Carrito Gandhi and Canada Night

I usually try to leave the office right at 5, because if I leave any later I have serious issues trying to catch a carrito.  On Tuesday, I didn't leave the office until 5:10 since I had to help Robert with something.  I waited until 5:30 on Lope for a carrito and couldn't get one at all.  So I gave up, walked to Tiradentes to see if I would have better luck there.  I did, but I still didn't get home until 6:00.  However, I suppose it was meant to be, since the carrito driver was sort of unique.  First of all, he had these really nice cushions on the front seat so the ride was quite comfortable.  I looked at the driver ID hanging off his rear-view mirror and realized that the guy driving the carrito was not the guy in the ID.  Not by a long shot.  After closer inspection of the driver, I realized he looked like a Dominican version of Gandhi.  Random.  I also noticed that he was driving with his bare feet.  Also random.

The next day, in the carrito going to work, our driver pulled over into the left hand lane and stopped to talk to one of the police officers.  They seemed to know each other well, and when they went to shake hands, they just kept their hands in the shake/holding position for a really long time.  Just as I got my phone out to snap a picture (since I was in B1) they let go.  The remainder of the week was pretty blah at the office.  Robert had gone to Jarabacoa to do his paragliding pilot course and I only had a few small projects to take care of, but I didn't mind since I needed a bit of extra time to work on my Canada presentation for Saturday night.

After work yesterday, I made a big shopping trip to Pola to get all the supplies I needed for making poutine, bannock and caesars.  I wanted to make Nanaimo squares but I don't think I could have done it well with the lack of kitchen supplies available to me.  Anyway, I took all the groceries over to the MC to store them there until the evening (since I was doing the cooking there) and then went to Nacional to grab a few other ingredients (gravy mix and cheese) before heading home to finish the presentation.  I had some issues with my ride to the MC and ended up arriving late.  Mari came with me and the taxi we took got totally lost.  Unfortunately, Mari and I were busy talking and when he went down Lincoln instead of Lope, we realized a split second too late to direct him the right way.  So I figured that he was just going to go that way in order to end up on the right side of the street for the MC... but no, he had no idea where he was going.  He went into an area that I'm not that familiar with and we had to direct him out of there and back to the MC.  Insanity.  Luckily, Sasha had started cooking the fries which was a huge help.

Maria and Lorena arrived just before us and they ended up helping me cook the food (THANKS!!).  Maria took care of the gravy and Lorena helped me make the caesars.  We even had a bit of an assembly line going for the poutine.  I put the fries on the plate, Lorena added the cheese, held it for Maria to put the gravy on and then the two of them coordinated putting the dishes out.  Everyone liked the poutine a lot.  The caesars got mixed reviews - which I expected.  Some people loved them, others were like, meh.   I think a few people felt bad that they didn't like it so I made sure to tell them that I actually rarely drink them since they aren't my favorite - but I wanted to serve a drink originally created in Canada so that's what they got.

Getting ready to serve

Me talking about poutine and caesars

More of me talking

Dig in!

Maria and Lorena looking fabulous

Lorena, me and Maria: poutine chefs!

Then I made a batch of bannock and just fried it on the stove.  It was good, basic, like it should be, and everyone seemed to like it as well.

Manuel and Mari eating bannock

Everyone eating bannock!

I was about to start getting ready for my presentation - and to put on an Our Lady Peace request for Arturo - so I wandered over to where my MacBook had been sitting blasting Canadian tunes for the evening.  To my horror, someone had spilled something on the laptop and just left it there!  I was super pissed and quickly went to grab a cloth to clean it up.  Luckily, it didn't get in the keys.  And then, as I was wiping the computer off I noticed that the left hand corner on the base had a small dent in it.  Upon further inspection, I noticed that the top corners of the screen were scraped, as well as the bottom corner. So apparently someone dropped my precious baby and didn't say anything.  It still works fine but I was just really upset that someone would not even tell me that it happened.  Obviously it was an accident, but when you don't fess up, that's not cool.

It took me a bit to compose myself, which delayed the beginning of the presentation.  Eventually though, we got everyone gathered inside and I did my best to teach everyone about Canada.  One of my favorite parts was a section I entitled, "Speaking Canadian," where I taught the group some Canadian words and phrases, like: eh, double double, timbit, pop, bunnyhug (a Saskatchewan favorite), loonie and toonie.  Everyone seemed to enjoy guessing what each was (I had pictures of everything on the slide as well for them to choose from).  I also had a few objects to pass around, including a stuffed beaver, a toque and a loonie and toonie.  I finished off the presentation with a photo montage video that showed varying Canadian landscapes, cities and animals by province/territory.  Then it was question time.  I was so pleased by all of the interesting questions people asked me!  The best moment though was after all the questions were finished, Felix said out-loud, "I really love Canada."

I forgot to have someone take pictures during the presentation, so with Arturo's help, we recreated what I'm sure I looked like during the presentation.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the night a lot which made me happy and I was so glad to have been able to teach everyone about the amazing place I call home.  Thanks again to everyone who came out!