Where has all the Electricity Gone?

The one thing, more than anything else, that drives me insane about the Dominican Republic are the electricity issues...  

Let's recap this week.

Monday: as I mentioned in my last post, there was no power at the office for most of the afternoon and no electricity at home until about 7pm.  After the power came back on, we had water for about an hour and then it went out for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday: once again, no power in the afternoon at work.

Wednesday: no power in the afternoon at work.  Came home, had just enough time for a shower, then the power went out again until after 8pm.

Thursday: oh Thursday was a good day!  We had power all day - can you believe it?  Although I was without internet when I got home...

Friday: power went out in the afternoon and stayed out until just after 7pm, then went out again at 10:30 till just after 11:00.

Today: power went out at work just after 10:00 and was still out when I left at 12:30.  

Granted, this has been the worst week yet.  

The week itself was alright.  Robert was at the client every day this week, which made it rather lonely at the office.  On Tuesday, Ozumy and I went shoe shopping and I was able to find some shoes to wear to 27 charcos at Payless for just RD$770!  I went to pilates that evening on my own.  Paula was there also so we shared a taxi home.  On Wednesday, Robert, Pavol and I ended up hanging out at the colmado until the power came back on.   Later in the evening, Ozumy stopped by to pick up the money for the 27 Charcos, and I ended up back at the colmado with her to say hi to Mari, the Siljes and Manuel.  I splurged on my lunch on Thursday and went to Sweet Bakery and had their ensalada mexicana.  It was very delicious and very large.  In the evening, I went to pilates with Mari.  We shared a taxi home with Paula.  Our taxi driver had the best laugh.  Paula was trying to convince him to give us a better deal and while I got lost after a bit, it was still hilarious just to watch and listen to them arguing and laughing.  Mari invited me over to have dinner at their place.  Silje 2 had made some pasta. I contributed some parmesan cheese to the meal.  It was really nice to have dinner with them, it sometimes gets lonely eating by myself all the time.  

Zapatos Nuevos

Ensalada Mexicana

On Friday, I was not feeling well at all so I decided to take the day off and rest at home.  I'm glad I did.  Since the power was out all afternoon and into the evening, I ended up at the colmado again for dinner.  Robert and I walked over there, after a quick chat with Tamas, and found Pavol already there with a beer.  We joined in, then Tamas came by, followed my Silje 2 and then Mari and Silje 1.  While there, I found out that David had resigned that day.  I was sad to hear that, but not that surprised.  Bart and I had a mini date night as well.  It consisted of me winning at everything...  My macbook was also acting up.  Every once and a while the screen would start going white and I was unable to click or move the cursor.  The only thing that made it better, temporarily was adjusting the screen angle.  Weird.  I'm thinking maybe it is due to the humidity, since I had a similar problem with my iPod Touch a few months ago.  I do need to replace my humidity catcher so maybe that is why.  

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we decided to move our 27 Charcos trip to next Saturday.  While I'm not happy about the reason why we had to move it, I am happy that it was moved.  I really feel like I need to be more healthy before undertaking such a demanding adventure.  So, instead, I went into work.  As I mentioned, the power went out quite early so I wasn't productive work wise, but I did manage to read over 1/4 of my latest book choice!  I came home quickly to repack my purse and then it was off to Zona Colonial to meet Maria and start my Christmas shopping.  I know, I've been complaining about the Christmas decorations, but I need to pick up a few things now to send them home with Bart and the parents, since certain gifts are limited in quantities by customs... 


And that is my week in review!

Brunost and Svele

The highlight of the past few days was definitely Wednesday.  In the morning, on the way to work, I helped Robert do some filming.  He literally filmed our entire commute to work.  He was doing this because he was supposed to prepare a video presentation of his life here for AIESEC Norway.  It was so much fun.  it made the commute kind of exciting and adventurous.  In the process we also got a picture of me with the lovely chicas from Sweet Bakery!

Me and the Sweet Bakery girls 

During the day, my main excitement came from a package that had arrived from Bart.  Inside was an adorable book he had made for me!  Wednesday was also the start of my lonely afternoons, as Robert and Mari are taking a Spanish course from 4-6pm each weekday.  So I have a few months of walking home by myself ahead of me.  In the evening, Silje and Mari came over to do some baking at our place (their stove wasn't working) for a sort of impromptu Norwegian/Guatemalan night.

Gerardo prepping his black bean dip

Robert, keeping cool...

Silje and Mari in the kitchen

Skillingsbolle

Norwegian Brown Cheese (Brunost)

Brunost with butter inside svele!

In the end, there was myself, Robert, Mari, Silje, Gerardo, Pavol, Sylvia and Manuel in attendance.  Robert and I were rather anti social though since we were working at getting the video put together.  Here's the end result:

The morning commute on Thursday seemed really boring in comparison to Wednesday.  The day was fairly normal at work.  Robert and I were both craving the Burger King chicken wrap so we decided to head there for lunch.  We were quite disappointed though, since upon our arrival, we found out that they didn't have it at that location.  Regardless, what we did end up getting was still good. When we left BK to head back to the office, we experienced a bit of a shock upon seeing something in a pile of garbage.  It was absolutely horrible and it really had an impact on me.  I was in shock the entire way back to the office and ended up having a little breakdown at my desk because of it.  And here, I was just getting over my fear of piles of garbage.  That sounds random, but my first few dead rat sightings were always in piles of garbage, so until recently, I'd still get nervous and paranoid each time I passed one.  Now those feelings are back in full force.

That evening, I went to pilates which was a really good way to get my mind off of the day's events.

Friday was a much better day.  I still didn't have my laptop back at work, and since the power was out until close to 11:00am I ended up getting a lot of reading done.  As a result, I ended up finishing The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People last night!  For lunch, Robert and I met up with Gerardo, Mari and Silje at Taco Bell.  I ordered their 7 layer nachos cause it looked really good on the menu.  When I actually got the meal I realized how incredibly small it was.  I ended up having to order an additional bean burrito just to fill myself up.  We finished off our lunch with a trip to Sweet Bakery for some coffee.  Always a great way to spend a lunch hour.

On my way home from work I snapped a few pictures:

Christmas decorations at Nacional.  It feels so weird.

Guy on a quad in the city (in front of the black car)

Today, I had to work during the morning but I am heading to Bayahibe with Robert, Mari, Silje and Gerardo for the weekend.  Should be fun!

Rats and Mystery Meat

Not getting to celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional way really sucked.  In fact, I would say that it even left me a little depressed.  Of course, I had to work yesterday but I decided to try to make the day sort of special.

The carrito ride to work was quite enjoyable.  When I first got in, I was in B4 and when I looked over, I saw David sitting in B2.  After he got out and another girl got out, we picked up two more girls.  All four of us in the back were quite tiny, in fact, I think I was the biggest out of the 4.  We didn't even have to do the B3 squish up!  When I arrived at the office, I found two canvases, some paints and paintbrushes sitting on my desk.  I wasn't sure if Sr. S would follow through on his attempt to get me supplies, but he did!  This was definitely a great way to start off a Monday!  I still don't have my laptop back, so I spent the morning working at J's desk doing some translation work.  I also got a chance to talk to Sr. S again about my November vacation plans.  He approved the time off!  And I was sure to mention to him that my family would be coming to the DR again soon.

Canvases!

Brushes!

Paints!

Since I didn't have a lunch buddy, I decided to finally check out the lunch fare at Sweet Bakery.  I wanted to have their Mexican salad, but they couldn't make it for some reason, so I opted for the caesar salad, with chicken but no bacon.  It was really good!  I spent the lunch hour sitting there, eating and reading a book (Find your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham which I also ended up finishing yesterday).  It was really enjoyable.  Back at the office, J had finally arrived so I didn't have a computer to work on at first.  Then he remembered (I had forgotten too) that I could use his laptop.  This worked out well because it was at about that time when I needed to book my flight to Turks and Caicos.  I ended up getting the flight for less than I had seen on my usual flight search website.

Chicken Caesar Salad

Lostania cancelled on our mentoring session, so instead, Ozumy came to meet me at the office.  She had suggested that we go out for dinner to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving since she had learned on twitter that it was happening.  She was kind enough to help me carry the painting stuff home too!  One funny sight on the way home was a bus that was so packed that people were literally hanging off the side of the bus.  When we were nearly at the apartment, we were getting ready to attempt to cross the street when all of the sudden, a giant rat ran past us, like a foot away.  Ozumy freaked out a bit more than I did, I think this was because I took slightly longer to realize what had just happened (I'm not used to rats yet, especially not live ones.  We decided to go to the little Italian restaurant near my house that I had yet to try. The place was a bit pricey so we decided to share a plate of gnocchi.  This turned out to be a good decision since it was a good sized portion and very filling.

Hanging on!

Ozumy

Me

Today's carrito ride was the exact opposite of yesterday.  I was stuck in-between two rather large women.  I was quite worried when the carrito driver was waiting to find that fourth person.  I didn't think I would survive that.  Robert is back now so I was able to go for coffee with him this morning at Sweet Bakery.  Since he had been gone all weekend, we hadn't spoken in a while and when it came time to go, without thinking we just got up and left.  We were not far away when Paula, our favorite employee, came running out.  We had forgotten to pay.  I was so embarrassed.  Anyway, we apologized profusely and went in and paid.  I felt like the other customers were looking down on us.  It was kind of funny, except not.  We went back again though after lunch, and remembered to pay.  Speaking of lunch.  Robert and I went to Pola.  I got my usual rice and salad.  When he sat down he had this weird looking meat stew, except the meat, well it was not clear what exactly it was.  In fact just looking at it was starting to make me sick.  Then Robert thought he figured out what it was, he was so disgusted that he had it packed up and he gave it to one of the workers at Pola.  I wouldn't let him tell me what he thought it was.  I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it.  Even just thinking about it now makes me a little queasy, in fact, I can't really look at the picture.  I think Robert learned that the cheapest meat dish is probably not worth it. 


Mystery Meat

The afternoon at the office was spent mainly in the dark.  Since I was working on J's laptop, I had a nice and long battery life so was able to continue working on things.  Erin, the previous auditing intern from Canada, stopped by.  She was in the country for a week long vacation to visit her boyfriend.  It was nice to see her again.

Truffled Popcorn and an Injured Toe

This weekend felt like a blur.  On Saturday, it was off to work, like usual.  The morning was quite lovely and then I got called into Sr. S's office for an audit project I've been helping out with.  Of course, this was about 1/2 hour before I was supposed to head home for the day.  I ended up leaving work at 2:30pm.  Robert ended his course at about the same time so we were able to share a ride home.  First though, I headed to Pola to pick up some snacks for date night.  I spent Saturday afternoon relaxing and doing a bit of cleaning and laundry.  Pretty normal for a Saturday.

On Sunday, I slept in a bit and awoke to find David in our living room on Skype.  This was odd to me, since he had moved out the other day, but as it turns out there was a bit of miscommunication over the entire ordeal.  It has since been worked out and clarified.  Anyway, I ended up going to Nacional with Robert and Mari.  We decided to enjoy the nice day and walk.  On the way, I received a text which I wanted to read right away, so I did.  Problem is, I stopped paying attention to where I was walking - which is a dangerous thing to do on Dominican sidewalks.  I ended up stubbing my toe on some raised cement, which, since I was wearing flip flops, led to the side of my big toe being cut open.  At first, I thought it was no big deal and tried to shrug it off.  Then I looked down and saw blood.  As we stood on the sidewalk and I searched through my purse for something that I could soak up some of the blood with, Manuel pulled up beside us.  I was thankful for this as he took us the rest of the way to Nacional.  Once there, I headed to the pharmacy to get a bandaid.  Side note: it drives me nuts that I have to go to the pharmacy for things like bandaids, tylenol, cough syrup, etc.  Mainly, I get stressed out having to ask for things in Spanish, most of which are items I've never had to learn how to say... So here's your mini Spanish lesson.  Bandaid = curita.  I was happy that I could buy just one bandaid for RD$6.  I didn't need more, since I had a big box of them plus a first aid kit back at the apartment.

My main reason for going to Nacional was to get some clothespins.  I wanted to be able to dry a few of the roses that Bart sent me.  So I created a little drying rack in my bedroom.  Mom later informed me that when roses dry they can be stinky, but I didn't want to hang them anywhere else.  I'm also trying to dry some petals too.  We'll see how that works out.  My trip to Nacional also included purchasing some silicone caulking so that I could seal up the gaps between the sink and the counter in the kitchen.  I'm hoping this will help to keep the ants away.  Although, I know they will find another way in!  They are sneaky and kind of smart.

Beginning of my rose drying contraption

In the evening, I ended up going over to Robert and Mari's to try to make some truffled popcorn.  I had bought a small bottle of truffle oil on Friday and some popcorn on Saturday so I was keen to give it a go.  I had done some reading online about how to do it.  Most everyone recommended putting the truffle oil in with the kernals so that it would "infuse" the popcorn.  Well, this didn't really work.  You could kind of taste the truffle, but not really.  In the second batch, I put a bit more truffle oil in, but this didn't seem to help.  (I have since spoken with a chef friend of mine and am looking forward to trying a few of the options he gave me!) In the end, we ate lots of popcorn along with some fruit, chocolate and chicken nuggets while watching Monty Python.  An enjoyable evening!

Mari's photo of Robert and I cooking

Monday morning at the office was really slow.  We essentially didn't have power until early afternoon.  Because of this, I took an early lunch.  I really wanted to try the sandwiches that Sweet Bakery prepares, so Robert and I headed over there.  I assumed that since they are a bakery, they would have a generator.  I was wrong.  They didn't have power and we were told that they couldn't make a sandwich because there was no light.  We sat and had chinola juice, in the hopes that the power would come back on.  Eventually we got too hungry, so we decided to head over to Emparedado. The rest of the afternoon ticked along nicely.  In the evening, I joined Pavol, Mari and Robert at the colmado for a snickers and some Presidente. 

Today, for the first time in a long time, I was freezing cold at work.  I had forgotten that it actually got this cold.  I just have to remember to bring a sweater to work each day now.  Once again, the workday was typical.  One exciting thing is the new painting that Sr. S has in his office.  It is still partially packaged up so I can only see the top but I am incredibly intrigued by what I can see.  Next time I'm in there I am going to ask if I can see the entire piece.  I had pilates tonight.  I was really tired but knew that I should go.  However, I soon realized how exhausted I actually am.  It wasn't that the movements were difficult physically, it was just that I didn't have the energy to do it.  I made it through though.  Apparently, Dominicans start decorating for Christmas really early.  On the way to pilates, I noticed that Plaza Lama already had giant Christmas decorations attached to the side of their building.  This was kind of depressing.

More Random Adventures

If there is one thing I will miss about the Dominican, it is how often I find myself having little adventures or random experiences during moments that should be totally normal and boring.

Last night, going to pilates was our random adventure.  First off, Mari and I left a bit later than we usually do in order to make it there in plenty of time.  Then there were the issues with the front gate.  My key wasn't working, and she had grabbed Robert's keys instead of her own, and she couldn't get his to work either.  So we went back and got her keys so we could leave the apartment.  We wandered over to Lincoln to wait for a carrito.  One came by and we hopped in.  Then, when the carrito went to begin driving again, the car shut off.  This is not completely abnormal, so we sat and waited for him to get it going again.  He was putting the car into neutral and getting it to roll backwards (we were on a hill).  I assumed this was because he wanted the car to be resting against the curb perhaps due to the lack of an e-brake (also not abnormal).  Often, the way they restart the car is by doing so under the hood, so this made sense to me.  After what seemed like several minutes of rolling backwards, it was finally clear that the carrito wasn't starting again.  We went to get out, as did the man in the front, and we all realized that because of the high curb, we couldn't actually open the doors on the right hand side of the carrito because the curb was higher than the bottom of the door.  So then, the carrito driver magically pulled and pressed in various places to make the left hand side door open.  We all crawled out, and caught the next carrito. 

The rest of the trip to the pilates studio went as planned.  We arrived about 10 minutes late though.  The class was great - I was happy that we did more side leg exercises to work on the obliques and glutes.  Near the end of class, just as we were about to start the "cool-down" routine, the power went out.  It was essentially pitch black.  But, once our eyes adjusted, we were able to follow along, mainly because we do the same ending each class.  The hilarious part was when a random man just walked into the dark studio and was then kind of surprised to see a bunch of people doing the tree pose in the dark.  I'm unsure why he just walked in, but anyway, he quickly ran back out.  We all had a good laugh.  Just as the class had ended and we were getting ready to go, the power came back on. 

Life is rarely boring here.

Jumping back to Monday... the day was pretty "normal" overall.  I met up with Ozumy, Mari and Robert for lunch at Jardin Verde.  Like usual, I had their amazing frozen chinola.  Here are some shots of our food:

Frozen Chinola

Dumplings and Platanos Fritos

Espaguetis con Salsa Especial

After work, I headed to the bookstore at Nacional to attempt to meet Lostania, who I am mentoring.  She ended up being nearly an hour late, but I appreciated the fact that she called me twice to ensure she was on her way.  Once she arrived, we sat down and got to know each other a bit better.  I spent a bit of time discussing in more detail what AIESEC is and what she can get out of it.  It was an interesting meeting - not exactly what I had expected - but a good start. 

Tonight, Mari and Robert are hosting a little dinner get-together at their house.  I have yet to decide what I am making/bringing.  I'm hoping that it will come to me while I'm grocery shopping tonight at Nacional.  Definitely looking forward to the evening!

In other exciting news, Sr. S told me today that my air conditioning is being fixed.  He even pointed out which guy was going to fix it.  As excited as I am, I'm trying to not get my hopes up.  I have kind of forgotten what it is like to not be disgustingly sweaty at work...

When it Rains, it Pours!

It's Friday!

So let me recap the last couple days.  I barely remember Wednesday except that work was slow, it rained at lunch so Mari came to the office and we ordered in Emparedado, and David gave me some jello and cream dessert that he had made.

Thursday was an eventful and kind of unfortunate day.  It all began with a 25 minute wait for a carrito in the morning.  When I got to work, the A/C was on, but about 5 minutes after I sat down at my computer, the power went off along with the A/C.  I had to deal with V on numerous occasions.  First he was asking me what I brought him from Canada, and I was like um nothing?  Then he told me how Erin had brought him Maple Syrup.  I felt like telling him that maybe if I worked in his department and we were actually friends that I would then maybe consider it, but I just said, sorry I didn't.  He then came up to my desk later and when he saw my Glacéau "Smart Water" bottle (I had bought some before one of my flights and have been refilling the bottle lately) he told me, "oh if it is smart water then it must be wine." I was like, "what?!?" This didn't make any sense to me.  Then he went on to explain what wine was and I said, no I understand what wine is but I don't get why wine is smart water.  I just let him ramble on about weird and odd things and just kept nodding and being like, "oh, uh huh, ok, cool."

Pouring Rain near the Office

At lunch, I had plans to meet up with Ozumy and Mari at Nacional.  When it was time to leave, it had just started pouring rain.  POURING.  But I was determined to make it to lunch so out I went.  I had to stand back several meters from the road just so that I wouldn't get splashed by the enormous puddles and was thus afraid that I would be unable to get a carrito's attention.  Of course, no carritos drove by and I stood there for at least 10 min waiting for one.  I was to the point where, if I saw another taxi, I was just going to pay the RD$150 and take it to Nacional.  But luckily, a carrito came and a man was getting out where I was, so I was able to run inside.  I was already soaked from the knees down.  I need a bigger umbrella.  Crossing Lincoln to get to Nacional was a bit tricky.  It involved tightrope style walking on the side of a sign and then a huge hop over a giant puddle and then a quick run through traffic.  Ozumy watched my entire show from inside and told me when I arrived that I looked like I could be in the circus.

WOAH - I just noticed that in that picture is a full version of the Japanese garbage truck!  Here is a blurry zoomed in version.  Wow, this just made my day!

Japanese Garbage Truck!!!!!

Okay, back to Thursday.

So yes, lunch was lovely and by the time I headed back to the office it had stopped raining.  My poor black leather flats were soaked again and I spent some time drying them off in the washroom with paper towel.  Even by the end of the day they had yet to dry completely.  The power was also out at the office when I returned and it remained out for about 2 hours.  Thus, everyone was just sitting around not doing much since all of our laptops had died by then.  Once again, I am so glad I have a blackberry.  The lack of being able to work gave me an opportunity to sit down for a nice chat with J.  We've been better lately.  I found out that after work, Robert and Mari were meeting up with Manuel to go to IKEA.  I rarely turn down a trip to IKEA so I went along with them.  We had a plan to meet Manuel while he was driving up Lincoln.  Somehow this didn't work and they went to our office, but we were already at the meeting place on Lincoln.  In the end, we found each other and off we went.

The best part about the IKEA trip was supper.  I wanted to try the new cheese and spinach crepe, so I did.  I also got some wine because I can't do that at home!  Robert and Mari were also excited about the ability to buy alcohol at IKEA too.

Spinach and Cheese Crepes with Wine at IKEA

Notice how I apparently have a wine drinking pose?

Wine pose at IKEA

Also very random, there was a bird flying around the food market.  It looked cute though perched on top of this light.  This didn't impress Mari.  When they were at a resort in Punta Cana just over a week ago, they got really sick on their way back to Santo Domingo.  At their last meal there they saw a bird eating off the buffet and they figured this may have had something to do with their sickness.  Mari also had a story about how once a bird swooped in and took a chunk out of a waffle (I think?) that she was about to take a bite out of.  Birds and human food do not go well together.

Bird in IKEA

Even though we left IKEA with plenty of time to spare, Mari and I didn't make it back home in time to change and get to pilates.  A part of me was sad that I missed it, but the tired and lazy part of me was quite pleased.  I had two long skype chats, one with Bart and the other with Mom, before heading to bed.

Today has been a much better day, although it began with me being quite worried.  I don't think I have mentioned that there was a gas leak from one of the other apartments in our building which was drifting into David's room.  For the past few days he had been sleeping in the living room as a result.  I didn't really chat with the guys last night so I didn't know whether or not the leak was fixed, but since things always take so long here (and our neighbours, whose gas it was, refused to do anything about it) I figured it hadn't been fixed yet. When I got up this morning, David's mattress wasn't in the living room and his lunch bag was still in the kitchen, which meant he hadn't left yet.  David is always up early.  So of course, I start worrying that he fell asleep in his room with the gas still leaking and that the reason he wasn't up yet was because he was passed out!  I decided not to freak out right away and waited about half an hour just in case he had slept in.  Sure enough, that was the case and he told me that the leak had been fixed!  On the way to work, Robert and I walked down closer to the metro to catch a carrito which was fairly successful.  Once at work, neither of us had coworkers around and I was in desperate need of a coffee so we went to Sweet Bakery and got double espressos.  For lunch we met up with Ozumy and Mari at Wendy's.  It was Robert and Mari's first time at a Wendy's and I think they enjoyed it!  Mari also just got a blackberry so I spent some time showing her the ins and outs.  I actually have quite a bit of work to do now at the office, which I like since it keeps me busy.

My plans for tonight are to just chill at home.   I was invited to a concert but I still don't have the energy for it. - plus, I work in the morning.

Isla Saona Take 2

Ah the weekend!

After a detour to Plaza Central to get sandals for Robert (silly guy didn't bring any!) we headed home for what was supposed to be a nice evening that would involve time to get ready for Saturday's trip and an early bed time.  Just as I had begun making supper, the power went out.  Ugh.  I was hoping it would be one of those 20 min kind of power outages so I kept making dinner, then I ate dinner, and still the power did not come back on.  The apartment got crazy hot so Pavol, Robert and I decided to head over to the colmado to be a bit cooler (they have a generator) and to have some rum.  It felt like the entire neighbourhood was there!  They didn't even have enough chairs, so Pavol ended up sitting on a crate.  I can't believe I was at the colmado three nights in a row!

It was getting pretty late and we figured we'd better head back to attempt to sleep even though the power wasn't on.  I had a plan to shave my legs quickly with the water that would be have left.  (When the power goes out for a long period of time we lose water pressure/flow)  Well, when we returned, there was no water.  Everyone was worried that the power wouldn't be fixed before the morning, and since I had to get up early, I was dreading the idea of not being able to shower after what was sure to be a very sweaty sleep.  Maria gave Pavol the idea to order another jug of water from the colmado so we would have some water to wash with in the morning.  Since they insist on always taking an empty bottle when they deliver a new one, Pavol filled up the sink with the remaining water so that I could shave my legs.  It was quite odd to be shaving my legs in a sink with a candle as my only light source.  I did a pretty good job considering the situation!  After ensuring all our lights were turned to the off position and all the fans to the on position, it was bed time.  The power did end up coming back on at 2am.  The relief that you feel when the fan starts turning again is indescribable!

The alarm was set at 5am since we were supposed to be at the MC by 6am.  We ended up taking a taxi there since we weren't sure if there would be any carritos available.  Everyone arrived before the bus, except Maria.  Luckily the bus saw her on the way to the MC and picked her up (her friend Nicole's mom was the organizer of our trip and was on the bus).  When we arrived at Bayahibe we had to wait for quite a while until we got the wrist bands that enabled us to go to the island.  Then we hopped onto a speedboat which took us out to the catamaran, and then waited for more people to come.  I was under the impression that we were to have the boat to ourselves.  Apparently this was not the case.  Here is me being unimpressed with all the other people on our boat:

The ride out to the island was lots of fun.  There was a lot of dancing, drinking, talking, laughing and picture taking!

Once on the island, we dropped off our stuff and headed straight into the water.  It was a gorgeous day and the ocean was quite clear and clean!  For the remainder of the day some of us napped, played volleyball, went for walks, chilled in the ocean, ate food, drank more, etc.  I think everyone had an excellent time.  Although a few of us left with a bit of a sunburn (me included).

We were split up into two speedboats which took us to the natural pool to view the starfish.  Once again, I didn't touch the starfish.  Although they were cool to look at.  Gerardo also claims that he was bit by something in an unmentionable area.  Poor guy.  After the starfish break we headed back to the main island and hopped on the bus to head back to the city.  Ozumy and I slept just about the entire way.

That evening, both Robert and I crashed pretty early.  I was talking with Bart but just couldn't stay awake, it was only 9:30 but I figured it was best that I just went to bed.  When I went out to wash my dishes, I noticed that Robert had fallen asleep at his computer.

Sunday was a nice leisurely day.  I got a bit of laundry and cleaning done, spent a bit of time with Robert and Paula, and attempted to meet up with my new tutor, but he ended up cancelling due to a family issue.  Since Bart and I had time conflicts on Friday and Saturday, we ended up moving our date night to last night.  Like usual, Monopoly, Scrabble and Pictionary were played.

And just like that, another weekend came to an end.

Dominican Plumbers

I really wish I had updated my blog more in the past 4 days... Now I have too much to write about.

So Friday.  Despite its bad beginning of no electricity or air conditioning, it ended very well.  Gerardo and Paula picked me up for dinner and we went to Jardin Verde.  We were supposed to meet up with Ozumy and Sylvia but they both cancelled.  The three of us ended up having a good time anyways.  The restaurant feels like being in someone's home.  Or in this case, their car port.  The owners children and some of their friends/relatives were outside kicking a ball around.  The oldest (and roundest) child was constantly making faces at Paula.  Gerardo even got hit by the ball during the process of our meal.  Our waiter was quite odd.  It was like he was angry at us for asking questions about the dishes.  I think it was his way of trying to flirt with Paula.  He kept being like "what now!" We ended up having some of their dumplings and plantanos to start.  I loved that the dumplings were bright pink and green.

And of course, you can't go to Jardin Verde and not have a Frozen Chinola:

Paula and I decided to try their hamburguesa integral.  It was different than your average soy based hamburger.  For starters, it came with a fried egg on top (which reminded me of a few meals I had in Japan that came the same way) and had a slice of apple in as well.  It was the soy patty that got to me though.  The texture just wasn't appetizing.  I couldn't finish the entire burger.

Somehow Paula got the waiter to give us a pot of tea for free.  We had their chamomile tea.  It was interesting because it had the actual flowers filling up the pot, but I quite enjoyed it.  The teapot was also very cute.  While we sat and chatted and sipped our tea, the waiter we had left to do a delivery.  When we wanted our bill, the owner went to get it for us.  At first he thought that all we had was the tea, but then we said no, we had other stuff, but the tea was free.  It was confusing.  The owner doesn't speak much Spanish so he sat down at our table and went through all of the items we had to ensure he did the bill correctly.  It was rather amusing.  All of the randomness of the evening made it even more enjoyable.

On Saturday, the plumber was supposed to come.  So I stayed at home, waiting.  No one showed up.  Turns out the landlady forgot to call Pavol to tell him she couldn't get someone in that day.  I'm not going to lie, I didn't mind.  I got some extra sleep and didn't have to go to work!  I took it easy for the entire day, for the most part.  I did run out to get some groceries which turned out to be quite enjoyable for some reason.  I ended up taking a carrito there and walking home.  I'm glad I did that because when I was walking home, traffic got very backed up because there was a sort of mini movie crew shooting something on the street, and thus blocking one direction of traffic.  The walk home was quite nice, it was hot out but since I was in my regular clothes (and not dress clothes like I usually am) it was pleasant.  Like usual, Bart and I had our weekly date night, which was a lot of fun - as it always is.

On Sunday, I attempted to sleep in a bit before going to watch the World Cup final.  I'm glad I got up when I did though because I soon found out that everyone seemed to be on their way or no longer going to watch the game.  I ended up catching a ride with Manuel, although we had to go to the MC to pick up people from there.  Of course, no one was ready when we arrived, so we just chilled for a bit until everyone was ready.  We ended up having 10 people though so we had to call a taxi to take half of us.  We headed over to Alejandra's place which is quite a ways west of where most of us live.  Their apartment is quite lovely and has nice views.  I decided to cheer for the Netherlands, and thus was a bit disappointed when they lost.  Not a big deal though since I don't really follow football...  Here are some pictures from that day:

We decided to go to Acropolis Center to get some dinner and watch a movie.  I was hoping that Sex and the City was still playing, but it wasn't.  All of us ended up watching Shrek in 3D.  I wasn't overly impressed with the movie.  It wasn't nearly as funny as the previous ones.

Work yesterday was alright.  I was quite busy finishing up the financial statement translation and FINALLY completing the final draft up the big project that was supposed to be done months ago...  After work I met up with Paula and Maria at Acropolis to check out the sale at Zara.  I ended up getting some new dress pants and a dress shirt.

This morning, after another ice cold shower, I became really frustrated and angry about the entire situation.  I was so relieved when Pavol told me that the plumber was coming this morning!  They actually arrived on time (Pavol had apparently stressed to the landlady that they needed to be there at 9am, European time).  I was quite amused since two of them came in.  One carrying a bucket with some tools in.  The power had went out about half an hour earlier and had yet to come back on.  The plumbers didn't even have a flashlight.  They were literally using their cell phone to get some light into the cupboard.  Anyway, because the power was out they were unable to do any tests since, well the hot water tank needs electricity.  A part of me wanted to cry.  So now we have to reschedule them to come back another day.  Which means at least one more ice cold shower for me.  Ah, life in the DR...

I spent the entire work day in Sr. S's office reviewing the final version of the report.  It was pretty boring for me as I only had work when either Sr. S or J found something to change.  However, I got lunch out of it, which was so yummy.  It was a pasta with a cheesy, creamy white sauce.  It was so rich and heavenly!  And then it came with a side of bread and we had strawberry juice.  So good.  It completely turned my day around!  And then in the afternoon, Sr. S said, "Aye Carumba!" twice.  I was greatly amused.  I ended up working until 6:30, but Sr. S had A take me home again.  I was supposed to meet up with Paula at my house, but she took the Metro in the opposite direction so our meeting time got pushed back a bit.  We rushed via carrito to Plaza Central so that Paula could quickly buy some yoga pants.  We found some that she liked and made it to the pilates studio on time.  Our instructor wasn't feeling well so it wasn't as lively as last week.  Still a good workout though!  After class Paula and I called a taxi to take us home.  When it finally arrived and we got in, Paula turned to me and said, "it's him - the guy who took my RD$1000!" (Quick background: one day Paula was taking the taxi to my house, and she accidentally gave the driver the $1000 instead of the $200, but he didn't say anything and let her get out of the car.  And it was during the day so he could have seen)  So she starts arguing with the taxi driver, getting upset that he took her $1000 and didn't say anything - he's arguing back but I can't understand him as well as I can understand Paula.  Anyway, by the time we reached my place, they were still arguing over this.  But about 5 minutes later, Paula called me to tell me that she didn't need the $100 I had given her since the driver agreed that this trip would be for free.  Ah adventures!