So my Dominican Republic experience has come to an end. The last few weeks have gone very quickly. I spent most evenings this week at Cristian's house, savouring the food and banter for one last time. It's amazing how well we get along. Looking back, I think we were a little reserved at first; but now we're cracking jokes and just generally having a good laugh.
My friendship with Victor has likewise grown. Having developed these relationships makes it difficult for me to want to leave. Last night I went for dinner at Victor's and we all had a sing-song. His 3 year old son's dancing was brilliant. Michel and Maite were there too to see me off, which was really nice.
Last Saturday was my big send off. Cristian and I bought a gallon of rum and once again made our strawberry concoction, which I've discovered is called 'Papi no te vaya'. Suffice to say, we drunk rather a lot. I won't go into details, but towards the end of the night I spent large periods of time on the floor, and the following morning, I woke up 6 hours later than intended. In other words, a good night!
I'm now in Punta Cana, on the other side of the island, home to the best beaches in the country. I thought I would allow myself some time in the sun; only about 15 minutes of course. I keep telling myself that there is plenty of time to tan, I just have to avoid burning wherever possible. Slow and steady wins the race!!
Anyway, I've had a great time here; it doesn't feel like I've spent more than 2 months here. Off to Chile tomorrow!
Friday 25 March 2011
Saturday 19 March 2011
A Typical Week
I spent Saturday night in Cristo Rey, quite a rough part of town, with Cristian and some of his friends, who insisted on taking about 100 photos with my camera. Cristian is very excited because his girlfriend, Rachelle, is pregnant. He always tells me how he wants to have a kid and now he is going to, which is great. While we were sipping our whisky and cranberry, we heard some gunshots a few blocks away. The others didn't seem too bothered by this; Cristian jut shrugged and said: "well, it's a dangerous area." Apparently, the chief of police for this district was shot dead earlier in the week, which is a little worrying. I'm doing my best to stay out of the firing line.
On Sunday, I decided to download some of the local music onto my phone. I'm quite keen on 'bachata' and 'dembow' now, seeing as I've been hearing then non-stop for the past two months. As the downloads were free, I decided to make the most of the opportunity; this basically means downloading every Cat Empire song: very exciting!!
After work on Monday, I went for a 6 kilometre run in a beautiful part of town. A whole dual carriegeway is closed to cars and only available to runners and cyclists. Sandwiched between a park and the Caribbean Sea, it was an epic jogging spot, enhanced by the rapidly setting sun. I decided to have another haircut, a little shorter than before; you can really see my scalp at the back which is excellent. It should mean that I won't need another one until I get back..
I went to Santiago again on Wednesday for business. Over lunch we had a great discussion about sport. I started it off with a deliberately contorversial comment: "Baseball doesn't take much skill really, does it?" This enraged the Dominicans, as expected, and I had to endure 10 minutes of being told how wonderful baseball is. I have to say, that I'm not convinced. The conversation
moved onto English sport and I found myself explaining our various sporting rivalries with the Scots, Aussies, Germans, Argentinians etc.. We really do know how to hold a grudge!
I did a casual 1.5K swimming on Thursday evening with Victor. We were hoping to enter an open water swimming race at Boca Chica beach on Sunday, but unfortunately, I just missed the application date. Swimming is a lot harder than I remember; my arms hurt quite a lot.
I leave in exactly a week. People keep asking me when I'm coming back, and when I reply that I'm not, they seem really shocked. They all seem to think that I don't like the country or the people, which is really not true. If anything, I would like to have more time here. Having said that, I am very excited about next week!
On Sunday, I decided to download some of the local music onto my phone. I'm quite keen on 'bachata' and 'dembow' now, seeing as I've been hearing then non-stop for the past two months. As the downloads were free, I decided to make the most of the opportunity; this basically means downloading every Cat Empire song: very exciting!!
After work on Monday, I went for a 6 kilometre run in a beautiful part of town. A whole dual carriegeway is closed to cars and only available to runners and cyclists. Sandwiched between a park and the Caribbean Sea, it was an epic jogging spot, enhanced by the rapidly setting sun. I decided to have another haircut, a little shorter than before; you can really see my scalp at the back which is excellent. It should mean that I won't need another one until I get back..
I went to Santiago again on Wednesday for business. Over lunch we had a great discussion about sport. I started it off with a deliberately contorversial comment: "Baseball doesn't take much skill really, does it?" This enraged the Dominicans, as expected, and I had to endure 10 minutes of being told how wonderful baseball is. I have to say, that I'm not convinced. The conversation
moved onto English sport and I found myself explaining our various sporting rivalries with the Scots, Aussies, Germans, Argentinians etc.. We really do know how to hold a grudge!
I did a casual 1.5K swimming on Thursday evening with Victor. We were hoping to enter an open water swimming race at Boca Chica beach on Sunday, but unfortunately, I just missed the application date. Swimming is a lot harder than I remember; my arms hurt quite a lot.
I leave in exactly a week. People keep asking me when I'm coming back, and when I reply that I'm not, they seem really shocked. They all seem to think that I don't like the country or the people, which is really not true. If anything, I would like to have more time here. Having said that, I am very excited about next week!
Sunday 13 March 2011
Road Trip
This week has been one of my busiest yet; I've only really spent
sleeping hours at home. On Sunday I went to the carnival in Malecón,
with a group of people I had met through Cristian, including some 5
year old kids who were really funny. The carnival itself was
absolutely crazy. I couldn't believe how many people had turned out;
it must have been about half of the population... The costumes were
just outrageous: demons and dragons were the most common, but there
were people without heads, or with stakes through their hearts, or
dinosaurs. The diversity and effort that people had put in was
staggering.
At about 6 o'clock, the darkness came, and with it, a light drizzle.
Within two minutes it was torrential, and mayhem ensued. People were
desperate to reach the sanctity of a bus or car to avoid the rain.
Fortunately, we managed to squeeze onto a bus; others weren't so
lucky.. Our driver, too, seemed to have been affected by the madness.
In a fruitless attempt to undertake a coach on an already packed road,
he managed to get us squashed, and several layers of paintwork removed
from our vehicle. Once we had returned safely, we had a chilled
evening Cristo Rey. The highlight was a dance off, won by a 6 year old
girl; she drew in a crowd of about 30 people which was most impressive.
On Monday and Tuesday, I went to Victor's after work and we went for a
run. It felt good to be excersising again, having not really done any
so far this year... He introduced me to his friend Michel who is 19.
It was nice to have somebody my age to talk to. We went up to the roof
and did some weights with a few other guys, who were all very keen to
talk and entertain. Over dinner, I found myself trying to explain the
relationship between England and Scotland. It was surprisingly
difficult.
I had to be at work early on Wednesday morning because a group of us
were going to Santiago on business: me, Victor, Nicholas, Miguel,
Rodriguez and Fifol. It was a 2 hour drive and I took in the varying
scenery, from the rice planations to the mountainous straight that
diagonally slices the island. Once there, we set to work on doing an
inventory of all the stock in their warehouse. I felt very
professional with my clipboard and dust mask, and it was nice to be
doing a job that required some responsibility. In the evening, after a
long day, we went out for dinner near Santiago's monument, which
stands atop a hill in the very centre of the city. We were all getting
on very well and it was a really good laugh; they seem to find my
knowledge of certain slang words very amusing.
The following day we worked hard again, so that we could finish in
time to make it back to Santo Domingo at a respectable hour. We
managed to get away just before 8, after a sumptuous pizza hut
takeaway... On the return journey, we saw the beginnings of a forest
fire, which was quite exciting. It had been a really fun two days.
sleeping hours at home. On Sunday I went to the carnival in Malecón,
with a group of people I had met through Cristian, including some 5
year old kids who were really funny. The carnival itself was
absolutely crazy. I couldn't believe how many people had turned out;
it must have been about half of the population... The costumes were
just outrageous: demons and dragons were the most common, but there
were people without heads, or with stakes through their hearts, or
dinosaurs. The diversity and effort that people had put in was
staggering.
At about 6 o'clock, the darkness came, and with it, a light drizzle.
Within two minutes it was torrential, and mayhem ensued. People were
desperate to reach the sanctity of a bus or car to avoid the rain.
Fortunately, we managed to squeeze onto a bus; others weren't so
lucky.. Our driver, too, seemed to have been affected by the madness.
In a fruitless attempt to undertake a coach on an already packed road,
he managed to get us squashed, and several layers of paintwork removed
from our vehicle. Once we had returned safely, we had a chilled
evening Cristo Rey. The highlight was a dance off, won by a 6 year old
girl; she drew in a crowd of about 30 people which was most impressive.
On Monday and Tuesday, I went to Victor's after work and we went for a
run. It felt good to be excersising again, having not really done any
so far this year... He introduced me to his friend Michel who is 19.
It was nice to have somebody my age to talk to. We went up to the roof
and did some weights with a few other guys, who were all very keen to
talk and entertain. Over dinner, I found myself trying to explain the
relationship between England and Scotland. It was surprisingly
difficult.
I had to be at work early on Wednesday morning because a group of us
were going to Santiago on business: me, Victor, Nicholas, Miguel,
Rodriguez and Fifol. It was a 2 hour drive and I took in the varying
scenery, from the rice planations to the mountainous straight that
diagonally slices the island. Once there, we set to work on doing an
inventory of all the stock in their warehouse. I felt very
professional with my clipboard and dust mask, and it was nice to be
doing a job that required some responsibility. In the evening, after a
long day, we went out for dinner near Santiago's monument, which
stands atop a hill in the very centre of the city. We were all getting
on very well and it was a really good laugh; they seem to find my
knowledge of certain slang words very amusing.
The following day we worked hard again, so that we could finish in
time to make it back to Santo Domingo at a respectable hour. We
managed to get away just before 8, after a sumptuous pizza hut
takeaway... On the return journey, we saw the beginnings of a forest
fire, which was quite exciting. It had been a really fun two days.
Saturday 5 March 2011
Don't Stop Eating
Almost as soon as the family left on Saturday, I headed over to Cristian's with the remainder of the strawberry rum that my lightweight family had not managed to drink. It felt oddly routine to be hanging out with Cristian again, just back to my normal lifestyle. We had a 'lads' night, which basically consisted of drinking and dominoes. I actually played this time. I think I did OK, but I did struggle to keep up with the pace at times. They all seem to know exactly which pieces everyone has when we get down to a couple each. It reminded me of how quickly darts players can work out their checkout. One of the guys there knew a little bit about football, which was nice becausee all the normally talk about is baseball...
The 27th February is Independence Day here, so I went round to Cristian's again on Sunday afternoon. From 2 till 8, we sat in his street with numerous relatives, watching a group of young dancers that would appear every so often, wearing outrageously flamboyant costumes. It was very relaxing; just sitting there in the sun, having some casual chit-chat. Cristian's grandmother kindly offered me some food: mangu with salami. She also shrewdly observed that I am a fan of eggs and added two to my plate; as you can imagine, I was delighted!!
On Wednesday, Victor took me out with two of his architect friends. We went to a sort of nightclub, but quite early and had a good time dancing. Then we headed to a Mexican restaurant for some tacos, although the menu offered other wonderfully-named options, such as quesadillas, fueltas, taquizas and fajitas. The order of the night was a little topsy-turvy, but it was nice to experience something a little more up-market.
Last night, Victor treated me to dinner again, this time at a tropical restaurant. We sat on a terrace, surrounded by waterfalls and palm trees, only feet away from a dual carriageway. We had another local dish, mofongo, which was some sort of mashed potato with spices, nuts and pork. It was surprisingly delicious. I learned that Victor is half Russian, so we had a short conversation in Russian. I found myself trying to use words from three different languages at the same time, which became very confusing, so we reverted to Spanish.
This week also saw the reinstatement of marmite into my life, which has been most welcome. Also, everytime I go to a hot country, I burn, simple as. And it always seems to be in a different place. I now have peeling feet, which is an odd and new sensation for me. Oh well, I am helpless to avoid the sun's wrath! I may as well get used to it!!
The 27th February is Independence Day here, so I went round to Cristian's again on Sunday afternoon. From 2 till 8, we sat in his street with numerous relatives, watching a group of young dancers that would appear every so often, wearing outrageously flamboyant costumes. It was very relaxing; just sitting there in the sun, having some casual chit-chat. Cristian's grandmother kindly offered me some food: mangu with salami. She also shrewdly observed that I am a fan of eggs and added two to my plate; as you can imagine, I was delighted!!
On Wednesday, Victor took me out with two of his architect friends. We went to a sort of nightclub, but quite early and had a good time dancing. Then we headed to a Mexican restaurant for some tacos, although the menu offered other wonderfully-named options, such as quesadillas, fueltas, taquizas and fajitas. The order of the night was a little topsy-turvy, but it was nice to experience something a little more up-market.
Last night, Victor treated me to dinner again, this time at a tropical restaurant. We sat on a terrace, surrounded by waterfalls and palm trees, only feet away from a dual carriageway. We had another local dish, mofongo, which was some sort of mashed potato with spices, nuts and pork. It was surprisingly delicious. I learned that Victor is half Russian, so we had a short conversation in Russian. I found myself trying to use words from three different languages at the same time, which became very confusing, so we reverted to Spanish.
This week also saw the reinstatement of marmite into my life, which has been most welcome. Also, everytime I go to a hot country, I burn, simple as. And it always seems to be in a different place. I now have peeling feet, which is an odd and new sensation for me. Oh well, I am helpless to avoid the sun's wrath! I may as well get used to it!!
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