homecoming
It’s Sunday and I’ve spent a relaxing weekend helping Christelle study for exams and indulging in a little reading. I’m back on Bryson and enjoying it immensely. Down Under recounts his adventures in Australia and is very funny yet informative, as per usual with Bryson. His books and style of writing have definitely influenced and inspired me in the writing of this blog. I’m waiting for his next book about the Caribbean and, in particular, the D.R. entitled Se Fue La Luz.
Enough of my lame jokes. Tomorrow I start my last week of school before flying back to not-so-sunny Belgium on Friday. BBC World Weather forecasts very respectable day-time temperatures in La Romana of 30 degrees Centigrade throughout the week while dropping to a rather chillier 7 or 8 degrees in Brussels on the day of my return – and that’s during the day. At night it will drop to an unbearable 2 degrees! And don’t even get me started on snow; I’ve pretty much forgotten what that is.
As you can well imagine, I am having second thoughts about coming back to Belgium. I am already capable of catching a cold in a room air-conditioned at 20 degrees so I expect I’ll freeze through upon arrival and spend two weeks thawing in the washroom where temperatures are on par with the Dominican outdoors… at night… in winter. Nah, even that’s an overstatement. I’ll need putting in the microwave on de-frost. I think you get the idea.
My flight leaves at 9am on Friday morning but because of the time difference, the ridiculous number of connections I have to catch, the absolute certainty that at least one of my flights will be delayed and the fact that I land in Paris and have to catch a Thalys to Brussels from there, I will only be arriving on Saturday afternoon (morning if I’m lucky).
I start my journey back on Thursday afternoon. It just so happens that that is Pauline’s birthday and the Warot’s will be driving to the capital to celebrate. They have kindly allowed me to hitch a lift and join in the celebration. We’ll be staying in a hotel for the night and they’ll see me off in the morning.
From Santo Domingo I fly to the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan (if I’m not mistaken). From there I fly to New York where I (hopefully) catch my connecting flight to Paris CDG. It’s going to be a long day and if it’s anything like the journey over here in September, you’ll be sure to read about it here.
So, providing I actually get back and remember to dress like an eskimo, I should be able to go out and see you all. Hope you’re as excited as I am. Don’t let me forget the ones I won’t be seeing, namely the British side of my family including my Dad. Am very sorry I won’t get to see you this time round but will certainly be paying you all a visit over the summer, even if that seems like a long way off at the moment.
writing’s a bore, reading galore
Hand writing exams is a long and laborious undertaking. I made some good progress today but ended up getting very discouraged after making a mistake near the bottom of a page thus rendering the whole page and all my efforts useless. I was writing a fill-in-the-blanks exercise and concentrating so hard on writing well that I filled in my own blanks. Retarded? Frightfully so.
I’ve otherwise been enjoying my holiday, spending most of my time with Christelle or reading. I just finished The Hobbit, which I absolutely loved and only vaguely remebered from when my dad read it to me as a child. I actually brought exactly the same copy here which, fifteen years down the line, is coming to pieces and very difficult to read without whole sections of the book falling out everywhere. It is at times like these that you thank God the pages are numbered.
I’m now reading Number Ten by Sue Townsend. It is a light-hearted and funny book about a Labour Prime Minister who feels very out of touch with the British people and decides to go on an adventure around the UK - dressed as a woman and accompanied by Jack Sprat, the policeman who guards the door at Number 10 - to get a taste of what it is to take public transport, wait in hospitals and do all those things us normal people do everyday without thinking twice. (Phew! Long sentence!)
Tomorrow I’m going sailing up the Chavon River with Christelle and family. We will be spending the afternoon on the boat stuffing our faces and seeing the sights. I mentioned the Chavon River, and the magnificent view I got of it from Altos de Chavon, in an earlier post. Looking forward to that and will report back with a summary of our day and (I hope) some photos. I have a feeling my Flickr account will be closed down if I don’t post some new snaps soon.
