Jardin Botanico, etc.

Yesterday, was a very good day.  I actually got out to see more of the city, took my first public car, went out for lunch, experienced Nacional (my new favorite market) and a new treat (which I keep forgetting the name of), and went to the Botanical Gardens.

We went to an open air restaurant for lunch, I guess Pavol and Andrew eat here often at lunch since their office is close by.  Following lunch was when Maria introduced me to the awesome treat (when I ask her again what it is, I will be sure to remember and post it).  It is coconut, molasses, ginger and such - very sweet and very good!

We caught a taxi from Nacional to take us to the Botanical Gardens.  Pavol insisted that we weren't foreigners so that we got the cheaper rate.  (locals: RD$ 50, foreigners US$ 5 - I'll leave you to figure out how much more it is for foreigners...)

A few highlights from the gardens was the little train, that when we had to go uphill, would go really fast, like really fast (I didn't even know those little trains could go that fast!)  Here's Andrew and Daniel, unimpressed that they got stuck near the speaker...

The train made a quick stop at the Japanese Gardens.  They were quite nice - and we got to see a tortuga (turtle)!

Back at the front, we saw the museum portion, which was... alright... nothing exciting really.

For the party last night, Andrew realized that they hadn't rented chairs yet, so we did some searching and calling and finally found someone who was open that we could get some chairs from.  We headed back to Nacional to pick up more groceries.  I bought some cheap Vodka to help with getting the sweaty smell (gross, I know, but a fact of life here) out of my clothes (thanks Gail for letting me know that trick).

So last night was the African Party.  Andrew and his cousin were cooking up some delicious food, including a chicken coconut curry (for which I need to get the recipe).  There were quite a few people here - probably close to 30 at the height of the party.  I got to meet a few new people which was nice.  I found it odd how we were able to have very loud music filling the neighbourhood and no one complained and the police didn't come, etc.  We had it going until 2:30am...  But this seems to be quite normal here.  In addition, after our party started, there was more music being played from the construction site next door (I'm not really sure who is in there as the building isn't finished) but that went on until nearly 6am, so I had a lot of problems getting any amount of sleep.  Because of that, I was going to go out to the Colonial Zone today, but instead decided to try to get a lot of sleep.  I managed to get some, but I'm still feeling very run-down.  And getting sick is the last thing I want to do while I am here.  Of course, being tired makes me more emotional, and makes the homesickness even worse.  It's definitely been a rough few days emotionally.  However, I am trying to remain positive and to remember that the culture shock and the homesickness are all a natural part of the experience and that every day will get better.

For the rest of the day, I plan on doing nothing.  Maybe go to Nacional to pick up some more stuff, although I need to find out if it is open on Sunday.

In other good news, apparently, since the DR doesn't use daylight savings time, I am now only 2 hours ahead of most all of you back home!  Exciting!