Vamos a la Playa!!!

As many of you know, this past weekend I experienced my first Tropical Storm in the DR. My school had a retreat planned, and guess what we did...we went to the beach!! (hahahaha...) Saturday morning we woke up and it was pouring rain outside. We packed up a little reluctantly and called the director to try and convince him not to go to the beach during a tropical storm. It sounded a little dangerous and not very fun at all. He told us that we had plans and we were sticking to it, so we drove to the coast. Part way through our trip there it stopped raining, and where we were it didn't rain for the rest of the weekend (though it apparently rained in Santiago the entire time). Moral of the story...when there is a tropical storm, no worries...drive towards it! (I'm kidding ofcourse.)

The weekend was lovely. The beach we went to is called Cabarete, and it was absolutely beautiful! We swam in the ocean, went shopping at some shops, and then a few of us went horseback riding on the beach. It was so much fun to see the beauty of the island and laugh a lot with some of my new friends. Afterwards we ate dinner on the beach and then had devotions and praise and worship with the entire faculty. Sunday we went to church, ate authentic Dominican food (rice, beans, pork, and coffee), and went back to bask in the sun and play in the ocean! It was a really relaxing weekend to calm our minds before school actually got started.

For those of you who were worried about me during the tropical storm, thanks for your concern but I was clearly pretty unaffected! I did hear that there was flooding in some parts of the country, but I understand that because of where Santiago is located, it is usually fairly untouched by the storms that pass through. I hope all is well with you back home!