August 14, 2005 - 8:31 a.m.
Returned home from the DR last night. It was very, hot, hot, hot and my mom says I am very tan now, even though I wore sunscreen the whole time. SC and I had mucho fun splashing about in the ocean. The water must have been at least 80 degrees.The workers at the resort would become quite animated upon learning that we were from Boston. "Manny Ramirez! Big Papi!"
There weren't many Asians staying at the resort. In fact I believe there were just 7 - me, my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, my neice and my nephew. The lack of Asians in the DR was brought to my attention one evening while I was in the lobby bathroom. I came out of my stall to wash my hands and a woman with her 4 children suddenly became very excited. She was pointing at me and kept saying "China! China!!!" (pronounced "Cheena")
Yes it was very exciting for this woman and her children. Look at the Chinese zoo animal!
I promptly exited the bathroom to meet up with SC. And of course, the woman runs up to SC to ask her if I am from China (this was all done is Spanish and SC didn't understand anything that was going on).
Okay, enough about annoying encounters. Here is a funny story:
It is our first full day at the Melia Caribe resort. Me, SC and the kids are having a good ole time in the pool. SC and I decide to take advantage of our all-inclusive package and head over to the pool bar. Behind the bar, they have a bunch of frozen mixed beverages swirling around in a drink dispenser. I ask the bartender what the drink on the right is and he replies "Banana Mama." I turn to SC and say, "Banana Mama. Do you want one?" She says yes and we order dos Banana Mamas.
We happily finish of our drinks and as we swim away from the bar, SC says "Do you think there were any bananas in that drink?" I reply and say, "Well... the drink was called Banana Mama..."
SC then says "Oh." In case you do not know this already, SC is highly allergic to bananas and becomes deathly ill after eating them.
But the story ends happily and SC doesn't get ill. So we conclude that there are either no real bananas in Banana Mama, or SC is just not allergic to Dominican bananas.
