Thoughts in my head

Lately I just haven't felt like blogging, which makes me sad, because I'm not ready to give it up. I used to compose blog posts in my head and couldn't wait to create my post after something fun or interesting happened. Nowadays, it feels like work.

But like I said, I'm not ready yet to stop, either, so I'm going to write a bit today and see how it feels. Apparently I've used up my photo space so I also need to decide if I'm going to start paying to get more photo space. We'll see.

Last night was the final night of Hanukkah. I'd like to post a photo, but see above...maybe soon. The last two nights, of course, were marred by the tragic news from Connecticut. I can't stop thinking about it and can't wrap my head around it. My heart and thoughts are constantly with the families.

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About two weeks ago, I moved from the Immigrant Visa unit to the American Citizens Services (ACS) unit. Here in Santo Domingo, we deal with Dominican-Americans who live or travel here frequently, as well as tourists who are here only briefly. The proximity to the US and close relationship between Dominicans and Americans mean that our unit is quite busy. I'm still learning, but so far, I'm really enjoying it. One of our main tasks is to process passport and Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) applications. When a child is born in another country to one or two American citizens, it is often, but not always, possible for the citizen to transmit U.S. citizenship to his/her child. We determine whether the citizen meets the requirements, and if so, issue the child a CRBA which states that he/she was an American citizen at birth. The best part of my job is seeing all the little babies. I'm also excited about getting out of the office and visiting our consular agencies in Punta Cana and Puerto Plata, as well as doing outreach elsewhere. ACS work has a lot more variety, and that is a welcome change.

Holiday season is always a busy time. I've barely been able to keep track of all the happy hours, kids parties, and early dismissals. Hopefully next week will be quieter.

This week, we're saying goodbye to two families who we are really going to miss. In addition, quite a few of our friends are leaving to have babies and will only return for a short time. So it feels like our community is shrinking. This is just one of the hard parts of this life. As the kids get older, they are starting to understand and feel sad about the goodbyes. But they can also understand that we will see our friends again- 1.5yrs ago, we said goodbye to many good friends from A-100, and now we're looking forward to meeting back in VA again while we all study language. This community is small, and I know we'll cross paths again.

And we are looking ahead to August 2013, when we leave post. I know these last 7 months will fly by. I'm starting to think about travel plans, and decluttering, and packing out, and what to bring where. I need to get in lots of beach time before that, though.

It's nice to write again.

Halloween 2012

We had a fabulous Halloween this year which lasted about a week! Our first trunk or treat was canceled due to Tropical Storm Sandy, so we went to the Blue Mall instead for trick or treating at the stores. It was a little scary, though, since the Big Bad Wolf came along and kept following our friend Little Red Riding Hood.

In case you couldn't identify the kids' costumes.. 

 

We went to a party that night - we each decided to match a kid. I was a rainbow, in case you couldn't tell.

Saturday was the trunk or treat, finally. It was much bigger than last year's,  and loads of fun! We did a much better job decorating our trunk this year, don't you think?

 Here is my cute guy holding the sign he made about the bowl of eyeballs we were offering! Below that's Scuba Diver Daddy letting the kids touch the eyeballs.

 And here are a few of the clever trunks we saw.

Our CLOs did a really wonderful job this year and we are grateful for this awesome community!

Cabarete and the Monkey Jungle!

We finally made it to Cabarete last weekend. It's known as the kite-surfing capital of the Caribbean and a hip, laid-back beach town. I was thrilled to find sushi and Mexican food in our condo complex, though the town is known for its beachside restaurants. We stayed in a lovely condo right on Cabarete beach, a wide, clean beach with gentle waves (last weekend, anyway). I think normally it's rougher and windier, but we lucked out.

I felt like I was in Miami Beach or Melrose Place

Yes, there is an Irish pub on the beach. I don't know why.

We got M his first boogie board, and the waves were gentle enough to allow him to play the whole time in the surf. I think he's hooked.

The highlight of our weekend was the trip to the Monkey Jungle outside of Sosua. Visitors are given a plate of fruit and nuts to feed the squirrel monkeys, who are not shy at all about stepping onto your arms and shoulders to get the food. There is also a zip line with 7 stations. The best part is that all of the proceeds go to fund the medical and dental clinics that serve hundreds of rural residents each week.

L was afraid to hold her own plate, but was enchanted by the monkeys, especially the babies clinging to their mothers' backs.

 

 After feeding the monkeys, Daddy and M tried the 4400 foot zipline. M was so brave- he didn't hesitate at all.

On our way home, we stopped for one minute at Playa Grande, outside Rio San Juan. It's listed in Lonely Planet as one of the prettiest beaches in the country, but you don't hear much about it. I wish we had stayed longer...the sand was so soft, white, and cushiony. I hope we'll be back. 

Happy Sukkot!

We celebrated Sukkot for the first time yesterday. It always seemed to creep up on me right after the High Holy Days, and so I’ve never given this lovely holiday a try. It was my friend A’s idea to build a sukkah, and we quickly volunteered our husbands for the job. They grumbled for a while, but with the addition of a new Jewish friend, S, who had always wanted to build a sukkah, they agreed.

The Festival of Sukkot is a time of rejoicing and has dual significance: historical and agricultural. It commemorates the 40 years that the Jews wandered in the desert, living in temporary shelters. It is also known as the harvest festival, similar to Thanksgiving. Jews are commanded to “dwell” in a temporary structure for seven days- which means eating, praying, and even sleeping in the sukkah if possible. The roof is supposed to be made of something that grew from the ground and was cut off. Luckily, Santo Domingo has plenty of palm fronds and other plants just waiting for us to repurpose them. Here’s my source- feel free to read more about it.

So anyway. Our three families got together yesterday along with some other invited guests. It was hotter and more humid than usual, so the kids ran around spraying each other with water bottles while the dream construction team got to work. The women folk had slaved away in the kitchen earlier, so we created paper chains in the air conditioning. 

The guys did a terrific job creating the structure. Next, it was time to decorate. Our friend N had the great idea of hanging plastic fruit in our sukkah, which is preferable to fresh fruit in this tropical heat. The kids took turns hanging their chosen fruit. We hung some pictures and paper chains and called it a day. There were harvesty foods to eat!

The Dream Team

And 'dwell' in it we did!

It was an exhausting and terrific day. And as my husband pointed out last night when I complained of exhaustion, I didn’t even do any construction. A big thank you to our hosts (another B family) as well as all the friends who joined us. I am grateful for our Jewish community here in Santo Domingo! I can’t believe I helped build a sukkah this year. Of all the things I didn’t expect to do in the DR!

(oh, and by the way…our Sukkah may be violating some rule or another – there are so many- but please, just don’t tell us…)

Tropical Storm Isaac

Tropical Storm Isaac blew in on Friday, bringing strong winds and lots of rain, but luckily mostly not at the same time. The strongest winds were on Friday, while Saturday we were hit with intense rain and subsequent flooding of roads and overflowing of rivers.

We did our best to prepare, stocking up on food and water (of which we always have ample supply, actually), taping the most vulnerable windows, and filling the bathtub and basins with water. Then we hunkered down and spent the time cooking and surfing the internet, ironically. Our building's generator(s) is pretty reliable and I often don't even notice when the power goes off and the generator switches on. So we were really lucky.

But outside my privileged world, it was a different story.

The media is reporting a few deaths, 25,000 displaced people, 5,000 destroyed homes, and 116 communities cut off from the rest of the country due to washed out roads or bridges.

It's not the worst this country has seen, and I think everyone is glad about that. But that fact is no comfort to the people who lost everything. Isaac wreaked havoc in Haiti and is now heading toward the Gulf Coast. My thoughts are with that region now, feeling grateful that we were spared great devastation and hoping the same for everyone else.

London 2012 in photos

Here are a few photos from my time in London.

The city was all decked out for the Olympics

My coworker and I spent a weekend day jumping on and off the big red bus...it was awesome.

The Olympic mascot was all over town in different getups.

I got a kick out of the different colored Olympics BMWs which were everywhere.

I may have spent half of my per diem in the Team USA shop.

One of the two free events I was able to see

From the London Eye

The London Eye is pretty amazing

One of my favorite photos- from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics exhibition

One of my favorite moments- having a drink on a sunny afternoon with my sweetie

Waiting for the women's marathon in the rain

It was a great trip, and I'm pretty sure any future TDY will have a lot to live up to. Maybe I have time to learn Russian so I can go to Sochi.