recuerdo.
so! somehow the gods have blessed me with a peace corps placement in the DR. today Aaron Williams, the Country Director of the Peace Corps, came to training and talked to us. it was amazing. he served in the Dominican Republic and his wife is Dominican, so this was his first stop on his Peace Corps country tours. this sounds so dorky, but it was rather inspirational to hear him talk. he got us all so excited and really kind of reaffirmed that i´m doing exactly what i want to do. he told us PCDR is one of the best Peace Corps operations in THE WORLD! i wonder if he always says that...i really need to start bringing my camera with me places...but other volunteers have it documented.
life has been crazy. training is nuts. 8 to 5 every day learning peace corps jazz, development jazz, and language jazz. hey rachel, remember when i rated my spanish speaking ability on a scale of 1 to 10? 1 meaning i know very little spanish and 10 being i know all of spanish? well i was right. i know 7 of spanish. and cada dia es mejor, o mi Doña me dice. My Doña is my host momma. she loves me. i´m pretty sure because i have straight hair, or at least that´s what she tells me. she thinks it´s magic. Doña´s here rule the streets. meaning they run the family. they rarely tend to have a husband anymore, which is really sad. big big problem here, el machismo. but anyway, if you need anything, just find a Doña and she´ll lay down the law.i don´t know if i´m making any sense right now but im going to continue on.
i still get giddy here when i make dominican friends. they´ve all been so freaking nice. i´m kind of on a peace corps high right now... just wait a few months i´m sure i´ll be in hysteria when i realize i have to venture out on my own...vamos a ver. the other day i met a bunch of people in my neighborhood randomly and stopped and hung out on the porch with them for a couple of hours. this girl, Esmerelda, just walked up to me and started talking to me and invited me to hang out with her family. she was like 13. i kind of felt like the most popular girl at school befriended me. like molly nye in 8th grade decided i was cool. or i imagine that´s what it would feel like, anyway. shes probably the most charismatic pre teen ive ever met, but i went to her house and she and her friends taught me how to dance to the sweet4est song EVER here, Pepe. and then her mom showed me how to put a tubi in my hair. Tubis are how dominican women straighten their hair. they like wrap all of their hair around their head and pin it up so it´s like a hat of hair. and they all just walk around like that. or with huge curlers in. i looked pretty sweet. i´ve also gotten to know my next door neighbors really well. this weekend they took me to their relatives house. i have no idea how many people live in this ¨house¨ because there are so many people running around, so i´d say anywhere between 4 and 10 people live their. it was much more....slum like? i dont really know how to describe it. it was not as nice as where i live, to say the least. no paved roads, dirt floors in houses, roosters all over. my neighbor is going to take me to a cock fight, i can´t wait. i´m probably going to hate it...but it´s just something i have to do. anyway, we played dominoes for hours, i was sweating buckets sitting in the sun, but i´m getting a lot better at dominoes. the dominicans think so freaking fast though! it´s so hard. kids here must be really good at adding...my Doña and her family are all really nice to me and patient when we play. i don´t know these dominican people might know what´s up. maybe there´s never electricity or water but they´re all always together, compartiendo (sharing--sitting outside talking), playing dominoes, playing baseball, dancing. they know how to have a good time. the other night all of the volunteers went to THE CAR WASH. the car wash is an actual car wash, which over time has developed into like an outdoor night club because people would all listen to music and drink and dance while they got their cars washed. the car wash is pretty crazay. we had much fun. we also went to another volunteer´s doñas birthday party the other night which was awesome. they just blast music in the street and dance. i really need to work on my merengue skills...
on thursday this week i go to visit a volunteer on my own. i can´t wait. she lives like 4 hours or maybe further from here. i have to take a guagua (bus) and a motoconcho (motorcycle taxi) to get there. it´s going to be awesome. i´m not to worried about using the public transportation alone, peace corps has really held our hands through that. it´s been a lot easier than chile when i just kind of had to hit the ground screaming, trying not to die on the micro. the peace corps training is kind of like having an abroad program on crack. they´re really pressing fast forward on the whole assimilation process...but i can´t wait to get out on my own.

alright i´m off! besos abrazos les quiero mucho! i hope i didn´t say anything bad in this cause i´m not going to re read it over.