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!

Surprise! The Carrito Fare Increased!

On Monday morning, Robert and I had to wait for over 1/2 hour just to get a carrito.  Then, when we finally got into one, there was a sign inside saying that the carritos had raised their price from RD$20 to RD$25.  Not a big deal, but that's a fairly hefty increase in percent terms!  So now the RD$20 bill seems a lot less useful, and the RD$25 coin seems a lot more useful!  I also love how they just print out signs that say they are now charging more.  It seems so unofficial and kind of hard to take seriously.  I mean, when we have a fare increase for our public transportation systems, it has to be announced months in advance so that people have enough warning and such.

Since Monday was Valentine's Day, a lot of people were wearing red and pink, including myself, although in my case it wasn't on purpose.  At the office, a few people brought around chocolates and heart shaped cookies for people.  Sweet bakery was insane as they were getting tons of their Valentine's Breakfast packages ready for delivery.  There were also many "felicidades" being passed around.  I still don't understand why we congratulate people here on special days like New Years and Valentine's.  About an hour into my day, L told me to go down to the receptionist.  The only time this happens is when something has arrived for me, so I had a pretty good idea about what I was going to find.  Sure enough, a beautiful bouquet of roses awaited me from Bart.  I'm so spoiled!

On Tuesday, I didn't have to wait for a carrito, which only partly made up for the ridiculous wait the day before.  The highlight of the day was meeting up with Ozumy for lunch.  Unfortunately though, she had arrived 10 minutes before we were planning to meet.  She sent me a text informing me of this, but I didn't receive it until 15 minutes later.  10 minutes after she sent it though, she figured she'd better call me since she was still waiting outside.  I felt bad, but I had no idea!  So Robert and I rushed out and we decided to go to that new pizza place we had tried last week.  It was a wonderful lunch and we had lots of time to catch up.  We were sure to finish off the meal with a trip to Sweet Bakery as well.

I had been kind of putting off doing the second painting at home, but I knew that I had to get a start on it if I wanted it to be finished before I left.  So as soon as I got home, I sat down and started taping out the design on the canvas.  Not having my usual tools made this a bit more difficult, and some of the paint did bleed through a bit, but nothing major that can't be touched up.  Between paint coats, I had some dinner, then chatted briefly with mom before engrossing myself in the book I'm reading.  Though I had to break up the reading for chat with Bart, I still managed to read over 100 pages.  I was pretty impressed by myself!

This morning, I got up early because I had plans to leave at 8:00.  Maria and I had decided to have breakfast together at the Bakery.  She came to my apartment to meet me and then we took a carrito (no wait!) the rest of the way.  She also gave me a cute valentine's gift of a few chocolates in a pretty red bag!  I was very touched.  It was Maria's first time at Sweet Bakery and I think she really enjoyed it!  We sat and talked for over an hour.  When it was almost time to think about heading to the office, I thought I would text Robert in case he wanted to come by and say hi.  Texting seems to be an issue, as he didn't end up getting my text in time, but he and Trond had planned on coming by the Bakery anyway.  So they came in, saw us, and joined us to eat their breakfast.  It was a perfect morning with excellent food and even better company!

The work day went by quite fast as I had a lot of little things to do.  We ran over to Emparedado for lunch and Robert, like usual, asked for some salt for his fries.  I had a good laugh when they brought him this cup of salt:

Throughout the day I assisted Robert with the Samana trip planning for the weekend.  Seems like everything is set now - I even have travel companions for the trip back to the city (Robert & Mari took Monday off, but I need the day to wrap things up at the office).

The plan for the evening is more painting and reading, and some packing... the dreaded packing.

El Carnaval de La Vega

Unfortunately, the migraine that I got on Tuesday is still with me, just not quite as bad as it was that night.  So that has made for a not so enjoyable past few days, but at least I managed to do some fun things regardless of the pain and discomfort.

One of the highlights was Friday lunch.  Robert and I decided to try something new, so we went to Pizza Rustica, which had just opened in Novo Centro.  It was extremely tasty and some of the toppings they had were quite original, I thought.

On Saturday, I went into work in the morning and then came home to have a nap to help with the headache situation.  When I awoke, I just sat and did some reading (new book) until it was time for date night.

On Sunday, I had a bit of an adventure planned.  At around 11:30, I wandered over to the old apartment to meet up with Mari and her Norwegian friends, Lars and Line who were visiting.  We caught a taxi to the Caribe Tours station and met up with Robert and his dad, as well as Lostania, there.  We caught the 12:30 bus to La Vega.  I sat with Lostania and we had a good chat.  She kept making fun of me for not knowing the artists of the music that was playing on the bus.  When we arrived, we gave Adaica a quick call so that she could come and get us.  We took two taxis over to the Carnaval area but ended up losing Mari, Lostania, Lars and Line along the way.  So while we tried to get in touch with them, we ended up wandering a bit and finding the rest of the AIESECers.  Our plan was to head to this area, called a cave, where we were going to purchase tickets so that we could hang out in it.  It was kind of like a party tent in a sense.  The music was insanely loud and while shady, there wasn't much of a breeze.

Finally, the others made it to the area.  They had decided that it wasn't worth it to buy the ticket (in hindsight, I agreed) and were hanging out in the street area.  Lostania and I decided to join them.  We stood around, eating snacks from the street and watching people hitting others with the vejigas, others, like the following girl, just hit people lightly with her inflatable toy thing.

 Once it was getting closer to the start time, we decided to find a spot on the shady side of the street against a wall so we could avoid being hit in the butt with the vejigas by los diablos.  We found a good spot and stuck to it.  I was expecting the entire thing to be a bit more crazy and packed, but, nevertheless, it was enjoyable to see all of the diablos cojuleos costumes and the others that were dressed up.

It was nearing 5:00 when we decided that we had experienced what we wanted to and were ready to head home.  It was such a hot day and after standing on our feet for hours, the air conditioned bus ride home seemed heavenly.  So we wandered off to find a taxi and ended up getting one that drove a truck, so he was able to take all of us at once (4 in the box of the truck).  We arrived with enough time to catch the 5:15 bus to head back to the city.  I slept essentially the entire way, which was nice.  I had to take a cab home from the bus station, which involved me arguing with the drivers about the price, and then arguing with the driver I ended up with about how he didn't need to know the street nearest my place (other than the main street it is on) because I could tell him where it was.  I gave him several different directions to it, saying it was 3 blocks before lincoln, near the metro station, between UASD and Lincoln, etc.  It all worked out though.  The first thing I did when I got home was grab my cold pack out of the freezer, took some advil, and then rested with the cold pack on the back of my neck.  It helped a lot, but the constant headache remains.