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!

Last Week in the DR (Part I)

I'm having a hard time believing that my last week in the DR is complete.  Understandably, I've been quite busy getting things in order for the move home and even threw in a trip to the North-East side of the island.  So let's recap.

On Thursday, I was at the office by myself since Robert had gone to Isla Saona with his dad and Trond.  I ended up being quite busy and even had to work through lunch (not that I minded since that meant a free lunch from Emparedado).  I spent the evening doing more painting and organizing.

On Friday, we had another busy day at the office.  At lunch, Robert and I went to Pizza Hut.  We took a carrito there, since the walk is about 15 min long, and I was so excited when we got into the carrito and discovered it was a female driver!  But not the female driver that I had seen before, a new one!  

When it was time to leave, it started pouring rain.  We decided to wander around the building that the Pizza Hut was in, and came across another "super" business.  

I was hoping to pick up some rum at Nacional, but when we arrived, I was quite disappointed to find that they didn't have any of the brands I wanted.  Normally they carry what I was looking for.  Now I will just have to see what is available at the airport.  (This may be a good thing though since it will mean my bags will be a few pounds lighter since they will be weighed and tagged before the duty free gets stuck into them!)  Anyway, so we decided to go over to the bookstore since I've been wanting to get something for JCL in the line of a phrase book or dictionary.  I settled on a nice English dictionary.  I remember my French tutor forcing me to look up words in a French dictionary (not an English-French dictionary) since it would help me learn more, so I figured the same would be true for English.  Maria was kind enough to help me write up something nice for the inside in Spanish.   I also bought the Little Mermaid, on DVD in Spanish.

After work, I went home for a bit, changed and headed over to one of our coworker's house for a goodbye party for Oscar.  I had a sneaky feeling that it was also for me, since people kept confirming that I would be there.  It was a nice evening, there was good food and drinks, and Oscar and I were presented with some gifts!  Very thoughtful!

I was up early on Saturday to head over to Robert and Mari's at 7:15 am.  I got to meet Mari's parents and then we headed off to Caribe Tours to take a bus to Sanchez.  When we arrived, we met up with Trond, and two of Mari's coworkers, Silvia and Claudia.  The trip to Sanchez was uneventful.  I slept the entire way.  When we arrived in Sanchez, we were greeted by many taxi drivers, wondering where we were headed to.  One guy had a mini-bus (there was 8 people in our group) and wanted RD$1500 to take us to the hotel in Las Terrenas.  I thought this was reasonable, since we were a large group and the trip was a bit long.  Others in our group didn't agree and wanted less, so we ended up standing around with no one making an executive decision for a while.  I found this to be kind of frustrating.  Per person, it was less than RD$200.  I can deal with that.  Anyway, we ended up going with him.  He went over a rather nasty bump and totally scraped the bottom of the mini-bus and then it seemed like something happened to his front left wheel.  He proceeded to stop every few minutes at first to check on it.  The road to Las Terrenas was steep, curvy and in not so great condition, but the view was fantastic!

We arrived at our hotel, Las Palmas, and got checked in.  We had 3 apartments between the 10 of us (Lars and Line met us there) and the grounds were quite beautiful.

Once we got settled, we all went out to grab some lunch.  I ate a giant pizza and it was very tasty.

After lunch, we all went to hang out at the beach, except Mari's parents who went back to the hotel to chill and do some reading.  While the beach was not the greatest, it was still nice to just hang out in the sun.  We did have a bit of an adventure watching Robert climb up a palm tree and toss down two coconuts, after which, him and Lars worked hard at getting them open (eventually they did!).

After our beach time, we all showered up, some of us had a quick nap, and then we were off to find groceries to have a BBQ.  Unfortunately, as we were about to leave, it started pouring rain.  So we ended up just hanging out by the reception area until it stopped.  We walked into town and ended up finding out that the main grocery store had already closed and the only one open was a small colmado type store.  We checked it out inside and it didn't have enough for the dinner but we were able to get some food delivered for breakfast and snacks.  Lars was kind enough to walk back to meet the delivery at the hotel, while the rest of us went in search of a restaurant for dinner.  On our way, Trond had seen a place that served crocodile so the plan was to go there.  I was a bit worried since the menu they showed at the entrance had no idshes without meat.  Once we were seated, I was happy to find that the full menu had some vegetarian dishes.  I setlled on a plate of 4 cheese gnocchi.  All of the guys tried the crocodile and said that they liked it.  There was one not so fun part about dinner, and that was the insanely high pitched and constant noise coming from, what we believe, was a lone cricket, strategically placed to make his sound much bigger and much more annoying than it should have been.  Literally, when he would pause, all of us would bolt to attention and get excited over the mere seconds of relief from this annoying sound.

When we returned, the hotel's watchiman wouldn't let us into the hotel.  I guess we confused him because there were 10 of us.  We even showed him that we had 3 keys.  It took a lot of convincing for him to let us in.  Then, once we were inside and thought we had settled things with him, we were all going to walk over to the apartment that had our groceries that were delivered earlier.  But then the watchiman was more confused and so we just went to our apartment so he wouldn't cause any more issues.  He also kept trying to talk to Lars (since Lars had been by earlier to receive the groceries) even though he didn't speak any Spanish.  They ended up having to say to him, "Alright, there are 4 beds in each apartment right? Right.  Okay and we have 3 apartments, which makes 12 beds, and we are 10 people..."  Finally he understood.   I was just too tired to stay up and hang out, plus we had a taxi scheduled to pick us up at 7:20 am, so Silvia and I decided to go straight to bed.  The others followed shortly after.  The next morning we were up early and I was sure to take a few pictures of the hotel.

The taxi driver took us to Samana.  The majority of the trip had us passing through small villages.  There was something so beautiful about watching the locals, adults and kids alike, out just going about their day.  Little girls helping their mom wash clothes, boys practicing baseball, women singing, men waiting for rides to construction sites, etc.  When we arrived, we found out that the whale watching tour actually left at 10 am, not at 9 am like they had told us on the phone.  So we took the time to find a bite to eat and to take some photos.

At 10:00, we all boarded the boat.  It was a nice size, with two decks.  Kim, the lady who runs Whale Samana, is a Canadian marine biologist who has been extremely influential in ensuring the protection of the humpback whales and the area they mate and give birth in, near Samana.  She essentially started the whale watching industry in the Dominican.  The trip was quite informative as she was sure to tell us lots and had her staff hand around pictures and models so that everyone knew what they were looking for.  I believe I was the first one to spot a spout, but I was kind of unsure of myself so didn't yell it out, and instead just told Robert and Silvia.  Sure enough, the spouts I saw were the first two whales we ended up approaching and viewing!  They weren't that exciting though so we went in another direction and came across a female and her male escort.  In addition to the two of them, there were two challenger males who were trying to become her escort.  It was very interesting to see the escort showing how macho he was by doing things like making long bubble trails.  She seemed to be enjoying herself and we watched her breaching, flapping her fins in the air and slapping them on the water, and at one point, she was on her back with both fins in the air.  It was an amazing sight!

After watching the female for a while, we ended up seeing a few more whales before it was time to head back in.  By this point, we had been out for over 3 hours and most of us were really tired.  When we arrived back on shore, Claudia, Silvia and I said goodbye to the rest of the group since they were heading back to Las Terrenas and we were heading back to Santo Domingo.  The three of us went in search of some lunch.  We ended up at a cute restaurant but the food took forever.  We ended up having to scarf down the food quickly and run out the door and onto the bus.  The bus we had for the trip home was quite luxurious.  Only 3 seats per row (two on one side, one on the other) that reclined fully with foot rests.  I had a good sleep on the way home!

When we arrived in the city, I shared a taxi with the girls and headed home.  I was really tired but ended up doing quite a bit of packing before bed.

Small Moments

The weekend has arrived!  After enjoying the last few weeks that had several public holidays, this week seemed to pass by rather slow.

Friday at the office was quite normal.  I've realized that R has suddenly started calling me by my last name, except he doesn't pronounce it right so it comes out like: smit.  I'm not sure why this happened, but whatever.  Robert and I went to Wendy's for lunch, and on the way back, I helped him pick out some flowers for his mom who was arriving that afternoon.  I also spoke to Sr. S about getting me in contact with the artist of one of his paintings that I particularly like.  As it turned out, the father of the artist had just been in the office that morning.  So Sr. S gave him a call and asked if they had any of his paintings available here in the Dominican (the artist has recently moved to the US for school).  Unfortunately they didn't, so the father was going to find out an email address for his son and get back to us.  So, at least I have an email address now, and have sent off a request but have yet to hear anything back.  I would like to know soon, if he has anything available, because if he doesn't, I will have to go on a major search to find something else I love before I leave.

In the evening, my landlady stopped by with a bunch of other people.  It felt awkward to go out and say hi when she had other people with her so I just sat in my room and waited until they were gone.  It wasn't until today that I realized what they were doing.  They completely uninstalled the light and ceiling fan in the living room and took it with them.  So now, along with all the other things I don't have in the house, I don't have the ability to turn on the light in the main area.

I've been becoming sort of friends with the watchman at the apartment.  We've had a few conversations over the week and I enjoy how he is able to speak slowly and clearly with me.  I kind of laughed today when he asked me, as I was leaving, where I was going.   I told him I was going to work, and he seemed to understand now why I leave early on Saturdays every week.  The office was pretty quiet.  Robert came in late since he had stayed home a bit longer in order to have breakfast with his mom.  The main excitement of my day was posting my first two posts on my new blog and spreading the news about it!  I've been working pretty hard at it for the past month so it was nice to finally get it out there.  It still needs a bit more work in terms of design but that will come eventually.

On my way home, I decided to stop at Nacional to pick up a few things.  It had just started raining, and since I'm always prepared for rain, I pulled out my umbrella.  While I was waiting to cross the street, a man told his daughter to stand near me and then he asked me if it was alright if I could shield her from the rain.  Of course I replied (all of this was in Spanish).  Then when it came time to cross the street, he told his daughter to stay close to the nice woman (me).  It was cute, she stuck right to my side as we crossed.  Once we were under the shelter of the building the man turned and thanked me.  It was such a nice feeling to have been able to do something so simple and easy but that someone else appreciated greatly.  Just a little moment that made me smile!

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.