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...