:Tropical Exploration: Leaving for the Dominican Republic in a few days! Will arrive at an all inclusive resort to stay and hang out with my mom and her boyfriend at his vacation house. Stay for a few weeks then off to travel alone getting into many eco adventures then settling in at a few volunteer places to immerse myself in the culture and help the local people. I hope to learn ALOT of spanish while there and break away from my materialistic roots. Not to mention enjoy the amazing sunshine, spend a ton of time in the water scuba diving/snorkling/swimming, get to know the culture and meet people, learn about the carribean way of life, and help the surverly improvished society, teaching and mentoring.

So yesterday i learned how to surf...again. We finally went out with some of the surfing dudes at Encuentro and i found out that i haven´t been trying nearly as hard enough )i must admit i´ve been doing the least amount of paddleing as i can, which mean lots of walking the board out there...) But when we all went out together that wasn´t really an option and that is when i found out my one lesson with a kid that was more interested in my ass then teaching me how to surf...and he didn´t speak english very well and thus i learned the lesson of, don´t hire someone to give you a lesson if you can´t understand the words coming out of their mouth.

Anyhow, now i know what it takes to surf and i am moving to a free place 5 minute walk from the surfea beach. So bright in early for the next days i go when the waves are good, around 6 in am...and rock the ocean all day...hopefully avoiding getting rocked myself. The waves were pretty big yesterday and after all that paddling i could barely...actually i couldn´t at all...muster up the energy to stand up on the board...it was kind of pathatic...but beautiful and really exulerating and fun!

THEN' i got to drive my first moto!!!! it was SO fun. and i actually did ok, and the guy let me drive it on the back roads for like 10 minutes! i plan on being an expert when i come home and buy a moto  as well;)

So my amiga left today, Amie is off to punta cana to meet her boyfriend and i am off to the beach with a local family to see Playa Grande...one of the really beautiful beaches about an hour away. Me and Amie ventured there the other day but never made it to the beach. WE took a boat ride through the mangroove forests and snorkled in a relatively dead reef, but i swam with the fishys and it was good.

So free place to stay and free ride to the beach. Its a complecated process, craming 7 people in to a small sedan...no seatbelts, lots of potholes and one driver that seems to have no concept of going TOO fast...or rather what side of the rode to drive on. So i look forward to an unstressful day driving in a spacious SUV...although i think the mom is trying to set me up with her 19 year old son, but the daughter is nice and i am happily sipping coca cola on my free internet sesson.

ok, lets go"!

adios.

Amy