Helloo! Ok, so yesterday was the Carnaval for little kids. The Carnaval is a celebration in all of Febuary, where people dress up crazy, like devils or dragons or monsters, and go out into the streets whipping the ground and going in parades.. Yesterday I went to the one for kids that they had here in San Juan in one of the parks.. There were lots of kids with random costumes, masks, spider man suites, and everything.. It was funny. And of course there were lots of little boys playing with whips.. Which isnt really very safe.. Especially in crowded areas. And there´s lots of teenage boys running around with these hard balloon-like things on the ends of strings, hitting girls in their butts and backs..and yes they hit me about four times! And hard, too! And when they don´t stop, you have to run. This Friday, the 27th, is the normal Carnaval..which should be even bigger and better. But I´ll probably get hit more.. Haha. The Carnaval in La Vega, a city in the northern part of the D.R., is known to be the best in all the Carribbean, with huge parades and fairs and everything.

Sheila and me yesterday in the Carnaval for kids
Ramona, Carolina, and me..

The San Juan capital building..

El Carnaval! A typical costume.

Haha, when I try and take a picture of one person

everyone crowds in!

El Carnaval for kids, in Duarte Park

Kids playing with whips..fun!....

La Avenida - a big avenue on the north side of town

and it´s really long and has alot of these apartments

that all look the same on both sides

A rice factory!

In the campo! It´s extremely pretty there.

Normal houses in a village in the campo

It´s really pretty!

Antony, Andrina, Sahony, Jairo, Cristal

Riding in the truck on the way to the campo

From left to right Cheina, Sahony, Andrina, Jairo,

Ramona, and Cristal

Sheila, Orquidea, and me

Orquidea, Norman, and Me

Manuela and Julissa in the truck

My class! From left to right they are Norman, me, Jairo

Caroline, Ernesto, Erik, Daniel, Ramona, Cristal (in the middle)

Sahony, Emely, Cristofer, Jaciel, and Yomalsy

KC and our friends from Thailand in the AFS camp

Ramona and her house

KC and me in the camp

I got black highlights..

It´s easy to find random farm animals walking in the

streets of San Juan

the street outside Ramona´s house..to the right is

the fence to the stadium

Ah, so I was going to post pictures today but i accidentally brought the cord for my zune instead of the one for my camera. ugh. So I guess I´ll just write more.
In school, the juniors have two classes, 3ero A and 3ero B, I´m in 3ero A, and our classrooms are right next to eachother and they´re separated by walls that can be lifted up to make one big classroom. Our two grades have been arguing and we´ve kind´ve been enemies since the beginning of the year, because we wanted different class names and we wanted to do separate class activities. So today, for our last two classes, we opened the wall and had this big presentation thing, because today´s student day, and so that we could all make up the problems and be one big class again. And it started out with people reading stuff about students, what students are, and friendship, then people read poems, and then Julissa and Sheila sang a song together (they are really good singers! and they have guts to sing alone in front of about 70 people...), then more people presented and sang, two people sang the song that goes..turn around bright eyes, every single time i fall apart, (or something like that...not sure what it´s called) but in spanish..in spanish its different..mira mis ojos...yeah...and that was really good. There´s this girl Carolina in my class who´s hilarious, she was one of the ones singing it, and it was funny... Then this other girl from 3ero B sang and danced to the song Hey Now, this is what dreams are made of, in English from that Lizzie Mcguire movie hahaha and it was funny..everyone was singing along.. and every time someone finished everyone would scream and cheer as loud as they could, haha, so that was fun...
So what else can I talk about.. Oh! I learned how to drive a motorcycle. It was awesome! I´m not very good at it..but it was really fun. Kinda scary too.
Yesterday I went to Ramona´s house with Sheila and Scarley, and then we went to this restaurantish place close to there to eat...and woww, we ate soo much. It was funny..afterwards we could barely walk.
Here everyone watches soap operas (including me!..sometimes) There´s this one called Doña Barbara that I like to watch..It´s about this lady called Barbara and she owns this hacienda, and then this guy called Santos comes and moves into town, and they fall in love, but he doesnt know that Barbara´s a evil lady who kills people to get her way...and then I´m not sure what happens because i haven´t seen all of it..but this girl Maricela who lives on a hacienda, is Barbara´s daughter..because Barbara had gotten raped by the police chief, and she´s their daughter...and then somehow Santos falls in love with Maricela, and she falls in love with him (he´s like 40 and she´s 18)..and Barbara is all jealous...but Santos still stays with Barbara...but then he finds out about her lying and murdering and stuff...so he leaves her, then she´s even more mad...and Santos tries to get with Maricela, but she doesnt want to cuz before he was with her mom..and yeah it goes on from there like a soap opera..but i think its gonna end soon. Haha, my friend Ramona watches them about every night (they´re called telenovelas).
So there are lots of good Spanish rock bands...from the D.R., from Spain, from Colombia..and other parts of Latin America... I know that some people in Homer have heard of Enrique Iglesias, he sings the ping pong song...and there´s a version in Spanish too..
So i went to a basketball game the other day in the stadium. It was fun..like a normal basketball game.
Oh, so here in the D.R. the Spanish they use is alot different that in other Spanish speaking countries...for example, they take out the letter s from alot of words...like when they´re saying ´the doors´ they say la puerta instead of las puertas...and they like to add -isimo onto the ends of words..so when they´re saying ´that´s way cool!´they say ¨jevisimo!¨. and for the word thing they dont say cosa they say baina (i´m not sure how to spell it but that´s the way it sounds)
And i´m running out of time on the comp so i´ll post pics next time!

Hello!!! Wow, i can´t believe i´m already more than half way through! I´ve got alot to cover. So school started that Monday, and it´s been going pretty well. I´m understanding almost everything that goes on in my classes now. So some people were asking me about the school here... It starts at 8:00 but we all have to get there at 7:45 to line up and sing the Dominican Hymn Song as they raise the flag. Then we all go to class, we have three classes without a break, then at 10:30 we have 20 minutes to eat breakfast from the cafeteria, then we go back to class and have three more classes without breaks, then we get out at 1:15... Happy Valentines Day! ...let´s see...i´m not sure where to start. so this last weekend for valentines day almost my whole class piled in the back of a truck and drove about 20 minutes out to the campo (country side farm land) of one of the kids in my classs, in the morning at about 10. When we got there, we all put on swim suites and swam in this river. And of course everyone thought it was cold :) but it was nothing compared to swimming in Kachemak Bay. And it was super fun, and we hung out almost all day swimming and talking. For lunch, everyone brought one thing...rice and beans (moro), chicken, spaghetti, bread. pretty much what we eat every day :p And we went home and now i have a really big sunburn!
So the other weekend, i went to my friend Cristal´s 15th birthday party (she´s in my class, and she´s only 15!!!) and almost my whole class went. And i went with my friends Ramona, Julissa, and Sheila, and we got there early so we were walking around outside, and Julissa looked up at the moon and it looked cool so she told us to look at it, and right then a lunar eclipse started!!!! Which is like...amazingly good timing. The moon was only about a quarter full, but it was still really awesome to see. Then we went back to Cristal´s house...and the party was really fun. Everyone danced (including me!) regeton and merengue and techno..and they had a big cake and dinner and everything. The thing i really like about here is that people aren´t afraid to dance and talk to people who aren´t in their little group of friends, and people are open!! And what else.. oh, right, i went to another AFS camp in a little town called Bayaguana, about an hour out of Santo Domingo. It was two weeks ago..And I was going to leave on a Friday morning at 10, but at 9:45 when i went to leave my house, the gate was closed with the lock outside, so i was locked in. And my host parents were at work and didn´t answer their phones...so i ended up having to find a key to the garage and go out and get the key...
Oh and i got my packages!!!!!! finalllyyyyy!!! Thank you all so much for sending me them, they made me very happy :) ok, so i´ll have to finish this with pictures later when i have more time..
i have to go to this math practice thing for my school...there´s these math olympics in a few weeks that my math teacher invited me to haha..
Miss you all! Hope everything has been going well.