una familia mejor!

Hola, hola! Greetings from El Seibo, a medium-small town in the east of the DR. Today is only our second day of CBT, but so far I’m having a great time here. My new host family is amazing. They are all (here I have a Don, a Dona, and three siblings: a 12-year-old brother, an 11-year-old sister, and a 9-year-old brother) very nice to me and very patient with my Spanish, and the kids are both hilarious and well-behaved. The kids also all say “Oh my God” in English to express frustration and it cracks me up every time. My oldest younger brother, Michael, is basically the best kid in the entire country. He told me that anytime I don't know a Spanish word, he will explain it to me, and he takes this duty very seriously.

Also, my Dona is an awesome cook and thus far has not served me any secret meat. Also, she makes me really good hot chocolate. And fresh juice. And oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins. And fried platanos. Basically, I never want to leave this host family.

Anyway, since it’s only the second day I don’t have too much else to report, but I’m highly optimistic about the next month. Besides my great family, the town itself is also lovely. Yesterday we went on a scavenger hunt to get to know the town. It’s small enough to feel safe and easy to navigate, but it’s big enough to have several restaurants/bars (including the WOW Discoteca/Restaurante, which looks fabulously cheesy and which I can’t wait to visit) and stores and stuff. Plus, there is a Helados Bon, so I can get more Yogen Fruz!

The landscape here is different and beautiful—mountains and palm trees in the same vista. Also, there’s apparently a lovely river on the edge of town. A few of my friends went down to it on their scavenger hunt and showed me pictures; I’ll have to check it out for myself when I get more free time.

Later today we’ll start our mini-internships with one of the town’s five computer labs, which should be exciting. We’re also continuing our Spanish classes, although we’ve reorganized after the move in towns. Now my class is me, Karina, and Arianna, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. Also, I have attained the prestigious level of Intermediate Mid, the bare minimum Peace Corps requires its volunteers to attain before they swear in! Basically, now I can stop learning. OK, not really.

My only concern right now is that my skin seems to be falling off. At first it was just nasty peeling from the sunburn I got on my shoulders last weekend, but now it’s starting on my legs, which weren’t even burned. It doesn’t hurt, and there’s perfectly good new skin underneath, but it’s still weird. Possibly I’m getting in touch with my inner snake?