Life without Jill (hecgkckghck) and other things...

Pachi, in my glasses. :)

I realize Marsia should be writing this, but she has her head in a book and I feel we need to reach out to our followers, NOW! I know she'll join me when she's done, but for now, suffice to say that she managed beautifully without me, but did miss having a personal Spanish translator.

Alfredo; MARsia and Random Baby #1; and Chanel, her new love

When I finally caught back up with her, I was amazed at how much Spanish she had actually learned this past week. She says she still cannot form a sentence, but is putting two words together now, and getting her ideas across. She has so many new words for the day, but is especially proud that she can say, "tu quieres jugar tarjetas?" or "do you want to play cards?". The things you learn with a 5 year old. She has actually fallen for this very cute, bright little girl, and has decided may want to have one child, (only dominican at this point), only from the ages of 4-6 yrs old, and who speaks only Spanish. Maybe only 4 days a week. Hey..... its progress. What was really funny is that I found several pictures of her holding babies, in bed with babies, etc. I'm coming to the realization she really does like children, she just puts up her tough facade.

Marsia aslo got to experience local live television when Rosa Lee and El Grupo Lee performed on an afternoon "talkshow". The show featured a local business owner, a real estate agent, Rosa Lee y El Grupo Lee, "la diabla", the devil stripper. Yes.... that's right. A stripper featured on a talkshow. Noticed the men lined up to catch a peek. They must be attracted to yellow hair and eyebrows. I believe they were all employees of the station. After the show, she went backstage and congratulated the group on an excellent performance. Luisa then had her "photo session" with Marsia as the photographer. And Rosy, and Sandy, and herself. Really anyone that was willing. She loves her photos! (Sorry, Luisa!)

We had the funniest taxi driver ever the other day. He was trying to flirt with Marsia...but had to do so through me, which made for lots of laughs. Dominicans cannot pronounce Marsia's name for whatever reason, so she is know to most as MAR sia. Before we ran out of gas in the taxi, our driver (Lievi) was working on my name. The best he could do was hecgkckghck (sounds a little like when you're going to cough something up. I believe it's a plus here that you negotiate your taxi fee before you get in because you never know what's going to happen to your vehicle. We tought him "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" when were going 7 miles an hour down the freeway into town. Here's MARsia doing a little driving of her own.

One little tidbit of info we forgot to mention before, while we were shopping for our Thanksgiving feast, we encountered a makeshift "salon" in the produce/meat department. Short cubicle style walls were put up, water tanks were brought in, and shampoo bowls and helmet hair dryers were running consistently. Dirty dyed rinse water was leaking under the walls and was beginning to pool by the frozen food bins. Is there a health department violation here? Tena?? Nick?? Extensions, weaves, weekly washings, and rollers were all taking place for bypassers to enjoy as they stocked up on squash and yucca root. At least we are playing estetician in the privacy of our bedroom, not at the supermarket. But who knows? Maybe we can start a new trend. I'd like it to be in the bread section though. It seems more tranquil.

Well, we are off to Boca Chica and will not be taking the laptop so you'll have to survive without the blogs for 4 or 5 days. But it should make for some entertaining stories when we return. Ciao for now!

Saying of the Day: O EH O EH Pan! Not sure the translation, but Pan is bread and it's what the street bread vendor yells several times a day when he passes.