Probably last report from here in the wonderful Dominican Republic

It is Friday, our next to last day here. We leave on Sunday morning. Back to reality. Can't say I am looking forward to it, especially with what the weather has been at home. I used to like snow, sort of. I still think it's beautiful when it's falling and right afterwards. At least, when I don't have to go anywhere. But I don't enjoy being out in it anymore. Loring still does. He skis, of course, but also likes to just be in and play in the snow. And, of course, there is the political situation to have to face. It's not that we haven't been following things here, we have beeen reading the Globe and looking at other internet sources every day. Yet I feel like we can at least maintain distance by virtue of the fact that we are in a different environment, where it isn't the focus of everyone's attention. We do have tv here, three of them actually, in the living room and two of the three bedrooms. But we haven't turned them on even once. And now for the food report: We have been having either eggs or yogurt and bananas for breakfast every day. My eggs have been in the form of French toast, because that is the perfect use for stale baguette. We don't have any syrup. I had intended to use our kiwi marmelade, but tried cooking slices of banana atop each piece of bread. Not bad. Loring has been making omlettes'with cheese and tomato. Lunches have been mostly cheese with bread or crackers and tomatoes, and cucumber the one time we found some. We have only been shopping in the little local markets, haven't been to the large supermarket at all this time, which is about a fifteen minute walk away. We have eaten every supper out, all of them in the various beach restaurants just steps away from our house. There's about a dozen of them. We've had only one meal I didn't like. The portions are huge, and I have wound up taking home leftovers several times, which became my next day's lunch. But a few days ago, we realized that one meal was plenty for both of us, so that's what we've been doing. Only problem with that is that we don't have the same favorites. Loring likes whole or fileted fish, which I do like also, but not every night. My favorites are seafood, shrimp, conch, crab, squid. Last night Loring gave in and we ordered conch in garlic sauce. Each meal comes with a huge side dish, of salad, rice, mashed potatoes, fries, tostones (fried plantains) and some other choices. One or two nights we had delicious vegetables, a combination of carrots, onions, tayota (chayote) but we can't remember which restaurant that was at. I thought the conch was delicious, Loring, not so much. So tonight I guess it's my turn to conceed the decision. Unless we get ceviche, which we both love. They serve it here as a main dish rather than an appetizer. Our conch meal last night was served with rice, so much of it that I took a huge amount home and ate it with eggs this morning. Which I also do at home when we have rice leftover from Chinese food. We had ice cream for lunch once this week, and plan to do so tomorrow for our last lunch. So I guess we need to make sure to not have leftovers tonite. The pastries from the French bakery around the corner are pretty good, although not quite at the level of true French ones. We've had fruit tarts, an almond croissant which I mentioned before, chocolate croissants, and an unusual tarte that was half chocolate and half a lime cream. It was good if a bit strange. There have been days when I don't go out to the street at all, just to the beach side, for part of the morning, part of the afternoon, and then again in the evening for supper. So i go without shoes all day. The people here are a real mix of tourists and locals, Dominicans and foreigners. I have been hearing nearly as much French as Spanish. We are wondering what proportion are from France, and guessing that at least some of them are CAnadian. One thing that has made us wonder is that we have seen poutine on a couple of menues, which as far as I know is not French but Canadian. The menus here are sometimes in Spanish, French, and English, but more often just in Spanish and French. Today is one of the only days I did not go in the water. It's been really calm almost every day, but today was much rougher and I chose not to go in. I do hope the waves are calmer tomorrow. If not, I plan to go in anyway. It's so relaxing to be in the gentle waves. Or maybe, even a quick dip on Sunday morning, before we leave here for the airport. It's a couple of hours drive. This will probably be my last post from here, unless something special happens tomorrow or Sunday. I am already thinking about the possibility of coming back next winter, which would really be a first. Unless someplace else beckons strongly, always a possibility. I just heard today that one of my mosaic teachers is planning two workshops next winter in Bali!