It all began last Monday, and being back at work after vacation. It seemed as though I was missed as I got a lot of "KIERSTIN!" at the office. When O came in, he said right away, "Oh good, you're back, I tried calling you!" Uh oh. In the end it turns out that he had wanted some advice on his impending move to Canada. At least it wasn't work related. It was nice to be back at the office and I got stuck with a lot of work. Some of it was interesting, at least for a while, and the other stuff, well not so much. I ended up spending a lot of the week doing research on poultry farming. Random. I met up with Ozumy, Marola, Robert and Mari for lunch at KFC. I haven't eaten there in a long time! We also grabbed some ice cream at Wendy's on the way back! Mmm...
On the way home from the office, I met up with Mari and Robert at Nacional. A few exciting things happened there. First of all, we saw something that was ridiculous but because it was ridiculous, I had the urge to buy it. I resisted though.
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| Vodka wrapped in faux fur. |
Then I found star fruit for RD$20 which is less than $1 Canadian! Amazing! And they tasted way better than the ones we get at home!
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| Cheap Star Fruit |
Then I decided it was time to start getting into the Christmas spirit, and what better way to do that then by buying a festive box of tissues!
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| Christmas Tissues |
The three of us decided to make dinner together. Rather, I made some pasta and Robert and Mari made some bruschetta. It was nice to sit and have a meal together.
On Tuesday, I was supposed to meet up with Lostania at lunch to go over some of the things that need to be done for the mentoring process. She ended up having to stay at school longer than planned, so I called up Mari to see if she was interested in a late lunch. Luckily, I caught her just as she was heading out the door to get some food. We met up at Sweet Bakery and had giant salads! In the evening, we went to pilates. We both had to pay our November fees and that's when we found out that starting in December the monthly rate is increasing from RD$1000 to RD$1300. Unfortunately, this means pilates is now unaffordable. In addition to the increased rate, our usual ride home from Sylvia will be no longer since she is moving back to Wales in December. Since the taxi costs us RD$150 each night, plus the RD$40 for carritos to the studio, we're looking at a total cost of RD$2220 per month, each.
I was able to meet up with Lostania for a late lunch on Wednesday. We went to Emparedado for some sandwiches and had a nice chat. I was also quite happy to finally get paid on Wednesday. It was only 2 days late, but still. I mean it shouldn't be late at all. I miss direct deposit. In the evening, we went over to Sylvia and Arturo's place. It was a bit difficult to find but eventually we saw Sylvia standing out on the street outside the house. Gerardo, Paula, Yeimy and Pavol were on their way as well. They were a bit lost so Sylvia was on the phone with them and had them honk so that we could figure out how close they were. It was rather amusing. We were originally supposed to have a movie night but ended up playing Cranium again. I was on a team with Arturo and Pavol. We sort of won. By that, I mean, when we called it a game, we were one card away from the win, and no one else was in the middle section yet. It was nice to have the gang all together again. It's been awhile since we've done that. It was a really late night though which set me up for extreme exhaustion for the rest of the week!
I had another late lunch with Mari on Thursday. Just as she was about to leave to meet up with me, the Gas Guy showed up to look at their gas tank. Luckily my lunch hour is flexible so I was able to chill out at work and wait for her to finish up at home. We decided to go to Pola, and while I was waiting there for her I saw a kind of funny sight: a motorbike with about 10-15 plastic lawn chairs piled up on the back. I really wish I was able to get a picture of that. Mari and I also saw a monk at lunch time too, as we were heading over to Sweet Bakery, dressed in the awesome brown robe. I was so tired after work but I still managed to drag myself to pilates. More and more businesses and other areas of the city are getting all of their Christmas decorations up. Judging from the sheer amount of lights that are put up, I fear that there will be more power shortages in December! This is at one of the big banks. From the other side, their giant nativity scene is visible.
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| Christmas lights at Banco BHD |
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| Mari and her socks to keep her warm at pilates |
I left work a bit early on Friday to meet up with Adaica. She was taking me to see the apartment in which David had been living in before he left. The apartment is quite close to where I currently live. In the mornings, it will be a slightly shorter walk to where I go to catch the carrito, but a longer walk home in the evenings. The lady was very nice. She lives there with her young daughter. She is a music teacher and had opera on in the background when we arrived. I knew right away that I would like her! The apartment is small but quite nice. It has a modern kitchen which I enjoy. The room that she has for rent is affectionately known as the "Princess Room." This is because there are princess murals on the walls and the bed is in a princess type shape (I can't remember if it is like a flower or a crown or what). It's cute and while not really my style, I can deal with it for 3 months. There is also a TV in the room with cable which excites me a lot since I never get to watch TV here and I really want to watch more shows in Spanish to help me learn! So, I said I'd take the place and decided to move in this coming weekend. I'm so relieved to have a place to live! I'm also nervous and a bit excited too.
After viewing the apartment, we headed back to the current apartment so that I could get changed out of my work clothes. Then Adaica, Robert and I headed over to the AIESEC office since the trainees were having a meeting with the MC team. The meeting went well and afterwards many more AIESECers and other friends showed up for "Russian Night." Sasha had prepared several dishes for us to try and a St. Petersburg shot (vodka, grenadine and tabasco). She also did a short presentation on Russia and had us learn a few words in Russian. We also had the opportunity to meet two of the interns that are in the other city, San Francisco de Macoris. At the party, we got some bad news about our Saturday plans. We were supposed to go to 27 Charcos but because multiple cholera cases had surfaced in the Dominican, they were advising us not to go since the chance of ingesting water is fairly high when you're jumping into waterfalls... We're all wondering if someone is trying to make it clear to us that we shouldn't be going on that trip!!
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| Robert and Mari |
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| The party. And Mari. |
Since we were no longer going up north, I went into work on Saturday morning. As I do every morning, I wandered over to Sweet Bakery before heading into the office. While I was walking, a gray car pulled up beside me and someone did the sssssst ssssst thing at me. For some reason I actually turned and looked. It was A, the driver from work. He asked me where I was going (he seemed confused, since I have to pass the office to go to the bakery), and I replied, "Sweet Bakery," and pointed up ahead. He seemed confused by this but realized that I wasn't going far. I added in, "tengo hambre" (I'm hungry) to make sure he understood me. We waved goodbye to each other and then I carried on my way. It was J's birthday so once I found out I made a point of saying Happy Birthday to him. He was very happy that I did so! After work I picked up a few groceries and headed home to have a nice nap.
That evening, Mari and Robert invited Pavol and I to go to the movies with them. We went to see Social Network. It was actually quite good! That and I was happy to have some popcorn. Mari is always cold (I don't understand this at all!) and had brought along socks and a blanket to the theatre. I'll admit that by the end my feet were a tad cold but still. After the movie, we headed to the colmado for some drinks and sandwiches. They messed up my order though and gave me a sandwich with only cheese instead of tomato and cheese. Oh well.
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| Me, Pavol and Robert with a giant coke outside the theatre |
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| Umm Yumm Yuumm |
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| Cute new Presidente bag for the beer |
On Sunday, everyone went to the beach. I decided to stay home since I wanted to get some cleaning and packing done plus I had plans to skype with Leslie earlier on in the day, and an early date night with Bart later on. A fairly low key day overall but I definitely needed the time to myself. Plus it rained a bit that day at the beach anyway, so I didn't miss out on much.
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