24 hours

24 hours--that's how long i was up for new years. apparently, new years in the dominican is no joke. it all started out bright and early with a 7 am trip to the beach, and coincidentally, ended there 24 hours later. not gonna lie, i'm usually in bed by 12:02 am on new years. not this year...

first, you should know that everything here happens a bit later than in the united states. we eat lunch around 2, dinner around 9, and people stay up well past 1 am during the work week. seeing as i am usually in bed by 10 pm, the first few days were a bit rough. also, in the united states new years is customarily spent with friends. in the dominican, it's with family. after a delicious dinner around 9 pm (i am pretty sure i could live on rice and beans, which is good, cause i think i'm about to for a few more months), we headed over to an uncle's house where, no lie, 50 of our closest relatives were ringing in the new year.

upon arriving, molly and i fixed ourselves some gin and tonics (i mean, go big or go home). we gathered outside on terrace and just chatted it up (which was usually me just listening trying to understand more spanish) one thing i really love here (and there are many), is that everytime someone comes in you greet them. and not just a wave from across the room. but a proper, hello, hug, and kiss on the cheek. new years is the same--after midnight. so once the ball dropped we went around and hugged and kissed everyone wishing them a happy new year. with 50 people this took a hot minute. the plan for the evening had been to ring in the new year with the family and head out to a dance club with some cousins.since everything runs a bit later here, the plan was to leave for the club at 2 am. what to fill the time until then? karaoke.

by this time i think i'd had, um,. a few drinks and decided karaoke was a good idea. now,it hasn't been officially diagnosed, but i am pretty sure i am tone deaf (correct, cynthia?). i made a deal with diam and dorhiam (the brothers were staying with) that if i sang, they had to come dancing. they agreed (i am pretty sure cause they didn't think i was actually going to sing). i rocked out some def leppard's "pour some sugar on me" and at 2 am we were on our way to the club. brothers in hand.

we danced till 6 in the morning (cue ice-t lyrics here about 6 in the mornin). i can only merengue so could only dance to about a third of the songs. but it is so fun, even with a long black dress i kept tripping over. molly, the salsa dancing queen, was all over the dance floor. around 6 am we decided we should probably go home. clubs, actually, do close. so we headed back home. and then, of course, we kept talking. we also then decided that we probably had time to see the sunrise at the beach and headed on over to the malecon (a sidewalk running along the ocean).. apparently the rest of santo domingo had the same idea. people were at the beach lighting fire works, drag racing, playing reggaeton. the sunrise was beautiful. but we were ready for bed. for real this time.

we spent new years day with diam and dorhiam and dorhiam's son in the park. playing basektball, flying helicopters, and just hanging out. it was fantastic. of course, i don't want to leave. i like it here. i keep joking with diam and dorhiam that since i don't have a return ticket from guatemala yet i'm going to fly back through the dominican and actually be able to speak spanish and salsa dance. here's to 2012-- you've been great so far.