Dominican Republic: The Food

To kick off my week of Dominican blogging, I'm starting with the easiest subject (and the one that I was made fun of the whole week for taking pictures of): Food! Trying new foods is one of my favorite things about traveling. It's a way to jump right into the culture, and there's no better way to make friends than to share food! 

In all my travels, the only regret I have is that I didn't get gastronomically adventurous sooner. I regret that I didn't try the Chicken Butt or 1000 Year-Old Egg in Taiwan. I regret that I didn't try the Stinky Tofu (okay, maybe not that one...). But after that trip to Taiwan, I decided I would try everything a country has to offer from then on, and I have! Remember the grubs in Peru? There was nothing strange in Dominican Republic, but everything was delicious! Wanna see some of it? I thought so! 

Unfortunately,  this is the only picture of our first meal in the DR that I have. It was at a fast-food type place (Sort of...there was a drive-thru window, and it was fairly fast) that served chicken, beans, yucca.  They had a dozens of chickens roasting on spits near the dining room. There were no doors or windows, or lights because it had all been damaged by a hurricane (it was very close to the water). Anyways. I was sitting and went to scootch my chair in, when my flip-flopped foot slipped, hitting the horizontal metal leg of the table. I knew as soon as it happened that it was bad. I looked down to see my big toenail broken and blood already dripping down my toe. So, I quickly excused myself with some water and tissues to perform minor surgery on myself. At one point, as I was carefully removing part of my nail, I had a small crowd of Dominican men around me making sound effects and "ooohhhh!!" and "aaahhh!!" noises. (I'll put up that picture as soon as I get it from my team mates) Kinda fun! haha. The final damage was half a toenail missing. I kept it carefully cleaned, bandaged, and wrapped the rest of the trip, but by the time I got home I didn't even need a regular bandage. In case you were wondering, it's pretty hard to make a pharmacist understand that you need gauze, tape, and an antibiotic ointment when you don't speak the language!

One of our first days was spent in Nagua, a coastal community on one of the most amazing beaches I've seen in real life! A few pastor's there took turns feeding us during that day. Meal one:

 Fish, rice, some sort of crab dish, tostones (my new favorite thing!), and fresh avocado. Fun fact: I didn't like avocado until I had it on this trip. Now I can't get enough! 

After service that night, we ate and fellowshipped at another Pastor's house:

The most surprisingly delicious meal ever: Yucca, Onions, and Cheese. I don't know what they did to the onions, but it was all so yummy together! I've actually been craving this since we've been back. 

One night we decided to eat at a mall food court, and I quickly decided on my usual mall-food-court-fare, Chinese. 

 It was pretty good, more like real Chinese food than what we get at home. I was happy...until I saw what Pastor discovered.

They ordered these fish, pork chops, chicken, rice, and salads. I tried some of the fish and it was so good! I was definitely jealous. Plus, their place had a waiter  who brought their food to our table in the food court. On the bright side, I learned the proper way to debone a fish from Pastor! 

Here's another lunch at one of the minister's homes. This cheese was everywhere and SO GOOD! Those pita-type things were actually crunchy, so not really like pita...more like over-sized crackers. Those drinks are homemade orange juice and tamarindo  which is made from some local fruit. It was yummy, almost cider-like.

 And of course, no food discussion of the Dominican would be complete without my new favorite fruit...coconut! There were vendors all over the place, so we had some twice. This time was right in front of our hotel, and bought for us by a fellow visitor (who lives half an hour away from us in the states!).  The vendors use machetes to cut off the top. Some will pour the milk in a cup, others just give you a straw. Once the coconut is empty, they pull some quick moves with the machete to slice the coconut in half, then use a spoon to scrape out the creamy white fruit. Which, by the way, is way better than I thought it would be! Real coconut tastes nothing like the shredded coconut used in desserts back home.

So, there's my little wrap-up of foods I ate in the Dominican Republic this trip! It's not terribly varied, but it was all so good! 

My new favorites? Tostones, Coconut, whatever that cheese thing is!
What's the best (or worst!) food you've tried while traveling?

Check back for tomorrow's post: The Country and Sights.

Only Me

Only me.

Sunday I was in worship, as usual, with my kiddos. A favorite song started, an upbeat song, so I started dancing(ish). We're Charasmatic. We dance. So I was doing my patented worship dance: a hop-kick mix (since I'm white and really can't dance). It's not a complex move. My feet barely leave the ground. Yet, somehow, after a few seconds I felt a pop in my calf. An excruciating snap that made me hop on just the other foot, grabbing my calf and holding my breath.

Now, like I said, I was with my kiddos. So I didn't want to show my pain to them. Also, I was worshiping. I felt like I shouldn't have that kind of pain from worship! So, I tried to ignore it. I put my weight on the other leg, rubbed it every so often when I couldn't ignore it, and went about my morning with a limp.

Only me.

Later that day when Sunday life calmed down a bit, I really examined my leg. The pain was made worse by touch, flexing, and bearing weight. I could point my toes without pain, and there was no swelling, but that was where the positives ended. So I did what any girl would do: put ice on it and went shopping (I needed things...and my friends wanted to go to Target...).

Only me.

I attempted to go to work the next day (silly me). I clocked out 45 minutes later and called my doctor, who miraculously had an early appointment. She didn't think it was too serious, but possibly a muscle tear, so she sent me for an ultrasound. After digging out my moms crutches, and a little runaround from the insurance company, I hobbled my way through the hospital to radiology (which, can I say, was super confusing?! They had three different names!).

Then, the fun part. I get into the room, and the technician says she's going to check for blood clots. Which was odd, since at 25 and active, I'm pretty sure no one thought that was the issue. I told her that's not what my doctor had said, and that wasn't what the order said. Her response: "Well, I'm just gonna do my test." Ooookaaaaayy.

Only me.

I left a message at the doctors on my way home, but didn't hear back until the end of the day, when she couldn't find out anything. Today I got the call saying I obviously don't have any blood clots, and that was, in fact, the wrong test. But, since my leg does feel a little bit better, she felt it was more likely a strain, and wasn't going to make me do that whole mess again, unless it doesn't improve by next week.

Only me. Only during pre-VBS week, which is only my busiest week of the entire year.

I guess this is what I get for asking God last week for some time off....I'll have to be more specific next time!

I Slammed Into The Golden Gate Bridge

According to the list I made myself yesterday said that I would write about California. Since I don't think you want to read a long travel guide to San Francisco, let me write about the funniest story of the trip.

So we rented bikes one day to ride around the city and over the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge, of course. Now, I haven't ridden a bike in about 15 years, but told my friend it had only been a few years (she loves riding). I figured there's a reason for the cliche "it's like riding a bike". After reacquainting myself to pedaling and braking, I was pretty good. Toughest part was always getting started.

So we rode along the piers and across the city, getting ever closer to the bridge. We stopped when we were close to take pictures. As my cousin said, it looks like we're posing in front of a postcard!

The bridge has a special sidewalk just for bikes, so we rode over the bridge. One thing I didn't expect was that the bridge is kinda like a hill. The first half goes uphill, the second goes down. You can't really see much of a change, but you sure can FEEL it in your legs! We rode all the way over then turned around to find a place to eat. We were about three-quarters of the way back, going downhill, when things went....not as planned.

As best as I can figure, since it happened so quickly, when I reached up to push my helmet back, I started veering to the left (where there was a railing and traffic), so I tried to correct myself. Apparently, I overcompensated and was heading straight for a big beam. I managed to turn enough so I didn't hit straight on, but I put my hand up and took the whole force of the impact with my hand and knee, followed quickly by my forearm and shin. To give you an idea of how hard I hit, some of the paint from the bridge rubbed off onto my jeans...and is still stained there! The bruising and pain was intense and immediate! I lost my shoe in the process and my best friend....kept going! I was in pain and could only manage to yell out the first part of her name, but STILL she kept going! Some strangers stopped to see if I was okay, by which time my friend caught up, and I was pretty sure nothing was broken, but I certainly was shaken up!

The aftermath was a very bruised knee, hand, and forearm, bruises to both shins, and the insides of my knees, and pain when I moved my wrist or fingers. I was pretty convinced that I didn't break anything, just severely bruised it, so I just bought an ace wrap. In the words of my best friend "I don't want to go to the doctor on my vacation. But if you're really hurt, I guess I'll take you." True friendship, right there!

Thank God, nothing serious was injured, although I am still sore, and it provides for a fabulous story! I mean, how many other people can say they slammed into the Golden Gate Bridge? Or that they got an ace wrap as a souvenir?!

{Minor follow up here}