Thursday, January 20, 2011

School Days


Hannah began Montessori School in January.  Her school, Abriendo Camino, is run by our church and located next door to our apartment.  After our visitors left in January, I frantically procured the requisite school uniform, sport uniform, lunchbox (in pink of course), 2x2 pictures, etc.  Hannah’s first day of school was easier for her than me.  Our little girl is growing up!  
School is 100% in Spanish.  Every morning she pledges allegiance to the Dominican flag.  Her teacher says she works hard but barely talks (very unlike our daughter).  Sometimes when the teacher addresses her (in Spanish), Hannah just shakes her head and waves her away.  When she arrives home from school, all of her pent-up frustration spills out as she runs around the house, talking (often yelling) inappropriately loud.  She’s been in school barely 2 months and it will take time to adjust.  
However, each morning she is excited about going to school - minus the uniform.  If the world were hers to command, she’d wear only cute dresses and change at least 4 times a day.  Khaki uniform pants are for boys.  We now refer to them as “gold” pants which for some reason makes them more tolerable in her 2-year old mind - and this way they match her cute gold shoes.  

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The New Commute


Our former apartment was conveniently located on the subway line (which is shockingly modern, clean, and functional - best subway I’ve ridden).  Thus, we spent little time taking Santo Domingo’s more common modes of public transportation:  the carro público (public cars) and the gua gua (public vans and buses).  
Our new apartment requires 2 public cars to the office and at least 1 to return home.  While they’re nothing to look at and the comfort factor is low, I am a fan of public transport here.  It’s incredibly easy and cheap.  Once you figure out the routes (discerned only by talking with the drivers or locals in-the-know), wow.  You wave your hand and voila, cars (or gua guas) stop to pick you up.  They likewise drop you off wherever requested.  All for 25 pesos (70 cents).
The downsides include no windows, doors that usually only open from the outside (thus having no windows is quite handy), and the fact that they stuff 7 people into an old Toyota Corolla:  4 in back and 2 in front plus the driver.    The picture above is the carro público line-up where we hop a car to get to work each morning.  A line-manager (note the guy holding the umbrella) loads car after car with 6 passengers and then off you go.  Cool!