I was sitting in the carrito when I noticed a tiny ant crawling on me. This isn't weird, often this happens in the carrito. So I squished it and went back to staring out the window. A few blocks later, I noticed another one. That's odd. And then I looked down at my purse and saw several of the tiny ants and tiny spider type things crawling in my purse. UGH. So I tried to squish as many as I could without looking suspicious. Then I realized why they were there. I had two Daim chocolates in my purse that they had found. UGH. I tried to remain calm for the rest of the trip, including my stop at Sweet Bakery. When I arrived at work, I promptly emptied out my purse, got rid of the chocolate, and then attempted to wipe it out with one of my kleenex wet wipes. Horrible!
My new room has some of the tiny ants running around and the purse incident was enough to make me buy some ant traps. I figured that I would try the traps first before the sprays. Probably better for my health. So that's what I did after lunch. Lunch, by the way, was kind of exciting for me. I love getting the fruit salad, but normally there is too much papaya in the mix. And living here has taught me that I don't like papaya. But on Friday, it was essentially all pineapple, kiwi and grapes! Hurray!
By the end of the day I was exhausted with a headache. I decided not to go to Romanian night as a result. Instead, I spent the evening listening to Beethoven and reading my book. It was exactly what I needed. I was also able to have a chat with mom and with Bart, which was nice.
On Saturday, I ended up at work really early. When I turned on my computer I looked at the time and thought, what, how did I get here so early?? I even slept in a bit and chatted with the girls at Sweet Bakery too. I was in before JCL! After work, I met up with Maria at Nacional. From there, we headed to the place that brings in packages that are shipped to her Miami address. Then we went to a copy shop to get some shirts printed for a few of her friends. It turned out that they didn't have the right sizes in their own shirts, so, after a quick stop at Maria's place, we were off to Plaza Lama to get plain white shirts. We then headed back to the copy shop and waited while they made the shirts. From there, we walked back to Lincoln and took a carrito to Independencia, then to Zona Colonial. Our first stop was finding the American who sells his cave drawing photos. I had to pick up a few to take back home. Then I picked up some more Christmas gifts, and a replacement doll for the one I had given to mom for her birthday (it ended up breaking on the flight home from Turks and Caicos). By that point, Maria and I decided it was time for a drink, so we headed to Plaza Espana. I was kind of excited to go there because Mari had told me that a while back, they were putting up a big tree in the plaza. However, when we turned the corner and saw the tree, I had a good laugh. I was expecting something beautiful and classic. Okay, well it was classic... coca-cola classic:
The restaurant we went to had this weird deal on their menu where you could eat as much as you wanted from the sampler plates for RD$500. The waiter convinced us to go with this. But the servings were tiny! The gnocchi dish had 5 gnocchi in it. FIVE. And then I had this dish with mashed potatoes, peppers and cod. I finished it in about 8 bites. Not worth the money at all. I mean I could have had more, except, there was nothing else on the menu I wanted. Anyway, here we are enjoying our drinks and what the tree looked like once the sun went down.
When I got back home, I was happy to be able to chat with mom, dad and Jonathan! That's a rarity. It was so nice though!
Today, I had exciting plans! Maria had invited me to go with her to San Pedro to visit her mom. Her mom had planned on making sancocho. I got up just a bit later than my regular time and on my way out the door, I sort of met the parents of the lady I live with. It was kind of awkward, but I just smiled, said Hola and went on my way. I met up with Maria at Nacional, although I was a bit early so I grabbed an espresso. Then I went to check out if Casa Cuesta was open yet. Turns out, it didn't open till 10. Since we needed to go there, I decided to go and have some breakfast at the cafeteria to kill time until the store opened. That's where Maria met up with me. We went to Casa Cuesta in search of decorations for Maria's tree at her mom's house. We found the decorations for the tree and I also picked up a poinsettia for Maria's mom as a thank you for having me over. We caught a carrito to Duarte and then walked to the bus station. There is something about Duarte which I love but also which I am afraid of. I find it fascinating to just watch people shopping and checking out what things are being sold, and at the same time, I know it is not the safest place in the city for me to be. Anyway, once we got to the bus station, we met up with Nicole who was coming along with us. The best part of the trip was when a guy on the bus stood up and was trying to sell these toothbrushes that folded up, so that the brush part was covered... it was so random. He talked about how they were especially good to keep your toothbrush away from the cockroaches. And something about not wanting to play hide and seek with the cockroaches. It seemed as though he managed to sell a few.
When we arrived in San Pedro we were bombarded with motorconcho drivers wanting to take us to where we needed to go. They were incredibly persistent. Finally Maria yelled at the one that was coming up onto the sidewalk with his bike, telling him that he needed to let us pass. He replied that he was just working, and she told him, not on the sidewalk. It was really annoying. Then another guy said to this other guy, in regards to the three of us sitting and waiting for a taxi, "Did they move the toy store?" Then he carried on by indicating that he was confused about where it was now since he was looking at 3 beautiful dolls right there. UGH. Then the other dude replied, "no they are stars that have fallen from the sky." UGH x2
Finally the taxi came and we headed over to the house. We were greeted at the door by Maria's mom and 3 totally fun dogs! Maria's mom made vegetarian sancocho just for me! The first thing I had to do when we got in was taste test it to ensure it had good flavors! And it did! Then I played with the dogs, drank some beer and helped Maria and her mom decorate their Christmas tree. So enjoyable!
Soon it was time to eat! The sancocho was really good. I also liked it with a bit of rice in. I even ate two servings! MMM.
After we ate lunch, it was determined that I had to learn how to play dominoes. So Maria gave me a quick lesson, and then her mom joined us. We played for quite a long time. I was doing quite good for it being my first time. At one point, her mom was getting frustrated with me blocking her moves and she told me to go back to Canada! It was so lovely to be sitting there, playing dominoes and drinking beer with amazing people.
It was a truly fun day. I felt very Dominican. In the best possible way. Maria and her mother were gracious hostesses and I am so pleased to have been welcomed into their home! When it was time to leave, we said our goodbyes and Maria decided to take home the 4th dog, a baby chihuahua. So the three of us, plus the dog, hopped into a taxi to catch the bus back to Santo Domingo.
Dominos are cool, and they don’t get the credit they deserve often enough.
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