busy busy

the norweigen girls and i on the beach watching the competition

This last week's been pretty crazy. spanish lessons every day, kiteboarding, nightlife, (little work), and the Dominican Nationals for kiteboarding. the competition lasted 3 days, and the top 4 riders go on to compete during the upcoming week in the PKRA World Cup of kiteboarding. the city is getting busier every day, professional riders are everywhere, and everybody is getting excited for the competition.

we've done a few more downwind rides. kiteboarding for 5-10 miles down a Caribbean coastline is probably one of the most amazing things you can experience. you ride past all these little local dominican beaches and villages... kids at the beaches (if you're close enough) will try to run along with you as you kite past. what's really nice is you can make the session last as long as you want. me, i'm a fan of riding 5-10 feet from shore; here the shorebreak makes large flat sections of water that you can rocket down at amazing speeds. or,l you can relax and head out just past the breaking swell and casually carve the waves rolling in. the fact that you have a coconut trees to your left and an endless expanse of water to your right makes all the more amazing.

this last weekend was pretty out of control. both friday and saturday night i was awake until well past 5a.m. party scene is startin to (the locals tell me) turn into what it should be for the remainder of the summer. this is probably bad news for my liver, but i'm also keeping a little more restraint seeing as though i'm in a country with very little law enforcement. it's all workin out though, and i'm absolutely loving all of it.

me and a few guys are now in the process of planning a trip. i think in about 3 weeks time we're renting a minibus and taking a trip around the dominican. first, we're going to head over the the las terenas peninsula (GORGEOUS area) then down to the south coast, stay in the big capitol Santo Domingo for a bit, then head back up through the mountains. looks to be 5 or 6 of us going, so it should be amazing. already we're trying to figure out how much kite equipment we can fit :)

i just added milk back into my diet. not that i have any problem with drinking only orange juice(sometimes a gallon a day... mmmm) and water constantly, but i just missed milk too much. they don't sell it in more than 1/2 gallon containers here, and everything is 3% (is that whole milk?). i, of course, prefer 2% to skim so 3% doesn't seem too much different. dad, thanks for the metabolism; i drink about a half gallon of it a day now (about my average back home) and i've no worries about becoming pudgey. haha

adios, i need to catch up on some sleep. this week is going to be even crazier as PKRA IS HERE! a week of professional riders, great wind, and the craziest nightlife this town gets. uh oh....