Slowly Getting into the Christmas Mood

The beginning of my week was a little rough.  I have been having issues sleeping well at night.  I think it has something to do with the new place, bed facing a new way, having to sleep on the other side of the bed, etc.  It's improving though!  Overall, the week has been quite busy at the office.  A lot of projects on the go and several that are finishing up which means I'm doing a lot of translation and quality control work.  Along with writing a few proposals and other things.

On Monday, I had lunch with Mari.  Lately, our lunches have been as cheap as we can make them.  I think this one came in at about RD$65 (CAD$2).

Rice and Beans and Platanos Maduros

I was quite worried that I would somehow end up getting off too early on my way home.  I didn't have to worry about this though since I got stuck at work a bit late and traffic was too heavy to justify taking a carrito.  So I walked all the way home.  It's amazing what those extra 6 blocks do for my energy level.  I was really tired by the time I got home.

Tuesday was similar to the day prior.  Lunch with Mari and lots of work.  It was pay day but I didn't want to have to walk home again, so I left right at 5 to catch a carrito, and thus missed out on getting paid.  I headed home quickly and tried to have a nap before Gerardo came to pick me up for a trip to IKEA.  I wasn't overly successful at actually falling asleep but even just resting made a huge difference in my energy level.  Once he came we went to pick Mari up, carrito style, at the side of the road.  Once she was in, we headed off to IKEA.  On the way, we passed by the park where Lincoln and Lope  split and I finally got to see the trees all lit up.  We decided to stop on our way back for pictures.  Then we passed the park with the giant animals near IKEA and they had COVERED the giant gorilla in lights.  It was amazing and kind of crazy at the same time.  Again, we decided to stop after supper and shopping.  So we arrived at IKEA and went straight to get some dinner.  I had the pasta and a cute can of wine.  I know, a can.  It was called "Vino & Fashion."  How could I resist?

Vino & Fashion

After eating we did a bit of shopping.  I was picking up a gift for our Secret Santa night we were having on Wednesday, along with a few foodstuffs and a random stocking stuffer for Bart.  However, being at IKEA (which makes me feel like home since it looks exactly the same), listening to Christmas music and seeing all the Christmas decorations made me incredibly homesick.  Mari was having the same issues.  I started getting really excited about going home for the holidays!  As mentioned, we planned on stopping by both parks for pictures after, and that's what we did.  Here are some shots (courtesy of Mari):

Me and the Crocodile

Eee Big Gorilla!

Gorilla with one green eye

Giraffe

Me and Gerardo

Poinsettias and lights

It ended up being a really enjoyable evening!

Wednesday's excitement came in the evening.  I rushed home from work to pick up something to bring to the party and to wrap my gift for the gift exchange.  I was actually buying for Gerardo, and thus had secretly purchased his gift while with him at IKEA.  I threw on a dress and headed over to Robert and Mari's a bit early so that I didn't have to walk when it was totally dark.  Slowly, everyone else showed up, except Sylvia.  She called us and as it turns out she'd been trying to get a taxi for about half an hour and didn't have any luck.  So Gerardo and I headed over to pick her up.  Gerardo because he has a car and me because I have the best sense of direction.  When we returned, we all did some more chatting and picture taking before doing the gift exchange.  It was so much fun!  Robert was my secret santa and he got me a mahogany massage thingy that was made locally in the DR.  Very cool!  Manuel also stopped by and we ended up ending the evening with some Charades.  Here are some highlights from the evening:

This morning, I met Mari at the metro station so that we could get an early breakfast, together with Ozumy at Sweet Bakery.  Afterwards, Ozumy and I went to the dry cleaners since I had a few things to be cleaned, along with a pair of pants that needed the hem fixed, and another pair that just needed to be hemmed.  I needed Ozumy to be there because my needs were a bit more sophisticated than I can handle myself in Spanish.  Plus I really didn't want anything to be screwed up.  The total bill for the dry cleaning of one pair of pants and two shirts, plus hemming two pants was about RD$700.  That's about $20.  Which is insane.  I pay nearly that much to have one pair of pants hemmed back home!

At work, I got a call from Sr. S and he asked me about my progress on a particular financial report.  I stopped and thought, I know which one he's talking about but I didn't know that I was supposed to do anything with that.  As it turns out, I was supposed to translate it.  So it seemed like there was some pressure to get this done right away, so I just immersed myself in it and finished the entire financial statement in about 3 hours.  Sr. S was really surprised that I finished it that fast.  So was I, but I mean, they've gotten a lot easier now that I've done so many of them.  We didn't have internet for the end of the morning and the rest of the day.  That was really frustrating.  O and I also had to get a document and draft email onto Sr. S's blackberry in order to send an email with an attachment which HAD to go out today.  What a hassle.  Internet is important, just saying...

I ended up leaving a tad early, which I didn't feel guilty about since I had worked through my lunch.  I made it home in less than 20 min!  I rented "Eat, Pray, Love" off of iTunes the other day so I'm hoping to watch that this evening.  Life tomorrow is also going to be different, as Pavol heads back to Slovakia. There is a good chance he'll be back in January, but it will still be weird not having him around.  Such is life though.