back in the DR

i'm back in the DR after a (cold) week in boston. i got a chance to see many of our friends, which was great. i met some of the kids who'd been born while we were away - eve, riley, and theo. they were all very cute. i drove down our street in the south end - the apartment is still there. i bought some clothes and books - 2 things that are tough to buy here. i ate some different foods i missed - sushi, bagels, lamb, etc. my stomach was not happy there though for some reason. you'd think going back to first world foods and hygiene would be fine - go figure...

during the trip, i had some profound and not so profound thoughts.

as i was flying over the DR on my way up to boston, i could not help but notice how little of the DR is actually developed. there's a large amount of coastline that is completely undeveloped and nowhere near any kind of town. when you look close along some areas of the coastline, you notice that there are not even any roads leading to the coast. amazing.

our flight approach into boston was over nantucket and then up cape cod bay and along the massachusetts coastline. as i looked out at the lights of the towns, it struck me how small of an area we have been living in. veronica and i basically spend most of our time in and between the 2 towns of cabarete and sosua. this is about a 7 mile by 1 mile span of area. i was trying to visualize that against the massachusetts coastline. it really brought home what a tiny place we have been living in for the past 9-12 months.

ok, now for some slightly stupid observations made while in boston.... the toilet seat is REALLY cold in the middle of the night when it's winter time! the tap water is also REALLY cold! here in the DR, we do not have such great fluctations in the temperature of the tap water. not only is it nice not to have your hands freeze when you clean them, but also when we have no hot water, you can still manage to take a shower.

while in boston, i missed not having one of those DR moments - like when something happens that you shake your head at or just get a chuckle out of. i was quickly given one of those moments upon return. check out this picture. it is of a banana bunch on one of the trees in our condo complex. looks like someone has been taking bananas that they shouldn't. the sign is from our maintenance guy. apparently, he thinks the bananas are his and wants to make sure the looting stops...



so, hey mom, good thing you didn't get caught trying to take any of these bananas, as you wanted to do! ;-) (by the way, the other banana bunch on a different tree is still there. this bunch is over by the laundry room.)