The Final Post

The last month has been a bit of a whirlwind.  It has been a bit of an adjustment, in a lot of ways, but also fairly easy in other aspects.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about something from the Dominican, the people, places and things I miss.  Sometimes I forget that my friends are so far away.  Take the other day for example, when I was standing at the bus stop waiting to catch a bus downtown and I saw a silver VW drive by, exactly like the one that Manuel owns.  My first thought was, "oh, I wonder if that was Manuel," and then immediately my brain kicked in and reminded me that it was definitely not Manuel.  I've had a few skype dates so far, but it still feels weird and horribly distant.  Luckily, all of the various forms of communication we have are really handy.  I finally got a blackberry again and I love being able to instantly send pictures in the moment to Ozumy and Maria showing them what I'm doing or seeing, and I love being able to receive pictures from them of those people, places and things that I miss so much.

At the same time, I have enjoyed a lot of what I love about home.  Being able to see my family and friends on a regular basis, going to my favourite restaurants and other places in the city, wearing my favourite clothes and shoes, cooking, getting to feel cozy again - it is all so wonderful!  I have even got to take in 2 Oilers' games since I got back, and even though we lost both of the games, it felt really good to be singing my national anthem, drinking Molson and cheering on my team!

Today, I started my new job, and because of that, it seemed fitting to write my last post that would wrap up the insane adventure that was this past year.  Going to work today made reality set in.  I'm back in Canada and here to stay (at least for the foreseeable future).  So now, I just get to reminisce about all the crazy memories, both good and bad.  Everything from eating green Mangos that Paula picked off a tree on our walk home, the day David lit the sink on fire to kill a centipede, having rats eating at our kitchen door, living in the princess room, relaxing on catamarans, eating beach food, breakfasts with Ozumy, Saturday afternoons with Maria, learning how to play Dominos, drinking at the colmado, power outages, explosions in the night, the pouring rain, the insanely hot sun, Orlando and I with our fry masks, Pavol making his own rum infusions in our fridge, looking out to sea on the Malecon with Andrew, videotaping the morning commute with Robert, Marola teaching and testing me and my Spanish over lunch, driving with Manuel, riding in carritos, chinola juice, mentoring Lostania, never understanding Yeimy when she spoke in her extremely quick Spanish, Sylvia's driving making me car sick, paragliding with Arturo and his friends, pilates with Mari, all those crazy Norwegians, prepping O for his move to Canada, teaching JCL English, all the laughs I shared with Sr. S and J, finding ways to communicate with L, learning I had a good friend in E, the girls at Sweet Bakery, Super Pola, lunches at the MC with Zak, rides to and from the airport with Don Pedro, Gerardo and 2 Pinocchios, eating at IKEA, the watchiman, the fruit vendors, to the slow internet, the ants, Marlon and Mariangeles' wedding, my mosquito net, moldy clothing and Zona Colonial.  All of it.  I wouldn't change a thing and will cherish all of these moments forever.

Gracias por todo!  Abrazos y besos!

One Week Later...

Similar to how I felt when I arrived in the Dominican, I feel like I've been here forever already.  So far, the adjustment has been good and the "reverse culture shock" hasn't been too strong.  The biggest adjustment has been the cold.  Living in 30 degree weather for an entire year, and then having to come home to -25 (-35 with windchill) was a huge adjustment.  However, I am happy to report that yesterday, it was about -14 and it felt bearable to me!  Hurray for becoming acclimatized!

The thing I miss most so far are the people.  Oddly though, I still sort of feel like I'm on vacation and that soon I will be going back.  I think I'll actually go through a much harder time in a few weeks.  Since I left, I've also gained a new friend I didn't know that I had back when I was there.  One of my coworkers just started talking with me during my last few days in the country and then sent me an amazing email earlier this week in which I learned just how much we have in common.  While it was sad to think that we could have had this friendship for longer and in person, I am happy that it was able to be discovered, regardless of the timing.

I am definitely more aware of my surroundings and how crazy we Edmontonians are to live in such a climate.  While driving over to Bart's place yesterday, I started laughing about the size of the snow piles on the lots of the houses.  I just thought about how ridiculous this would seem to most of my Dominican friends.  I made sure to snap some pictures to give you an idea.

Also, when I'm out driving with Bart or my brother (I've yet to put insurance back on my own car) I keep thinking to myself, if we were in the Dominican, we could totally run this red right now, or we could totally decide this was a turning lane... But at the end of the day, I am comforted by the order and all the rules we have here.

I've also been working hard to push myself back into my old life - but only into the parts of my old life I want to keep.  Bart and I went to the symphony last weekend, I've done a bit of shopping at some of my favourite stores, attended my first committee meeting in a year for Encore, and tonight, we went to the Art Gallery for the new exhibition opening and a lecture on Emily Carr.  I get really excited by these things, it is like the parts of me that had to be suppressed before, for survival, are able to be freed again.

I've been spending most of my days at the condo, organizing and unpacking, although it is slow going.  The job search is still happening, with more applications going out every few days.  I have also been making a lot of time for my goals, especially the cooking one.  Bart has been spoiled by lots of homemade meals and treats!

I also got my hair cut yesterday.  It feels quite different, especially after going for a year without one!  I am also taking every chance I get to drink water straight from the tap and, slowly, I am becoming less paranoid that every little tickle I feel on my arm is an ant or a mosquito.

So overall, lots of little changes, but so far, things are going rather smoothly!  It will be interesting to see what the next few weeks bring!

Last Week in the DR (Part II)

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!

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!

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.