What José has done, is seen.

So the Dominican mid-term elections are this Sunday, and I have been receiving text messages to my phone.  This is the most recent one I have received:

Lo que José ha hecho, se ve.  Este 16 de Mayo vota por JOSÉ MONTAS SINDICO, vota PLD.

What José has done, is seen.  On May 16 vote for José Montas, Trustee - vote PLD.

Ah, good times.

Yesterday was, well, exhausting.

Mom and dad were flying here and were scheduled to arrive just after 7pm.  Their first two flights both landed early (good work Air Canada), but then their flight from Miami to Santo Domingo ended up being delayed (American Airlines) as the plane was late leaving from Paris.  I had J call in the morning to book Don Pedro to take me to the airport.  So when I saw this delay, we had to reschedule.  Then I got home and received an email that said the flight had been delayed further.  I thought I'd wait it out a bit before rescheduling again with Don Pedro, and I'm glad I did.  A few minutes later, the flight was cancelled (apparently mechanical issues with the plane). I ended up calling AA to see if they could tell me whether or not my parents would be on the next flight out, at 8:30.  Indeed, they had just been booked onto that flight.  I desperately tried getting in touch with O or J to call Don Pedro (he doesn't speak English) but O was in class, and J was teaching class.  Luckily, Maria was kind enough to call on my behalf and we rescheduled.  At 8:30, I checked the flight status again, and it said it would be leaving 10 min late.  Fine, I could deal with that.  I checked again in 10 minutes, and it said the plane had left.  I was so relieved.  They were scheduled to arrive at 10:40 by this point.  Shortly before 10:00 I thought, I'll just check again in case the arrival time had changed at all.  Thank goodness I did, because they changed the departure time to about an hour later!  Ahh.  So Maria called Don Pedro again to reschedule.  I felt so bad - even though there was nothing that I could do.  The flight ended up arriving a tad early, which I was grateful for, but by the time they got through customs, it was about midnight.  They also had damaged luggage.  And by that, I mean I now have damaged luggage, since they had taken one of my pieces.  Sigh.  Of course, American Airlines didn't have a booth open, and when we tried calling their offices were closed.  So we're hoping that if we call today, we can get something worked out. 

Don Pedro then took us to the hotel, it is a beautiful place!  I can't wait to explore it further tonight when I meet up with them!  I was hoping that their room would have two doubles, so that I could stay over, but no such luck.  Following that, Don Pedro took me home, where I proceeded to open up an array of birthday cards and gifts that my parents had brought with them from Canada.  Since I wanted to be talking to Bart when I opened up his gift, I went online and did just that.  But I didn't end up getting to bed until around 2am.  Just as I was falling asleep at around 2:30, the power went out, which caused me to lay there, wide awake until it came back on again and it cooled down enough for me to sleep.

Along with all of this excitement, David also arrived this morning.  Zak and Ozumy dropped him off at around 6am.  I tried to show him around the house but forgot a lot of things... I felt bad having to take off so soon after he arrived.  However, he was so very kind and brought me a lovely bracelet from Portugal as a birthday gift. 

Maria and I went to the salon.  We were supposed to be there at 7am, but it was closer to 7:30 when we arrived.   It is very different than salons in Canada.  Anyways, for RD$180, I had a manicure and a pedicure.  Unfortunately, I wrecked the polish on my toes once I got to work - so I will have to do a quick touch up at home.

My plans for the rest of the day, are to leave work a bit early so I can have a nap before heading to the Colonial Zone to have dinner with my parents at La Residence (the restuarant in their hotel).  And I'm going to wear my new birthday dress!