So this week, the family came to visit me. It was great to have a break from work and finally spend some time at the beach. I met them at the airport on Saturday. It felt very strange to be speaking English again and they commented that my accent was a little wierd.
We stayed in an all-inclusive beach hotel, which basically meant lots of sun, sea and sustenance. Having eggs every day was a luxury that I had almost forgotten about.. The girls enjoyed sunbathing a lot and I suppose one of the biggest jokes of the week was how pale I am, considering I have been in the Caribbean for over a month. I just tell them that I still have 6 months of sun to look forward to: slow and steady wins the race!
My siblings also took pleasure in blaming me for any moment of cloud cover, any lost tanning time, despite it being thanks to me that they were here in the first place. Other highlights were my parents' failure to grasp the necessary Spanish words: 'vino tinto' (red wine). Our last evening was pretty funny too. Mum went out of her way to be an embarrassment, somehow reaching new levels of peculiarity. She insisted on befriending the waiters and having photos with them. Ben actually disappeared for a few minutes, returning in a disguise of hat and suglasses!
It was a very lazy week. We didn't really do much. A trip to the nearby 'Boca Chica' beach on Wednesday was our first excursion. Every 30 seconds we would be pestered by people selling jewellery, hats, pictures music and more. On Thursday, we took a catamaran to an island, Isla Sanoa, off the South East Coast. The white sand and turquoise sea was very refreshing, not to mention the beach barbecue. On the way back to the mainland we took an exhilarating speedboat ride with a brief stop off at one of the island's many natural swimming pools. The drivers raced each other, an example of the relaxed attitude towards safety. As we had spent the day getting burnt, we agreed that the speedy trip back to the mainland was helpful.
On our final day we briefly had a look around the Zona Colonial in the city to please mum, and a look around the shopping centre to please the girls. Our taxi driver took us along the casino strip and it was nice for me to see other bits of the city, as I have generally been based in one area. It was a really relaxing week, but now it's back to work!!
Monday 28 February 2011
Saturday 19 February 2011
A Small Taste of Heaven
Let us begin with a most fabulous tale. The protagonists are myself and the wonderful 'cheese and ham croquetas'. Our heroes met on a thunderous Wednesday evening: it really was love at first bite... Melted cheese wrapped in succulent ham, enclosed in a wrapper of breadcrumbs and drizzled with sauce; let's hope that this is the beginning of a long and successful love affair.
Describing the evening as thunderous is an outrageous understatment. For about 2 hours, the hardest rain I have ever seen exploded from the sky. 5 seconds was enough to be drenched. It was painful rainfall. When Cristian and I finally left my hotel and headed to his house, we had the aftermath to contend with. The size of puddles and flooding was such that we had to change our route at least 4 times. The pavement was often blocked, meaning we had to risk it on the roads; the bridge we needed was impassable and a detour was necessary, involving a treacherous crossing over a newly formed river, with only the metal bars of a gate to aid us. We even had to use the underside of a metal stairway to cross into Cristian's road. It was a quest of epic proportions and the reward was similarly magnificent: more croquetas! I couldn't have been happier... There was another food called 'mapue', which on another day might have loved, but it just couldn't compete with the croquetas...
I had spent vast periods of the weekend either drunk or dehydrated. On Saturday, Cristian made a cocktail-type drink, using rum (of course), strawberry powder, and two tins of baby food! I can only assume that this reduces the alcohol percentage because it didn't change the flavour. Once past midnight, it was Abi's birthday and I managed to persuade the group we were with to all sing for her. The video is very funny because I have no idea what the words are and am therefore hopelessly attempting to mime wherever I can.
The following evening, I went out with Cristian's neighbour, Jan Carlos, and some of his friends. We went to a sort of street disco: loads of people and loud music, spilling all over the road. February is carnival month here and every Sunday there are celebrations. Several people appeared wearing incredibly feathery and colourful costumes, purely intent on dancing. After some beer, we moved onto some... That's right, you guessed it: RUM! As you can imagine, work on Monday was not ideal...
I'm very excited because the family are coming to visit and I'm staying with them for the week. Last night, Cristian insisted that we make some cocktails for them. So, they will be trying the rum, strawberry and baby food concoction, as well as a raspberry milkshake and sambuca tasting liquor. I hope they like it!
Describing the evening as thunderous is an outrageous understatment. For about 2 hours, the hardest rain I have ever seen exploded from the sky. 5 seconds was enough to be drenched. It was painful rainfall. When Cristian and I finally left my hotel and headed to his house, we had the aftermath to contend with. The size of puddles and flooding was such that we had to change our route at least 4 times. The pavement was often blocked, meaning we had to risk it on the roads; the bridge we needed was impassable and a detour was necessary, involving a treacherous crossing over a newly formed river, with only the metal bars of a gate to aid us. We even had to use the underside of a metal stairway to cross into Cristian's road. It was a quest of epic proportions and the reward was similarly magnificent: more croquetas! I couldn't have been happier... There was another food called 'mapue', which on another day might have loved, but it just couldn't compete with the croquetas...
I had spent vast periods of the weekend either drunk or dehydrated. On Saturday, Cristian made a cocktail-type drink, using rum (of course), strawberry powder, and two tins of baby food! I can only assume that this reduces the alcohol percentage because it didn't change the flavour. Once past midnight, it was Abi's birthday and I managed to persuade the group we were with to all sing for her. The video is very funny because I have no idea what the words are and am therefore hopelessly attempting to mime wherever I can.
The following evening, I went out with Cristian's neighbour, Jan Carlos, and some of his friends. We went to a sort of street disco: loads of people and loud music, spilling all over the road. February is carnival month here and every Sunday there are celebrations. Several people appeared wearing incredibly feathery and colourful costumes, purely intent on dancing. After some beer, we moved onto some... That's right, you guessed it: RUM! As you can imagine, work on Monday was not ideal...
I'm very excited because the family are coming to visit and I'm staying with them for the week. Last night, Cristian insisted that we make some cocktails for them. So, they will be trying the rum, strawberry and baby food concoction, as well as a raspberry milkshake and sambuca tasting liquor. I hope they like it!
Saturday 12 February 2011
Dancing and Dominoes
Dominican life is very different to ours. The people are nicer, the weather is better, everything is more laid back. They also like dancing. Everyone, it seems, likes to have a good old dance. So it was only a matter of time before I had to join in. Last Saturday, Cristian and I went to an 18th. It was just a gathering of about 15 people for a girl's birthday. They didn't seem to mind at all that we were intruding. After a few glasses of rum, which they love out here, it was decided that I should dance. I was taught two dances: the 'Bachata' and the 'Merengue'. I thought it went pretty well, but everyone was laughing, so perhaps it didn't. Throughout the course of the evening, I was addressed as 'Europa', which joins my nicknames of 'el rubio' and 'el americano?' that other people call me. Views on children are another example of how different life is here. I'm told that by the age of 30, women stop having children because they're too old. At first I was alittle surprised by people asking me how many childrne I have, but now i"m just used to it. We also bumped into a man who told us that his uncle had 27 children with four different wives and they all lived nextdoor to each other. It's pretty crazy.
I've had some more interesting food this week. On Monday night, I was served 'spaghetti blanco'. It tasted just like spaghetti carbonara to me and was great. And just yesterday, I had octopus for lunch. I can't say it was the nicest thing I've ever tasted, but it went down reasonably well; just a little bit too chewy..
After work on Thursday we visited a local 'colmado', which is essentially an off license with chairs outside. Men gather at these colmados to play dominoes. When i was told that we were going to play dominoes, it seemed pretty trivial to me. However, they play with such intensity that it was actually very interesting. I just had a problem with the scoring. At random points in the game, all four players would throw their remaining pieces onto the board, one would celebrate, and this, apparently, is how you win.
I already mentioned the public transport: the conchos. I do enjoy travelling in them, but twice this week I have been on the front seat and a woman decides to share the seat. This is quite normal, you have to squeeze, but it does annoy me when the whole backseat of the car is free. From now on, I will sit in the back!
And finally, last night I had a proper haircut. It is now very short and doesn't look too bad. Everyone here has very short hair, so I just thought it would help me to fit in. I shall try and put some photos up next week!
I've had some more interesting food this week. On Monday night, I was served 'spaghetti blanco'. It tasted just like spaghetti carbonara to me and was great. And just yesterday, I had octopus for lunch. I can't say it was the nicest thing I've ever tasted, but it went down reasonably well; just a little bit too chewy..
After work on Thursday we visited a local 'colmado', which is essentially an off license with chairs outside. Men gather at these colmados to play dominoes. When i was told that we were going to play dominoes, it seemed pretty trivial to me. However, they play with such intensity that it was actually very interesting. I just had a problem with the scoring. At random points in the game, all four players would throw their remaining pieces onto the board, one would celebrate, and this, apparently, is how you win.
I already mentioned the public transport: the conchos. I do enjoy travelling in them, but twice this week I have been on the front seat and a woman decides to share the seat. This is quite normal, you have to squeeze, but it does annoy me when the whole backseat of the car is free. From now on, I will sit in the back!
And finally, last night I had a proper haircut. It is now very short and doesn't look too bad. Everyone here has very short hair, so I just thought it would help me to fit in. I shall try and put some photos up next week!
Saturday 5 February 2011
A Taste of Culture
I've had another great week. I've really been getting stuck into the Dominican culture with Cristian. He is such a legend. He's very happy to just hang out with me and help my Spanish and he's always looking for new things to teach me. On Tuesday I had some local food. We had 'kípe', which is sort of a sausage in breadcrumbs and was really tasty. Next I tried an 'empanada', which is similar to a Cornish pasty except it only has ham or cheese inside it. We went back to his room where he made me a 'batida' with a papaya fruit. This is basically a milkshake just, mad with ice and extra sugar. He's very keen for me to experience everything I can.
On Friday, he decided to make a cocktail for me. He used a 'sweet whisky' called Gitano Claro and a strawberry powder. I have to say that it was actually quite nice, the strawberry flavour numbing the strength of the alcohol. We also had a burger/hotdog which was just legendary. It had loads of onions in it as well, which as many people know are one of my current favourite pizza toppings. They work just as well in a burger..
Everyone asks me a lot of questions about my life, because it is totally different out here, so I thought I should pass on some of our culture. I've been teaching Cristian and his girlfriend about awkward situations. So far I've only taught them 'incómodo tortuga' (awkward turtle) and awkward balloon, but I'm sure we can move onto the whale eventually...
I've also had a haircut, because everyone has very short hair here so I thought I should try it out. Unfortunately, there was a little misundertanding and it jut got trimmed instead of shaved. It was a bad job. My experiences at hairdressers always seem to produce poor results.. I've got to say, it looks pretty stupid. Cristian has practically no hair and yet he combs it, which amuses me. I wouldn't have thought that was necessary!
Another piece of good news is that I'm getting paid for working, on top of them paying for my accommodation. They're paying me 5000 pesos per fortnight, which is equivalent to about 96p an hour. It may not seem like much, but everything is a lot cheaper over here and I only really need to buy food.
One more thing: I found an article about Dominican slang which I thought perfectly sums up how I'm finding things and why communication is still an issue. Here's the link: http://dr1.com/articles/slang.shtml Check it out!
On Friday, he decided to make a cocktail for me. He used a 'sweet whisky' called Gitano Claro and a strawberry powder. I have to say that it was actually quite nice, the strawberry flavour numbing the strength of the alcohol. We also had a burger/hotdog which was just legendary. It had loads of onions in it as well, which as many people know are one of my current favourite pizza toppings. They work just as well in a burger..
Everyone asks me a lot of questions about my life, because it is totally different out here, so I thought I should pass on some of our culture. I've been teaching Cristian and his girlfriend about awkward situations. So far I've only taught them 'incómodo tortuga' (awkward turtle) and awkward balloon, but I'm sure we can move onto the whale eventually...
I've also had a haircut, because everyone has very short hair here so I thought I should try it out. Unfortunately, there was a little misundertanding and it jut got trimmed instead of shaved. It was a bad job. My experiences at hairdressers always seem to produce poor results.. I've got to say, it looks pretty stupid. Cristian has practically no hair and yet he combs it, which amuses me. I wouldn't have thought that was necessary!
Another piece of good news is that I'm getting paid for working, on top of them paying for my accommodation. They're paying me 5000 pesos per fortnight, which is equivalent to about 96p an hour. It may not seem like much, but everything is a lot cheaper over here and I only really need to buy food.
One more thing: I found an article about Dominican slang which I thought perfectly sums up how I'm finding things and why communication is still an issue. Here's the link: http://dr1.com/articles/slang.shtml Check it out!
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