Mmm Mmm Better

Not only was this week wayyy better than the first week of school, it overall was a great one for me personally. I have started to realize how much I love my roomies (no worries, I still miss you Kati :) ) and am starting to recognize the relationships I am building whether it is through my favorite village Chichigua, playing basketball with Sili, or hanging out with the few Dominican friends I have made through my roommates. There are moments that I just sit and laugh and think what in the world am I doing here...when my big tour bus almost goes off the road, a kid bites my hand in the classroom as I am trying to take him outside, the roomies and I get stuck on a two lane highway in political traffic as the car is overheating/we have to turn it off/some man is yelling at us in English as we are yelling back at him in Spanish...but then there are those moments where I look over at Memo, and he is copying what I am doing or just runs over and gives me a big hug, or when I see Sili smiling and laughing while we are playing basketball, and even just sitting in the park with some of my closest friends here eating ice cream and talking for a couple of hours. The small things here can make me so happy to be here and remind me why I am doing what I am doing. Saturday seemed like a long day to me especially after the whole traffic episode, and on the way to dinner we were all riding in the car quietly when all of a sudden Johan (one of my Dominican friends/my neighbor) starts rapping in Spanish about me, Cara, and Ashley. I laughed so hard, and in a way it was a little reminder from the Lord to just chill out and have fun. So that is my lil bit for last week. Oh and one more thing...

I will never bee scared again where I live. My upstairs third floor neighbor Will is pretty much a bodyguard for us girls on the first floor. I have heard about him from my roommates, but I did not meet him until Friday. When he walked through the door of our apartment, I felt like my jaw was going to drop to the floor. As you have probably already guessed, he is a very, very big man. His arms are full of muscle, and he is super tall. Let's just say, he is proud of himself and admitted to us he is trying to be the biggest man in our town of Montellano. He started to tell us several stories about fights he has gotten into or people he has beat up. Some guy stole 1000 pesos from the man he is paid to watch, and Will snatched the money out of his hands and well, you can use your imagination on what happened after. Now you might think 1000 pesos is a lot but this is a mere 30 bucks. I could go on with other stories, but I'll leave you with this fun fact...He at one point was a bodyguard for Vin Diesel and possibly Robert De Niro. All this to say, if anyone ever tries to do anything to me in this town, I will not only scream, I will scream as loud as I can "Willll!" and will know that even if he is 30 miles away, he will hear me and come to my rescue. Only thing is...I feel bad for that person on the opposite end :).