Summer days

Okay, picture this:
You're naked.

... Okay, okay. You're fully clothed, but I did bring some spice to this otherwise vanilla blogging.

Okay, so you are wearing clothes. Possibly even your jeans. You are walking in a river bed that recently has water in it. Thankful you spent US$100 on Chacos before you left America. Those things really can go from land to water and back again. (If only they could invent a pair that doesn't allow little rocks to get stuck under your feet. The shoes are strapped to your feet so well that you can't seem to get the rocks out once they are in...)

Okay, so your in the river. You walk and walk and walk. You are following a bunch of screaming children looking for the perfect place to "bañar". (I still don't quite get why we are using the word for bath when we are swimming, but maybe it's because after the swim most people actually do bathe right there in the rio.)

Here, the rio seems so natural. The water is so powerful that after a rain the river really isn't in the same spot as is was yesterday. Men are filling sand bad and creating little pools to swim in. Because the water is currently dirty from the digging the group walks a little way down to a better spot.

Here you wonder if the cliff you are jumping off of would meet any cliff diving regulations. When your feet hit the bottom post jump you decide probably not, but you don't fail to jump at least 30 more times that afternoon. "As long as I stay feet first." You tell yourself. "Hey, the Dominicans are doing it."

Also, you take this point to wonder how you landed on an island full of people who can't swim. It really is 50/50 here.

As the day moves forward you are laughing a lot. It's less and less obvious everyday that you still do not speak Spanish. Whatever. Communication is so much more than language.

At a point you regret not bringing your camera, but then you just say, "Hey, this is what memories are for."

When I'm senile and can no longer remember this day that'll be fine. I'm sure I'll have a lot of others in between now and then to fill it. Who has time to remember the past when the present and the future are so great!

This is one thing this country has brought back into my life: spontaneity.

People of my life, let's be spontaneous together.