When it Rains, it Pours!

It's Friday!

So let me recap the last couple days.  I barely remember Wednesday except that work was slow, it rained at lunch so Mari came to the office and we ordered in Emparedado, and David gave me some jello and cream dessert that he had made.

Thursday was an eventful and kind of unfortunate day.  It all began with a 25 minute wait for a carrito in the morning.  When I got to work, the A/C was on, but about 5 minutes after I sat down at my computer, the power went off along with the A/C.  I had to deal with V on numerous occasions.  First he was asking me what I brought him from Canada, and I was like um nothing?  Then he told me how Erin had brought him Maple Syrup.  I felt like telling him that maybe if I worked in his department and we were actually friends that I would then maybe consider it, but I just said, sorry I didn't.  He then came up to my desk later and when he saw my Glacéau "Smart Water" bottle (I had bought some before one of my flights and have been refilling the bottle lately) he told me, "oh if it is smart water then it must be wine." I was like, "what?!?" This didn't make any sense to me.  Then he went on to explain what wine was and I said, no I understand what wine is but I don't get why wine is smart water.  I just let him ramble on about weird and odd things and just kept nodding and being like, "oh, uh huh, ok, cool."

Pouring Rain near the Office

At lunch, I had plans to meet up with Ozumy and Mari at Nacional.  When it was time to leave, it had just started pouring rain.  POURING.  But I was determined to make it to lunch so out I went.  I had to stand back several meters from the road just so that I wouldn't get splashed by the enormous puddles and was thus afraid that I would be unable to get a carrito's attention.  Of course, no carritos drove by and I stood there for at least 10 min waiting for one.  I was to the point where, if I saw another taxi, I was just going to pay the RD$150 and take it to Nacional.  But luckily, a carrito came and a man was getting out where I was, so I was able to run inside.  I was already soaked from the knees down.  I need a bigger umbrella.  Crossing Lincoln to get to Nacional was a bit tricky.  It involved tightrope style walking on the side of a sign and then a huge hop over a giant puddle and then a quick run through traffic.  Ozumy watched my entire show from inside and told me when I arrived that I looked like I could be in the circus.

WOAH - I just noticed that in that picture is a full version of the Japanese garbage truck!  Here is a blurry zoomed in version.  Wow, this just made my day!

Japanese Garbage Truck!!!!!

Okay, back to Thursday.

So yes, lunch was lovely and by the time I headed back to the office it had stopped raining.  My poor black leather flats were soaked again and I spent some time drying them off in the washroom with paper towel.  Even by the end of the day they had yet to dry completely.  The power was also out at the office when I returned and it remained out for about 2 hours.  Thus, everyone was just sitting around not doing much since all of our laptops had died by then.  Once again, I am so glad I have a blackberry.  The lack of being able to work gave me an opportunity to sit down for a nice chat with J.  We've been better lately.  I found out that after work, Robert and Mari were meeting up with Manuel to go to IKEA.  I rarely turn down a trip to IKEA so I went along with them.  We had a plan to meet Manuel while he was driving up Lincoln.  Somehow this didn't work and they went to our office, but we were already at the meeting place on Lincoln.  In the end, we found each other and off we went.

The best part about the IKEA trip was supper.  I wanted to try the new cheese and spinach crepe, so I did.  I also got some wine because I can't do that at home!  Robert and Mari were also excited about the ability to buy alcohol at IKEA too.

Spinach and Cheese Crepes with Wine at IKEA

Notice how I apparently have a wine drinking pose?

Wine pose at IKEA

Also very random, there was a bird flying around the food market.  It looked cute though perched on top of this light.  This didn't impress Mari.  When they were at a resort in Punta Cana just over a week ago, they got really sick on their way back to Santo Domingo.  At their last meal there they saw a bird eating off the buffet and they figured this may have had something to do with their sickness.  Mari also had a story about how once a bird swooped in and took a chunk out of a waffle (I think?) that she was about to take a bite out of.  Birds and human food do not go well together.

Bird in IKEA

Even though we left IKEA with plenty of time to spare, Mari and I didn't make it back home in time to change and get to pilates.  A part of me was sad that I missed it, but the tired and lazy part of me was quite pleased.  I had two long skype chats, one with Bart and the other with Mom, before heading to bed.

Today has been a much better day, although it began with me being quite worried.  I don't think I have mentioned that there was a gas leak from one of the other apartments in our building which was drifting into David's room.  For the past few days he had been sleeping in the living room as a result.  I didn't really chat with the guys last night so I didn't know whether or not the leak was fixed, but since things always take so long here (and our neighbours, whose gas it was, refused to do anything about it) I figured it hadn't been fixed yet. When I got up this morning, David's mattress wasn't in the living room and his lunch bag was still in the kitchen, which meant he hadn't left yet.  David is always up early.  So of course, I start worrying that he fell asleep in his room with the gas still leaking and that the reason he wasn't up yet was because he was passed out!  I decided not to freak out right away and waited about half an hour just in case he had slept in.  Sure enough, that was the case and he told me that the leak had been fixed!  On the way to work, Robert and I walked down closer to the metro to catch a carrito which was fairly successful.  Once at work, neither of us had coworkers around and I was in desperate need of a coffee so we went to Sweet Bakery and got double espressos.  For lunch we met up with Ozumy and Mari at Wendy's.  It was Robert and Mari's first time at a Wendy's and I think they enjoyed it!  Mari also just got a blackberry so I spent some time showing her the ins and outs.  I actually have quite a bit of work to do now at the office, which I like since it keeps me busy.

My plans for tonight are to just chill at home.   I was invited to a concert but I still don't have the energy for it. - plus, I work in the morning.