motoconchos and carwashes

Today I recieved my sweet PURPLE motoconcho helmet that on the front above the visor says ¨TOUGH¨! As if I weren´t standing out enough, I got to walk around with this awesome new helmet, which in the DR, NO ONE wears helmets when using motoconchos. What are motoconchos you may ask yourself? Well think of an old crappy motorcycle with basically no muffler. Then picture that as a personal taxi weaving in and out of traffic! Yea pretty sweet ...mama y papa - don´t fret , we are forbidden to ride these in Santo Domingo and absolutely forbidden to ride without a helmet. We got a quickie lesson on how to get on without scalding our legs on the muffler and where is apporpriate to place our hands as well as special instructions for ladies when wearing skirts. Note to self = never ride a motoconcho unless wearing jeans! Also, I was one of the select few who got a quick ride - it was fun but slow. There are also pictures of me in my sweet helmet along with mirrored aviator sunglasses to give the full effect of a female american motorcycle cop! As soon as I can upload the pics they will be sent... Part of our training has been where current PCVs come and talk with us about various topics that we will encounter while serving and we do ¨dinamcas¨or ice breakers and then have to present to the group etcetc. SO two funny stories that of course involve yours truly. Numero uno - two days ago we had to draw our family tree and with symbols represent our family members, since i amnot an artist i was confounded as what to do. One of my peers suggested drawing a Menorah (since I am the only Jew and it is quite an amusing fact in a CATHOLIC country). So I took the suggestion and promptly presented my family Menorah to many smiling faces...also going off the Jew topic, I was trying to explain to my host sister in broken espanol that I was not Catolica, that I was in fact Judea. But since they had seen me doing a bit of yoga, she thought I was a Buddhist! Then I tried to explain, no I was not a Buddist and left it that I was interested in other religions. When I asked the director about this, she told to explain that Jesus was Jewish - I found it best to let this alone. As for the carwash...saturday night myself and some other PCTs wanted to go dancing and experience the merengue and bachata scence as we had ¨learned¨how to the past Friday. First, let me jsut say that watching white American guys try to dance merengue was one of the funniest things yet...so we arranged plans with some host family members and were taken to the carwash. This is not a name or an alias, it was a straight up carwash that at night transforms into a club / bar and I suspect that when you go during the day to wash your car you can enjoy a Presidente as well. The beer here is good, but nada, and I mean nada compares to Prague!