More Random Adventures

If there is one thing I will miss about the Dominican, it is how often I find myself having little adventures or random experiences during moments that should be totally normal and boring.

Last night, going to pilates was our random adventure.  First off, Mari and I left a bit later than we usually do in order to make it there in plenty of time.  Then there were the issues with the front gate.  My key wasn't working, and she had grabbed Robert's keys instead of her own, and she couldn't get his to work either.  So we went back and got her keys so we could leave the apartment.  We wandered over to Lincoln to wait for a carrito.  One came by and we hopped in.  Then, when the carrito went to begin driving again, the car shut off.  This is not completely abnormal, so we sat and waited for him to get it going again.  He was putting the car into neutral and getting it to roll backwards (we were on a hill).  I assumed this was because he wanted the car to be resting against the curb perhaps due to the lack of an e-brake (also not abnormal).  Often, the way they restart the car is by doing so under the hood, so this made sense to me.  After what seemed like several minutes of rolling backwards, it was finally clear that the carrito wasn't starting again.  We went to get out, as did the man in the front, and we all realized that because of the high curb, we couldn't actually open the doors on the right hand side of the carrito because the curb was higher than the bottom of the door.  So then, the carrito driver magically pulled and pressed in various places to make the left hand side door open.  We all crawled out, and caught the next carrito. 

The rest of the trip to the pilates studio went as planned.  We arrived about 10 minutes late though.  The class was great - I was happy that we did more side leg exercises to work on the obliques and glutes.  Near the end of class, just as we were about to start the "cool-down" routine, the power went out.  It was essentially pitch black.  But, once our eyes adjusted, we were able to follow along, mainly because we do the same ending each class.  The hilarious part was when a random man just walked into the dark studio and was then kind of surprised to see a bunch of people doing the tree pose in the dark.  I'm unsure why he just walked in, but anyway, he quickly ran back out.  We all had a good laugh.  Just as the class had ended and we were getting ready to go, the power came back on. 

Life is rarely boring here.

Jumping back to Monday... the day was pretty "normal" overall.  I met up with Ozumy, Mari and Robert for lunch at Jardin Verde.  Like usual, I had their amazing frozen chinola.  Here are some shots of our food:

Frozen Chinola

Dumplings and Platanos Fritos

Espaguetis con Salsa Especial

After work, I headed to the bookstore at Nacional to attempt to meet Lostania, who I am mentoring.  She ended up being nearly an hour late, but I appreciated the fact that she called me twice to ensure she was on her way.  Once she arrived, we sat down and got to know each other a bit better.  I spent a bit of time discussing in more detail what AIESEC is and what she can get out of it.  It was an interesting meeting - not exactly what I had expected - but a good start. 

Tonight, Mari and Robert are hosting a little dinner get-together at their house.  I have yet to decide what I am making/bringing.  I'm hoping that it will come to me while I'm grocery shopping tonight at Nacional.  Definitely looking forward to the evening!

In other exciting news, Sr. S told me today that my air conditioning is being fixed.  He even pointed out which guy was going to fix it.  As excited as I am, I'm trying to not get my hopes up.  I have kind of forgotten what it is like to not be disgustingly sweaty at work...

Hotel Gran Bahia Príncipe Punta Cana

Yeah, resorts aren't really for me.  While the beach was great and the facilities were nice, I found it to just be too big and noisy.  That and the wine was horrid.

In Gerardo's Car

The view near La Romana

We left early on Friday morning and headed off for Punta Cana.  Gerardo and Manuel were driving, so we put 5 people in Gerardo's car since he drives an SUV and 4 in Manuel's.  I was with Gerardo, along with Robert, Mari and Sylvia.  Manuel, Pavol, Paula and Yeimy were in the other car.  The best moment during our trip to Punta Cana, besides the amazing chicken wrap at Burger King, was our lost in translation moment with Gerardo.  It went something like this:

Kierstin to Sylvia: How do you pronounce binoculars?
Sylvia: binoculars.
Kierstin: okay, its the same
Sylvia to Gerardo: What is binoculars in Spanish?
Gerardo: Pinocho
All of us: ahhh pinocho
Gerardo goes on to explain to us that in Italian there are two c's but we were just like, ok that is random.  Sylvia then looks it up in her dictionary - she gets a lot of other words but not pinocho.  I looked it up on my translator and it said pinocchio but in the moment, we were like, what pinocchio? But then, we wondered, is it singular or plural - like in English, a pair of binoculars
To Gerardo: how do you say a pair of binoculars, like a pair of pants
Gerardo is confused but says: un pinocho, dos pinochos, tres pinochos
More discussion on languages and whether or not it works as a pair... we're still confused, so finally...
Robert to Gerardo: ok how would you say this: I am using a pair of binoculars to look at birds
Gerardo: Estoy usando un par de largavistas para ver a los pajaros.
Us: WHAT? Now you're using a different word!!
Gerardo: noo, that's what binoculars is!
Us: But you just told us it was pinocho?
Gerardo: nooo, pinocho is the boy who lies and his nose goes like this *action of long growing nose*
All of us start laughing uncontrollably and pondering how people would laugh at us if we referred to binoculars as pinochos in real life.  We're still not sure how Gerardo heard Pinocchio when we said binoculars...

When we finally arrived in Punta Cana (after a traffic jam before Higuey), we went to drop off Sylvia so that she could meet up with her friend.  We ended up getting into this golf club/residential compound and waited there for her friend to arrive.  Once we did that, we headed to the resort.  When we arrived, the man at the gate said he couldn't find our reservation after we told him to look under the name, Pavol Kazimir.  He told us to move out of the way since there was a line forming.  Gerardo got a bit upset and told the man that he's not moving, we were here first so he has to help us first.  The man then went to the next car, which was Manuel and company, and then came back and said, well that guy is Pavol Kazimir, and Gerardo says, "yeah I know, we're with them!"  So we got let in.  Then when we pulled up in front of the lobby, the guys there didn't want us to park there.  So Gerardo backed up a bit, but then got fed up and just left his car there.  Eventually the staff went and parked his car in the parking lot.  We arrived prior to check in time, so they gave us our wristbands and sent us to the restaurant to have lunch.  When we returned, one of the three rooms wasn't ready, so they brought us an additional welcome drink while we sat and waited.  We tried to make a reservation for an a la carte dinner that night, but were told that we couldn't since they only took reservations until 3:00.  It was approximately 3:01 when the guys went there.  We ended up making one for Saturday night at one of their Japanese restaurants on site.

The resort itself was quite large.  We had to be taken with our luggage via a sort of train to the areas of the resort where our hotels were located.

Robert and Yeimy

Unfortunately, Robert and Mari's room (Villa 30) was a ways away from where the girls room and the guys room was (we were both in Villa 25).  We all dropped off our luggage and then quickly headed to the beach.  It was a rather cloudy and windy day so the beach wasn't all that enjoyable.  Gerardo, Pavol and Manuel ended up going to a pool that we technically weren't supposed to use (certain pools and amenities were just for particular classes of guests).  We then met up back at the pool that was for our use to hang out for a bit, before heading back to the rooms to change and get ready for dinner.

Paula

Hut

After dinner, we hung out in the lobby bar for a bit before heading into a sort of marketplace area.  There we did some window shopping, hung out at a karaoke bar and then danced in the streets before Robert, Mari and I headed back to our rooms and everyone else went to the disco.

Gerardo and Pavol at Karaoke

Robert and Mari dancing in the street

The next day, we met for breakfast before heading to the beach again. 

Statue in the Garden near the lobby

Paula at Breakfast

Frisbee was played, tanning was enjoyed, water was splashed and everyone had fun.  We then decided to move back up to the pool for more relaxing.  Robert ended up joining in a water polo game.  It was pretty pathetic as both teams had their goalies sitting in the nets and kept players at either end to "cherry pick."  Yeimy and I took a walk on the beach while the sun was setting, and when we returned to the pool, we ended up taking a ton of amazing underwater pictures with Manuel's awesome underwater camera!

Sylvia, Manuel and Mari in the pool

The beach as the sun went down

Beach

Frisbee

In the evening, we went to the Japanese restaurant.  We had a hard time finding it at first.  I was rather unimpressed by the selection they offered, especially because everything came with meat (except the desserts).  I ordered a coca cola to drink, but received flat pepsi instead.  They messed up our order several times but in the end, we all had something to eat.  The food was fine, nothing spectacular.  We didn't end up leaving the restaurant until 11:30pm (our reservation was at 9:30).  I was really exhausted, but everyone else wanted to go for another drink.  I honestly felt like I had taken medication that made me drowsy, so I went back to my room and fell asleep almost immediately.  When Yeimy and Paula returned, they had to come in through the balcony since our keys kept being deactivated, and then they decided to sit and chat while watching tv.  Needless to say, I had a horrible sleep.

On Sunday, our final day, we met for breakfast again.  I ate more delicious croissants (I was surprised at how good they were) before going back to the room to pack up my stuff.  We had a bit of miscommunication since I, along with Robert, Mari and Sylvia, were under the impression that we would check out and then spend the rest of the time at the beach or pool, since we had discussed with the resort staff the night before as to whether or not we could stay past the checkout time.  Everyone else decided to go to the beach before checking out (which gave them about 30 min or so).  I ended up staying in my room, packed up, and met Robert, Mari and Sylvia at the lobby to check out.  We then enjoyed a quick iced coffee before heading to the beach.  I send Gerardo a message to tell him that we were heading to the beach, and they said they would join us in a bit as they were just checking out.  While we were enjoying a great spot on the beach with the little hut for shade, the others ended up going for lunch and then decided they were ready to leave.  This cause some issues since we were waiting for them at the beach.  At the end, we made our way back, ate quickly, and we left before 3 pm.  Traffic was insane on the way home, it took us over 6.5 hours (which included 2 quick stops) to get home.  In Higuey, traffic was nearly at a standstill.  Because of this, we sent Robert out on a mission to find ice cream at a colmado.  It was quite funny to watch him run back to the car, at which time we sent him up the street to another colmado. 

Robert colmado hopping while we were stuck in traffic

The highlight of the trip back was an awesome car game that Robert and Mari taught us.  It really helped to pass the time and we all learned a lot too!  Educational and fun!

Epic Hair at the Bookstore

Lately, I've been feeling like life is really normal here.  Nothing random and crazy is happening anymore. 

And then, the man with the epic hair came into the bookstore.

So yesterday after work, I had gone to the bookstore in Nacional to meet with Lostania, who I am mentoring.  It seems as though we had some miscommunication, because she never showed up.  However, it turns out that an hour alone at the bookstore café was exactly what I needed.  I enjoyed the quiet atmosphere and the classical background music.  I got a sneak peak at another presidential hopeful's campaign material (his team was working at the table beside me) and enjoyed an Arizona Iced Tea.  I took some time to write out the issues that have been nagging at me and also thought about how to deal with each of them.  Quite productive.  By this point, I had run out of things to do so I began people watching, and then I spotted this man:

 
But at first, I couldn't get a good shot of him, so I drew a quick sketch to send to Mari who I was chatting with at the time.

Anyway, here are some additional views that I took after I ran into Manuel (who had come to the bookstore to buy a dictionary and was also shocked and amused by epic hair man)!

Of course, BB pictures are not always the greatest, especially for things in the distance.  What you can't necessarily tell from the photos is that his hair was thinning up front, so his big poof up top was quite teased and sparse when up close. This, added to the way he carried himself and acted while in the bookstore, just made everything more random and funny to me.  He was quite poised and acted very distinguished, took his time looking at the books and talking to the staff.  He even stopped by the café and slowly sipped something while seemingly judging its quality.

I'm such a creepy stalker at the bookstore.  I also now feel bad for judging this man and his hair.

Anyway, today has felt more like a normal day at the office.  For starters, Robert had 15min between his course this morning and heading out to the client's office so we were able to have espressos and catch up a bit at SB.  I met up with Mari for lunch.  Our plan was to go to Pola, but we walked in and it was insanely busy, so we walked out and went to Emparedado instead.

Well, I'm going to be away for the next few days working on my tan and I'm sure I will have much to write about when I return.  Did you know that this will be my first time ever going to an all inclusive resort?  I've never really considered myself to be an all inclusive resort kind of gal, so I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Pre-washed Lettuce and Krispy Kreme Hats

I attempted to write this blog post yesterday.  It was a very hectic day.  All that was sitting and waiting for me when I opened it up to continue today was this:

Before

Yep, that's how far I got.  However, I do remember where I was going with that.

Before I get to the meat of the post, I wanted to let all of you know, who may or may not read my amazing friend Leslie's blog, that she is competing in the Project Food Blog Challenge - and she needs your votes.  So here's what you do:

1. Go to foodbuzz.com
2. Sign up (super simple)
3. Look for "Chomp!" on the alphabetical list of blogs (you'll see a great picture of Leslie, taken by yours truly!!)
4. Click on the little heart and you've voted!
5. Read her blog - it's awesome, I promise.

So this weekend.  I worked Saturday morning, as per usual, and happily left on time!  After stopping by Nacional for some date night yummies (including finding pre-washed and packaged lettuce!!), I headed home to do lots of fun things like reading, doing updates on my computer and napping.  David and Pavol were both away for the weekend so I had the place to myself.  A part of me enjoys being there alone, but at the same time, it gets awfully quiet.  I had a quick chat with the family as they were all in Edmonton.  I helped Jonathan to arrange his newly framed pictures in a pleasing way on his wall.  That's something I love about skype.  Even though I'm thousands of miles away, I can still be involved in people's lives.  After my chat with them, I spent the rest of the evening playing the usual Monopoly and Scrabble with Bart.  I got beaten badly in Monopoly (2 out of 3 games) but then I got my revenge in Scrabble. 

On Sunday, I was up early to get my bedding in the laundry and to meet up with Maria.  We went for a manicure and pedicure at 9:30.  I was quite unimpressed with the lady who did mine.  At first, I was pleased as she redid my one nail not once, but twice due to my clumsiness.  But then she made my toe bleed.  No tip for her.  Thankfully it seems to be ok (no infection) but neither of us will let her do our nails again.  We then headed to Krispy Kreme where we met up with Robert. Maria and I got given a free donut that was still warm.  It was beyond delicious, so much so that there is no way I could have eaten another one.  However, I was still able to eat more non-hot ones.  I also love the hats.  Dominicans seem to especially love wearing the hats. 

Maria

Me

Glazing Donuts

Maria enjoying her free hot donut

Robert with the hat

That is the video we made as we opened up our box of one dozen donuts.  Here's how many were left by the time we went to leave:

Since I have been talking about baked goods a lot lately, I wanted to ensure everyone that I am indeed still eating healthy most of the time - I just don't talk about it that much.

Salad made with the awesome pre-washed and packaged arugula!

The remainder of Sunday involved more lazing and napping.  It was what I needed. 

Monday was another crazy day at work.  We found out that we had prepared the wrong country report, and so had to rush to complete the one we were supposed to do.  As always, I ended up doing most of the work and then having to wait on others for the work I didn't do.  This all resulted in me working overtime again.  After lunch, Robert and I went to Sweet for an afternoon espresso.  We chatted more with our favorite employee there, and learned that her name is Paula!  When we were there in the morning, she wasn't there and because of that, our espressos were not as good and our baked goods weren't heated up.  She makes everything better!

Today is going much better so far.  I had a good laugh during my carrito ride.  The carrito seemed to be stuck in 1st gear.  Needless to say, the trip was really slow and we barely made it up the hill near my apartment!  Robert is out of the office with the rest of the audit team as they had to go to see a client today.  That meant I made the trip to Sweet by myself.  I had an early lunch with Mari and Ozumy and afterwards, Mari and I headed over to Sweet for the afternoon espresso.  Ozumy brought me an awesome treat and in return, I bought her a chocolate croissant to enjoy later in the day while she was at work!

Regular Snickers are hard to find, but somehow Ozumy found me a Snickers Almond!

Mini chinola pie at Sweet Bakery

I should also mention that we have a short work week!  Friday is a holiday.  In celebration, all of us interns are heading to a resort in Punta Cana for Friday - Sunday.  I'm looking forward to having some relaxation time and the opportunity to regain my tan!

No Sushi & Jiu-Jitsu For Me

It has been an insane week.

Rewind to Wednesday.  In the evening, we all headed over to the colmado.  It was a great evening!  Several large bottles of Presidente were consumed and the Snickers bars were back in stock (although I should mention that they are still not available in the supermarkets).  I also decided to try the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Colmado Sandwich.  WOW.  For something that was made at the colmado, it was REALLY good.  As always, we had quite an international crowd gathered together: Canada, Wales, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Portugal, Norway, Slovakia and the Dominican Republic.

The crew, minus David (photo credit: Mari)

Me and Robert

David, Gerardo and Manuel

Mari and Pavol

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Colmado Sandwich

Snickers!

Yeimy, Paula and Sylvia

Thursday was hectic at the office.  We're still trying to finish a couple reports that should have been done about a week ago.  I ended up getting really frustrated with J.  I thought he was busy working on doing an update on one particular aspect of the report, and then near the end of the day, he comes to me and asks me if we still have to do that aspect.  I couldn't believe it!  I had no idea what he did all afternoon!  One funny part of my day was at lunch.  Robert, Mari and I met up with Ozumy at Pola.  We were there quite early and the pasta wasn't ready yet, so I went with rice and bean sauce.  When I sat down, I was telling Ozumy how I hoped there wouldn't be any meat in the bean sauce today.  She opened hers, and was like," nope, should be good.  Mine is all vegetables."  I was relieved.  Then I opened mine up and found this:

Eeew

Yep, a huge chunk of gross meat.  Needless to say, my bean sauce sat on my tray while I ate the rice plain.  Since I felt obligated to run back to work to continue working on the projects, I didn't join Robert and Mari at Sweet Bakery.  Turns out, our favorite employee was asking where I was.  They also found out that she is learning English.  When Robert and I got home from work, Mari was out taking pictures of lizards in the garden.  She then mentioned how the watchman has a shack in the back.  I had never actually ventured into the back garden before so I followed Mari in.  Sure enough, he has this little hut, with socks and a shirt hanging up, shoes inside, a chair, and other miscellaneous items.  It is kind of creepy.  We also realized that we have papaya and guava trees in there!  And what appears to be bananas!  Going to have to keep an eye on that fruit!  Later on, I headed to pilates with Mari.  It was a good class and a good workout!  I found it funny that on Tuesday, we had essentially all the class there, and then on Thursday, there was only 6 of us.

Today was insane.  I started it off well, with a now daily trip to Sweet Bakery.  They had the giant cream cheese filled croissants which was awesome.  The girl we like, tends to always give us "extras" - whether it be a double espresso for the price of a single or putting some of the free samples in a bag for us to take.  We also realized today on the bill that she told the till lady that Robert had gotten only 1 chocolate croissant, when in reality, he had two.  Anyway, it was a great way to start the morning.  I still can't get over how good their pastries are (and thus why I talk about this place so much)!

MMM

More MMM

I spent most of the day working in Sr. S's office on those projects that we'd been working on for days now.  He was very frustrated with J and said so openly in front of me.  I feel bad for J since he has to sit there and take his boss putting him down with a less senior employee (me) sitting there listening.  I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it, but it's still harsh.  I was able to sneak away for lunch to meet up with Pavol, Robert, Mari, Gerardo and Paula at Quizno's.  Robert, Mari and I have sort of started a Friday lunch thing, where we splurge and eat somewhere more expensive.  Anyway, back at the office, I spent more time with Sr. S and J.  I ended up staying until 7:30.  It was a long day.  We still aren't finished though so I have to be in early tomorrow to help finish it up.  We'll see if J did his part of the work in time for Sr. S and I to finish.

Due to my extra time at the office, I didn't get home in time to make it to the Sushi and Jiu-Jitsu night at the pilates studio.  I had thought that I might make it back before Robert and Mari left, but I missed them by a few minutes.  The taxi driver that L had called for me at the office was late showing up, and then proceeded to hit on me when he dropped me off.  Good times.  Except not.  As it turned out, staying home and eating a big bowl of pasta was pretty enjoyable.  But I'm also out RD$250 for the event.

Finally, Paula taught me a new saying today: Pancita llena, corazon contento.  Which means "full stomach, happy heart"  Although technically, pancita means more like little tummy - which is cuter.

La Cucaracha! La Cucaracha!

On Monday evening, I decided to open up a little package that Leslie had given me before I came back to the Dominican.  On the back it read, "open when you need a reminder of Edmonton." Well a week of being away from Edmonton was enough of a wait.  When I opened it, I was so happy to discover an adorable card and two lovely and unique pendants from both Leslie and Benita, which they had bought at the City Market back in the spring.  It was such a thoughtful gift and made me so thankful to have amazing friends like the two of them!   Here are some pictures of the pendants - they are made from Scrabble tiles!  Funny thing, when I opened the card, the Scrabble tile side was showing and I kept thinking, why I and E.  And then I turned them over and realized there were pretty designs on the other side!  Silly me.

Cute black and white design and a birdie

I and E

On the weekend I bought my first plantain (platano) as I was determined to cook something that was more Dominican.  So on Monday evening, my goal was to make platanos frites - which are essentially fried plantains.  The ones in the restaurants look (and taste) much better than the ones I made.  But for my first try, I was happy.  Usually in the restaurant they are more squished/spread out... but when I tried to squish mine, they just broke apart.  I also think that sometimes they are deep-fried.  I'm also unsure of the right ripeness.  

Plantain in the peel

Chop Chop Chop

Add a bit of salt and pepper

Frying

Done!

Tuesday was very hectic at the office.  However, I am so excited to be working on a project for an international firm that involves me doing real actual International Business work - the stuff I learned in school!  It has me quite excited.  It's actually a project that I kind of took on voluntarily.  When it was originally assigned to me, I was given a contact in another Caribbean Island to speak to in order to get the information.  But once I looked at the list of questions in more detail, I figured it was all information I had the knowledge to understand and obtain.  So I've been working away at it and have, so far, been successful.  Lunch was spent at Pola again with Robert and Mari, and again, we went to the bakery afterwards for an espresso.  We're enjoying going there a lot, especially now that we are regulars!  I also learned something random that I should have known before.  While in the pest killing device section of Nacional we came across some traps for cockroaches.  I then read the Spanish text which indicated it was to get rid of cucarachas.  Cucarachas?!  My entire view of the song, "La Cucaracha" was suddenly changed.  And then I felt silly - how did I not know this before?

Chocolate Croissants that rival ones I've had in France

In the evening, I went to pilates with Mari.  It was a good workout!  We also bought tickets for an event there on Friday, where there will be sushi and a jujitsu presentation.  While it is not really my thing, it will be nice to spend time with the ladies.  After I had my nightly chat with Bart, I went over to Robert and Mari's apartment to try Mari's guacamole.  We found out that people think we both make excellent guacamole and we make it differently.  So it was time for me to try her version.  It was very yummy!  She also showed me this crazy bug.  He looks like a bunch of leaves and is quite large and sort of scary!

Mari checking out her guacamole

Crazy Leaf Creature

Today has been another busy day.  I forgot to buy more cereal yesterday, so I didn't eat any breakfast at home.  However, this did not upset me since it meant I had an excuse to purchase multiple pastries at Sweet Bakery.  Along with the Croissant de Chocolate, I also decided to try a Croissant Dulce con Queso Crema.  I'm pretty sure my face says it all.

Mmm cream cheese goodness!

 The power was out at the office, so J and I packed up our stuff and headed over to the framing shop to do our work there.  On the way there, J was driving down this kind of narrow street, when he turns to me and says, "I think maybe this is one-way..." This kind of made sense since all the traffic was going in the opposite direction.  I loved how no one, not even the other drivers, was fazed by this.  I do enjoy working at the shop (and there were less ants as compared to last time) since I get to check out the art well working.  I was sad though because going there meant that I had to miss out on lunch with Robert and Mari at Wendy's.   Instead, I ate lunch with J at La Sirena.  It was kind of awkward but not as bad as I thought it might be.  However, their salad bar did not compare with the one at Pola and I ended up throwing most of it away.  We stayed at the framing shop for the rest of the day.  It was nice to work in a silent, air conditioned space.  Every once and a while, J would interrupt the silence with some random story.  Usually they didn't have a point, but they were kind of amusing. 

The plan for tonight is to head to the colmado and celebrate both Costa Rica and Guatemala's Independence Days!