I touched a fish!

My life is amazing...I mean really. Besides the sunburn I got today down the left side of my body, my life is pretty much perfect!

I ate breakfast this morning on our back patio, right on the beach, looking out to the ocean and the waving palm trees. Then, I walked the short distance to the pool at our apartment complex and took in some sun while reading. After an hour of blissful reading, we all walked to the nearby grocery store.  I broke down and bought some peanut butter--who am I kidding!? I wouldn't have made it the entire three months without my staple! :) A little runnier than what you'd find in the states, but I have to attribute that to the perpetually 80+ degree weather. It still makes a delicious PB&J!

While we waited for the other guys to finish their shopping, Carlos and I order some chicken nuggets and fries from the "sports bar" next door. We recognized the french fries, but the "chicken nuggets" we ordered were far from it! Rather, they were little dollups of deep-fried cream-of-chicken soup. A little nervous to ask what these squishy/crisp things were made of, we dipped them in lots of ketchup and ate them anyway.

After our lunch "adventure," we dropped our groceries off at the apartment and went on a walk down the beach.  We saw one wedding, a few dogs, and plenty of men sportin' Speedos. Carlos also introduced me to his Haitian friend, Kasim. Kasim moved here to the DR after the big eathquake in Haiti. Now he lives here by himself while trying to make money by bringing tourists off the beach to go on a Pirate ship excursion/cruise. He speaks French, Creole, English, and now Spanish, all while wearing a Baltimore Ravens hat :) We had a fun time chatting with him while we walked on the beach. I also talked with another "vendor" who was trying to sell us a ride on a banana boat. I said no to the banana boat ride, but I took the opportunity to ask him where he goes grocery shopping (because the little store we go to by all the fancy resorts is WAY too expensive). He then told me the name of the store where the locals go and where we can jump on a bus to get there! Yay! Rather than paying $15-$20 for a taxi ride, we'll only have to pay about 75 cents! (I'll keep you posted on that adventure.)

Further down the beach, as we were heading back to the apartment, we passed a couple of guys who were cleaning fish. I had seen them earlier when we passed by, but there were swarms of tourists around them. As we walked past this time, all the spectators were gone. So I asked if we could take some pictures. I then started chatting with them about how they catch the fish. The older of the two men told me that they catch them with spears. He asked if Carlos could swim and when he said yes, he offered to take us on an "excursion" to teach us how to spear fish! Haha! Wouldn't that be neat!? He told me to touch one of the fish...yeah...with all their guts hanging out and everything. Apparently I made a weird face at this offer because he told me kindly that the fish were already dead. So I knelt down and picked one up, to which Carlos nearly threw up. Needless to say, he made me wash my hands multiple times when we got back to the apartment! As I placed the slimey fish back in the stack, our new fishermen friends asked how old I was. When they refused to guess and I told them that I'm 26, they laughed and told me that I was lying. Apparently Carlos and I only look 19 :)

Those are today's highlights! Oh yeah, and I learned how to dance merengue (some of the resort workers were teaching the vacationers).

Until next time!