a few highlights

• On Tuesday we exited the office after a long day of work, only to have the night watchman tell us Alla hay un carro en fuego!. Joel and I looked at each other and said, "Um, did he just tell us there's a car on fire?" The watchman confirmed, and further clarified that it was the white one across the street. We headed over to watch the car burn for awhile, then stepped back when the fire truck arrived. It did not smell pleasant.
  
• Later, we went to the American Sports Bar, an establishment favored by Peace Corps volunteers for its proximity to the PC Office, its low prices, and large number of televisions showing American sports. We discovered that it has been decorated for Halloween, a holiday which is not tradionally celebrated by the DR. The American Sports Bar is apparently overcompensating, and it was just... absurdly decorated. Orange and black balloons, spiders & bats hanging down every 6 inches, giant inflatable pumpkins, cats, and spiders... and this is all in a kind of seedy bar with its own betting parlor. In the Dominican Republic.
  
• Wednesday, I splurged at the grocery store on some Double-Stuf Oreos. Somehow the six of us devoured the entire package in a couple hours, despite repeated protestations that "I'm not even hungry, they're just so creamy!"
  
• Overheard when Joel was talking on the phone to his family: "We're really busy... we get here around 9am, take lunch around 1pm, then an ice cream break around 4..." (It is true that we are busy. But it is also true that we aim for a daily ice cream break, thus making this more awesome than the average 9-5 [or 9-8].)
  
• Friday was Joel's birthday, so we went out for Italian food and gelato. We started talking about the newest Batman movie, Dark Knight. If you haven't seen this film, you need to know that Batman speaks with a weird low, growly voice, and the Joker has scars around his mouth that he continually licks. So as we were eating our gelato, I started being Batman and Joel started being Joker:
  Joel: (Licks lips)
  Me: (Growly Batman voice) Do you... do you want some gelato?
  Joel: (Licks lips)
  Me: It looks like you want some gelato. Here... we can share.
  Then the next day at the office we started using the Batman voice (being the only girl left in the office, my Batman voice is less impressive than Joel and Bobby's, but I try), especially to make the most mundane requests or statements.
  Joel (normal voice): Hey, how do I change this to black and white?
  Me (Batman voice): Click Image, Mode, Grayscale.
  
  Joel (Batman voice): I need to find a good image of Hannah Montana for this article.
  I literally laughed until I cried about three times.
  

So we've been having some good times as we work our 10 hours a day on the Grita. It's a lot of work, which is a nice change from being in my site. Plus there is the sense of bonding and shared delusionality from being in the same office with a group of people for this long. We're hoping to finish up tomorrow and get back to site. (Bobby, as editor-in-chief, has to stick around until it's completely finished, but by Monday we should be done enough that the rest of us can go home.)