On Monday, I was alone at work again, since Robert had decided to stay the extra night in Las Terrenas with Mari and her family and friends. I was quite busy at work trying to get a project to a point in which it could be easily taken over by Robert and that Sr. S was happy with. I had plans for lunch with Ozumy. We decided to go to Super Pola, for old times sake. It was there that I gave her one of my paintings, since she had told me how much she liked it when she first saw a picture of it. I had a good RD$50 lunch of rice and coleslaw.
After lunch, we went over to Sweet Bakery. Ozumy gave me a going away gift, which I was so excited about: a Dominican cookbook! I had actually been looking for one for quite a while so it was a lovely surprise that she had found one. I had a bit of a laugh though when I was reading through some of the recipes and saw a word I didn’t understand. Turns out it called for 1 ½ “little spoons” of salt. I asked Ozumy – does that mean teaspoons? She just laughed – it just means little spoons. After I finished my coffee, I went to pay and then it was time to say goodbye to the Sweet Bakery girls. I’m glad Ozumy was there to help me explain better in Spanish why I had to leave. It was definitely sad, but I passed along my email address to them and said they could find me on facebook – so we’ll see if I end up hearing from them or not.
After lunch, I quickly finished things up at work so that I would be ready to go by 5:00. But as the time neared, L asked me what time I was leaving. When I said 5, she asked me if I could stay a bit later. I told her that I could stay a bit later and she assured me that it wouldn’t be longer than 15 min. I sent Ozumy a message letting her know this, but unfortunately she was already on her way to meet me. I soon found out that they had bought a cake for my goodbye. So I packed everything up, gave Sr. S the other painting (which he seemed to like) and waited for the cake to arrive. I gave JCL the dictionary I had bought her and made sure to get a picture with her too. She told me how much she was going to miss me which was really sweet - I'm going to miss her a lot too. I also got a picture of the consulting team! Finally the cake came and we gathered in the back meeting room with all of the staff on the top floor. It was nice and they all said sweet things about me – although since it was all in Spanish, I didn’t understand all of it. More pictures were taken, lots of hugs, sad goodbyes and I continued to fight back the tears.
I didn’t actually leave the office until nearly 6:00. Poor Ozumy had been outside for over an hour. She understood though. We called a taxi and off we went to Zona Colonial. On our way over, we found out that Mariangeles and her sister, Marlon and Mabellina were in Zona Colonial already so we made plans to meet them when we arrived. I was a bit disappointed since I was hoping to get there before a particular store closed at 6pm. Luckily, when we arrived, I saw that the doors were still open. We rushed over and I was able to get what I wanted. Turns out they were actually open until 7 (the guidebook lied!).
We met up with the others and wandered around the area. It was really nice to be in my favorite area of the city again. Soon it was time to head to the meeting place for my AIESEC goodbye party: Segafredo. Ozumy and I had pizzas while we waited for others to show up. Sasha and Urska were first to stop by, then Robert, Mari and Trond, followed by many others, including Rene, Karen, Felix, Adaica, Claudia, Maria, Lostania and Manuel. Because there was so many of us, we ended up having to move inside for the rest of the evening. It was a great night and I really enjoyed being around all of my wonderful friends I met in the Dominican.
On Tuesday, I tried to sleep in a bit, but wasn’t too successful. I spent the day packing and cleaning. I was surprised when I discovered that everything was going to fit in my bags without being “overpacked!” At around 4:30, Manuel came by so that we could take some stuff over to the MC. Since we arrived around 5, we called Robert and told him to come over to the MC so that he could catch a ride back with us. I spent the rest of the evening doing the last minute packing and getting stuff together to give to Maria and to Robert. At 8:30, I headed over to the old colmado. Robert was waiting for me when I arrived, Manuel and Mari showed up shortly after and we woke Pavol up from a sleep and he came by too. It was nice to enjoy some Presidente and a colmado sandwich on my last night in the Dominican.
When it was time to head home, Maria and her friend Orlando showed up and picked me up. We went over to my apartment so that Maria could pick up the stuff I was passing along to her. Saying goodbye to her was difficult. I tried hard to not cry, but I did. After doing a few more things around the house and chatting to Bart for a bit, I went to bed.
This morning came early. I was up at 6 to ensure I’d have plenty of time to finish up the last minute things and get ready. I was sure to tell the roosters that I wasn’t going to miss them, same thing to the ants and a spider I found in the sink. Around 8:20, Delaine showed up to get the keys and to pack up a bit more of her stuff. Robert showed up right after to grab the last minute things I wasn’t taking with me and at that same moment, we noticed that Don Pedro was waiting in the adjacent lot. I went out and waved Don Pedro over, so that he could drive into our parking lot to load up the stuff. The watchiman even helped us bring the bags down. Another hard goodbye was completed with Robert and then Don Pedro and I were off to the airport. He also told me that he was going to miss me and we chatted a bit about why I had to leave and I was sure to tell him that I would come back to visit for vacation. He was pleased to hear this and told me that he looks forward to me calling him to tell him that I need a ride from the airport! I was also sure to get a picture of the two of us before I went into the airport.
I was extremely surprised when my heavy bag weighed only 50.8 pounds, so they let that through without a charge. Then we put on my lighter bag and it weighed 58 pounds. I have no idea how that happened. Anyway, the guy at the counter was super nice and let me take out 5 lbs of stuff to put in my carryon and let the extra 3 pounds slide. I was really happy. I still had to pay the $45 charge for a second bag, but I didn’t care. I figured my bags would be over the 70 pound mark and thus I had mentally prepared myself to drop $200 just on baggage fees. However, my carryon was suddenly really heavy since I had moved the books over. But then I realized that once I got to Philadelphia, I could throw the books back into the luggage! I also made a stop at Duty Free and picked up some Oliver and Oliver rum. Pavol had told me the night before that I may not be able to get all the brands since they were in a bit of a dispute with the sort of Rum Overseeing Board. Happily, I picked up a bottle of Optimus and Atlantico, and then threw in a bottle of mamajuana for good measure.
The flight to Philadelphia was good. I managed to sleep a few hours but was still quite tired. When I arrived, I had to get a special pass to go through security without a boarding pass so that I could walk through the airport to the United/Air Canada check in. Once I got the boarding passes, I headed back through security and plopped myself down at Vino Volo for a glass of 2007 Jade Mountain Merlot and a penne with a cheese sauce and truffle oil. I figured I deserved a little bit of spoiling. I sat and people watched and listened to American businessmen on their phones sounding really stupid and fake. Then it was off to get some more food (I was still hungry!) and to have a rest before my next flight to Toronto. While waiting for my food, I looked outside and saw my two suitcases sitting ready to be put on the next flight.
The flight to Toronto was good. Had a few issues when I got on since there was no room for my bag. The flight attendant ended up asking a man to put it under the seat that was beside him (not occupied). The plane was mostly businessmen and they kept bugging me about my large bag. I watched a movie called "Unstoppable," which I had never heard of. I mean it was a typical normal day, something goes wrong, it all looks like disaster until right at the end when they save the day, even though you know the entire movie how it will end. Regardless, it was entertaining, and the shortest film - thus I could watch it during the 1.5 hr flight. And Chris Pine was in it, which at least made it easy on the eyes.
Now, I am sitting in Toronto, sipping a Caramel Macchiato, waiting for the next flight. I'm sort of in a daze. Realizing I'm back home, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure I still think I'm just on vacation and will be heading back soon. When the reality hits, I'm sure it will be hard. In the mean time, I am looking forward to watching RED on the next flight!
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