El Carnaval de La Vega

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's a Line

Hard to believe that I only have 13 days left in the Dominican.  It really does feel like just the other day that I arrived here, although I do still remember back to April and May when the actual 1 or 2 months I'd been here felt like years.  Even though I have been here for nearly a year now, and life has become pretty "normal" there are still things that make me laugh and wonder.

On Monday, I watched a guy a few cars ahead of the carrito I was in spray his windshield with windex and then turn on his windshield wipers.  not only that, but since the bottle was nearly empty, he took off the nozzle portion and just sort of threw the windex across the windshield.  The worst part of this was that it was kind of windy and you could see the windex blowing back into his car (since the rest of his windows were open, and onto and into other people's cars.  Although, I must admit, if your windshield washer fluid isn't working or you've run out, I guess it isn't a bad way to get the windshield clean.

Even more hilarious was on Tuesday when I watched one car pulling another.  They had attached the two together with what looked like a really long exercise band.  When they first started going, it seemed that the guy  in the car being pulled was able to use his brakes.  However, when they attempted to turn a corner and the first car had to stop quickly, the second just kind of slowly and leisurely ran right into it.  To make matters worse, as it ran into it, it drove onto the exercise band thing, so then the car ahead, when it attempted to get going again, couldn't pull the car behind since the weight of the back car was holding down the band that had tied the two together.

On Tuesday night, I decided to do some reading once I had gotten home from work.  It was quite enjoyable until I started having my vision go funny: Migraine.  I haven't had a migraine that bad in several years.  It was so bad that I emailed/text mom and Bart and told them that I just couldn't talk to them that evening, and so after taking a few Tylenol and drinking some more water, I went to bed shortly after 8pm.  When I woke up in the morning, the migraine was still there, but not quite as bad.  I went into work anyway, which maybe wasn't the best idea.  I made it until about 2:00.  But with my head pounding, I wasn't able to concentrate on anything and everything was made that much more worse because the air conditioning hadn't been working all day.  So I went home, and slept for another few hours.  Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of talking to Kaitie, who is currently doing an internship in the Netherlands.  It was really nice to talk to another Canadian doing an internship abroad.  Even though our situations are very different, we are going through a lot of the same things which is comforting to know.

This morning, I left the apartment a bit late since I had taken the time to gather up a few things to take over to the MC.  Usually that means that there won't be a line at the carrito stop, but there was.  In fact, I ended up waiting about 1/2 hour for a carrito to show up.  As I've mentioned before, the Dominicans are starting to line up for the carrito, which makes a lot of sense.  At other main stops, like 27 de febrero, there is just a huge clump of people and they literally push and shove their way into a carrito.  But the line thing still doesn't quite work.  People still come and butt into the line, and not all of the people in the line are capable of speaking up and telling those people to get in the line.  Although when they do, it is beautiful.  I get such a kick out of seeing them standing by the carrito door, telling a person who had butted in to get out of the carrito and into the lineup.  When I told Erin about this the last time she was here, she didn't believe me that they were actually lining up.  So I snapped this picture on the blackberry earlier this week for her as proof.

Maybe the next time I come back for a visit, the lines will be the norm.  That would be super cool.

Altos de Chavon

Sunday was a day for adventures.

On Saturday night, Maria sent me a message saying that she would be able to go to Altos de Chavon with me on Sunday, only catch was, she was already in San Pedro so I would have to meet her there.  This, of course, meant me taking a guagua by myself, which I have never done.  But, I figured it couldn't be too bad, plus I could always call Maria if I ran into any issues.  So Sunday morning, I got up and got myself ready.  I called a taxi at 9:20 and then went to wait outside since they had told me it would be there in 3 min.  Well 15 minutes later, the taxi showed up.  First thing he says to me (conversation in Spanish) is that I didn't give the right address, and that he was over somewhere else, blah blah.  So I just said to him, it's Correa y Cidron, #11.  And pointed to where it was written on my building.  I've never had any trouble with the address and taxis before, but as I was soon to learn, this guy was just out to make my life hell.  So he asked me where I needed to go and I told him the ASTRAPU station.  He asked me if I wanted Duarte or Nuñez, and I said Duarte (didn't know there was one in Nuñez).  Then of course, he asks me where I am headed, I told him to San Pedro, and like all good Dominican taxi drivers, he tries to convince me that he will give me a good deal and take me the entire way.  (To understand this, the minimum taxi fare in the city is RD$150, for me to take an air conditioned bus an hour outside the city to San Pedro is RD$110, so unless he wants to match that, it's not a good deal for one person.)  He continues with this, but also taking the time to keep saying to me, you don't speak Spanish, and calling me Rubia directly to my face (normally guys will yell that at you on the street, but I've NEVER had someone call me that in a direct manner, especially when I am paying someone for a  service.  Once we arrive near Duarte, he tries to tell me that the station is on our left.  I tell him no, it is by the big park.  He's like, well this is Duarte, and I said I know, but it is not here.  So he pulls over and asks a few guys on the corner to tell him where the station is, but the guys on the corner don't get what he's asking them so they ask me, and I tell them, the ASTRAPU station near the big park.  They understand this and direct him that way.  He continues to tell me that I told him the wrong place, and I keep arguing no I didn't.  He then starts speaking to me really quickly and when I say that I don't understand him, can he slow down, he just keeps doing it, as if taunting me.  Finally I know exactly where we are so I just start directing him.  When we arrive, he turns around and tells me that this isn't on Duarte, it's on such and such a street.  I pretty much yell back at him, yes, and it is 1 block away from Duarte, thus, it is close to Duarte!!!!  Then he wanted to charge me RD$400, I was so pissed off at him, I didn't even argue, just handed him the RD$150 and walked out and onto the bus.  I was so angry.

Luckily, I had still made it onto the bus that would leave at 10:00, getting me to San Pedro around 11:00.  Maria had told me to tell the cobrador (guy who takes your money and tells the driver when to stop) to let me off at the McDonald's in San Pedro, but that I didn't know where it was so to please let me know.  But apparently, my accent when saying McDonald's is not comprehensible, or at least not to the cobrador and the lady beside me. (Again, entire conversations in Spanish)  I mentioned the words "restaurante" and "para comer" but that didn't help.  I even pulled out my little book where I had written down exactly what to say, and showed him.  He still had no idea and neither did the lady.  He carried on, collecting money and I called Maria in the mean time to have her talk to him.  When he came back, I put him on the phone with her.  She told him that I needed to be dropped off at McDonald's.  He didn't understand the first time, but when she said it again, he exclaimed, "McDonal" (pronounced like Mc then the name Don and the name Al).  The lady then also exclaimed, "Ohhh McDonal."  We all had a good laugh.  The lady asked to see my book again and when she read it that time she was like, "ohh I don't know why I didn't understand that."  The lady then started asking me questions, like where I was from, what I was doing here, etc.  So we had a nice little chat.  When we arrived in San Pedro, the lady was getting off before me, and when she left, she reminded the cobrador to not forget about the Americana, which I thought was really sweet. (I had told her that I was Canadian, but that doesn't seem to make a difference here).  I was one of the last people on the bus and we were nearly at the McDonald's when one of the guys nearby started asking the cobrador where the Americana was going, then this caused all the people in front of me to turn around and try to sneak a glimpse of me.  The cobrador told them I was going to McDonal.  When I got off the bus, I was swarmed by the motorconcho drivers, I just kept telling them, "No!" and finally made it across the street where Maria had just arrived.  We went to find a bus to take us to her mom's new place and were successful, sort of.  The chofer spoke some English and I guess he was trying to speak to me in English, but I couldn't hear him over the noise.  So he just kept talking to Maria in both Spanish and English.  This particular guagua took forever to get to where we needed to go.  Eventually, we just got off and walked the rest of the way.  It was a nice walk, minus one crazy man in pink who was yelling at us, and I got to see a new area of San Pedro - which I really liked!  When we arrived at the house, Maria's aunt, uncle and two cousins were there to pick up an adorable puppy.  Inside, I was greeted by 5 dogs and another aunt and cousin.  We ate sandwiches quickly before Maria and I headed out to get ourselves to La Romana.  We were running short on time, so Maria asked me if I would be okay with taking a motorconcho to the bus station since it would be much faster.  I agreed.  The driver who took us was really quite smelly, which was unfortunate for the two of us, sitting behind him on the bike.

We caught a guagua right away and were off to La Romana, unfortunately, there was no air conditioning in this one.  Once we arrived, we went and sat in a park to wait for our taxi driver.

Once the driver arrived, we headed to Casa de Campo - the exclusive and beautiful resort complex in La Romana.  For us to get in to see Altos de Chavon, we had to pay US$25 per person.  It was then that we found out that the fee gave us access to the beach and the marina as well.  Had we known that, we would have brought our bathing suits and made a day out of it!  It was a bit of a drive to get to Altos de Chavon but an enjoyable one.  So essentially, Altos de Chavon is a little 16th century Mediterranean style village that was built using historic techniques and materials in the 1970s.  It's a very beautiful place.  We wandered around, took pictures, did some shopping, ate ice cream, had drinks, got a tour of the museum and finished the afternoon off with some pie and coffee at the French bakery.

When it was time to call the taxi again to pick us up, we had to call to the front security at the resort so that he could be let in.  We had some issues since the lady kept telling us that they couldn't authorize the taxi to come in and pick us up.  Maria kept telling her, we are visitors with the day pass, we don't have a car, you let him bring us into the resort, so you need to let him come in to pick us up!  Finally she agreed, after taking down every detail possible about the taxi driver and his vehicle.  Here's Maria making it all happen, using both of our blackberrys at once.

Once we got to the main gates to leave Casa de Campo, the driver had to hand over his keys to the security so that they could search his trunk.  Intense stuff.  The taxi took us to the bus station and we hopped on the first bus to head back to San Pedro.  Once we arrived, we were again, surrounded by the motorconcho drivers.  It is so annoying, they barely let you get off the bus before they are grabbing at you and trying to get you to take a ride with them.  Maria got really angry and yelled at them, which was funny and they totally deserved it!  We were able to catch a guagua that dropped us off across the street from Maria's mom's house, which was helpful.  We stopped in quickly so that Maria could grab her bag and her puppy, Luna.  While I waited, I showed her cousin the pictures we had taken on my camera and then her mom gave me a set of dominoes.  But not just any set, HER set.  The reason she did this is because she had wanted to get me a set with that particular design, but they are a bit harder to find, and since she knew I was leaving soon and didn't want me to leave without a set, she gave me hers.  It was the sweetest thing and I was so touched, and I nearly started crying.  I gave her mom a huge hug and thanked her so much.  I will definitely treasure those dominoes forever - especially because she was the one that taught on me how to play, with that very set.

After another set of goodbyes, and me promising to vacation in the Dominican frequently and to come to San Pedro, we caught another motorconcho to the bus station.  This time, the guy was not smelly, but he did have one of the amusing, yet kind of disgusting seats.  There was one moment, while stopped at a red light, that I looked back at Maria and then at Luna, who was tucked in Maria's purse.  It was so cute.  Luna was just looking up at the two of us with her big eyes, seemingly saying, "why am I in this situation right now?"  We bought our tickets, got on the bus, ate our sandwiches that Maria's mom had packed for us earlier in the day (which were now squished and a bit soggy from being at the bottom of my bag all day) and headed back to the city.

We took a carrito to Tiradentes, then I walked with Maria a bit until we were near her street, then I took a carrito down Tiradentes till my stop.  I had two blocks to walk to get to my apartment.  As I started walking, I looked across the street and saw this guy:

Yep, just a random horse, standing on the sidewalk, eating away.  An odd feeling to be walking down a street in the middle of a major city and find a lone horse.

Small Moments

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

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

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

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

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

Swaying Carritos and Heart Shaped Delights!

I ended off the weekend by just taking it easy on Sunday.  I had a few things to do around the house like laundry and cleaning so it worked out well.  And because I had Canadian Night on Saturday night, Bart and I moved our date night to Sunday.

Monday was both a fun and a sad day.  I started off the day by meeting Ozumy for breakfast at Sweet Bakery, which is always a treat.  By the time lunch rolled around, Ozumy was still in the area so we wandered over to Wendy's to have lunch together.  Here's Ozumy rocking the Canada shirt I brought back for her!

The sad part of the day was saying goodbye to O.  It was his last day on the job as he has a new position to train for which is soon to take him to Canada.  So while it is exciting to know that O will be hanging out in Toronto beginning in March, it was still sad to not have him around for my final few weeks here at the office.  We had a few good chats, including him asking me how much warm clothes he should purchase and bring with him.  I've also put him in contact with my great friend Rob, who has been living in Toronto for the past few years, just in case O needs a hand prior or after his arrival.

I am also still dealing with having my landlady going into my room when I'm at work.  The first time, it made sense because she had to get the cable box, and the last two times I can sort of justify as well.  I'm still not happy about it though, it just gives a real feeling of unease knowing that someone has been in your room without your knowledge.  So on Monday, when I got home from work, I noticed that the modem was turned a different way then I keep it, and my window was opened more than usual.  I assume that the internet was acting up so she wanted to reset it, but I'm not sure why she felt the need to open my window up more (which personally freaks me out because there are no screens and the bars are quite spacious and I worry about birds and other larger creatures getting in haha).

On Tuesday, Robert was back in the office.  We had a gossip/catch-up session at Sweet Bakery in the morning where he told me about his not-so-successful paragliding training.  The day at the office was rather slow, until the end of the day when Sr. S called me into his office, gave me a piece of cheesecake and then told me to return with my computer once I was done eating.  I also finally got a chance to tell him what day I'm leaving, so it was good to get that out of the way.  Now I will be busy finishing this one project we've been working on since before I even got here.

Wednesday was a slow motion kind of day.  Everything seemed to take forever and I constantly felt like I wasn't accomplishing anything.  I did accomplish a few things, including what I had wanted to finish in terms of the work, and some extras like doing a bit of shopping on Etsy!  Robert and I decided to go to Jardin Verde for lunch.  I wanted to try something different since I'm not a huge fan of their fake meat, so I picked an item on the menu that translated directly as: flour tortilla with vegetables.  Sounds good right?  Yeah, except, like a lot of the things on their menu, it was not what one would expect.

It was still a good meal, and the weird tortilla thing tasted much better with a bit of ketchup to dip it in.  It ended up raining for a bit too while we were there.  Of course, we stopped at Sweet Bakery on the way
back for an afternoon coffee and since Valentine's Day is fast approaching, there are now some cute heart-shaped desserts!

One of the highlights of my day was the carrito ride home.  I got into this particular carrito at the same time as another guy.  He took B1 and I took B2.  Soon B3 and B4 were filled.  Totally normal, except the car was rather tiny and had no leg room whatsoever.  As it turned out, I had to sort of assume the hypothermia position (although knees weren't quite tucked up to my chest).  I hung onto my purse while the two guys on either side of me had to sort of lean against me, so only my hands and wrists would be showing if you had seen me from the front of the car.  It was insane.  On top of that, the entire car felt like it was barely being held together, everything rattled, and we actually swayed from side to side, similar to being on a boat.  As I sat there, I had to chuckle to myself.  Never in a million years would I have pictured myself in that situation a year ago and I'm sure that people who only know Canada me, would not believe that it was actually me if they had seen it.  Here is my recreation of the event.

Anyway, when I returned home, I came to realize that the landlady had been in my room again.  This time was probably my fault, since I had turned the internet off the night before and forgotten to put it back on in the morning.  The thing that made me laugh, is not only did she leave dirty footprints, but instead of turning it off by the power button (which I had done), she unplugged it.

Dear Dominican Government: don't hire her as a spy, she would be terrible at it.

Sweet Bakery had even more cute Valentine's treats today and this one, I just couldn't resist.