Hello folks. It's strange, I know, but I've actually been busy this past week. I know, shocking. :) It's quite lovely. I spent Sunday through Tuesday in a tiny little town - Las Galeras - located on the very tip of the Samana peninsula(http://www.hotelmoorea.com/en/description.html). It's whale season in the DR - every year between January and March hundreds of humpback whales make their way to the north coast to partake in the glorious Caribbean winter. Seriously people, you know how I was doing nothing but complaining about the heat a couple of months ago? Well, I just had an interview with an organization in DC and when the interviewer started the interview by saying that it must be nicer in the DR than it is in DC right now I had to restrain myself from spending the whole hour bragging about how much I love the climate where I live right now. It's nice. Really, really nice. Really, really, really nice. Ok, stopping now.

But whale season. So we went to the north coast, to this tiny little town with one main street and stayed in this wonderful little rustic bungalow with a loft for sleeping, and one of the most stunning beaches I've ever seen. And we went whale watching, which ended up being less like whale watching, and more like wave watching. We spent probably about 4 hours in a 15-foot dingy riding up and down monster waves with no whales in sight. Sigh. Guess I'll just have to make it back up there before the end of March. Life is really rough sometimes, I tell you.

And then since I've been back I've actually had WORK to do!!! I know!!! It's a ... Valentine's Day miracle! (somehow that just doesn't work as well as "Christmas Miracle"...hmmmm) So I'm prepping for interviews and starting to think about what I'm going to be doing with myself in the next year-ish, which is actually taking up a good amount of time, AND I'm actually moving forward on a project for the Department of Education. I KNOW!

I had a meeting about two and a half weeks ago with this woman I know who works for the Department of Education, and she assigned me to this large and nebulous, but quite exciting project. However! I finally had a follow-up meeting with her this week and got a much more clear and exact description of what the project was and a personal-sized, clear assignment! It's so exciting people! The project is a "Godfathering" program run by the Department of Education which connects schools and businesses to create supportive relationships. It has been allowed to lapse over the last 3 or 4 years, and so the woman I am working with is in charge of reviving it. Right now I am working on an analysis of schools that submitted applications to the program in 2004. SO EXCITING. :)

And in other news....pictures from last weekend!
In the boat, setting out.

Unsuccessful whale-searching

Awesome fisherman and his fish (dorado for those who are interested)

Playa Fronton
The Playa again

There was a big collective of little kitchens all under one big communal roof on the beach. I loved these two signs - the one one the left says "Sweet Cafeteria" and the one on the right "God and Ana Maria are Here"