Hello again. I feel like the only thing I write about is what I did recently, but I guess that´s to be expected? If you have any questions, please post them in the comments part and I´ll use that to write about instead. =) If not, I´ll just keep writing about what I know. Right now, for example, I´ll write about my very fun weekend.

On Friday we went to Salcedo and Ojo de Agua which are the two cities associated with the Mirabel sisters. ´In the Time of the Butterflies´ by Julia Álvarez is a popular book that I read in high school that tells a mostly true version of their stories. They´re heroines who basically were the last straw in the beginning of Trujillo´s downfall. Three of the four sisters were killed in November of 1960 (Trujillo was killed in May, 1961), and the fourth sister still lives in Ojo de Agua. Unfortunately she wasn´t in town when we went to visit or apparently she would´ve talked to us. A few friends and I decided to go back to talk with Dedé because we´re so interested in meeting with her, and we know someone who knows her. There was a museum dedicated to them in Salcedo which is the house they lived in when they were killed. Their clothes were in the closets, the table was set, their books were out on their desks, and it was sort of like they would come back at any moment. It was really neat to see, but it was fairly eerie also. If you ever come to the Dominican Republic, you should read the book I mentioned above. Or there´s a movie if you´re not into reading. =)

On Saturday night I went out with my host sisters and I had an incredible time. They took me to a Mexican restaurant which was DELICIOUS for a change. To compare the two food styles, picture Dominican food often as almost Mexican food, but rather than salsa, ALWAYS substitute it for ketchup. Yeah. Gross. But there is other Dominican food that is good that isn´t full of ketchup or mayonnaise. =) After the food we rode around town in their car and they showed me more places that I hadn´t seen yet. I´m looking forward to going out with them more as it´s a great change from doing things with other Americans. I´m moderately angry, though, because they told me that they´re both going to New York for a two week vacation in the middle of October. Which leaves me with the at times (and usually) awkward host mom. But we´ll deal with that when it happens. Next Sunday I´m going to the campo (rural village) with the family. Their relatives (the mom´s family) live in Ojo de Agua apparently right next door to Dedé of the Mirabel sisters, which is where both families grew up. Small world, eh?

In a few weeks Karin is coming to visit me, which I probably couldn´t be more excited about if I tried. So we´re all busy planning things to do and what not. So if you want to send me thousands of dollars, for example, you could always try to send it to her before she left. But she might spend it. Umm.

Speaking of thousands of dollars, I was awesome this past weekend and left y ATM card somewhere, probably in the ATM after I grabbed my money. At least I didn´t leave the money in there... no, but I´m happy for modern technologies that suck the card in and eat it up.

So I´m already in the middle of another week here. I think we´re getting close to midterms because the workload is growing a little. I´m trying to upload pictures to facebook but I´m not being successful. I´ll add the link when and if I win the battle with the computer. =)

yep, here it is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2061429&l=6089f&id=15300570