I had no idea it could rain so much… Okay I did but I must say it was not something that I thought or planned on, but rain it did! For 5 of our first 6 days in Mexico, Amanda and I spend our days wading through flooded streets, dodging storm clouds, and trying to figure out what to do with our bored and restless bodies.
Looking at the forecast when we arrived
and realized we only had 2 days of
possible sunshine so we took advantage and
sunbathed at the villa
First night out to see our friends at Love
We dropped in on Mrs Rebecca, we decided NOT
to call ahead and mortify her (she hates
not having a plan and not being fully put
together) but she was still ready with some cheese
cake to serve us :)
Campi and Bailey... yes she is about 1/2 of
her size, so itzy!
Why wouldn't you have a rooster in your
home...?? Totally normal scene in Mexico :)
We were able to go out and meet up with friends, enjoyed dinners catching up with lives, had time to work on our own tasks (school, work, painting nails) etc and so by June 6th when Thaidra joined us, we were super thrilled because we finally got to see her but in addition the sun came out!!!!!! We picked up T dawg and headed straight to the beach on the other side of the island.
We hopped on the bikes whenever possible, we are in
theory a bike gang.... not to start any rumors, but.....
Dont mess with us.
Life was feeling complete and happy, there are a few of our girls we were missing of course (Shara who was busy on a safari in Africa, Melissa who is working working working this summer, Taylor who was busy in a textile factory in Italy… life is hard sometimes). Mexico was mostly a relaxing rebooting time for myself to get back to my basic to sort through emotions and exhaustion from life. I know I have no room to talk about exhaustion (I realize I should have been a teacher rather than quitting each summer) but I must say I have been blessed to make some very good friends and develop connections that I am able to afford this time off and rebooting time!!
Food food and food!!!
A highlight from saturday was that I had a brazilian wax done. I have a list of 28 things to do before turning 28 and this was one on the list… So i gritted my teeth and winced for about 20 min lol
Monday was enjoyable and eventful, Thaidra and I took the ferry over to Playa Del Carmen and then bussed to a natural water park called Xel-ha. It was such a fun adventure that we were very happy we decided to do.
Ferry ride over, Thaidra and I sweaty beasts after our
6 min run from dropping off my luggage at the
Hostel and trying to make it to our bus on time... and I in
my full adventure attire ready for a day of fun!
There was snorkeling, bike riding, lazy river floating, a rope bridge (that we conquered), cliff jumping, zip lining, hammocks that were a big bonus at the end of the day, and the best part: the food!! It was available as buffet style all day…. and it was AWESOME!
That night I stayed in PDC in a Hostel (another one of my to do's for the year), it was called The Yak, it was very cute. I was in a dorm style room with bunk beds, the 2 couples in my room were both from Jerusalem and I came to find out that most the people staying there were from somewhere in Israel. I had a late night dinner in town and crashed for the night.
Hostel: This green shooting star was what I saw when
I rolled over to go to sleep... seriously people lol lol I know
Josh Smith and Shara Reimann will truly appreciate
this ;) The upstairs lounge area which I skyped from
and I did a early morning workout on the beach and
what wonderful surprise did I find...?? The guy was
able to demonstrate that Speedos indeed can be too tight....
Next day I headed out from Cancun on a 21 hour trip to Dominican Republic. When I booked the flight, this didn't seem so bad…… however about 9 hrs into the trip when I was laying on the floor of JFK I changed my mind and decided that it was all bad. Seriously I was so miserable and uncomfortable. I did have time to catch up on missed shows on Hulu, watch the finale of The Office, and read half of my book; I still wouldn't do it again!! I finally met up with Justin and Donnie in Puerto Plata and all things were okay again! We had a lovely afternoon nap and were new human beings by the evening ;)
This trip had been planned since New Years Eve, we 3 wanted to have another rendezvous trip but somewhere warmer than Boston/NYC in January so the DR was a perfect place for that. Going back to Cabarete felt like I was home. I did a lot of self discovery and recovery last year when I was there serving the people and reflecting on my own thoughts/beliefs and so to me Cabarete will always have a very special place in my heart.
Along Calle uno away from our sweet little homestead
We were able to stay in the same place as last year and many of the people I had spent time with last year were still around, very blessed. The north of the island is a dream. The white beaches, the blue skies, the green rolling mountains. Seriously a dream. Walking up and down the uneven, pot holed, trash littered streets made my heart soar in such a weird nostalgic way… I hadn't realized how happy my heart was. We hit the beach hard on Thursday and then went out dancing that night.
Friday evening we went to a Crossfit class which kicked our butts and made me realize I need to put more work in ha So from there we tried to make sure we balanced our eating with a workout...
We went and explored some more beaches, most everyday we ate at a restaurant LAX on the beach, they had 2 for 1 specials for meals and really good pizza/pasta options, YUM!!!
Playa Secreta... (cant think of the name but it is a hidden
beach that only locals usually go to but
it is so beautiful and quite)
Riding in the gua-gua to the beach
LAX right on the beach
Our favorite local place Lois Parilla, absolutely
deliciosa!!!!
We got the opportunity to paint houses with the Providing Opportunity foundation. They have spent 2 years helping one of the most desolate neighborhoods (barrio blanco) in the area to get out of their metal shack homes with out running water or plumbing into homes that have cement foundations above the flooding levels. This is similar to Habitat for humanity except for the majority of the work is done by the people in the barrio. If a person wants to have a home built for their family then they must help build other homes first; any person able to do manual labor in the family has to put the work in. Last year when I last saw the barrio there were 18 homes built and they thought they would be done, however on my flight there I met a lady who was going back to do jewelry classes with the people in the barrio and she told me they had received more money and were able to build 30 homes!!
Jacob was suppose to come and visit for a week, however he realized that last minute his passport was expired and was not able to make it down :( it was a major bummer since I was looking forward to time with him and mostly wanted him to have a fun experience… but no matter how I was bummed, I realized he was 10 times more than me....
This new open schedule gave me time to review and think about some options I have been looking into for my next ventures… I have thought of a few options:
1- Go to school and get my NP in women's health so that I can put myself in a position to better serve women who need support and help.
2- Volunteer to serve with Peace corp, I spoke with many people who loved their experience and recommend it to anyone who even thinks about it.
3- Move back to DC and take a managing position at my old job…. All options would be great and a step forward for me, however I am still trying to figure out which would be the best for me overall. Anyway the week gave me time to think it through and try to make plans.
Random pics of us out and about with some of our friends
new and old :)
Sadly Donnie left us on Thursday, it took us a day or so to recover from her leaving us, she is awesome! Saturday we had a chance to go to Sabaneta, a neighboring area where we went to help do a survey with the youth about AIDs/HIV to help develop better prevention of spreading the disease. The program running this is called Deportes para la Vida (Sports for life) which helps develop activities and opportunity for the community and educating to help decrease the infection rate. Sadly the island of Hispanola (island of Haiti/DR) has the fastest growing rate of HIV spreading world wide, its tragic and the main things that is not being done is educating how the spread happens.
Red Cross clinic
On Sunday Justin and I escaped to our favorite beach, Playa Grande. They have done a project to the beach and revamped it, the buildings are so cute and the area is so nice. The water was perfect, the beach fantastic, and the sunshine was blazing!
I haven't been to Hawaii but Justin tells me these beaches
are better than some of the ones over in Hawaii
The whole beach area has been revamped and commercialized,
normally I would hate this but it is so cute that I
can't even be mad at it!
Creepy van we rode back on, loving the curtains!
Monday night was a big night for me, I knocked another goal off my list… I am way way way too shy to sing in public but always thought karaoke would be fun, so I coaxed Justin into singing some songs with me and we sang: Grease Summer Nights, Beyonce/Sean Paul Baby Boy, and R-Kelly Remix to Ignition…. Even with his great voice next to me I was nervous but hey, I got it done lol Don't know that I will be so nervous if I try it again, okay I prob will but at least I know I will be halfway okay doing it!
Its never fun to have it be your last day on a trip. My flight was booked to leave out of Santiago for price reasons so we rented a car to take me. Justin and I went to Sosua beach and then headed into the big city. Along the way we were cruising and there was a bird in the middle of the road, we honked and it didn't do what birds usually do aka fly up… it walked in front of the passenger tire…. bird feathers went spraying everywhere… new road kill ;( it was not funny at all but we had a laughing fit for a few good minutes. We had dinner at TGIF (over priced compared to the $3-4 meals we had been eating) and then went to see Superman in the theaters. (I was so tired I fell asleep 2 times in the movie) My flight out of Santiago was great because I think there was a whole 14 people on the plane and I had my own row to sleep :) My layover in JFK now has 6 hrs left... I could have jumped on a earlier flight but my sister is picking me up in LA and she won't be there until 3pm sooooo its wait here or wait there. I spent the past hour sitting on the floor of the Hudson News finishing the end of the book "And the Mountains Echoed" (I had been reading Justin's copy but didn't get to finish the last 78 pages, so I found a copy and camped out there) The employees just worked around me and didn't once ask me what I was doing on the floor ha ha I have a big plan to snatch up some Shake Shack before I hop on my 6 hr flight to the other side of the states :) I am going to have lots of family time this next week which is going to be overwhelming I am sure but such a fun time as well!! There is going to be 7 of us 9 kids together with all their spouses and kiddos as well... talk about a party!!
The rest of the summer is to be decided... I am suppose to go to Boston on 2/7/13 for the 4th of July party and then to Mexico on the 8th for all of July!! But when you have no work and a few commitments, life can be flexible and change by the day :)
****I wrote 99.9% of this post on June 26th when I was flying to California. The last 4 sentences were edited since my brother David Taylors' wedding didn't happen. Its been a tough and emotional roller coaster since I wrote this but as repeated time and time again, family is crucial to survival. I ended up driving home with my family (including David) to Utah for the Fourth of July and spending even more time with my family! We did a party with my older brother John called the Cul-de-sac of Fire and went to water parks and hiking. A great bonus was that Jacob bought a last minute ticket out to Utah and joined in on the family fun and chaos! Anyway my July update will come soon with pictures and all, but til then you can put a push pin on your map and mark me in Oklahoma city, Oklahoma :)
