Empty Apartment, Motorcycles and Paragliding

The last week has been extremely busy.  I was bad and didn't take the time to update the blog.  This could get long.

We didn't end up having hot water until Thursday.  When I came home from work on Wednesday there was a bit of a mess in my room from the plumber being there so I knew that he had actually come.  I also found out on Wednesday that my landlady Delaine had to decided to move most of their stuff to their new place, leaving me in a mainly empty apartment.  Other than it being very echo-y, it's been alright.  She's actually around quite a bit though, doing more packing and cleaning, so its more like having a roommate who is there half the time.  I'm very grateful though that she isn't letting the new owners move in until I leave - it is so kind of her.  She also left the internet for me, which I am even more grateful for!  It's definitely different living alone though, although the place is very secure, including a 24 hr watchman.

On Wednesday, it was Robert's birthday.   I bought him a chocolate croissant as a present in the morning.  At lunch, we went to Wendy's and Robert had his first ever float.  He liked the idea, but preferred it to not be mixed, saying that he could drink the coke with his meal and then the ice cream after.  I think he's crazy, as it is so good mixed!  We still have to work at him remembering what it is called, as throughout the day he referred to it as a floatie and a floater... both of which sound not good.

In the evening, I headed over to the colmado to celebrate Robert's birthday.  A lot of people showed up, I think the most we have ever had at the colmado.  We essentially just sat around and talked, drank beer, ate colmado sandwiches and to finish off the evening, Robert, Trond, Maria and I played dominoes (Robert had gotten a set as a gift from Manuel and Laura).  At first it looked like Robert and Trond were going to beat Maria and I, but then we came back in the end to win by about 2 points.

mi hermana y yo

Trond with his domino holding trick

Maria

Robert

At the end of the night, I did something that I was really afraid of.  I let Arturo take me home on his motorbike, Dominican style: with no helmet.  Fellow Canadians, I know what you're thinking - I was thinking it too.  If conditions were different, I wouldn't have done it, but, Arturo is an experienced driver, it was only 4 blocks away, there was no traffic because it was so late, etc.  Maria had a good laugh since it is completely natural for her to hop on the back of a bike with no helmet.  I explained it to her like this: if you go your entire life with the notion that being on a motorbike requires a helmet, always, and then suddenly you get on a motorbike (scary enough when its your first time) without a helmet, it feels really really bad and scary and horrible.  I made sure that Arturo didn't drive too fast, and I got a bit freaked out when we made the corners, but it was actually a lot of fun.  I think I would try it again sometime, but would need a helmet before I'd go out in any more traffic or for any more distance.  I've also had nightmares about motorbikes on the freeways/highways so I couldn't go too far anyway.  The one good thing about it was that I faced a legitimate fear - and that always feels good when it's done.

That's my: I'm so scared I'm laughing face

On Thursday, we were really busy at work trying to finish the translation of a feasibility study.  Luckily, we got it done in time, so we didn't have to stay late to finish.  The one nice thing about having a deadline is that lunch was brought in for us!  After work, I went home for a quick nap before meeting up with Trond and Mari to head over to the MC to attend Paula's goodbye party.  Earlier in the week, we learned that Paula had decided to end her internship early, which is frowned upon by AIESEC, since it makes the exchange process appear less reliable to the partners, but it was the best decision for her.  The night was lively, with dancing and Costa Rican drinks.  I met another one of the interns from San Francisco de Macoris, Vicky from England.  She was very nice and I enjoyed chatting with her.  She told me that she thinks the pollution here is worse than in London, where she is from.  I actually agree with her.

Friday was our first day off of our 4 day long weekend.  The only thing I did outside of the house was go and get groceries.  My plan was to wander over to La Cadena, which is about 4 blocks from my house, but as I approached Lincoln, I saw that it was closed.  Crap, I thought, since I really needed groceries.  I thought I'd take a chance on Nacional, so I hopped into a carrito.  I figured that if I saw cars in the parking lot, I would get out, and if I didn't see any, I would keep going to Pola.  There were a few vehicles in the lot, so I got out and went inside.  Not everything was open, but the main grocery part was so I was able to pick up enough for the weekend.  I hopped back into a carrito and headed home.  I decided to watch a few of the movies I had on my computer in order to delete them to gain some extra space on my hard drive.  First up, was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Meh,  it was alright.  In the evening, I was invited to play poker at Arturo's house but I had a bad headache so decided to stay home.  I finished up the painting which I had started a few days earlier.  It was a nice way to relax before heading to bed.

On Saturday, no one wanted to do anything, so I ended up just staying at home.  I watched Goodfellas and A Single Man.  Goodfellas was good, though I've never been a huge Mob/Gangster film fan.  That and I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Ray Liotta.  A Single Man, however, was beautiful, tragic and heartbreaking, but beautiful.  I spent most of the day doing absolutely nothing, which in hindsight, was probably a good thing.  I took some time to reflect and plan for my imminent departure and such.  In the  evening, Bart and I had our weekly date night, but we decided to play different games than usual.  We tried backgammon and pool.  In the end though, we were both craving a scrabble match, so we didn't fully stick to our plan of doing something new.

Sunday morning, I was up early and busy packing for the day ahead.  We (me, Robert, Mari and Trond) had decided to go to Jarabacoa with Arturo for some paragliding!  I was ready to go at 9:45, like planned, but Arturo, being Dominican, runs on Dominican time, so it was much later before they were ready to pick me up.  Anyway, once we were all in the truck, we had to make a quick stop at the Rabies Centre (Mari had been bit over the Christmas holidays and had to get her final shot) for Mari before hitting the road.  The drive to Jarabacoa was nice, although a bit cramped in the back.  It was so worth it though.  I love Jarabacoa because of the fresh air and because it feels like back home.  We ate lunch at a place Mari had discovered on her first trip there.  Essentially looks like a little garage but made excellent Mexican style food.  I had their cheese burrito.

After that, we headed up to Jamaca de Dios (a resort community thing), to meet up with the other Dominican paragliders.  It was a fairly steep drive up and we couldn't do the entire thing with the truck and had to walk the last bit.  The first guy who we watched run off the mountain was unsuccessful in his take off.  This was worrisome since Arturo had told me that the only risk I have with my camera is on the takeoff when you often will land face first if it is unsuccessful.  Ack.  Robert went next and his take off was successful, but he told us later that they had brushed up against a few trees before they really got going.

Walking up the mountain

Takeoff point

Robert getting ready

Robert's takeoff

Robert in the air

Mari had wanted to go next, but they needed someone a bit lighter to go with Tony (guy I had met the last time I was in Jarabacoa and who runs the flight school there), so I ended up going next.  I wasn't totally prepared, mentally, but sometimes it is best to just be thrown into it.  Like I said, I was most nervous about the takeoff.  The running was kind of awkward since you are tied to someone else, but we got a good stride and lifted off fairly easily.  Mari has pictures of me getting ready and the takeoff, once I get copies I'll post them.  Anyway, it was a neat feeling just running and then suddenly your feet aren't touching the ground anymore!  I thought I would be scared, being up so high and just being held up by a parachute, but instead, I just felt calm and safe.  It was beautiful.

View from the air

Looking up at the chute

Tony and I in the air

More beautiful views

The one great part, was when Tony said to me, okay, body weight to the right.  Arturo had prepped us earlier on this and what would happen, so I crossed my legs to the right and leaned in that same direction and we began to make a fast spiral in the air.  It creates a bit of G-Force which makes the stomach feel a bit odd, but it was quite fun.  We also passed by, quite close, to the restaurant at the resort place and Tony yelled out to them, "Hola!  Como Estan!" When we were getting closer to the ground, Tony told me that we were going to have to do a butt landing, so he told me that when we got closer, he would get me to put my legs up high in the air.  This was kind of nerve-wracking, the thought of landing on the ground on one's ass, but you sit in a fairly cushy chair and Arturo had told me that it wasn't that bad.  Plus, the other option of a running landing wasn't that appealing since I was worried of hurting my bad ankle again.  The landing was really quite soft, thanks to some awesome grass and I assume some awesome piloting by Tony.

Our chute, after the landing

Mari, flying next in the distance

Beautiful

The soft grass

Near the landing site

More paragliders

It was an amazing experience and I wish that I could have gone for longer, or another time.  The wind conditions weren't great so the entire flight was around 10 to 15 minutes or so.  Kind of crazy jumping off a mountain and landing 650 meters below!

Paragliders!

After we hung out with the paragliding people for a bit, we headed over to Arturo's family's place for a quick bite to eat.  We also had the pleasure of meeting his parents.  They were very gracious and lovely.  His parents even took the time to walk around the grounds with Mari and I, teaching us about the different trees they had and what they grew.  I learned that avocados grow on really big trees.  For some reason, I thought they would grow on a smaller bush like tree, but now I know!

The drive back to the city was good, except for one portion when it started pouring rain.  Pouring so hard you could barely see the road in front of you.  But after that intense bit, it was smooth sailing.  Arturo took us to a steakhouse, which he claims has the best steak in the Dominican Republic.  He talked me into trying a bit, since, like I said, it is apparently the best in the country.  I had a teenie tiny piece.  It was good, but I won't be going back to steak anytime soon.  The place was quite quaint and unique.  You wouldn't expect such great food from just passing by!  Essentially, it was just set up in the front yard of a house, the left side had a grill and was where they prepared the food, and on the right hand side, there were about 5 tables set up.  And the prices were really good too.  I expected it to be an expensive meal considering that 4 people had steak, but was really really reasonable!

Robert and Trond

My wine

The steak

See!  Tiny piece!

My half eaten salad

The steakhouse

On Monday, the original plan was for Maria and I to go to the beach, but that morning, we decided to just stay in the city since we knew it would be really busy coming back in the afternoon.  I made my way over to her place just after noon and we took a carrito to Kennedy and then walked the rest of the way to IKEA for lunch.  The walk was so hot.  The sun was intense and we were both a little sweaty once we arrived.  Okay I was a lot sweaty, Maria, she was good.  After a quick bite to eat, we walked all the way to Blue Mall.  Luckily, we made our way through several shady streets which helped a lot, but by the time we arrived, we were literally parched.  There are these fountains on the side that we came in on and both of us mused about how great it would be to jump in!  We got two bottles of water and downed over half of each one.  Then it was time for shopping.  We checked out a few stores that had sales, and I was going to go back to one to try on some jeans that I liked that were on sale, but then we saw that MANGO was open.  Needless to say, I ended up buying 2 dresses, a pair of jeans and a sweater there.  Great prices though.  The jeans, I got for about $37 Canadian, and they were regular nearly $100.  Sweater was a great deal too.  $20 down from $65.  I also decided to buy Maria the same sweater (we both loved it - not surprisingly) as a thank you for being such an amazing friend over the past year.  I got kind of emotional about it, as did she.  We've had so many great memories which we reminisced about later over donuts at Krispy Kreme.  She has always been there to help me and to teach me, and to just be an amazing friend.  I'm going to miss her so much!!!

Our Day: Blue/Purple: carrito, Red: walking, Green: carrito

I spent the rest of the evening, watching Glee (I had downloaded the first season on the weekend) and chatting with mom, dad and Bart.  I also did a bit of laundry too.  I had a horrible sleep since I have these 3 weird bites on my arms that itch so bad that it kept waking me up during the night.  Ugh.  I hope they disappear soon.  In a new development, people at the carrito stop (as Robert and I refer to it now) have begun lining up.  This is big.  Normally, it is just this mad free for all, where the Dominicans actually run and push their way into the carritos as they arrive.  There are still a few that don't obey the line system, which is annoying, but it is progress!  However, the honking was unbearable today.  It was definitely a morning where I just sat there and thought, only 29 more days... only 29 more days...  But it was all better once I sat down in Sweet Bakery to have my espresso and croissant.  Then my thoughts turned to, man I'm going to miss this country!  Ah the emotional roller coaster is in full swing, and it's only going to get worse over the next 2 months as I leave and then have to adjust back to life in Canada.