Brunost and Svele

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

Me and the Sweet Bakery girls 

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

Gerardo prepping his black bean dip

Robert, keeping cool...

Silje and Mari in the kitchen

Skillingsbolle

Norwegian Brown Cheese (Brunost)

Brunost with butter inside svele!

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas decorations at Nacional.  It feels so weird.

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

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

Rats and Mystery Meat

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

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

Canvases!

Brushes!

Paints!

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

Chicken Caesar Salad

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

Hanging on!

Ozumy

Me

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


Mystery Meat

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

A Quiet Laundry Weekend

Happily, I had a rather quiet and productive weekend.  Since Robert had gone to Santiago for the weekend, I made my way to the office by myself.  It was a beautiful morning.  It wasn't too hot since it was cloudy and there was a drizzle of rain coming down.  After a quick stop at Sweet Bakery, I settled in at J's computer for the morning.  I ended up being called into talk to Sr. S about a report I had read over.  While in there, we began chatting and I figured this would be a good time to bring up my next time off request.  Right now, I'm planning on meeting up with my parents and Bart in early November for a week in the Turks and Caicos.  So I mention this to Sr. S, highlighting the fact that it would only mean a "few" days off and that it falls over a Dominican holiday.  He then proceeds to ask me why they aren't coming here again.  I say that they have already been here so they are looking for something different.  The conversation proceeds as follows:

S: What have they seen?
K: Well all of Santo Domingo and some other areas.
S: Have they gone to the beach?
K: Yes
S: For how long?
K: Well, long enough.
S: What's in Turks and Caicos?
K: I don't know. (There isn't really anything specific that T&C has that DR doesn't)  We are just looking for something a bit quieter, more personal and such.  The big resorts just aren't for us.
S: Oh well I guess if you want quiet, it is good for that.

Then Sr. S. gets a phone call so we never really finished the conversation.  I went back to my desk going, what just happened there?  I didn't mean to offend him by asking to go to another island.  And I don't know if he was just being sort of playful about it or if he was serious.  I also didn't actually get an answer on the time off.  My new plan is that on Monday, I will go in and just outline that our decision has nothing to do with the DR and more to do with just wanting to go somewhere else.  I'm also going to mention that my parents plan on coming to the DR again in February when its time for me to leave as well.  And then I will get a for sure answer on the time off.  I hope.

I did some quick shopping on my way home from the office.  Normally I just go to Pola so that I can take one carrito all the way home.  But, I was feeling like having a better selection for my date night snacks, so I took a carrito to Nacional.  Since it was such a beautiful day (although sunny by this point instead of cloudy with drizzle), I walked home from there.

I had this brilliant (sort of) idea on Friday.  I always get a bit frustrated by our laundry machine.  It never really cleans that well.  I blame it on the fact that the washing machine just isn't up to my standards and that it only uses cold water.  So the idea was that I would fill the machine up with the cold water to the medium load setting, and then fill the rest of the machine myself with hot water that I would boil in the kettle.  It takes me about 5 full kettles to get enough hot in there, but the results were worth it!  My clothes were cleaner!  So I did another 2 loads like that over the weekend.

Sheets and Shirts

New Clothespins!

Clean Laundry!

Saturday evening was, like usual, dedicated to Date Night with Bart.  Monopoly and Scrabble continue to be our games of choice.  Bart won 2-0 in Monopoly and I went 3-0 in Scrabble.

Today has been filled with more laundry, tidying and relaxing.  I took the time to have a sit-down breakfast.  Only cereal and coffee but still, it's enjoyable to not be eating breakfast at my desk or at Sweet Bakery every once in a while.  I'm also finally starting to feel like I have energy again!

Coffee!

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.

Truffled Popcorn and an Injured Toe

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

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

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

Beginning of my rose drying contraption

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

Mari's photo of Robert and I cooking

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

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

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...

More Random Adventures

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

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

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

Life is rarely boring here.

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

Frozen Chinola

Dumplings and Platanos Fritos

Espaguetis con Salsa Especial

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

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

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