I have never been so glad to be back in the United States. 

The Dominican Republic was my first foray into a non-1st world country.  The trip itself had a few things working against it from the outset.. it was a destination wedding trip, for my friend Leslie.  The ceremony was gorgeous and she did an incredible job of putting the whole thing together, but a week on an all-inclusive resort is not my style.  It's a little like communism - everything is free but it sucks and there's no variety. 

After the first few days of doing a continuous Carribean-style bar crawl around the resort I was pretty much sick of drinking.  My amusement at the people who clearly never tired of free drinks never flagged though.  It carried me through when my date and I stumbled off the resort into the astounding and contradictory poverty of the people on the island.  Thousands of mopeds and cars flood what should be 2-lane roads, seemingly forcing the boundaries to accomodate 4, 5 or sometimes 7 lanes of traffic at a time.  The government tears up the center of the road and piles the rock next to the hole, creating a slalom course that challenges even the most experienced driver.  As we bounce along, moving closer to lung cancer with every precarious second of direct fume-breathing, I watch TV after TV in these tiny shacks that cannot have more than one room and barely seem to stand on their own.  Perhaps economic monotony is the same no matter where you are.  If it seems impossible to reach into the next strata, buy the things that ease the pain of living currently. 

Anyway, I did my part to help the local economy by not being completely paranoid at all times.  A gift from my date/friend/etc. (who's relationship to me is now a great deal less complicated) - a beautiful, expensive digital camera, and about $100 US was stolen.  Greg, aforementioned date/friend, and I decided we couldn't stand the resort any longer and took the gua-gua (aka public van) to Sosua.  I took some pictures and paid the driver, then we went to a dive shop to go on (my first!) scuba dive.  Our stuff was not really secured by the well-meaning dive operators and I think an opportunistic gua-gua patron followed us.  I was devastated.  There was nothing to be done.  We went back to the resort and I slept for two days.

After sleeping it off in the air conditioning (the weather had to be close to 100 and 100% humidity every day) Greg and I decided it would be just as criminal if we didn't go scuba diving again.  We went on a resort-operated trip... which was stunningly beautiful.  Aside from the ceremony, it was the highlight of the whole vacation.  We dove to about 60 feet and saw a good amount of wildlife and beautiful coral.  Greg got some great pictures. 

There's more to say but I've been at this for a while and the other members of my house are stirring.  Independence Day will be celebrated with rain today, but I have never been so glad to be here.  Happy 4th!