Rain and the Awesome Metro Card

For those of you who haven't taken a look at the weather we're having here lately, well we're in the middle of a tropical wave.  So it's raining pretty much all the time.  I've been lucky that the last two days, JD has given me a ride home from work.  On Monday night, he also drove home two other guys from the office.  JD and I have similar taste in music.  Often he has on either jazz, classical or opera - and this suits me just fine.  But the other two started making fun of it.  The one guy even said that if it was his radio, he would break it.  JD and I had a good laugh about this, so then, to make them suffer, JD turned on opera quite loud and started singing along. 

On Monday night, I watched Invictus.  While the ending was predictable, I still thought it was an enjoyable and inspirational kind of movie.  I was very frustrated though when the power went out when I had about half an hour left in the movie.  My battery power was just slightly less than the remaining time in the movie (about half an hour), so I knew it would be close.  I wasn't lucky though and the laptop died about 5 min before the end.  About 15min later though, the power came back on, and since I wasn't asleep yet, I decided to watch the end.

Yesterday it was raining quite hard in the morning, so I waited around until it stopped raining before heading to work.  Again, I was able to catch a ride home with JD.  I found out that he actually works two jobs, and that when he gives me a ride home, he isn't going home himself, he is actually heading to his other job.  Apparently he goes to the other job at around 7:00am, then comes into our office around 9:30, stays till 5:00pm and goes back to the other job until 9:00pm, sometimes as late as 11:00pm.  He told me though that he really likes doing what he does - he sometimes doesn't understand why people pay him to do the work since it comes quite easily to him.  I told him that a lot of people would envy that.  Then he told me about how he truly believes that if you love whatever it is you do, the money will come.  I agree with this.  Although he then said this applies to everyone from basketball and baseball players, to lawyers, and prostitutes.  Yes.  He said prostitutes.  But I guess, if prostitutes love what they do, then they are probably good at what they do, and probably make good money as a result.  Regardless, I was a little bit shocked but more amused than anything. 

I was quite sore still from the hike on Sunday so I was not looking forward to going to pilates.  I considered not going, but in the end, decided I'd better.  I have to get into the routine and all!  The plan was for me to take the metro to near Paula's house, where we would meet, and then catch a carrito to the studio.  This was my first time taking the metro on my own.  I was hoping that I could finally get a Metro card (the rechargeable/scanable kind) since Paula was able to the week before.  Sure enough, I did!  I am such a transit nerd.  I had a bit of problems telling the ticket man that I wanted the full RD$100 put on the card, but I got through it and everything worked out.  I felt a nice feeling of satisfaction over this small accomplishment once I was on the train and on my way.  Here is the card (note that similar to Edmonton, they only have one line currently hee hee):

When I met up with Paula, we went to find a carrito.  The first one we got into told us to go into the one behind him as it would leave sooner.  So we did.  But then that guy sat and waited for so long trying to get more people.  Even when he had 5 people in the car, he still waited for the 6th.  It was frustrating since we had to be somewhere by a specific time.  We tried to get him to leave when there were 4 of us in the car, but his response was that he would leave if we paid for the extra seats.  Yeah.... no.  Paula also told the driver to stop in Dominican!  Normally she says it quite politely like she would in Costa Rica.  I was proud of her!  Pilates class was quite good.  Our instructor was back and feeling better so we had to work really hard.  I keep forgetting to mention that the way we end the class is by coming into the prayer position with our hands after the relaxing session and then we clap really loudly and cheer.  So Dominican...  Arturo and Sylvia gave Paula and I a ride home which was greatly appreciated!  Not that I mind taking a taxi, but having to pay RD$100 twice a week does add up.  Plus its fun to get a chance to chat with them!

This morning, it was pouring rain again, but stopped at just the right time for me to leave and get to work at a decent time.  Although the carrito I took must have had some leaks as the seats were damp and there were pools of water on the floor.  We went through some massive puddles.  Here in the city a woman and her child nearly drowned because of the flash floods, and there have been reports of flooding elsewhere in the country including a collapsed bridge, damaged homes and rice crops.  Not good.  I'm glad that our apartment is on a bit of a hill, but it would make me feel better if we were a bit higher and further away from the ocean (although normally I am a fan of living so close to the ocean).  I ended up having lunch with Pavol, Orlando and Jakub, which was very nice.  I also decided to get some groceries at Pola so that I didn't have to stop at Nacional on the way home in case it was raining.  I'm glad I did because they had avocados!  Finally!

I am also happy to report that I got approval from Sr. S to take off two weeks to come home sometime in the next two months.  Hurray!  However, I was then disappointed when O told me that at Christmas, we get to leave a noon on the 24th and then we get the 25th off which is a Saturday.  Nothing else.  No days in lieu.  Nothing.  He also told me that apparently no one is allowed to take holidays starting in November through tax season.  Which makes sense, considering we do auditing and accounting work.  I'm hoping this won't apply to the interns, and by interns, I mean me.  I need snow at Christmas.  And the massive frost build up in the MC freezer doesn't count.

Finally - check out the new options below!  And in an effort to solicit more comments and feedback (which I love to receive) I've changed the settings so that you no longer have to have a google account to comment.  We'll see how it goes.