Out and About in Edmonton

On Thursday, I got up early, had Egg McMuffins with Bart before he went to work and then sat at home and wrapped presents all morning until it was time to meet the girls (Leslie and Benita) for lunch.  I bundled up and headed out to catch a bus downtown.  Of course, I just missed the #2, so I ended up having to take the #112 which made my walk to Karma about 1 block longer.  Not a big deal as there wasn't much wind outside so it was just a normal crisp and cold day.  The food was tasty, like usual, and the company was lovely, like usual!

After we exchanged gifts, the three of us walked over to the Legislature.  Benita carried on across the River Valley to head back to work, and Leslie and I went inside the visitor centre so that she could go back to work and I could do some shopping for things to bring back to the Dominican.  Before we headed in though, we took a couple shots of me outside for my Dominican friends:

Face tuck when the wind blows.

Full face showing when wind isn't blowing

After I bought a few gifts, I hopped on the LRT to go to Holt Renfrew.  I had a particular item I wanted to pick up for Bart, but when I got there, I found out that they only carry it in their Vancouver and Toronto stores.  So I ended up just getting him some awesome socks!

I then met up with Bart and we headed back towards my place, making a quick stop for groceries on the way.  We dropped off a bunch of the groceries at my place and took the rest with us.  Our next stop was Bart's parent's house for a quick dinner.  I was greeted at the door by giant hugs - even a running hug from Ola!  It was a nice evening!  Afterwards, we headed over to Bart's place to just relax for the rest of the evening.  It was so nice to have the fireplace on and to be all cozy in my favorite sweater.

I also had a few gifts that I got to open from Bart.  They included some sweet pink headphones, tea, chocolate, a "commemorative" Will & Kate magazine, and a bookmark!

We finished off the evening by eating the gingerbread men that Leslie had made for us!  Very yummy!!

Office Christmas Party and the Trip Home

Tuesday, after work, was our office Christmas party.  I was hoping to get to Blue Mall between work and the party to pick up some jeans I had tried on the other weekend when I was there, but by 5:00 I still hadn't received my Christmas bonus pay.  I needed to get the pay that day since the next morning I had my flight home.  I was told that I'd be getting the same amount as my monthly salary as my bonus, but when I went in to get the pay I got less than what I was supposed to.  My boss ended up asking me if I had received the pay and I said that I had gotten it, and mentioned the amount.  Then he was sure to send me back in to get the rest, which made me happy.  

O ended up giving Robert and I a ride over to the club where the party was at.  It was an outdoor area with a dance floor/stage and several tables set up around palm trees that were lit up with Christmas lights.  Of course, we had to wait a few hours till supper was served.  It was a buffet dinner, so of course, only portions of it were non-meat for me.  For the amount we paid, it wasn't really worth it as there wasn't a whole lot of left overs for people to have seconds.  Like any good Dominican party, there was loud music and dancing.  A lot of people were trying to get me up dancing and finally I did with one of the auditors.  I ended up having a lot of fun.  I also found out that my "Angel" was V.  For my main gift, I received some body wash and lotion.  Quite nice.  My secret person wasn't there again so I have no idea if he liked the tie I got him.

Here are some pictures from the evening:

After the party, I took a cab home with Robert and proceeded to pack until about 1am.

I was up early doing the last minute packing before Don Pedro came to pick me up at 9:15.  We had a nice chat on the way to the airport.  I told him how cold it was back home, which of course he found to be unbelievable.  He was also sure to tell me to pass along to Bart his greetings, in fact, he even reminded me twice to make sure I tell Bart when I arrived.  At the airport, my baggage had to go through an extra scan to check for any agricultural products.  During this process I ended up chatting with an American couple who had been traveling through the Caribbean and South America since October.  They were both quite nice.  The check-in at US Airways was a disaster.  They were able to print out my luggage tag that went all the way to Edmonton, but couldn't check me into my flights.  However, they tried to figure it out for over 1/2 hour.  By the time they just gave up and told me to pick up my new boarding passes in Philadelphia, I had to run since the plane had started boarding.  Security was a breeze and when I arrived at the gate, everyone was still sitting and waiting.  So I took the time to grab a snack and then sat down by the American couple and chatted some more.  We finally boarded the plane at 11:30 (the time the flight was supposed to leave).  Once we were on, we still had to sit there for quite a while.  Finally the pilot came on to tell us that the Captain had been detained at security due to an identification issue.  They expected that he would be released soon.  Another 15 min or so later, the pilot came on again to tell us that the Captain had been released and was heading toward the plane.  I was glad that I had such a long layover in Philadelphia, since a lot of people on the plane ended up having to take later connecting flights.

While in the air, there was a neat occurrence where a rainbow circle appeared against the sky and the shadow of the plane was right in between:

When we landed in Philadelphia I wandered through the corridors to customs, then to pick up my baggage, and then through the second customs and then to drop off my bag.  The next section directed me right into the next security section, but of course, I didn't have my boarding pass.  This was a bit of a hassle, since they had to send me out and I had to walk outside from Terminal A to Terminal D.  Luckily, it wasn't too cold, so being in just my hoodie was okay.  But through the entire process, everyone - even the US security and customs officials - were super friendly!  My layover in Philadelphia was long but good.  I had dinner and wandered around and did a bit of shopping.  Even picked up a new watch for myself and for Bart, along with the Lug travel blanket/pillow combo that I realized was cheaper there than I had seen it previously in Canada.  The flight to Toronto was uneventful and short.  I watched "Salt" but didn't quite get to see the ending.  I saw enough of the ending to know how it turns out but didn't get the details.  

Toronto was also a breeze, although I did have to have my hands swabbed at security.  I hit up the Tim Horton's for a sandwich and then made good use of the free wifi to catch up on some picture uploading that I had to do.  The flight to Edmonton seemed to take forever, as it always does.  I ended up watching "The Other Guys" and "The American" on the plane.  When I got into Edmonton, I walked out of the doors and looked around for Bart.  I checked my phone and he had written to me that he was going to be in the right spot this time.  I had a good chuckle, since I came out of a different door than I had the last time.  He had already realized this though and met up with me moments later.  The luggage took forever to arrive, but it gave me lots of time to get myself bundled up and prepared for what awaited me outside. It was cold and at first I had issues with the breathing since I had forgotten what that cold air inside your lungs and nose feels like!  Bart, of course, found this funny.

Baseball!

After a quiet weekend, my last two days in the Dominican before Christmas holidays are shaping up to be rather exciting - and busy!

The remainder of my day on Saturday was spent with a headache, and then with Bart on skype.  My winning streak at Monopoly was finally broken.  But then I came back and won the second game.  I had a hard time falling asleep since the music at the colmado (a block away) was loud enough to make things in my room vibrate.  That, coupled with Delaine and Allison having family over made my headache unbearable.  I didn't get much sleep that night since the family was up and chatting by 8am which meant that I was awake by 8am.  Robert and Mari had invited me to go to the beach with them, but I needed the time to get my stuff packed and things prepared for going home.  I was also able to sneak in a long nap in the afternoon!

While packing in the evening, I went to grab a box out of my closet which contained one of the gifts I'm bringing home.  When I grabbed it though, a small lizard jumped onto my hand.  I was quite startled since this was the first lizard I had seen in or around the new apartment.  I let out a little surprised squeal and he jumped off my hand and behind one of my suitcases.

When I went to leave the apartment this morning, I said hello to our watchman and then went to put a bag of garbage in the bin.  Because the bin is on the east side of the apartment, I have to walk back past the gate to head to work (to the west).  When I did so, the watchman waved me over and made a motion that I should brush off my pants.  It was kind of funny and also really sweet that he told me that I had something on my pants.  I guess I must have brushed against something on my way out.

This evening, I went to my first Dominican baseball (or beisbol) game!  Earlier on in the day, I attempted to teach Robert and Mari about the rules of baseball... on a placemat at Sweet Bakery.

Anyway, we took a carrito down Tiradentes and on the way, we picked up an American and his Dominican girlfriend.  Robert and I ended up telling him about AIESEC and suggested that he join so that he can maybe come and work down here and get experience for his schooling.  He was studying International Business in Utah.  When we arrived, our coworker, Jeremias, was waiting for us.  We purchased hats on our way in, although I bought a bit too soon and ended up paying a bit more for mine.  Still cheap though.  It was kind of big on me so I looked like a little kid wearing it. Our seats were next to the loudspeaker which sucked, but overall we had a fairly decent view.  We were cheering for the Aguilas (Eagles) since that was the side of the field we were sitting on.  We picked the wrong team though, as the Tigres del Licey (Tigers) ended up winning 2-0.  It was a fun night, even if the game wasn't that great.  I enjoyed the food (popcorn, beer and pizza) and got to check another thing off my Dominican to-do list.

More Adventures in Public Transportation and a Gift Exchange

So not only was I locked out of the apartment on Monday night, but I was also locked out when I got home after work on Tuesday.  They were home though, and near the door, so it wasn't a big deal.  I guess they just have to get used to having another person around who may or may not be home at the same time as them.

For the most part, this week was pretty normal.  Work has been busy with a lot of small projects here and there.    A few of my highlights from the week were as follows.

On Tuesday, I got to be the person who exchanges money between carritos!  It's stupid, I know, but I was kind of excited to be sitting in F2 which meant that I passed my carrito driver's RD$100 over to the carrito driver beside us to get change. I also had a really nice lunch from Sweet Bakery, although I didn't realize how little money I had left, and spent just about all of it on this lunch.

On Wednesday, I had a nice lunch with Mari and Robert at Taco Bell.  It was a cloudy, rainy and windy day, and we ended up just sitting at the restaurant for much longer than usual just chatting since we didn't want to go outside.  I decided to walk over to Tiradentes after work to meet Robert to check out his way of going home now when he's at the bank.  We had to wait for quite a while to find a carrito, but once we did, I was very pleased to find out that the end of the Tiradentes line is about 2 blocks away from my new place!

Since we had been paid on Wednesday, Robert and I splurged on Thursday lunch.  We went to Emparedado and then to Sweet Bakery.  Instead of the cheap espressos we usually get, we got their cold caramel macchiato.  It was delicious!

Robert was at the office for most of the day due to a computer issue, so we took a carrito together after work.  We left a bit early and by the end of the carrito ride, it was just the two of us in the car.  Robert got off first and then the driver turned around and started talking to me in Spanish.  While I hate having these sort of discussions with carrito drivers, I was happy to practice my Spanish.

Robert

Carrito Driver

Driver: Is that your husband?
Me: No, he is my friend.
Driver: Where are you from?
Me: I'm from Canada, he's from Norway.
Driver: Do you work here?
Me: Yes.
Driver: You're so beautiful.  Are you married?
Me: No, but I have a boyfriend in Canada.
Driver: (something more about me being beautiful, etc.)
Me: (needing to make it clear that having a boyfriend in Canada is serious) I am only here for one year, and I already have 10 months here.
Driver: ahhhh Where do you live?
Me: I live near here, with a Dominican family.
Driver: (confused about if it is my Dominican family).
Me: No, I just live with a woman and her daughter.
Driver: ahhh
Me: donde pueda!
Driver: okay, bye beautiful, you are so lovely, goodbye, so beautiful.
Me: UGH.

Yep, good times.

On Friday, it seemed as though there was a real lack of carritos all day.  It didn't help matters that the traffic was really bad and backed up.  I ended up having to wait for one for about 15 min.  While I waited though, I got to watch this guy discuss a minor fender-bender with a police officer.

At lunch, I set off to meet Robert and Mari at Pola.  Our office is right beside one of the government ministry offices and they were having their Christmas lunch/party outside.  They had live music, people were dancing and eating and opening presents!  Very festive!

We went to Sweet Bakery after lunch, as per usual, and I ate a delicious little apple caramel bar/crisp thing.

Mari and I also spent some time chatting in English with SB Paula.  Well Mari did more of the chatting, which is typical, but it was still nice to get to know her a bit more.  Turns out, SB Paula thought that the three of us were all American.  We quickly cleared that up.

Today, I had a carrito driver who seemed to be extremely paranoid about being seen by "someone."  He kept glancing behind him and trying to hide himself from view in the car.  He turned around and talked to the other lady and I about it, but I didn't understand much other than the fact that he was trying to ask us if we saw "the car."  Very odd.  At the office, it was the beginning of our Christmas gift exchange.  Instead of calling it a secret santa, J told me that it is called something like "Little Angel."  We have to give two gifts, one small one, that is the devil gift, and then one big one that is the angel gift.  Today was the devil gift.  I was told that it could be a funny gift, but I don't know the guy who I have, so I just got some good chocolates.  I also thought that we had to leave the gift on their desk, so when I got in, I was trying to find someone to do that for me.  Then I found out, through JCL, that it actually had to be put in a box with the others and then distributed.  Great, except all the gifts in the box were wrapped up all fancy.  I mean, I had attached a nice card to mine, but I figured for this gift, it wasn't necessary to wrap it up.  They have gift wrapping at Pola, but I didn't know if it was free or not.  JCL told me that it was, so I ran over to Pola, receipt and gift in hand, to get it wrapped.  There was a pretty big line up and I saw that V was one of them.  He told me that I'd have to wrap it myself using their supplies since the old lady in front had A LOT of gifts that needed to be wrapped.  So, I did just that, grabbed some scissors and some paper, a bit of ribbon, and ta-da, I came up with this.

The entirety of Christmas events at the office has just been one surprise after another.  Not enough communication.  I didn't even know that I had to buy two gifts until just the other day!  And then today, I found out that there was a little event after work to exchange gifts.  It turned out well though.  My angel/secret santa got me some laundry soap (which everyone laughed about when I opened it... I tried not to take it personally haha) and some chocolate.   Other people got funny things too.  One of the girls in auditing got a bottle of listerine and another girl got a razor - I'm sure they tried to not take it personally too.  Robert received a mini Spanish dictionary and I think my favorite was this bright green and yellow shirt that someone got for JD that said (in Spanish), "More Dominican than Platanos." Also, there was a guy, I think one of the new auditing staff, who first offered me his seat.  He said it to me in English and when I responded in English he was surprised and said, "oh you speak English?" I was in slight shock since that isn't a reaction I have ever gotten here...   Then he asked if I was American, and I said, "no, Canadian." Then he went on to tell me how he likes Alanis Morrisette and Celine Dion. Then after I had received my first gift of the soap, he came by to tell me that the soap was really good for white clothing.  Once again, I tried not to take it personally.   He made a point of chatting with me several more times during the party.  A new admirer perhaps?

After the party, Robert and I went to his apartment so that I could grab a table runner and magnet that Gerardo had left for me.  Robert, Mari and I ended up going over and getting colmado sandwiches for lunch before heading to Zona Colonial so that I could buy a few more Christmas gifts.   After we grabbed some ice cream, I headed into one of the stores I like for Dominican gifts and when I went to pay, my credit card was denied.  I have been doing a lot of shopping lately but not THAT much.  So I will have to give them a call tomorrow to find out what is up.  Hopefully they didn't have to cancel it again, like they did earlier on this year.  For the trip home, Mari had mentioned that last time she was there she took a guagua home that ended up going down the street I live on.  I don't like guaguas and really never take them.  But I agreed since it would be cheaper than having to take two carritos.  Our guagua was insane.  First of all, the guy who takes your money and shouts out at people where they are going was a little crazy.  He kept kind of swinging in and out of the guagua and I was sure he was going to end up falling into the traffic.  The driver had a heavy foot and did some hard braking and swerving.  It all brought back memories to my first few public transportation experiences in the DR when I was sure that the public transportation would be the death of me.  We arrived sort of safely.  The guy helped me out but I still bumped my head on the top of the door.  When I was standing on the ground waiting for Robert and Mari to hop out, he said to me, "God bless you baby!" UGH.