Vacation pictures

Some more vacation highlights. In the top photo, you'll see that, no I did not get a tan. The Dominican sun can't work miracles, and I bought super-strength sunscreen before I went.

The middle photo: Another cool thing about the Dominican trip was that we met a lot of Europeans at the resort, and oddly enough, a lot of people from Iowa. Among the people we met, it was about a 50-50 split: Half from Iowa, half from England. The boys on the right are from England, and damn, those Englishmen can party. I'm pretty sure no one in their group ever slept.

Bottom photo: This was just funny, because they distributed these cards to us before we went on our tour of the Dominican countryside, and I started getting worked up because I thought they were going to force us to distribute religious materials to the people. As it turns out, the cards didn't signify Jesus Christ, just the fact that our guide's name was Jesus.

Viva la Republica Dominicana

If you've never been to the Dominican Republic, you're missing out. I just got back from a week in Puerto Plata, and it was the best vacation I have ever been on, hands down. Of course, I haven't done a whole lot of traveling and I have been to Branson more than 25 times, so you might want to take my advice with a grain of salt.

Why I loved the Dominican Republic:

1. The people. The Dominicans that I met were some of the most friendly, warm and fascinating people I have ever encountered while traveling. They go out of their way to make you feel welcome in their country, and they humor you when you try to speak Spanish.

2. The culture. Why did I wait so long to visit a Spanish-speaking country (crossing the border into Mexico doesn't count)? I loved the language, music, customs, culture and pretty much everything else about the Dominican.

3. Using my Spanish. I took five years of Spanish, four in high school and one in college. Despite the fact that this was almost 10 years ago, I was amazed at how much I still remembered. And, I found that the more pina coladas I drank (gotta love those all-inclusive resorts) the more Spanish I remembered. Estamos baracha!!

4. The price. $37/day for all your food and all your drinks. Need I say more?

5. The landscape. Que bonito!! We took a "safari" through the very beautiful and basically untouched countryside. It was my first experience in the Third World, and I didn't know whether to feel sorry for the little children clamoring around our bus and reaching out their little hands for candy and dollar bills. Sure, it was jarring to see people living without electricity, indoor plumbing, running water and 24-hour grocery stores. But they had all the basics – food, clothes, water – and technology does not equal happiness.

I could go on and on about the trip, but it probably would start to get boring (if it hasn't already). But if you want to see the Dominican for yourself, let me know because my parents bought a Puerto Plata timeshare and I can hook you up with some dirt-cheap deals.

Pointless pic with my new camera

I finally have a camera again – that means I can take all kinds of cool pictures and post them on my blog to bore people. This is the view from my balcony – you'll notice that the Christmas lights are still up, wrapped around the railing. Don't worry, I don't turn them on. I think they burned out a long time ago, anyway.

I've been spending a lot of time on the balcony lately, because I've rediscovered the joy of reading. And there's no better way to spend a warm afternoon than sitting in the shade of that cool green canopy with a good book in hand.

The book that has sparked my desire to read outside of work is called Jesus Land. You can read about it here. It happened to catch my eye while I was at Barnes & Noble with my sister, and I decided to buy it. I'm so glad I did – it's the best memoir ever (OK, I haven't read any other ones, but this one would be hard to top). I love the writing, it's quite a refreshing departure from the journalistic style that I've grown accustomed to reading every day.

I'm not quite done with it, but I'm already on the hunt for my next book. Any suggestions are welcome.