Getting acquainted with the city

Yesterday and today we spent the entire day going around with Mark Gonzalaz (our personal American guide and another teacher from the school). He took us to many grocery stores, a hardware store, a place like our Wal-Mart and a place like our Target. It was all very overwhelming, but a lot of fun. We have been learning a lot of new phrases, but we are still unable to communicate at all. Jon understands a lot more than I do and he got to have one little conversation with a retired man at SCS (Santiago Christian School). When we aren't out shopping, we are working on setting up our apartment. We have a living room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a study, and two bedrooms. Plus, we have a little utility room with a maids quarters attached. It is all really nice, but just very very simple.
The traffic and driving is horrific, but really funny. There are people all over the streets selling fruit, phone cards, puppies, window tinting, sunglasses, baseball hats, and much more. They walk all over in the streets and come right up to your windows. There are also beggars everywhere and people who will just come up and wash your car windows for money. Despite all of this, I feel very safe. The Gonzalaz family has been teaching us a lot about the Dominican culture and what is acceptable and what is not. They are very helpful and very encouraging. They also took us to visit SCS and we got the privilage of meeting our principal (Eileen Baas).
Right now, as we settle in for the night and relax a little, we are both very exhausted and very overwhelmed. Please pray that we sleep well at night and that we are quickly able to get along without the Gonzalaz family guiding us along every step of the way. Also pray that we would be able to step out of our comfort zone and converse with people without fear of making mistakes with the language. We love you all and hope that you enjoy some of the pictures that we have put up of our life in the DR so far.

We're finally here!

Yesterday (July 29th) we landed in Santiago, Dominican Republic. We were so excited when we found all of our luggage to have arrived with us and customs to be quite simple. However, the second we stepped out of the airport we were hit with what would be a big part of our life for the next two years. What is this you may ask? The HEAT!!!! Yes, it is so hot here. We never quite expected this kind of heat, but I think we are going to make it. All we need to do is drink 2 gallons of water a day, have 10 fans running in the house at all times and take four showers a day. Haha! That is a bit of a stretch, but it really is very hot.
We arrived in Santiago at about 9:30 p.m. so we were not really able to see much of the city at first. We were taken straight to our apartment and let off of our leash. We didn't know quite were to start so we decided that the first thing we should do was to call our parents and let them know that we made it safely. I moved the couch in search of an outlet to plug our phone in, when what to my wandering eyes did appear; a gecko so transparent and clear. He told us that if we left him alone that he would eat our mosquito's for us, so we agreed and left him alone. Our night ended with a bit of unpacking and a lot of sweating.