Bart and I had a busy last few days. On the 30th, we were out and about, stopping by my place to do some laundry, then to the Legislature to grab my
AGA membership card from Leslie, and then to the
AGA to meet up with Rob, who had driven up to Edmonton for a quick visit. It was great to see Rob again - it has been over a year since we last met up in Toronto - and it was also fun to check out the current exhibits. I was most excited for the
Edward Burtynsky exhibit which was ending right away. The latter portion of the exhibit contained a few works I had seen previously, but overall, I was still in awe of his photographs. I had asked Bart if he would mind riding the LRT all the way to the Century Park station with me, since I had yet to experience the new stations. He had agreed to earlier, and we asked Rob if he wanted to tag along as well. Since Rob had some time to kill, he joined us. The ride was enjoyable, and we were lucky enough to get to go on one of the new trains so that Rob could check those out too. I'm a transit geek.
Bart and I got off at Southgate on the way back to grab a quick bite to eat and to check out a store that I had received a gift certificate to at Christmas. I was unsuccessful at finding anything I really wanted, so we hopped back on the LRT to head downtown where we had left Bart's car. After a quick stop at my place to put the laundry into the dryer, we went over to Bart's parent's place for dinner and to watch a movie with Ola. We ended up renting Despicable Me and Toy Story 3. I was pleased to find out that I really had understood most of the entire movie in Spanish, since there were only a few moments during the English version where I was like, "hmm new information!"
On New Years Eve, we met up with my parents to do some shopping on the south side. We both had to take back some frames to IKEA since their sizes are a bit odd and our pictures didn't quite fit. Mom was able to find one for hers, but Bart and I had to go to Urban Barn to find two frames to fit ours. We went back to my place so that I could do more laundry and also unpack my big suitcase. After that, it was time to get ready for dinner!
We went to Ric's Grill for their New Years Eve dinner. When we were first seated, we had to wait for quite a while before our waitress arrived. She dropped off the menu for us to peruse for a while. It was a set menu with limited choices so it didn't take long to decide. When she returned and asked us what we wanted to drink, we told her we would have the New Years wine special. It was then that she told us that they had run out. I really hate it when they let you sit with the menu, especially when it is a limited menu, and neglect to tell you that they are out of a particular dish. I would rather know up front that something is not available for me to choose from, then to take the time to decide on something and then be told I can't have it. Anyway, I took a quick glance at the regular wine list to find something else. I said to her, I will have the "blah blah," she said okay, as I went to pass the menu to Bart for him to decide, but as I was doing so, she just took off. I was kind of shocked since it was pretty obvious (I thought) that we weren't finished ordering. I figured she had just assumed that we wanted a bottle, even though I said "I" not "we," and in the process of passing the menu to Bart said which do you want. Sure enough, she returned with a bottle. I was irritated at this point and told her that we weren't finished ordering our wine and that we only wanted a glass of wine each. She looked kind of annoyed but by the time she got back, her tone changed and she made an attempt to make up for the first few gaffes. The food was good. I especially enjoyed my appetizer, however, my salmon was only nice and flaky around the edges - the middle section I had to tear chunks off which wasn't super appetizing or pretty. Here is what we ended up having:
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| My Appetizer: Spicy Ginger Chili Chicken |
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| Bart's Appetizer: Calamari |
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| My Salad: House |
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| Bart's Salad: Caesar |
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| Bart's Main: Cognac Cream Chicken |
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| My Main: Grilled Salmon |
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| Dessert: Hazelnut Chocolate Brownie |
By the time we left the restaurant, it was nearly 11pm. We headed back home to have champagne and tasty snacks at midnight!
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| One of my favorites! |
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| Who can resist Orange Happy Buddha? |
New Years Day was very relaxing. We spent most of the day lazing around the house, finishing season 3 of Alias, and eating. We stopped by Bart's parents place to say goodbye and to switch cars (Bart's car and my big suitcase are not compatible) before going to my place to have dinner with my family. My cousin Lynelle ended up joining us as well, since she was stopping by to drop off Jonathan anyway. It was nice to sit and chat with all of them. After dinner, I packed up my suitcase and then we headed back to Bart's to pack up the rest of my stuff. After a few hours of sleep, I was up again at 4:30 am to get ready for my flight.
It had snowed a lot that night so the drive to the airport was rather slow. We arrived a bit later than I had hoped, but still with plenty of time. That wouldn't have mattered anyway, since United had one person doing the check-in for the flight (technically there were two desks open, but the other one only helped 2 people in the 30min plus that I waited in line). When we finally got through check-in, there was another long line up at the US immigration and customs. That was another 20-30min wait since they only had 3 booths open (although there were at least 4 flights to the US leaving in that time frame). As I stood in line, glancing up at the clock and realizing that my flight was already boarding, I had the pleasure of watching the Premier and his wife be led through customs by an escort, getting to jump the queue. Ah, perks... Luckily, I wasn't selected for a random check at security, although I was subject to a thorough questioning by US customs, so I had just enough time to hit the washroom and grab a fruit and nut bar from Starbucks before running onto the plane with a few minutes to spare. We left a tad late because there were still several people still behind me that were on the flight.
We arrived in Chicago on time, I was able to sleep for most of the flight, and luckily, my next flight was just a few gates away, so my 45min layover wasn't rushed and gave me more hope that my luggage would make it too. The flight to Philadelphia was short and sweet. I did have quite a distance to walk to get to my next flight but there are so many shops and things to look at in the Philadelphia airport that I wasn't bored at all. Plus I was able to find some free wifi by my gate! The flight to Santo Domingo was delayed by half an hour and was a little rough. I was able to sleep for the first few hours but got woken up a lot due to turbulance. On our plane was a Mexican girls volleyball team. I shared a row with two of them. When we landed, everyone clapped, and then started to get up. However, the pilot then came on and told us that they had parked too far up at the gate so everyone had to sit back down before they could move the plane backwards. The flight attendants had do a lot of yelling at people to sit back down. It was kind of annoying and then once we were ready to get off the plane, it took forever as there were too many people up ahead who had too much luggage or should have waited till the end since they struggled to get their luggage down and such.
I was quite excited when I saw my luggage arrive - it is always a relief. Especially at a small airport like Las Americas where there is essentially no airline personnel around to assist if something doesn't show up or is damaged. Don Pedro was patiently waiting for me outside. He ended up having to wait for about an hour longer than planned due to the flight delay and the length of time it took for the baggage to come out. We chatted a bit on the way back and I paid him extra to help cover the parking costs from the extra wait. I also gave him a small bottle of maple syrup which he seemed rather pleased with! I had a feeling that my landlady would forget that I was returning that day, so I had emailed one of my Dominican friends and asked her to give the landlady a quick call to remind her not to lock the latch on the door. Either this didn't happen, or the landlady still forgot, because when I arrived at the door at 12:30 am, I couldn't get in. I tried to call her, but her phone wasn't working. All I could do was attempt to make enough noise to wake her up. But in such a way that she didn't think that someone was breaking in (ie: locking and unlocking the door to prove I had a key). Luckily she heard me (they were still up watching TV in her room) and called out to ask who it was. I told her it was me, and she let me in. Somehow I felt the need to apologize again, even though it was totally her fault that she locked me out yet again. Yep, back to life in the Dominican.
