D'oh! (smacks forehead) I didn't even realize I did a spoiler in my title. I'm so sorry if I ruined it for anyone who hadn't watched it yet. :( :lol::lol:

I saw it earlier. It's a good match. :)

Dominican Republic- Santo Domingo has a rhythm all it's own. It's almost like music. There isn't enough electricity and water to keep it on all the time so it is turned off regularly. There are buckets and pots and pretty much anything that can hold water, all filled up lined up everywhere and when the water is off, you use that water for everything. There were two big water barrels at fil's house that we used to bathe out of. You soap up and then use a small bucket to pour the water over your head to rinse. As soon as the water comes back on, everyone starts immediately filling all the containers up again. Same with the electricity, as soon as it comes back on again, everyone starts cooking since it can be a few days before it comes back on once it goes out. The traffic is nuts and they drive on sidewalks, make a 2 lane street 3 lanes (or more!) it's crazy! hehe The people are amazingly warm and friendly and love babies. DD was 8 months old when I went there the first time and I cannot even tell you how many times someone snatched her out of my arms because they wanted to hold her. There is a bakery on top of a hill in the colonial city that has the best bread and cheese I've ever had in my life. I dream about that bread and cheese sometimes. Cashiers don't give you your change back when you buy things. They give you the bills, but never give you the coins. They have really good chocolate. :) They have the distinction of being the first permanent European settlement in the New World, The First Capital for Spain in the New World (Santo Domingo) ,the have the first Cathedral in the New World, First University and First Castle. Christopher Columbus is buried there. They have a magnetic pole in the western part of the country. We parked our car at the bottom of a hill, turned it off and put it in neutral. The magnetic pole pulled our car up the hill and we were going as fast as 35 kilometers per hour at the peak speed. That was fun. :) It is the birthplace of merengue music. The food is delicious. The people are wonderful and the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful. There is horrible poverty there. I saw entire families living underneath overpasses of streets cooking out of a big black kettle on an open fire on the side of the road. :( When we were all the way west near the Haitian border it looked like open country. We drove and passed some wood shanty homes with tin metal roofs, but it was mostly unpopulated or so I thought. When the sun went down I could see all these campfires all over that stretched on and on. I don't know if those people had shanties to live in or if they were just outside or what, but when I saw that, I understood then why so many people die there in hurricanes. :(

Oh man. DH and I were watching this video of Kayla Harrison talking about her bouts and her day and just the way she talks had us cracking up. I had to post it up here for ya'll to enjoy. hehehehe

Ay, I don't know if I have the courage to try a boiled peanut yet. hehehe Maybe I'll be brave when I go up to visit my mom in the fall. :p

Is she a vampire?? :D hehe

Ya think? I wasn't convinced. :D hehehehehehe :p What a cutie pie. :)

:lol::lol::lol: That's so cute!

Oh my gosh that would drive me crazy. That man reminds me of this grumpy guy that lived next door to me when I was a kid who would always scream at us all the time when we were outside playing. He had a gorgeous big mango tree, but never ate the mangos. We used to ask him if he would give us some. "no!" We would ask him if we could buy some and how much he wanted. "No! They're not for sale!" Every single year come mango season he would let them fall to the ground and rot and if we tried to pick one up that had fallen he would scream at us to put his mangoes down. :glare: hehehehe That's too cute! :)

Oh I've thought of one. When I drove to BIL's house in Alexandria,Virginia from my mom's house in GA, the route we took had us drive the entire length of Virginia. I had never been to Virginia before that, but the thing that really stood out to me besides the perfectly mowed grasses with all the diagonal patterns in them, was the sheer amount of signage there was on the road. :001_huh: I am really curious how much money in taxes goes to road signs because never had I been in a state with so many. Dh and I got sick of the road telling us what to do. :lol:

ROFL :lol::lol: Dh and I have lots of fun laughing about those billboards when we pass them. Makes wonder what "trucker showers" really means. :001_huh: We also get a kick out of the "vasectomy on your lunch break" billboards and the "are you pregnant" billboards with the blonde lady holding up the pee stick to her face so it looks like she's smelling it. We're all just like. :confused: hehehe

I (and my dc) are the only native Floridians on my whole block. Every single other person is from another state or another country. It's an interesting mix. :p

I just wanted to tell you that you can get plantains here in the US. Every grocery store where I live sells them. If you get them really green you can make Tostones which as soooooo yuuuuuummy. Or you can let them ripen (turn black) and make maduros which are delicious too. :) You can also boil and mash the green ones and eat them with eggs and onions. Dh loves to eat that for breakfast. :)

Ugh I HATE kudzu with a passion. I see it all the way up the state of Florida on the turnpike growing over all of the trees. It's awful!

hehehehe but they were gross right? I won't even try them because I keep thinking they must taste like a really gross soup or something. blech. That's what I figured. :p Oh, your mention of people waving reminded me of a funny with my mom. My mom moved to Georgia from South Florida 10 years ago when she retired from her job. She's always going on about how much nicer and friendlier people are up there (she's 1 mile away from the North Carolina border up in the mountains). Every time I'm up there visiting, at least once during the visit she'll point out an act of friendliness and say, "see, look how nice they are how they stop and let you go. Back home they would just run you down." Well one day when we were out driving, she was taking the backroads and as she passed a car the man in the other car (a local) pointed his index finger at her and she did the same to him as they passed each other. My mom said, "you see? They all do that here. They point their finger to acknowledge you and say hello. I call it 'the Georgia finger'" I told my mom, "well, we have that too back home when driving, it's just a different finger." :tongue_smilie: and she just lost it laughing. She was like, "yeah, the Florida finger means something a little different though than the Georgia one." :p hehe

:) I loved your stories. Thanks so much for sharing them. I can just picture Dr. "I Can Do That". :)

Eeek! I wanted to, but I just couldn't do it. The flip side is I added a lot of amusement to the host family I was staying with. :p hehe :lol::lol::lol: to both of these. :p I love chilies and cook with them A LOT, but I think even I would tire of having them on every meal. hehe

I would just hitch on to Wendy's remarks that I think too it depends on where in the country you are as well. I think in some places, displyaing the flag on your home is much more important as a show of your patriotism than it is in others. Down here in metropolitan South Florida, you just don't see it very often at all on people's homes, but I think in many other places it is much more common. I have never been to the Midwest, but I hear it is very prominent there, for example, and that to not have a flag is akin to being unpatriotic. People down here are just as patriotic, I reckon, as up there, but it's just not a part of our regional culture down here to have a flag on our homes. Maybe it has to do with hurricanes? I don't know, it's just not really done, but I guarantee you you will find many many people here who love this country and are grateful to be in it. Shoot, just go down to Little Havana in Miami and you'll meet a whole community of people who are grateful to be here and who proudly serve in our Armed Forces.

Me too. How awful!! I'm so sorry honey. :(

I haven't traveled too much within the US, but I went up north (East coast) for the first time 2 years ago. I was most surprised I think when I went to New York City. Up til then I had only ever seen it in movies and on tv. I always imagined it would be HUGE with tall buildings towering up all around. I was really surprised by how close everything is. I would walk down one street and suddenly there is Broadway, or Times Square. I always figured these places were really far away from each other. I never realized how everything in Manhattan is just blocks away. I also didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I always figured that NYC with the buildings towering up would make me feel closed in and claustrophobic, but I didn't feel that way at all. I really loved the intricacies in the architecture and how varied it was throughout the city. I went on a Sunday and there were some streets closed off (barricaded) and they had all these food stands there. It was fun to go to one cart and the other and get little bits of things to try. The only downside was that it was spendy, but I would totally go back again someday. :) The only other thing I find strange, happens to be a Southern thing which I've always seen growing up, but never understood. Boiled peanuts. Seriously does anyone eat these things?? LOL There are boiled peanut stands all over the place in Alabama and Georgia and yet I never EVER have seen a single person buying them. :lol:

:lol::lol::lol: That's so cute. I remember that too when I was in Austria. They used to laugh at me because I would always drink water. They drank beer or apple juice or Schnapps, but they never ever just drank a glass of water and they got a kick out of me always having a glass of water by me. :p

Oooooh I like that!! A person with my sense of humor could have serious fun with that kind of power! bwahahahahaha. :D :ohmy: hehehehehehe That must have been jarring. Austria is a gorgeous country! I was surprised at how varied the landscape is there too considering it's size. I remember my friend's mom when she met me said that I was a good one because I had birthing hips. :lol: I stayed with a family for 3 weeks there in Austria and I swear everything I ate over there gave me a stomach ache. I had never eaten that strong stinky cheese they have and it burned a hole in my stomach (or at least that's what it felt like). Pig fat spread on bread with slices of raw garlic?? Just. no. They all kept telling me to drink Schnapps for the stomach ache. After every meal I had an upset tummy and they were all like, "drink Schnapps". Then I was just drunk with a belly ache. lol I did go out to eat one night to this pizza place and I swear it was probably one of the best pizzas I've ever had in my life! I don't know if it was just that I was so hungry because I just couldn't eat that other food or what, but it was really really good! hehehehe

:lol::lol::lol: I imagine not! :p

I totally and completely :iagree::iagree: with you Mrs. Mungo.

:lol::lol: Oh my! hehe I give up on eating American food over seas. I was just curious about eating in the McDonalds because I just couldn't believe how people were so crazy for it. I was all like, "ewww. It's McDonalds" I wonder what they would do if they had a Hardees. :D I thought of some other ones from my husband's country. In the Dominican Republic they call Burger King "King Burger" because the word "king" has a bigger font. lol They give you rum when you arrive in the Airport in Santo Domingo. They serve Barcelo on one side of the airport and Brugal on the other. I had both! :D :cheers2: The food in the D.R. is sooooooooooooo goooooooood. Oh my gosh, it's so simple, but so delicious. I tell my father in law all the time that we need to go into business and open a Pica Pollo here in the States. We'd be millionaires! :p