Dominican Fun Times

That was an amazingly awesome trip. SO MUCH FUN! In the pictures you can see from the top:

1. The girls chewing on sugar cane, you don't eat it, you just chew it and so much juicy sweetness comes out!

2.The boys pretending to be sharks when we went to swim with sharks and sting rays.

3.The girls pretending to eat the coco plant. Usually when a coco plant is ripe is goes from green to yellow and then to red.

4. This is when we went on an outback safari through the country side. There is hardly any pollution, the air is so pure and clean, our tour guide told us that although the dominican people who live in the country may be poor, none of them ever go hungry because of the wealth of food.

5. The girls before supper one day. I'm showing off my t-shirt from the outback safari.

6. Taking a horseback riding break. And if you read my previous post, this break was very much needed for me. We are chewing on fresh coconut.

7. A section of the resort we stayed at. You can see our rooms, we stayed on the third floor in the top left hand corner.

8. Erika, Marla, and Kylie wiped out from boogie boarding. It's pretty intense.

9. Marla, Erika, Steph, and I.

10. All 13 of us at the sharks and sting rays tour.

the dominican is a great place....Happy Mothers day mom!

Happy mothers day mausha! This is a picture from Steph and I´s balcony of the day it rained! Tuesday. The rain was really cool, I got very burned on monday so I have been just putting on TONS of sunscreen these past few days. This is everything that a tropical vacation should be and everything that I dreamed it would be. It is the vacation of my dreams. Steve and I went kayacking today on the ocean! there was coral reef sticking out of the white breakers and we almost tipped over! It was so scary! hitting the coral reef would have really hurt! Thank goodness we didn´t tip over......then the resort has these entertainment people who got us to play this game for some prizes, Steph won, but she didn´t want the half hour massage, so she gave it to me! now I am the happiest girl in dominican! tomorrow I am going to try for the 5th time to get my legs tanned! but its been close to impossible to get any kind of tan or burn going on there.....It´s like the whitness refelcts the light back. Take that sun. This past week I also went and snorkeling the coral reef which was pretty neat, so beautiful, so many crazy fish, also during that trip we went swimming with sharks (nurse sharks) and sting rays. Nurse sharks are not dangerous, so it was scary cause they were right there swimming right beneath us! Last night we went for a sunset horseback ride along the beach....believe me it sounds 100% more romantic than it really was! But that was still fun, I am VERY sore from that trip... mostly because my horse loved to straight out run and my stirrups stretched out longer than my legs, so I was only holding on to the saddle without a handle. When that is the only thing you are holding onto...it is soooo impossible to pull on the reigns....to say the least I was a little stressed and a little sore from all the bumping. So when we went back after a much needed break, I very sneakely said that a different horse was the horse that I rode there and had a much more pleasant ride back home! sneaky I know, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Happy mothers day mom! I love you soooooo much! I tried to call collect but you weren´t home! So sad. Happy mothers day anyway! Tonight is the spanish buffet....not too sure what is going to be different about this one compared to Mexican and Dominican food night.....the best one so far has been bbq night.....although I have been quite adventourous in my food these days....rabbit, duck, and goat have been the different kinds of meat I have tried. And there is alot of mystery food here.....the desserts are kinda questionable......I never know what is actually going to be ok with my stomach... Most people here are not too sick....but there has been some considerable talk about the runs.....but it has been an incredible time so far, this week the plans are to go on a dominican country side safari, and to santo domingo the first place that columbus apparently landed in all of north, central, and south america! love you all!

today I'm leaving for a tropical vacation!

hey everyone. guess what! I'm going to the dominican republic today! na na na na boo boo! Well technically I leave at 12:30am saturday morning, but I have to be ready to go today! I have everything packed except for:

1. 1 pair of flip flops (perferably white...that sun is hot!)

2. ziploc bags to put my shampoo and conditioner and all other liquids in

3. my toothbrush - because I want to use it before I go

4. and I think I need more american money than originally planned, so I gotta get that yet...

5. and canadian money because unfortunatly we have two stops in canada before we actually leave for the dominican.

Other exciting things!:

1. one of the girls is fully moved in and living in my new house, I helped another girl move in over the weekend, although she wants to still sleep at home rather than in the new house. I think people don't really want to sleep there alone. So anyway, our house finally looks like a home and it's so exciting!

2. I set my cousin on a date with one of steve's roomates! I heard from both sides.....and both sides said that they had a good time! In the words of him: "It went really well" and her words "we got along great" sooooooo, is love in the air? well, when I get back from the dominican I will blog about whether or not he actually phoned her.....and whether or not she agreed for a second date!!!!

3. I know this is lame, but the rain is making everything soooooo

green and pretty and I can't wait to come back and see everything

in full bloom and thick in foliage!

4. Christine got a tan! ha ha, I'm just kidding christine! She does have a rather fair complexion, and in her words "Jess, I've never been this brown before!" So I'm excited to see that! I wish I could put a picture up of her, but I don't have any of her super dark!

5. Nothing is for sure yet, but I'm pretty sure I have a job at a group home so this is good. Money is good.

All this excitment is just too much for one person! ha ha......

Anyway, blog you all in a couple of weeks! Adios!

p.s. this blog took me soooooo long to write because of the pictures! AUGH!

resumes, cleaning, & shopping

Ok, so I have less than 2 weeks until the dominican and I am going job hunting today! I'm printing out a few resumes and I dressed up wearing a blue shirt and matching skirt. I am also wearing these cute open-toed summery shoes with white flowers which is exciting because I can switch from the winter-looking business professional black and grey look to more summery-happy but still professsional clothes. My resume is soooooo awesome because I worked hard on it and Steve helped a little bit too. He took a course at the UofA on how to do a resume, so I pretty much have a genius helping me. I kinda want to work with old people, but I seriously don't know what is going to happen today and what is going to strike my fancy. I'm just going to apply everywhere and see what I get. But I'm crossing my fingers for old people.

Every night for the past few nights I have been going over to my future house and cleaning it. There is so much work that needs to be done...last night we did yard work and I cleaned the very dirty bathroom and it is looking soooooo good! Our yard is way nicer than the boy's yard! ha ha. We have young kids living on either side of us and little tiny dogs living on either side of our future home. Our house is probably the least distinguishable house on the whole street! It is so boring! Just that stucko with crushed beer bottles all over it! The funny thing is that on the inside it's a carnival! The walls are all different colors and we have miss-matched everythings because we have so many donations from the grandparents and relatives of my house mates. Everything is very exciting!

Last week the girls, a.k.a. the "womenican of dominican", went out shopping for sundresses and beach attire. It was pretty fun. I picked up some good stuff, makes me way more excited to go now! Yesterday Steve and I went shopping for some more beach attire and the funny thing is that we have these matching hats and shoes.....we are going to be such dorks but that's ok! Marla, if you read this, you have to keep this quiet...you are the only one who reads this out of the fellow travelers and we wanted to keep it secret!

feeling just awesome

ok, so christine's wedding was probably one of the best days of my life. Words can't even describe....pictures will be posted later. Not only did I have a good time but it was also the most entertaining wedding I have ever been to! And cozy too! And just awesome. Just awesome. Today me and Steve did nothing. Actually that's not true, this morning I wrote a final exam which I did poorly on, I will be satisfied with a D- because that class is the worst ever. Then I visited Steve and we went to the volkswagon dealership - yes I'm interested in a new car, I don't know how this all works but I want to learn more, I finally spent some of my christmas gift certificates at West Ed and visited the new H&M! I think it has resonable prices and lives up to it's hype, especially the women's clothing. Anyway, after that I just watched tv and had a nap! Homework is all done, classes are all done, I only have one final exam in psychology, I did good in it so it won't be hard! I'm feeling very good. very very great! now I have to get a job for two weeks.....because after that I'm going to the Dominican!

wedding fever

ha ha ha, this picture is funny. This is going to be us tomorrow minus the fact that these people are a different race! I am soooooooooo excited for christine's wedding! like really excited. I don't know if I have ever in my life been this excited for a wedding. I mean, it's kinda weird. I think about it all the time. I'm pumped to wear my bridesmaid dress. I always think, I can't wait for christine to walk down the aisle (is that how you spell that?) I'm going to bawl my eyes out! I also can't wait for the dance, for picture taking, for feeling comfortable with the people I am with, unlike the last bridesmaid experience that I had. So anyway, for all those attending this event, if you see me looking like I'm about to burst with joy out of my seams, I seriously am that happy. I'm so happy for christine and glen, I'm happy to party and dance, and not to mention today is the last day of school and tomorrow will be a great day to celebrate it. I also get to look pretty all day! ah, what more can I ask for?

I've got the wedding day jitters, but I'm not getting married

This post is just for christine! you have GOT to write at least one blog before your wedding day! You just gotta! It only has to be a sentence about how you are excited and busy! Please?????? We wanna know!