Start your Engines! (Via the Hood)

Still no internet at home.

I watched another movie last night, "W."  It was alright.  Makes Powell look like the good guy and makes Rice look kind of stupid and homely.  I watched "Precious" on Monday night and it was MUCH better - very intense.

It seems as though my carrito rides often prove to be the most interesting/random part of my day; today was no exception.  I got into one that had no outside door handles, and the inside ones were essentially broken, so the driver had to open the doors for the passengers all the time since he knew the "trick" to them.  He seemed like a very impatient driver as he kept going into the far left lanes to get around traffic.  We were in the middle lane and were waiting for traffic to clear so that he could pull over to the right, since the girl in the front (there was just the two of us) needed to get out.  He ended up stalling the car.  So I was expecting him to restart the car and get going again, but he didn't.  He waited until traffic cleared, got out, opened the hood, and started the car from there.  This seemed odd since he had a key in the ignition.  I learned later that the key was there more as a place to keep it, although he had to take it out once and a while to change the radio station. (Don't ask, I think the buttons were kind of broken so he needed a smaller point to press the buttons with?)  Speaking of the radio, it was on VERY loud.  I had to essentially yell to get him to stop where I wanted!

The architect was back at the office today.  He seemed excited to see me.  I also got to meet his son who had accompanied him to the meeting.  He told his son, in Spanish, about how I was from Edmonton, Alberta, which was close to Banff.  I assume his son has heard even more about his experiences in Banff than me, so this seemed to resonate well with his son.  It was also funny when he was telling his son that I don't know Spanish.  I kind of chuckled at this though, and Sr. S clarified that I could understand quite a bit!  I also think that Sr. S had a pen explode on him, as most of his right hand was covered in ink...

I asked O about the chicken the other day.  He did not see the chicken and seemed even more surprised than I did about its existence.  Unfortunately his girlfriend called just as we were about to really discuss the chicken, so that conversation kind of finished abruptly with no chance for any sort of explanation.

I ended up having two treats today.  At first, it was just going to be the Coke, but then, Ozumy said she wanted chocolate - the same one that I usually get - and I just couldn't resist getting one too.

I'm greatly looking forward to Canada Day tomorrow - stay tuned to Friday's blog post for the details on how I spent Canada Day in the Dominican! 

And finally, today I get to celebrate nine absolutely amazing months with Bart!  Yay!

Chickens and Growing a Beard in Banff

My weekend was rather uneventful which was fine by me.  I had a brief chance to see my old roommate, Andrew, on Saturday which was lovely.  Other than that, I did a lot of sleeping - which I needed - and relaxing.  As always, Monday came too quickly.

After a not so great morning full of minor issues and forgetfulness, I arrived at work in a bit of a daze yesterday.  I decided to go in the back way since it is hot out and I wanted the air conditioner on.  As I went in the door, I saw something peculiar.  A chicken.  A fairly big chicken (fat) who was tied by the leg to the back door - sort of like when a dog gets tied just outside a store while its owner heads inside quickly.  It was just sitting there, chilling.  Very odd.

Had I not been in such a daze, I would have taken a picture.  I tried to do so again later, but there were too many people downstairs and I didn't want to risk looking ridiculous and unprofessional.

I was given an interesting project to work on yesterday.  It's for a Polo Club in another country.  I met the architect who, as it turns out, lived in Canada for two years.  He told me stories about how he passed through Banff on his way from Montreal to Vancouver and just fell in love with the place - and with a Russian-Canadian artist who specialized in Native portraits - Nicholas de Grandmaison.  Now I'm not sure if he meant love as in relationship love or just love as in artwork/artist love.  Regardless, that's awesome since his work is fabulous and I am always in awe of the personality that he captures in his portraits! Apparently this architect even grew his first beard in Banff.  He also told me about all the jobs he had, including working as a dishwasher at the Banff Springs hotel and as a bartender at a local bar.  Anyway, my encounter with him definitely made my day - even more so than the chicken...

We haven't had internet at home now since sometime between when I went to bed on Sunday and got up on Monday.  This is frustrating because I don't like it when I am unable to talk to mom and Bart.  This is the joy of sharing internet with other people in the building - except it is such a pain when they are not home and able to restart the router or fix the issue, etc.  We have been looking into getting out own internet, which I hope we do soon!

I can't believe it is July this week!  Can you?

Rooftop BBQ

The work day ended with a lot of noise as more stormy weather moved through.  I ended up staying at work later than planned since I wasn't keen on venturing out in the pouring rain.  Finally, it slowed down to a nice sprinkle and I headed out.  Since traffic was truly insane (more than usual) and no carritos with room could be found anyway, I decided to walk.  When I reached the corner of Lincoln and 27 I ran into a familiar face: David.  He convinced me to head over to his office (about a block away from where we were) as their boss (also our neighbour/friend) was going to drive David and Pavol home and get beers at some point too.  So I tagged along.  Like I said, traffic was really insane.  Normally after 27 traffic thins out.  But it took us over 20 minutes to get to the apartment from the office (on an average traffic day this should be about 5 minutes).  I guess I should have just continued walking.  Regardless, we arrived home and then wandered over to the colmado for a beer.  I headed back a bit early to sneak in a quick chat with Bart before heading to the rooftop BBQ.

As it turns out, we were late to leave for the BBQ at Paula and Yeimy's place.  Finally the three of us (me, David and Pavol) headed out and took the metro over to Gomez and 27.  One thing I like about the metro here is the public art.  Here's what you can see at the station at Gomez and 27:

And here are my goofy roommates with the public art:

Once out of the station, we took the pedestrian crossing that is above the intersection.  It kind of freaks me out.  Partially because it has no lighting, so it is really dark.  Apparently everyone else was running on the same schedule as we were because when we showed up, so did everyone else. 

The menu for the evening was perros calientes.*  We discovered an interesting cultural *thing* when preparing the hot dog buns...

Columbians and Dominicans cut the buns like this (sliced vertically through the top):

Canadians, Costa Ricans, French, Moroccans and Slovakians cut it like this (sliced horizontally through the side):

Now when I say a rooftop BBQ, I mean that we were on a rooftop and there was a BBQ but we cooked the hotdogs by two methods, neither of which were the BBQ.  Boiling and microwave.

Regardless, it was a fun evening.  We had a little celebration for Pavol's birthday which is today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROOMIE!) and David and I took off a bit early (after midnight) since I have that work thing to do on Saturdays...

OH!  So we have our first official named storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season: Alex.  The system that is now known as Alex was the one that kept me and Bart from enjoying sun at the pool.  Stupid Alex.  While I'm glad it is past us, I hope that it doesn't cause any problems for the countries that are currently awaiting its arrival.

*When I first read in the invitation that there would be perros calientes, I had this lovely moment where I read hot dogs, pondered why there would be sweaty dogs and then went OHHH hotdogs.  Yep. 

Carrito Excitement

Who knew seeing a carrito could make my day!

After I had arrived at the intersection near my office via carrito, I got out, crossed one direction of traffic and then waited in-between to cross the next direction.  While I stood there, watching the vehicles pass by, I spotted something peculiar - or at least out of the ordinary.  A FEMALE CARRITO DRIVER!  You have no idea how excited I was.  I have always secretly wanted to find a female carrito driver.  It seems to be such a traditionally masculine role (along with being a motoconcho driver) and I had already given up hope of finding one.  The part that made it even better was that she looked like she was having a blast - chatting and laughing with her passengers.  Now, sometimes the male drivers also look like they are having a blast, but its not the same.  So yes, female carrito driver: I think you're awesome!

Additionally, a few weeks ago, I noticed that all the Lincoln/Lope carrito drivers were wearing green.  Today, they were all wearing yellow.  Weird.  Any ideas?  Is it a new color coded uniform?  Showing their support for a particular World Cup team?

I had also mentioned previously that carritos sometimes having holes in the floor, through which you can see the ground.  Yesterday, my morning carrito had holes, and since I was the only one in the back, I sneaked a quick picture.  For your viewing pleasure I have indicated where the holes are, since they are kind of tough to see:

I'm not going to lie, the entire ride I was afraid that the bottom would fall out of the car.

I also took a carrito home after work since it was raining.  Our driver decided to go down Lincoln instead of Lope de Vega.  The lady in the B1* position decided she needed to get out.  Since we were on a one-way street and on the left hand side of it, she was going to get out of the left door.  She couldn't open up the door from the inside, and because it was raining, the window was closed and thus she was unable to reach outside to open it that way.  The carrito driver called out to a random guy on the street to come and open the door.  This made me laugh.

I think I might actually miss carritos when I move back to Canada... 

* Here is my carrito positioning diagram.  If only the passengers were actually that skinny...  And yes, I may have too much time on my hands.

Bart's Adventures in the DR

Those who visit me, beware of the Miami curse.  Or at least, I'm convinced that there is a curse on anyone who travels to the Dominican, particularly to see me and who arrives via Miami.  Granted, Bart had much better luck than mom and dad.  His flight was delayed about an hour due to a storm.  Mom and dad had their entire flight canceled.

Luckily Don Pedro, the taxi driver, is an easy going guy.  Maria was amazing, as always, and gave him a call for me to rearrange the time.  Traffic turned out to be horrendous when we left (which was odd considering the time) and the plane had landed before we had even arrived.  The fun part about having too much traffic was that we took a different route which allowed me to play tourist and Don Pedro to play tour guide as we drove through the area containing the presidential palace, the central bank, etc.  So even though we were late getting to the airport, we still had a bit of a wait until Bart appeared through the big doors.  It was so wonderful to see him, and almost surreal at the same time.  We both said that each other looked different than we do on skype.  As we wandered out to Don Pedro's car, Bart was hit by the humidity.  I didn't even notice.

Once we arrived at the apartment, we got Bart settled in and then headed to the colmado to meet most all of my friends.  Due to the cold/flu that is circulating around, two of my friends couldn't be there and another two decided to catch up on some sleep... We enjoyed Presidente, snacks and then we moved onto rum.  The colmado closed at 11, so we took the party back to the apartment, where everyone hung out for another hour or so.  One of the most enjoyable parts was when Pavol, Jakub and Bart were communicating in a hybrid Slovak/Czech/Polish language.  Overall, it was a good evening!  Only downside - I had the beginnings of a cold...

On Friday, I woke up with a very sore throat but I didn't let that stop us!  I took Bart in his first carrito!  It was quite a nice one, in comparison to most, although we did end up with the full 6 passengers.  I took him to Emparedado so he could see one of my lunch hangouts and so that he could try the Jugo Chinola (passion fruit juice).  After lunch, I took him to see where my office is and then we went to the Haagen Dazs store.  From the moment Bart heard that we had an entire store dedicated to Haagen Dazs, he made me promise that I would take him there.  We ate far too much ice cream (we really should have stuck to just 1 scoop) but it was worth it.  We then proceeded to walk to Nacional to pick up a few things.  On our way, we were approached by 4 small Dominican children who wanted money.  They even followed us for a block.  Again, my heart broke.  From Nacional, we walked back to the apartment, only to find that the power was out.  At first, the apartment was cooler than outside so we hung out there for a while.  Hours later, the water had also gone out so even a cold shower was unavailable.  We decided instead to go for a walk down to the ocean, hoping that there would be a good breeze to keep us cool.  Nothing too exciting was happening at the ocean.  Just lots of fishermen.  At one point, I think someone must have thrown something into the water as an entire school of fish began jumping out of the water.  It was neat to see the fish, as well as all the fishermen that rushed over in the hopes of catching some of them.  The evening was pretty relaxed, we just chilled at the apartment.

Saturday was beach day!  Bart got to go in his second carrito (this one had a hole in the floor that you could see the ground through). We met up with Maria and Nicole at Nacional, then Eduardo came to pick us up, and then we went and picked up Paula from her house.  We decided to go to Hemingway since certain people didn't want to deal with the waves of Playa Caribe.  Even though we missed the turn and ended up in San Pedro, we still managed to arrive early.  The weather was alright, although we had a few moments of rain and wind while out in the water, but Bart still managed to get a bit red from the sun.  He was very impressed by how warm the water was.  I was just glad that he got to go to the beach since I knew there was an approaching tropical storm and thus, was unsure if we would see sun for the rest of his stay here.  We left the beach at around 2:30 as Eduardo had to stop by his family's place in the country to pick up a drill.  I was glad that Bart was able to see some of the countryside as it is both beautiful and also gives a bit of insight into how the rest of the country lives outside of the major cities.  It began to rain as we headed back into the city.  We hung out at Maria's place while she got ready and then took a taxi back to the apartment.  Our taxi driver was decked out in a full mesh camo outfit.  It was ridiculous.  As Maria said, the last time I have seen something like that was at Halloween... Anyway, the three of us sat and watched some of the TV shows that Bart had brought me before Maria headed out to meet Pavol. 

The remainder of Saturday was again spent at the apartment.  There was a welcome party at the MC for Laura but I still wasn't feeling well and I figured, I can welcome Laura another day, I only have Bart around for a few days.  So we made some pasta for dinner and watched a movie instead.

Sunday morning was spent packing up our bags before heading to Nicolas de Ovando in the Colonial Zone.  We had a quick skype chat with mom, dad and Jonathan - which was nice - where Bart shared his new experiences and mom and dad provided their take on their same experiences here.  I had some issues calling the taxi... it went something like this:

Taxi: Allo?
Kierstin: Allo!  Yo quiero un taxi a calle Juan Tomas Diaz, numero ciento trece.
Taxi: Calle Juan Tomas Diaz?
Kierstin: Si.
Taxi: numero ciento veinte?
Kierstin: no ciento trece.
Taxi: veinte?
Kierstin: no trece. 
Taxi: ciento veinte?
Kierstin: no, ciento trece.
Taxi: Puedes decir en Inglés?
Kierstin: si, one hundred and thirteen.
Taxi: oooh trece
Kierstin: siiii trece...**

I had Bart laughing and even Pavol gave a few chuckles as he walked by.  After all that frustration, the taxi arrived and I got us to the hotel with no issues.  When we checked in they brought us warm, moist towels to clean our hands and cute glasses of fruit punch!  Our room was lovely and the little gift they had waiting for us was 3 cigars.  The cigars made Bart happy, me, not so much.  However, they brought us chocolates later on in the evening so I was happy again.  We had lunch at the pool bar and then went for a quick walk around the Colonial Zone and Parque de la Independencia to give Bart an idea of what we could see.  Since it was raining, we didn't stay out too long but instead hung out at the hotel and had a nap before dinner.  We ate at the hotel restaurant and our meal was excellent!  It was so nice to just sit, eat good food, drink good wine and catch up in person.  Since it was still raining, our evening was spent watching a movie that, due to faster internet at the hotel I had finally finished downloading off iTunes, and a few TV shows.

Monday morning was pretty lazy since it was still raining.  We had a quick lunch at the pool bar again where I got to deal with some issues in Spanish.  I had ordered a small pizza but had asked for it to be made with pineapple instead of ham and mushrooms.  Once the waiter got over his surprise at someone wanting pineapple on a pizza (interesting) he seemed clear about what I had asked for.  When the pizza arrived though, it had ham on as well.  I think perhaps the cook got confused by the pineapple and thought I wanted a "Hawaiian" pizza.  Anyways, I had to attempt to tell a waiter who didn't speak any English what the problem was.  This didn't work so well, but then the regular waiter came back and was able to get the problem fixed.  By the time my correct pizza arrived, Bart had already finished his meal.  It was an excellent pizza though!

We headed out into the Colonial Zone and went to the Larimar and Amber museums.  The Dominican men were pestering us to go into this store and that store and trying to offer us tours.  Bart, similar to my father, was too nice to them so they would keep following us.  I told Bart that I bet they don't know how to speak Polish, so we should pretend that we only speak Polish and see what happens.  It was quite funny as they would try desperately to somehow speak to us in a language they did not know.  And Bart would speak in Polish to me and I would just reply with "tak."  It was actually kind of impressive how they didn't give up!  We then headed over to Fortaleza Ozama.  A guide tried to get us to pay for a tour, but we were content to just wander around on our own.  Other than the walls, cannons and old buildings, there isn't too much to see.  Again, it started raining, so we headed into the main building.  It kept raining so we decided to be adventurous and explore all of the building even though that meant we had to go outside a few times.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and I got some great pictures.  When we returned to the hotel we were a bit chilly so we decided to just sit and have a cup of tea before dinner.  We had dinner again at the hotel's restaurant.  Since it had been raining for essentially two days straight, it had gotten a bit chilly.  For the first time, really, since I arrived I needed to wear my sweater outside! 

Tuesday was Bart's last full day here.  We had a nice breakfast before checking out and seeing the remainder of the sights in the Colonial Zone.  We went to Museo de las Casas Reales, Alcázar de Colón, Monasterio San Francisco and the Ruinas del Hospital San Nicolás de Bari.  Following that, we did a bit of shopping for gifts for Bart to take home and then began to head back to the hotel to grab our bags when I realized that we forgot to go into the Panteón Nacional.  Once again, the guides wanted us to pay for a tour, we just ignored them but the one guy continued to ask us which language we spoke.  Spanish? No. English? No. French? No. Italian? No.  Bart turns to him and says something in Polish.  Russian? No.  Again, you have to give them credit for trying!

I took Bart to La Panioteca for a late lunch.  We took a carrito most of the way there and then walked the rest of the way in the rain.  At the restaurant we saw a young politician guy TV personality (I think) who is on a billboard near my house!  We then walked to Nacional to get some groceries and then had a very wet and rainy walk home.  We both had soaked shoes and pant bottoms. 

Don Pedro was kind enough to get up at 3:30am this morning to be at my apartment by 4am, which is when Bart had to leave at to catch his 6:10am flight to Miami.  It was definitely sad to have to say goodbye all over again. 

It was pouring rain on my way to work today.  I was happy that the carrito driver was kind enough to pull into a small parking lot to let me off as the alternative would have seen me walk into an extremely large gutter of water.  Regardless, I was still soaked up to the knees when I arrived less than one block later at the office (and yes I had my umbrella!).  I promptly went into the washroom and tried to wring out the bottoms of my pants and my sockettes as well as dumping out the water from my shoes.  This is not helping my cold! Sr. S saw that I had a cold, and that I had gotten wet (he had apparently called O to get O to pick me up, but I had already gotten to work and O was already on his way here), he told me that I was not to go out in the rain.  He meant it.  At lunch, it was raining again so he came by and told me to come and pick out what I wanted for lunch as he was ordering in his lunch.  No air conditioning needed today.  Sweater was a must though!

**... I'm not sure how my trece sounds like veinte... I mean sure, I can't roll my r's but really... (similar to how at Wendy's the lady didn't understand, Combo numero nueve, I think it is something about how when you hear someone with a different accent you get a bit nervous that you won't understand and then try too hard which leads to not actually understanding)

Just Another Week... Until Now!

So, I forgot to mention to things about the beach on Sunday.  One, was that there were lots of beautiful yellow butterflies flying around us on the beach, it was really cool!  Also, for the first time, someone knew where Edmonton is.  Jakub asked me where exactly in Canada I was from.  Normally, even saying Alberta gets me a look of confusion, so I clarified, "you want to know the province or the city or?" He said, "city."  I said, "okay, I am from Edmonton."  "AH Edmonton!" he exclaimed.  What, he knows where Edmonton is?  Turns out that when he was small growing up in the Czech Republic, his favorite hockey team was the Edmonton Oilers!  I thought that was pretty cool.  So then we talked hockey for a bit.

The week has went well so far.  I've been quite busy at the office working on several projects.  One project turned out to be quite successful and my boss was very happy with me!  Moody, the air conditioner (right), is still being moody, but has been producing lovely cool air more frequently now.  Random: I particularly like the warning that Moody possesses: "Warning: Don't put your hands and others into the air outlet" I just picture someone lifting up another person and trying to stick their head into the 2 inch opening...  I have done really well eating healthy this week (minus popcorn at pop at the movies last night).  On that note, we saw The A-Team last night.  I wasn't sure what I would think of it - it seemed like it could be one of those movies where all the good stuff is in the previews, but instead, I actually really enjoyed it.  Only not so great part about the movie was when Paula spilled some of our Extra Grande popcorn (hee hee) but as the picture shows, we still had lots left:

I also did a bit of shopping last night before the movie, with Ozumy.  She was a lovely shopping companion, translating my dissatisfaction with most everything I tried on to the store clerks.  Finally, we found what I was looking for - a nice cover-up for wearing over my bikini at the pool or beach!  It's lovely, pink, and unique!

And today is the big day!  Unfortunately, I woke up not feeling so great - to the extent that if I wasn't already taking the next 5 days off, I would have stayed home.  I blame it on O, who was sick on Monday/Tuesday and then probably had leftover germs on Wednesday.  Hopefully all of my usual remedies will kick in and I'll feel much better tomorrow. 

As I write, Bart is sitting in the Miami Airport enjoying a 5 hour layover.  And by enjoying, I mean he is really tired.  There was a storm during the last hour or so, but it appears to have cleared up.  So far, his flight is still scheduled to leave on time, but there is a bit of backlog due to the flights that couldn't leave during the storm.  My plan for the evening is to head home a tad early (1/2 an hour more to go!), do a few things around the house, and at 6:45, Don Pedro is scheduled to pick me up to take me to the airport.  Once we return, everyone is planning on coming to our colmado to have some beer and meet Bart.  Should be fun! 

Bad Day for Food

Another weekend has come to an end.

It began with a nice Friday evening at home.  I just relaxed, which was exactly what I needed.  I had the house to myself since Pavol and Maria went to a resort for the weekend and David was at a party at the MC.  Our only issue was that we ran out of gas for our stove.  There I was trying desperately to get the stove started so I could heat up some food.  Then I realized that we had no more gas.  Of course, I had no idea how to get more gas.  David was able to ask his boss (who lives in our building) the process and we found out that we had to order some more.  As of today, we still haven't done this.  My little kettle has been the only form of cooking we have.  Saturday, I had to work and the day was quite slow until I got given a whole lot of work about an hour before I was supposed to leave.  Luckily, it didn't need to be done that day, so I'll be able to finish it up this week probably.

After work, I picked up a few groceries at Super Pola.  The bag boy wanted to help me out with my groceries even though I told him, "I'm walking, it's fine."  I had brought one of my reusable bags so it was just one bag in total and it wasn't that heavy.  He insisted on helping me with the groceries out to the street.  I had a quick carrito ride home where I met up with Paula and Manuel.  Manuel took us to a vegetarian restaurant/yoga studio.  It was a yummy meal and a cool atmosphere.  After that, we decided to take Manuel to IKEA for his first ever IKEA experience.  We had a lot of fun and Manuel decided that he really liked the place.  I splurged and got a jade plant and two really cheap green pillows.  They have made quite a nice addition to my room!

After IKEA, we picked up Zak and went to Beer House.  It was a lovely little rooftop patio lounge/bar that carried a wide array of beers from around the world and made pretty decent cocktails too.  I was a little sad to see that their Canadian beer representation consisted of only Molson, but was impressed by their overall variety and selection (including Guiness).  I was feeling like a beer at first, but then decided to have a cosmopolitan instead.  Manuel and Zak stuck to Presidente and Paula had a pina colada. They also played excellent music (jazzzzy goodness)! After the drinks, Manuel took me home so I could have date night with Bart.  Once again, we played monopoly and had an overall score of 1-1. 

On Sunday, the plan was to meet at the MC at 9:00am as AIESEC had rented a guagua to take us all to the beach.  I got up early to ensure I'd be ready in time.  David added a bit of excitement to my morning when he decided to light our sink on fire (with a lighter and air freshener spray) due to the presence of a centipede.  With the centipede gone, we headed to the MC, arriving just after 9.  I always hold out hope that when we're told that we're meeting to leave at 9, that we will actually do so.  When we arrived, most of the people that live at the MC weren't even up.  Sandwiches hadn't been made (which was supposed to happen the night before) and we were the first ones to arrive.  Slowly, the more timely people showed up.  After sitting around for over half an hour we decided to go and get some breakfast since there was no way we'd be leaving by 10 even.  I had a really yummy breakfast of mashed potatoes and some baked cheese (and a juice box which had an interesting straw - a closed end but three small holes to let the juice out.  I think I prefer it to the regular straws!).

 We finally got going and headed out to Playa Caribe.  We made a quick stop at a gas station to pick up some ice and a big bottle of Presidente which we enjoyed along the way.

The beach was quite lovely.  I enjoyed the stronger waves and the more natural setting that surrounded it (instead of having large condo buildings to look at).  One of my favorite parts of the day was watching the pelicans dive into the ocean.  I was surprised by how near they got to the humans and how they were fine to just float along with us.  It was a pretty amazing sight though!  For the most part, we just bobbed up and down in the waves and chilled on the beach.  We had some fun with Manuel's new camera, which is waterproof, and were propositioned by a seedy looking lady claiming to read palms.  I ended up having to pay RD$15 to use a washroom that didn't have running water, no toilet paper, and you couldn't even flush the toilets.  It was disgusting.  But I didn't have any more appealing options.  I mean if I'm going to pay to use a washroom, I expect it to be half decent... On a more positive note, I indulged in a little beach fare consisting of a very sweet pineapple and coconut treat.  Jakub had a sort of peanut brittle that I tried as well. 

Once I was back home I ran into some problems with my food.  First of all, I went to make some pasta.  It was a bag of pasta I had bought less than a week ago and that I had rolled up to seal.  I guess this wasn't good enough because as I poured the pasta into the pot, I saw little bugs falling in too.  Gross.  So I ended up throwing that pasta out.  My next try was with some pasta I keep in a tin.  Now this tin is tightly sealed.  But, you guessed it, bugs in here too.  But at least they didn't end up in my pasta that I was cooking this time, although I was sure to keep the water on boil the entire time that I cooked it.  And now, I need to buy more pasta, and some Rubbermaid containers to keep it in...  Then I went to cut up a mango and realized that the mango I had bought the day before had broken skin and had started to rot.  Ugh.  Seriously.  So I threw that one out and cleaned up the other two.  When I went to cut up one of the other two, it had a hollow bad spot inside (you couldn't tell from the outside).  It wasn't that big though so I was able to cut it out and still eat the majority of the mango, however, it was a very frustrating night for food.


The day at the office has been alright so far.  I'm busy working on a project that I've had for over a month (but haven't been able to work on due to lack of approvals for the past 3 weeks).  Spent most of the morning without air conditioning but when J came in, somehow he was able to get it to work (this boggles my mind since O and I, along with various other coworkers, spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday struggling unsuccessfully to get it to work).  Not that I care, I'm just happy to be cool.