Día 25

Unlike Friday, Saturday was "blog-worthy!"

We got up around 9 on Saturday and wanted to head to La Zona Colonial to do some shopping. We went when we first got to the Dominican, but Aaron didn't get to come with us the first time and he really wanted to check it out. Well, I don't know if you guys have ever been to Chinatown, but this was like the Dominican version of that. Tons of shops with people yelling at you and telling you "we give you good price", and asking you to come see what else they have upstairs, blah blah blah. It was very overwhelming, to say the least! We pretty much got out of that area as fast as we could, and headed to the La Primera Catedral de las Americas (The First Cathedral of the Americas). I have never really been disrespected at a church, but there's a first time for everything. Last time we went to the Cathedral, we didn't have to pay for the skirts to cover our legs. Well, this guy was clearly doing anything he could for money. We walk up to get our skirts, and he just looks away from us as if we aren't good enough. A staring contest ensues, and a few minutes later he shoves the skirts in our face and tells us, "three skirts, three dollars." We look at each other, look at him, and explain that we didn't have to pay last time and refuse to pay this time. He repeats the price, and we decide that it's simply not worth the fight or the money. How unfortunate though, I mean...this is a church!

Anyway, we head over to a local restaurant en la plaza and had a nice three hour lunch. Our group just hung out and talked about our trip thus far - favorite experiences, what we'll miss the most, what we won't miss, etc. Well, I would have to say that my most favorite experience was when we went to the mountains, to Jarabacoa. It was just a beautiful city, and an extremely tranquillo (tranquil/peaceful) getaway. I'll miss the easy going way of life the most, by far. Everything here is just "fly by the seat of your pants", no schedules, nothing is ever on time. It truly is island time, and I surprisingly love it. I won't be ready to go back to the fast paced life of the US - always having to be on time...ahh! BUT, on the other hand, I will be ready to be back in a country where people aren't always staring at you. I almost have to give them credit for how much they can stare, and honestly not care that they're staring. Usually when you're staring at someone and they look at you, you'll look away. Not here. They seriously just keep staring until you look away. Pretty impressive actually!

A few weeks back, we bought tickets for a concert, and it was that night! Funny story - we asked our taxi driver what time the concert started. Well, he says "Juan Luis, well he is Christian. He say he start at 8, he start at 8. He no es Dominicana, he is Christian. So he start at 8." We were all just taken aback - their perception of things is just so funny to us! But anyway, we head to the house to get ready for the Juan Luis Guerra concert, and head over around 530 or so. We didn't have seats, only tickets for standing room en el terrano, which was actually the best idea ever. It ended up starting to pour down rain (like border-line-hurricance!), but that didn't stop us or the locals from singing and dancing until the rain got to be too much. The equipment wasn't exactly working properly, so we figured it was time to go. Well, our ride wasn't going to get there for about 20 or 30 minutes, so we headed to the park to pass the time. So I decided to go down the slide - naturally I went down a little to fast and of course fell straight on my butt and ended up covering myself in dirt. Typical me. But, other than that, it was an amazing experience! I mean, how often do you get to see the most famous Dominican artist in his own country!?