The rest of the Christmas holiodays was spent pretty much just having fun! On the 30th I went off with Jenny and her friend to the theme park in Santa Domingo, Iguana Park. It was basically like a huge funfair, with no big rollercoasters but lots of smaller rides. It was really fun and I enjoyed just about every one of them, expect for one that is called 'RING OF FIRE!', and this one I disliked because it went upside down a lot (which I'm usually fine with) but when we were upside down, it felt SO unsafe! Like, I could move a fair amount and enough so that I was veeery anxious because as much as I love theme parks and rides, I do not want to die just yet.

I had a fairly mellow new year; We all went for dinner at my grandma's house which was lovely, and we counted in the new year with her and a few other family members, so it was a very small affair, and then after Jenny and I went to a street party outside her friend's house and we basically just chilled there, drinking and catching up with friends. This particular group of people I hadn't seen since very near to the beginning of my stay, so seeing them was like a halfway checkpoint to mark how much progress I had made, which turned out to be a fair bit!

The first week of 2012 was somewhat uneventful, I went out with Jenny a bit and saw a few friends but nothing of huge significance...until...the 6th January, which was the day Gran and Richard came to visit!! They had arrived the day before but I hadn't the chance to see them, so it was really nice to spend the day not only with my family again, but with Harrogatians again! I cannot express how much I have missed the people of Harrogate. We spent a really nice afternoon walking around the Zona Colonial, and it was cool to see how familiar with everything I already was compared to them; this place really has become like a home to me.

Of course, along with the grandparents came things from England, I was absolutely DELIGHTED to get my christmas presents and once again be able to have Jaffa Cakes, skittles, cinder toffee, oatcakes, ovaltine, lindt chocolate, Gran's jam, dry shampoo, body shop stuff and most importantly my juggling balls! I swear, Mami was so amused watching me go through everything and getting extremely excited, I mean what can I say? Apart from the odd americanism, I'm a brit through and through.

On the 7th Gran, Richard, Pablo Catalina and I all went out to a restaurant for lunch, and we went to one right by the sea, along the malecon, and Gran ate Mofongo for the first time. Mofongo is this really VERY nice dish which is....hard for me to explain? But look it up, it's good, and I think it's originally a Dominican dish like sancoho or mon dongo. It was just a very nice, chilled lunch catching up and then we had a bit of a walk along the malecon before heading back. That night, Jenny and I cracked out teh lindt, the jaffas and the ovaltine and had a very lovely night in watching Criminal Minds.

The next day I had quite an early start, because that was the day I went off on a 3-day ecotour of the south-west with Gran and Richard! However, I shall tell you about that next time because I want to be able to do justice to just how incredibly amazing this experience was, most definitely one of the best yet in this country. The picture for this post is me and my brother on New Year, and the dress that my host parents bought me for christmas. You better look forwards to the next post, it's gonna be a cracker! Until then, much love!

-Jazzy x