Mirror, Mirror...

Mom, dad and I decided to go to Faro a Colón on Tuesday. We had the hotel call us a taxi and away we went. As we got closer and I realized that yes, that was indeed Faro a Colón, I started to giggle. I am sorry to anyone who likes this place, but, it just made me laugh. The entire thing just seemed random to me. Regardless, the taxi driver gave us his card so we could call him for the trip back and we headed into the building. On our way in, we got to see a little pope-mobile. That’s fun. The first thing you see when you walk in is a very ornate marble monument with a black box in the center, with a guard in front. That is said to be the remains of Christopher Columbus (which are apparently going to be opened up and viewable by the public in October, if you're so inclined). The rest of the monument/lighthouse that is Faro a Colón is filled with a museum, sort of. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. There were sections on many countries of the world. I think (and I could be terribly wrong) that the first section of the museum was on the countries that Marco Polo explored/traveled through, and then the second section was on those that Columbus explored/came to be found because of his explorations. However, most of the country displays looked as though the respective countries just gave a little something for the display, since they didn’t have a common theme to them. Mom and I got in trouble for taking pictures at the Canada section… I wouldn’t mind seeing the lighthouse section turned on (it makes a GIANT cross of light in the sky) but that would also probably leave me and a few others without power. And we all know how much I like having power in my home…

It ended up raining for essentially the rest of the day so we just hung around the hotel. I went with mom to the business center to do their online check-in for their flights. While there, I received a call. I thought it was from O, since it was his phone calling me, but turns out it was J. J wanted to know if I was coming back to the office (it was already 4:30pm) and I said, “no, I took the afternoon off, I’ll be there in the morning.” To which J says, “well we have a meeting for the FB project at 10am, how much more do we need to do on the report.” I reply, “I’m not sure, I still haven’t received the new data from you and the new changes have to be reviewed.” Anyways, this ends up in J telling me that he is going to be there at 8am. So I say, ok, I’ll be there at 8am too. Now, I know that I am doing a good job, but when things like this happen, I still get stressed. When it comes to my work, I’m a bit of a perfectionist – anything that my name gets attached to better be top quality. Anyways, my frustration/stress/worry caused a migraine, so the rest of my day was a write-off.

It felt very odd to say bye to mom and dad. It felt odd for them to be visiting me to begin with! I guess that is how you know you have actually moved to a new place: when people start visiting and you end up playing tour guide. It’s the first time that I’ve said, see you in 3-4 months. I don’t think I’ve gone that long without seeing them before. I stressed out a bit since the flight they were supposed to be on was delayed, and I didn't know if they would make their connection, but as it turns out, they were put on an earlier flight and so everything worked out just fine.  Air Canada even said they would fix or replace my luggage that was broken!  Hurray!

My day at work was rather frustrating.  As promised, I was at work just after 8 am, and not as promised, J showed up at 9:30 am.  I was less than impressed.  You can't tell someone else to come in early to work on a project and then you not show up!?!?  Frustrating.  Finally, last night, we had another enjoyable group dinner at our apartment.  This time, the guests included Zak, Ozumy, Orlando, Maria and Manuel (along with myself, David and Pavol).  Orlando was the chef for the night and he made a chicken dish along with potatoes and an excellent salad with strawberries!

Recent Randomness:
On my way to meet mom and dad on Tuesday, I had a very brief walk between carritos where I passed a man who was peeling fruit and dropping all of the peels into a container. A lady walked by and dropped her peel in there too, but the man turned to her and gave her massive evil eyes. She ended up picking her peel out and throwing it out somewhere else.

The mirror at work fell down the other day and broke.  Now I don't have a mirror at work.  This mirror, was the only mirror in which I could see half of myself in.  My bathroom mirror is too high up and not of good quality, so I can see from my shoulders up there, and my bedroom one is just a small vanity mirror, which is good for only small sections at a time.  I never know if my outfit actually works or not... and at least the work mirror gave me a bit of an idea...

This morning's carrito ride was ANNOYING.  The lady in place number 3 refused to help me open the door (it was a kind of pull the handle, push, wiggle the door to open thing) so the man in place number 2 had to reach over her to help me.  THEN when I went to pay, normally when you are in place number 4, the person in place 3 will take your money and pass it to the driver, because it is too far to reach.  But no, lady in place number 3 refused to do this, so I had to attempt to do a sit/stand maneuver over her in order to pay.  If I knew better Spanish, I would have been tempted to tell her to get over herself - she's in a carrito for pity sakes!