Pizza Night (& more)

Wednesday night, I decided to make dinner for my host brother and myself. There was a package of Betty Crocker pizza crust mix that I’d been eyeing for the past 5 weeks (wow, really, five weeks), and it expired today, so I figured that if I wasn’t going to use it at that moment… that no one ever would.

Goal: Make an edible pizza for my brother and myself, with enough time for me to make it to the gym by 9pm.

Starting time: 730pm.
Ending time: 845pm.

Instructions, Part One: Mix pizza mix with ½ cup warm water. Stir 20 times. Cover, let sit for 5 minutes. Spread out on a greased pizza tray.

Problems, Part One:

Se fue el agua (“the water’s gone”)… the water stopped working (and started working again at 930am the next day). We ended up using water from the large jugs that are delivered weekly.

We didn’t have a pizza tray. Or a cookie tray. I used a decorative silver platter instead.

We didn’t have cooking spray. Or Crisco. Margarine, it is.

Instructions, Part Two: Add toppings. Pizza sauce, cheese, whatever. Put in the oven for 20 minutes on 450 degrees.

Problems, Part Two:

Our oven has two settings: On and Off. I’m pretty sure On is roughly 300 degrees, and Off is still probably around 100 because we’re in the Dominican Republic, claro.

So I threw the pizza in and set the timer for 20 minutes. After 20, it wasn’t even CLOSE to being done. I checked again after 30 and 40. Still not done. However, after 45 I took it out and put my half on the plate, then returned what was left to the oven for my host brother to eat whenever he wanted to.

I personally like squishy, gooey crusts… but this was a little much for me. By the time my host bro took his half out, it had been about 60 minutes, and he was that it was delicious. I think he might just have been being nice. Nearly-expired pizza crust mix + lack of legit tray + two-setting oven = not-so-amazing pizza

However, I’m giving myself props for working with what I could find to [attempt to] make a somewhat edible dinner.

Hmm… what else have I been up to this week…

Monday morning I took a Step class at the gym. I’d never taken one before- here or in the states- and I (stupidly) assumed that it’d be easy. It’s just cardio, right? Jumping on a step and then jumping off, more or less, for 45 minutes? False. Turns out there are weights involved. And coordination is needed. All in all, it wasn’t really that bad, and it definitely was a good workout… it just was a lot different than I had thought it’d be.

Tuesday I was all excited to watch the premiere of Glee… and then I realized that, while I do get 2 Fox channels… neither of them actually show Glee.

Wednesday was Pizza Night, and I also walked to La Sirena (like a Walmart) with two of my friends. We split a pint of ice cream. It was a good trip… (Still a bit confused about La Sirena's motto though- "Más de una emoción"... "More than a feeling")

And last night, my host bro saved me from the scariest bug ever. Okay, well, I like to think that I’m not baby-ish when it comes to bugs, spiders, etc. However, I had never, ever seen a cockroach before in my life, until I saw one scamper across my floor. I ran into his room and started screaming “A BUG A BUG A BUG”. Apparently my tone of voice didn’t make up for the lack of Spanish I was speaking, because he just sat there and stared at me for a few seconds. The word for cockroach (la cucaracha, like the song?) was not accessible in my mind at the moment… so instead I just yelled “INSECTO INSECTO INSECTO”, and he got the message and grabbed his shoe.

The hunt lasted about five minutes, but he eventually got it. It was scary, though. There are a couple of people in my group who’ve seen tarantulas in their rooms… if that were the case for me, I’d probably buy a sleeping bag and zip myself into it every night.