New Year and Back to the DR

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:

My Appetizer: Spicy Ginger Chili Chicken

Bart's Appetizer: Calamari

My Salad: House

Bart's Salad: Caesar

Bart's Main: Cognac Cream Chicken

My Main: Grilled Salmon 

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!

One of my favorites!

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.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

First of all, an apology.  I neglected my blog for a bit longer than I like to without having an actual reason to do so.  That being said, it was a fairly busy week!

It all began last Monday, and being back at work after vacation.  It seemed as though I was missed as I got a lot of "KIERSTIN!" at the office.  When O came in, he said right away, "Oh good, you're back, I tried calling you!"  Uh oh.  In the end it turns out that he had wanted some advice on his impending move to Canada.  At least it wasn't work related.  It was nice to be back at the office and I got stuck with a lot of work.  Some of it was interesting, at least for a while, and the other stuff, well not so much.  I ended up spending a lot of the week doing research on poultry farming.  Random.  I met up with Ozumy, Marola, Robert and Mari for lunch at KFC.  I haven't eaten there in a long time!  We also grabbed some ice cream at Wendy's on the way back!  Mmm...

On the way home from the office, I met up with Mari and Robert at Nacional.  A few exciting things happened there.  First of all, we saw something that was ridiculous but because it was ridiculous, I had the urge to buy it.  I resisted though.

Vodka wrapped in faux fur.

Then I found star fruit for RD$20 which is less than $1 Canadian!  Amazing!  And they tasted way better than the ones we get at home!

Cheap Star Fruit

Then I decided it was time to start getting into the Christmas spirit, and what better way to do that then by buying a festive box of tissues!

Christmas Tissues

The three of us decided to make dinner together.  Rather, I made some pasta and Robert and Mari made some bruschetta.  It was nice to sit and have a meal together.

On Tuesday, I was supposed to meet up with Lostania at lunch to go over some of the things that need to be done for the mentoring process.  She ended up having to stay at school longer than planned, so I called up Mari to see if she was interested in a late lunch.  Luckily, I caught her just as she was heading out the door to get some food.  We met up at Sweet Bakery and had giant salads!  In the evening, we went to pilates.  We both had to pay our November fees and that's when we found out that starting in December the monthly rate is increasing from RD$1000 to RD$1300.  Unfortunately, this means pilates is now unaffordable.  In addition to the increased rate, our usual ride home from Sylvia will be no longer since she is moving back to Wales in December.  Since the taxi costs us RD$150 each night, plus the RD$40 for carritos to the studio, we're looking at a total cost of RD$2220 per month, each.

I was able to meet up with Lostania for a late lunch on Wednesday.  We went to Emparedado for some sandwiches and had a nice chat.  I was also quite happy to finally get paid on Wednesday.  It was only 2 days late, but still.  I mean it shouldn't be late at all.  I miss direct deposit.  In the evening, we went over to Sylvia and Arturo's place.  It was a bit difficult to find but eventually we saw Sylvia standing out on the street outside the house.  Gerardo, Paula, Yeimy and Pavol were on their way as well.  They were a bit lost so Sylvia was on the phone with them and had them honk so that we could figure out how close they were.  It was rather amusing.  We were originally supposed to have a movie night but ended up playing Cranium again.  I was on a team with Arturo and Pavol.  We sort of won.  By that, I mean, when we called it a game, we were one card away from the win, and no one else was in the middle section yet.    It was nice to have the gang all together again.  It's been awhile since we've done that.  It was a really late night though which set me up for extreme exhaustion for the rest of the week!

I had another late lunch with Mari on Thursday.  Just as she was about to leave to meet up with me, the Gas Guy showed up to look at their gas tank.  Luckily my lunch hour is flexible so I was able to chill out at work and wait for her to finish up at home.  We decided to go to Pola, and while I was waiting there for her I saw a kind of funny sight: a motorbike with about 10-15 plastic lawn chairs piled up on the back.  I really wish I was able to get a picture of that.  Mari and I also saw a monk at lunch time too, as we were heading over to Sweet Bakery, dressed in the awesome brown robe.  I was so tired after work but I still managed to drag myself to pilates.  More and more businesses and other areas of the city are getting all of their Christmas decorations up.  Judging from the sheer amount of lights that are put up, I fear that there will be more power shortages in December!  This is at one of the big banks.  From the other side, their giant nativity scene is visible.  

Christmas lights at Banco BHD

Mari and her socks to keep her warm at pilates

I left work a bit early on Friday to meet up with Adaica.  She was taking me to see the apartment in which David had been living in before he left.  The apartment is quite close to where I currently live.  In the mornings, it will be a slightly shorter walk to where I go to catch the carrito, but a longer walk home in the evenings.  The lady was very nice.  She lives there with her young daughter.  She is a music teacher and had opera on in the background when we arrived.  I knew right away that I would like her!  The apartment is small but quite nice.  It has a modern kitchen which I enjoy.  The room that she has for rent is affectionately known as the "Princess Room."  This is because there are princess murals on the walls and the bed is in a princess type shape (I can't remember if it is like a flower or a crown or what).  It's cute and while not really my style, I can deal with it for 3 months.  There is also a TV in the room with cable which excites me a lot since I never get to watch TV here and I really want to watch more shows in Spanish to help me learn!  So, I said I'd take the place and decided to move in this coming weekend.  I'm so relieved to have a place to live!  I'm also nervous and a bit excited too.

After viewing the apartment, we headed back to the current apartment so that I could get changed out of my work clothes.  Then Adaica, Robert and I headed over to the AIESEC office since the trainees were having a meeting with the MC team.  The meeting went well and afterwards many more AIESECers and other friends showed up for "Russian Night."  Sasha had prepared several dishes for us to try and a St. Petersburg shot (vodka, grenadine and tabasco).  She also did a short presentation on Russia and had us learn a few words in Russian.  We also had the opportunity to meet two of the interns that are in the other city, San Francisco de Macoris.  At the party, we got some bad news about our Saturday plans.  We were supposed to go to 27 Charcos but because multiple cholera cases had surfaced in the Dominican, they were advising us not to go since the chance of ingesting water is fairly high when you're jumping into waterfalls...  We're all wondering if someone is trying to make it clear to us that we shouldn't be going on that trip!!

Robert and Mari

The party.  And Mari.

Since we were no longer going up north, I went into work on Saturday morning.  As I do every morning, I wandered over to Sweet Bakery before heading into the office.  While I was walking, a gray car pulled up beside me and someone did the sssssst ssssst thing at me.  For some reason I actually turned and looked.  It was A, the driver from work.  He asked me where I was going (he seemed confused, since I have to pass the office to go to the bakery), and I replied, "Sweet Bakery," and pointed up ahead. He seemed confused by this but realized that I wasn't going far.  I added in, "tengo hambre" (I'm hungry) to make sure he understood me.  We waved goodbye to each other and then I carried on my way.  It was J's birthday so once I found out I made a point of saying Happy Birthday to him.  He was very happy that I did so!  After work I picked up a few groceries and headed home to have a nice nap.

That evening, Mari and Robert invited Pavol and I to go to the movies with them.  We went to see Social Network.  It was actually quite good!  That and I was happy to have some popcorn.  Mari is always cold (I don't understand this at all!) and had brought along socks and a blanket to the theatre.  I'll admit that by the end my feet were a tad cold but still.  After the movie, we headed to the colmado for some drinks and sandwiches.  They messed up my order though and gave me a sandwich with only cheese instead of tomato and cheese.  Oh well.

Me, Pavol and Robert with a giant coke outside the theatre

Umm Yumm Yuumm

Cute new Presidente bag for the beer

On Sunday, everyone went to the beach.  I decided to stay home since I wanted to get some cleaning and packing done plus I had plans to skype with Leslie earlier on in the day, and an early date night with Bart later on.  A fairly low key day overall but I definitely needed the time to myself.  Plus it rained a bit that day at the beach anyway, so I didn't miss out on much.

Exhaustion and Art

I don't really remember a time when I was this tired.  No matter what I do, how much I sleep, I can't seem to feel normal.  This past week has been pretty exhausting because of this, but here are the highlights:

Wednesday was a good day overall.  I ended up telling Sr. S how much I liked his new painting.  As it turns out, it is by a young Dominican artist named Ruben Vasquez, who happens to be the son of a friend of Sr. S.  It was at his first exhibition that Sr. S bought the painting.  I was excited by this, and also the fact that the price he paid for it was also in my price range.  However, I was soon sad to learn that the artist sold all of his work at his first exhibition. Great for him, not so great for me.  Adding to that, he has just been accepted to study art in the US.  Regardless, I've got his name (obviously) and Sr. S knows how interested I am in the work.  In the process of this entire discussion, Sr. S found out that I am looking for a piece of art to take home with me at the end of my time here.  My only qualifications are that it is by a Dominican artist and that I love it. (Price is also important, however, my budget is apparently quite reasonable for what I want).  Because Sr. S seems to be well connected in the Dominican art world, he has told me that he will help me to find a suitable piece and that he should be able to negotiate a good deal for me.  I really like the sounds of this!  He also found out that I dabble in painting as well.  He was not happy to hear that I don't do any painting here in the Dominican and wanted to know why this was.  I explained that it was too much of a hassle to bring my painting stuff with me (instead I settled for bringing my sketch book and some sketching sticks) and that the hobby can be kind of expensive especially when you're starting fresh.  He then just up and calls his brother (who is an artist) and asks him if he can set me up with some supplies.  Insane.  So, as of right now, nothing has come of that, but we'll see.  The only thing is that I haven't felt overly inspired while I'm here.  In fact, I haven't even taken out my sketchbook once in the past 7 months.  Photography is really my only creative outlet, but I am limited in what I can take photos of, since having my good camera with me makes me even more of a target.  I often ponder how awesome it would be to have a body guard with me just so I could be out with my camera.  One who is bilingual of course and could ask permission to take photos on my behalf.  That would be awesome.

My small adventure for the day was taking some clothes to the dry cleaners near the office.  Robert has been using them for his pants and I figured it was time I did so as well.  Okay, I realize that sounds really bad that I haven't taken in my clothing for dry cleaning in 7 months... but you should know that I do hand-wash these things at home!  I also learned a new word in the process (in both Spanish and English): indelible/indeleble.  This was written on the receipt under the description of my two white silk shirts... Yep, sweat stains... that were labeled as being marks that cannot be removed.  I was hopeful though because it also said, without guarantee under that.  So essentially they were saying that there were bad stains that they would try to get rid of but they couldn't guarantee.  I was embarrassed.  However, considering I had to work without air conditioning for several months, there wasn't much I could do to prevent that...  In the evening, I headed over to the colmado to meet a friend of Mari's from Norway, Silje.  She is actually beginning a 4 month tour of Central America.  Robert, Pavol, Gerardo and Manuel were also there.

I had a bit of adventure on Thursday morning.  On my way to catch a carrito a guy yelled out his car at me, "Hey baby," and then a worker at a nearby furniture shop said, "sssssssstttttt sssstttt señorita!"  I get really annoyed by this.  It actually doesn't happen as much as it used to, but it still bugs me.  Poor Mari gets it even more than I do, mainly because she's blond with blue eyes.  Anyway, I went to catch a carrito and found one right away.  I was the only one in the car.  Once we got going again, the driver asked me if I was going only until Av 27 de Febrero.  I told him that no, I was getting off near Pola on Lope de Vega.  He then asked me if I was in a hurry.  Well yes, I was.  So he tells me that he just needs to go to a place near Churchill.  Am I in that much of a hurry?  Yes.  So he drops me off in the middle of traffic and hands me back my RD$20.  So I literally ran to the sidewalk (through traffic on a street which had just gotten a green light) to wait for another carrito.  One came quite quickly.  In this one, there was just myself and an older lady.  When we passed Av 27 de Febrero, there was no one waiting for a carrito that was going down Lope de Vega, only people waiting for Lincoln.  The driver turned around and was about to give me money back so I could take another one down Lope since he wanted to go down Lincoln to make the extra money.  I didn't want to wait for another carrito so I told him that it didn't matter to me whether he went down Lope or Lincoln.  So Lincoln it was.  It isn't a big deal for me, it's just a slightly longer walk to the office.  I definitely put my Spanish skills to the test that morning.

The entire day at work I was falling asleep.  Which was really frustrating.  I ate lunch at Pola with Robert, Mari and Silje, followed by my second espresso for the day at Sweet Bakery.  In the afternoon I ended up becoming really angry over a particular issue, which really put me in a bad mood.  I decided not go to pilates, since Tuesday's class had been a struggle for me and I was even more tired on Thursday.  Instead, I just spent some time catching up on reading, trying to relax, forgetting about the day and going to bed early.

Today's frustration came at work.  For the second day in a row, my internet stopped working on my laptop at the office.  I went to tell R that it wasn't working again and he said he would come right away to take a look.  I waited about an hour for him to come.  He never did.  In the process of waiting, the laptop ended up restarting itself (no warning or anything).   Only problem was that it couldn't actually start up again.  It would just get stuck.  So finally I held down the power button to turn it right off, and then a bit later, pressed it again to turn it back on.  This time, it ended up on a black screen that said, "Operating System not found."  Obviously, that was not a message I wanted to see.  Tired of waiting, I took it into R's office.  He apologized for not coming by earlier, stating that there was an emergency issue with the server.  He took at look at the message on the screen and said, "That is a big problem."  This was followed by his touchy-feely method of computer repair, and then the realization that this method wasn't going to work.  He told me that he knew how to fix it but that it would take some time.  He then asked me, "do you have files on here that you need?"  I replied, stating what I thought would be obvious, "Yes I have files on there that I need."  He gave me a grave look and told me he would try his best to recover them.  This is not good news at all.  Not at all.  Now I have to hope that J still has the copy of our current feasibility study on his computer.  Of course there are lots of other files that I will be very unhappy to lose, but I can deal without most of them.

Lunch was quite enjoyable today.  Robert and I met up with Mari and Silje at La Lasagna.  Similar to last time, the food was very yummy!  I also picked up my dry cleaning and was very happy to see that they had done a really good job with the icky sweat stains!

As it turns out, it is going to be a rather quiet weekend for me.  Pavol is in Sosua on vacation and Robert, Mari and Silje are heading up to Santiago and the surrounding area for the weekend.  I actually don't mind.  I could use the peace and quiet.

Apparently it is October

Well September just flew by!  Not that I'm upset about that, I'm on the home stretch and tending to focus more and more on returning home. 

So on Wednesday night, Mari and Robert had everyone over for some food and drinks.  I made a caprese salad and Mari made amazing Focaccia bread from scratch!!  It was an enjoyable evening with yummy food! 

The spread at the beginning of the evening

Early arrivals

Robert eating the caprese salad

Ozumy, Mari and I

Also, that evening Bart received my anniversary gift in the mail - a photo album of our first year together!  So I ran back to my apartment for a while so that I could chat with him quickly to get his reaction, and then headed back to the party.  After I had returned, David announced to the entire group that he was moving out of our apartment the next day.  I was a bit shocked, since while I had known of his intensions to look for another place, I had no idea it was going to happen so soon.  This stresses me out a lot since with him gone, my rent increases.  I already have to be careful with my money and it is not that I can't afford the increased rent, it's just that it stresses me out a lot when I have to purposely eat for cheap and buy lesser quality (and non-imported) food, for example.  That's something I don't believe in cheaping out on.  No more asparagus or pre-washed lettuce for me!  Nope, my last splurge will be today: truffle oil.  Which I think is an okay splurge since it will for sure last me the rest of my time here and most likely will end up coming home with me!  Now I just have to learn to make popcorn on the stove.

It has been raining a lot this week so its actually quite cool outside.  Still warm, but a more comfortable temperature.  On Thursday, work was quite slow.  Lunch was with Mari, like usual.  In the afternoon, I got a call that someone was downstairs to see me.  I had a pretty good idea of what it was about.  Sure enough, Bart had sent me a lovely bouquet of roses for our anniversary.  All of the ladies at the office were extremely jealous!  I ended up having to take a taxi home just so I could transport them properly.  I once saw a lady taking flowers in the carrito and the end result was water spillage and flowers on the road. Even though I was (and still am) incredibly tired, I dragged myself to pilates.  I'm so glad I did though!  I have always had a lot of trouble with the flexibility of my hamstrings.  Pilates is great because it forces me to work on that particular flexibility a lot.  One stretch that I have particular problems with is sitting, and bending towards my feet  - especially when my legs are in the V position.  But last night, Rina (our instructor) told me to push harder, so I gave it a try, and magically I was able to grab my foot.  Wow, that sounds really pathetic.  But like I said, this is something I have struggled with for a while.  I still have memories of "Fitness Tests" in junior high and when we had to measure how far we could bend like that.  I always felt so inadequate.  It's amazing how good you feel when you notice that you've made progress with something like that.  Anyway, after pilates, Sylvia took Mari and I home, Mari gave me some guacamole and chips (mmmmm) and I spoke to Bart for a bit on Skype before heading to bed.

Rose Closeup

Gorgeous Bouquet

Today has been a decent day so far.  "Watchieman" (our "security" guard) was already at the apartment so I was able to get out without having to get Mari out of bed.  On my way to catch a carrito, I came across an adorable homeless puppy.  When I walked by him, he got quite scared and kind of skittish.  I told him that he didn't have to worry (although I'm sure he doesn't understand English) and that I wasn't going to hurt him.  He had a little bone that had a tiny bit of meat on.  While I stood and waited for a carrito, I watched the little guy and my heart just melted.  I've thought about that puppy all day today.  I just want to take him home and feed him well, love him and spoil him, take him for walks to the ocean and teach him some fun tricks.  Sigh. 

Can I keep him?

Once I arrived at the office, I walked into the area where my desk is and was hit with a blast of freezing cold air.  That's right, the air conditioning was fixed!  The maintenance guy (who looks a bit crazy and is always really excited) stopped by and asked if I could leave my area while he checked on some things with the A/C.  I figured this was going to be quick so I just wandered over to J's desk and did some reading on my BB.  Well, it wasn't a quick thing, so once I found out that Robert didn't have time to meet at Sweet Bakery, I headed on over by myself to get some coffee and breakfast.  When I returned, they were still checking it out.  The three of us, O, J and myself, were all so pleased that we no longer had to work in the sweaty, smelly environment of the past couple of months.

Gerardo and Paula came to pick me up at lunch.  They wanted to check out Sweet Bakery, so we went there so they could try it out and we could wait for Mari.  Once Mari arrived, the four of us went to IKEA for lunch.  I was kind of surprised by how busy IKEA was.  On our way out, they had given us some free brewed Swedish coffee.  We were joking about where Swedish coffee actually comes from, so when Mari was paying for a couple things she grabbed on the way out, I went into the food store to find out the origin of their coffee.  While there, I saw a wall of Absolut Vodka.  Alcohol in IKEA never gets old. 

Absolut in IKEA

Tonight is officially girls night.  Unfortunately, my body will probably kill me if I went out, so I'm going to stay in and get to bed early.  This week has been brutal because of my lack of sleep.  Mmm sleep...

Pre-washed Lettuce and Krispy Kreme Hats

I attempted to write this blog post yesterday.  It was a very hectic day.  All that was sitting and waiting for me when I opened it up to continue today was this:

Before

Yep, that's how far I got.  However, I do remember where I was going with that.

Before I get to the meat of the post, I wanted to let all of you know, who may or may not read my amazing friend Leslie's blog, that she is competing in the Project Food Blog Challenge - and she needs your votes.  So here's what you do:

1. Go to foodbuzz.com
2. Sign up (super simple)
3. Look for "Chomp!" on the alphabetical list of blogs (you'll see a great picture of Leslie, taken by yours truly!!)
4. Click on the little heart and you've voted!
5. Read her blog - it's awesome, I promise.

So this weekend.  I worked Saturday morning, as per usual, and happily left on time!  After stopping by Nacional for some date night yummies (including finding pre-washed and packaged lettuce!!), I headed home to do lots of fun things like reading, doing updates on my computer and napping.  David and Pavol were both away for the weekend so I had the place to myself.  A part of me enjoys being there alone, but at the same time, it gets awfully quiet.  I had a quick chat with the family as they were all in Edmonton.  I helped Jonathan to arrange his newly framed pictures in a pleasing way on his wall.  That's something I love about skype.  Even though I'm thousands of miles away, I can still be involved in people's lives.  After my chat with them, I spent the rest of the evening playing the usual Monopoly and Scrabble with Bart.  I got beaten badly in Monopoly (2 out of 3 games) but then I got my revenge in Scrabble. 

On Sunday, I was up early to get my bedding in the laundry and to meet up with Maria.  We went for a manicure and pedicure at 9:30.  I was quite unimpressed with the lady who did mine.  At first, I was pleased as she redid my one nail not once, but twice due to my clumsiness.  But then she made my toe bleed.  No tip for her.  Thankfully it seems to be ok (no infection) but neither of us will let her do our nails again.  We then headed to Krispy Kreme where we met up with Robert. Maria and I got given a free donut that was still warm.  It was beyond delicious, so much so that there is no way I could have eaten another one.  However, I was still able to eat more non-hot ones.  I also love the hats.  Dominicans seem to especially love wearing the hats. 

Maria

Me

Glazing Donuts

Maria enjoying her free hot donut

Robert with the hat

That is the video we made as we opened up our box of one dozen donuts.  Here's how many were left by the time we went to leave:

Since I have been talking about baked goods a lot lately, I wanted to ensure everyone that I am indeed still eating healthy most of the time - I just don't talk about it that much.

Salad made with the awesome pre-washed and packaged arugula!

The remainder of Sunday involved more lazing and napping.  It was what I needed. 

Monday was another crazy day at work.  We found out that we had prepared the wrong country report, and so had to rush to complete the one we were supposed to do.  As always, I ended up doing most of the work and then having to wait on others for the work I didn't do.  This all resulted in me working overtime again.  After lunch, Robert and I went to Sweet for an afternoon espresso.  We chatted more with our favorite employee there, and learned that her name is Paula!  When we were there in the morning, she wasn't there and because of that, our espressos were not as good and our baked goods weren't heated up.  She makes everything better!

Today is going much better so far.  I had a good laugh during my carrito ride.  The carrito seemed to be stuck in 1st gear.  Needless to say, the trip was really slow and we barely made it up the hill near my apartment!  Robert is out of the office with the rest of the audit team as they had to go to see a client today.  That meant I made the trip to Sweet by myself.  I had an early lunch with Mari and Ozumy and afterwards, Mari and I headed over to Sweet for the afternoon espresso.  Ozumy brought me an awesome treat and in return, I bought her a chocolate croissant to enjoy later in the day while she was at work!

Regular Snickers are hard to find, but somehow Ozumy found me a Snickers Almond!

Mini chinola pie at Sweet Bakery

I should also mention that we have a short work week!  Friday is a holiday.  In celebration, all of us interns are heading to a resort in Punta Cana for Friday - Sunday.  I'm looking forward to having some relaxation time and the opportunity to regain my tan!

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.

Where have all the Snickers bars gone?

Es viernes! (It's Friday!)

Normally, I don't get excited about it being Friday because I work on Saturdays... but this Saturday (sábado) we are heading out to Isla Saona for Paula's birthday!  Which means a full day of sun (hopefully), sand and water!  There are over 20 of us going together - interns, aiesecers, coworkers, friends.  It should be a great time!  Plus, I haven't been to the beach since Bart was here and I'm rapidly losing my tan.

So, Wednesday night after work, Robert and I did a bit of shopping.  I found those things to hang in my closet to help prevent the moldy clothing.  After having it hung up for 24 hours, it had already collected about 1/8 cup of water.  Freaky.  They are supposed to last for 60 days, but at that rate, I'm not sure if it will!  Anyway, we did a rum tasting at the house (one from the Turks and Caicos) and then met up with Paula and Yeimy and headed to the colmado for some beer.  We, the interns, decided we needed to meet and really discuss what our housing needs are and try to come to a solution that works for all of us.  While there, I thought I would check to see if they had any Snickers bars.  For the past couple weeks, I haven't been able to find a Snickers bar anywhere!  It was like one day, they suddenly vanished.  And not just the ones near the till, even the Halloween sized packs, and the mini Snickers bites.  None at Pola, none at Nacional.  Anyway, I went in and asked for a Snickers, there was one there (and an almond one at that!) it looked like it had been there forever and had went through being melted and then frozen, but I didn't care.  The guys at the colmado thought I was weird for insisting on that one - they even tried to give me two other chocolate bars instead.

It wasn't that tasty - like I said, it had been melted and frozen at least once - but I savoured it nonetheless.  Who knows when I will get my next one!  For now, it will remain a mystery as to why all the Snickers bars have vanished from the DR.  I hope there wasn't a recall or something... I'm sure to have been affected based solely on the amount I have eaten in the past 5 months...

Sylvia and Arturo rode up on the motorbike later on in the evening and Maria, who had to work late, got dropped off by one of her coworkers.  When the colmado closed, we went back to the apartment and hung out for a bit longer.  We ended up calling it a night once we realized that Robert had fallen asleep on the couch.  He hasn't had an opportunity to nap or deal with the jet lag at all.* 

At work yesterday, Robert got assigned a workspace down in the auditing department.  It was a very lonely day as only L (Sr. S's admin assistant) and I were in our department.  J and O were out at a site near Puerto Plata and Sr. S sounded like he was outside with a lot of kids when I spoke to him briefly.  We met up with Pavol for lunch and then Orlando stopped by too.  And here I went and wrote my little goodbye tribute to him the day before.  Regardless, it was good to get to see him again.  It hasn't quite hit me yet that he's no longer here.  In the afternoon I ended up being quite busy working on a small project with L for Sr. S (thus why I had to call Sr. S).  L and I have developed this way of communicating with each other (since she doesn't speak any English) where I say the key words/attempt a sentence and she comes up with a proper sentence and I say si or no.  I can understand her most of the time, sometimes she just has to say it a different way.   But it makes both of us laugh.  I really like L. 

On the way home from work, as we were passing near the Reinaldo building, Robert and I saw a hummingbird!  It was pretty cool!  We also stopped at the colmado for some ice cream.  We were chilling at the apartment, chatting and eating the ice cream when Pavol came home.  Then Manuel called and said he was coming over to get one of the Spanish Koran's that Pavol randomly received after eating at a Moroccan restaurant with Zak.  We ended up going to the colmado, we were all dressed really casually - looking totally gringo - especially Pavol who was wearing his shorts that look like underwear.  I stayed only for a little while and then ran off to catch the metro to meet Paula for pilates.  On the metro, everyone stares at me, all the time.  Last night was no exception.  Then one guy started hissing at me and I just ignored him and shook my head.  Finally he got up and came over to me, and asked me if I wanted his seat.  I didn't, so I said no.  Then he gave it to some other girl.  I really dislike the hissing.  It's one of the things I just can't accept.  It goes against everything I was ever taught.  To me, it is incredibly rude and disrespectful.  I know it's a cultural thing but yeah.  Anyway, because of the ice cream followed by the colmado, I had ice cream, beer and some trail mix in me before going to pilates.  I was rather sluggish.  Sylvia gave us a ride home and when we passed by the colmado I noticed that the guys were still there - I'm glad they got some guy bonding time!

David is now house-sitting for Tamas (who is on vacation for a month) so Robert was able to sleep in David's room.  He slept in a bit so we didn't leave for work until 9:00.  Since Robert didn't have time for breakfast we went to Sweet Bakery where he got a sandwich and an espresso (although it was supposed to be an Americano) and I got a latté.  I noticed my latté had a weird white sticker on it.  When I got to work, I realized what it was for:

Yep - that's pretty cool - a sticker handle!

Stay tuned for the tales and adventures of the Isla Saona trip!

*Although I believe this is the best way to overcome it - just force yourself through it!  

I Miss Direct Deposits

Today was payday.  Now, the process in which I get paid is rather, well, old school.  Twice a month, I get told to go into a back office, I get some cash and I sign a piece of paper.  Usually I have to wait at work a bit longer than I usually stay, until I am able to go in and get paid.  So today, I sat and waited.  It was after 6:00pm when I finally decided that I should check to make sure that we were actually getting paid today.  So I asked J and he said, "Yes, I already got mine," and then he asked me for a "Trident."  He told me to go back and get mine.  So I did, and everyone from that department was gone.  Great. 

Now I guess this is partially my fault - perhaps I should have asked sooner or went to check for myself.  BUT since the first payday, someone has always told me that it was my turn to go.  ALWAYS.  No one has actually told me the procedure.  (This reminds me of how no one even showed me where the washroom was, let alone any other important aspect of the office when I started)  So I left, an hour late, with no money.  I was just a little bit frustrated.

In regards to the rest of the day... I had a good morning since JD and his BMW happened upon me while I was waiting for a carrito and gave me a lift to work!  On my way home, there was a man standing at the corner near my apartment without a shirt on holding a large machete, which made me slightly anxious.  Someone ate my remaining 3 big carrots, which I was hoping to have as a snack before pilates.  And by someone, I mean, one of my lovely roommates.  It's alright though, I'll just look for 3 new big carrots to appear in my fridge sometime soon.

And off to pilates I go...