Who knows where the adventure will end..

For those of you whom I didn't see during my short stint in Canada, things have changed again....I am not going to Mexico after all. On Thursday, I'll be flying to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I'm quite excited as this was where I wanted to go in the first place and I've never been to the DR. Plus, my friend Melany is supposed to come down as well for the winter so I'll have a friend. In the DR, I'll be the airport coordinator for Signature Vacations. It's a different role from the one I had before as a destination rep. I'll be living in an apartment and not in a hotel, but I think that's common in Punta Cana. I think all the reps live in apts. and not in the hotels. The advantage of that is that you can actually get time to yourself. When you're done work, you won't have some client come up to you an 10:30pm asking in the flight is on time tomorrow! I'm not sure exactly what the role of the airport rep is. I know that you're responsible for checking over the flight manifest coming from the company, ensuring the transfer buses are there, helping people at the airport with any problems they might have either when leaving or arriving. It seems to be a more operational role than destination rep, which is much more customer service oriented. I'll keep you posted.

Now, during my time in Cuba, I did take a few pictures (not too many because as you may or may not know, I don't really like taking pictures and always forget to do it anyways!). So here goes.

The first picture is Alex’s grandmother’s house. The window next to the door (on the right) is my room. At night, we sometimes see frogs and/or toads in the house. Although Alex and his family are afraid of them, I tell them not to kill them because they eat insects like cockroaches, which I still have not gotten used to! That’s Alex sitting in the back room which is part kitchen, part tv room.

Some pictures taken from the front porch.

Alex and his little brother Cristian at his cousin’s house (Nice smiles!). His cousin, Lidi with her new baby. Alex’s grandmother with the baby. Cristian with Jack’s brother.

So the adventure began early….Thank god Jan came with me to the airport. Hehehe. For those of you who were wondering, my bike box weighed 47kg!!!!! As you can imagine, they didn’t let me take it on because it was too heavy. Health and safety reasons. F.Y.I., as I had read on the website and should have remembered, no single piece of luggage can weigh more than 32kg. And, if your bike box contains things other than your bike, you have to pay. I had to pay for 1kg excess baggage but since my carry-on was 17kg and the max is 15, I had to try to fit some of the stuff in my other suitcase. So I was kneeling on it while Jan was trying to zip it up! We looked quite funny. In fact, people who were waiting in line thought so too! Jan took the box home and is keeping it for me. Thank you Jan.

As for Jack , he died. Apparently, he fell in love but his girlfriend lived on the other side of the road. You can guess the rest! I was sad when I heard.

Alex’s cousin gave birth to a healthy baby boy on September 16th.

They denied Alex his parole so he still has to go to the place where he does the work during the week. Luckily, his stepfather knows the guy who gives the passes so now Alex should be able to get his pass for Friday morning and only have to go back on Monday. It only cost a bottle of rum (although I’m not sure but it may cost one every week). Alex’s mother saw a friend of her husband’s who knows a guy who knows the guy who decides to give the parole or not (parole in this case means that although Alex would have to go to work for the state for the rest of his sentence, he’d be living at home). So, he’ll go speak to him and see what can be done. That’s how things work here. And we thought networking was important in Canada!!!! Speaking of which, today, I bribed my first government official. I needed a paper that usually takes 1 week to get. I needed it in the afternoon. I learned that bribes here are a lot cheaper than I thought. I was going to give the lady $20 but Alex’s mother told me that 100 Cuban pesos ($4) was plenty. I gave her $5.

Other than that, things are falling into place. Had a bit of a frustration attack the first day here. First when I went to the store and couldn’t find stuff that I wanted like toilet paper!!!!! Found some today but once again, it was because I saw a lady walking down the street with it in her bag so I asked her where she’d gotten it from. Would you believe that’s the 2nd time in my life I’ve had to do that???? Was also frustrated when I went to immigration to get the family visa and they told me that I needed a marriage certificate that wasn’t more than 3 months old (new law) because I could have gotten divorced in the meantime! But then I decided to take a deep breath, relax and told myself that everything would work itself out and it did.

No pictures with this entry but I promise that the next will have some.

I've decided to start writing in the blog again since I'll be leaving Canada soon (in 5 dodos!). This entry is more of a test because since I have a camera, I'll be adding pictures to my blog

As for the title, well, it's not 100% true. I will be going repping again with Signature Vacations, either in Cancun or Playa del Carmen. But first, as always, I'm going back to Cuba. I'll be going to Cancun from Mexico, probably in November.

The picture I uploaded is of some of the crazy people I was working with here in Montreal at the Holiday Inn Select Motreal Downtown. I had a great time there, met lots of great people (some not so great - that's you Gerard! Ben non, tu'l sais que j't'adore!).

As always, I don't know how often I'll update my blog but it will be a good way for you guys back here in Canada to get some news about where I'm at and what I'm doing.

And if anybody wants to come visit me during the winter....you're all more than invited. Of course, I suggest Playa del Carmen or the Mayan Riviera. I'll come see you there.

That's it for now.

Viva Cuba libre!!!!!! An oxymoron if ever I heard one. Well folks, the inevitable has happened. We got caught by immigration doing the evil evil thing of my sleeping at my boyfriend's house! I tell you, we should be shot. Where's the firing squad?

It all started abouyt 2 weeks ago (when Jan was here actually). Received a call Wednesday mortning (on my day off!!!) from immuigration. Alex was out of town. He'd left that morning for Matanzas for training. Go to immigration, get bitched at by some prick because some immigration dude saw me taking the workers' bus from the road where my boyfriend lives. They ask my relationship with this person who's house I stayed at. I couldn't believe they were asking. What business is it of there's???? They ask for my boyfriend's name which i didn't want to give. In retrospect, should have given it. I think it really frustrated them and made thme angrier. So long story short, they bitch at me andf tell me that I must sleep in the hotel or face deportation, maybe forever. I'm all worried about Alex, waiting for him to call me to inform him of what happened.

Of course, he found oiut soon enough. They tracked him down in Havana. Thought he was trying to flee. Put him in jail for a couple days while they searched through all his clothes for druygs. Went to his house. Blah blah blah. Big deal out of nothing just 'cause I stayed in my boyfriend's house!!!!

Threathened to take the grandmother to jail (it's her house so technically she's responsible!) threathened a huge fine (because then they made up the story that he was actually renting to me! What i don't understand is how anybody could look at that and think, yeah it's obvious tjhat a foreigner would want to pay to sleep in a house in the middle of nowhere with no running water, an outhouse, no shower or AC!)

So now I have to stay at the hotwel which is really driving me crazy. Staying around those tourists all the time is insane. And they doin't leave you alone eiher. I'm having supper or whatever, no in uniform and they'll come up to me and say I know you're not working but....And I just want to yell, Exactly, I'm not working so leave me alone!!!! So this job because a lot less appealing when I saw that I could no longer see my boyfriend like I wanted. I didn't llike irt too much to begin with and as time went by I grew more and more annoyed with tourists and their stupid menial insignificant complaints. So I decided to come home soon, in 2-3 weeks. Don't think I'll be a rep again. But don't get your hopes up, don't think I'll stay in Montreal either. There might be another job in the works. Will have to send my CV to someone. The job is in biotech again but I'll tell youi all about it when I get back. See you soon!!!

First let´s talk about Mickey Mouse.....Club Amigo is such a great hotel that I have a mouse in my room! I first discovered the new friend when ariving one morning I found chewed candy wrappers on my bed. The bastard ate my last Riesen too!!!!! I still had some Werthers Originals. I guess he duidn´t like those as much. The next day I arrive and he´d decided that the Werthers weren´t so bad after all...none left. I figured that since he´d eaten all the candy in the room he´d leave, but no. A couple of days later I arrive to find a necklace I had made out of seeds or wood all chewed up. I got fed up, went to tell the front desk but of course, Cuban efficiency being what it is, they didn´t do anything about it. That night I arrive in my room, open the cupboard door and out jumps Mickey! I run downstairs and tell them that the mouse is there now and that I want it out. They send the maintenacer man and both of us are chasing this mouse arounbd trying to get it out the door. We didn´t manage but it left by the ceiling (which is the way it comes in). I thought that was the end of the mouse but yesterday I walked in and it was in the bathroom. It ran out, up the curtains and through the ceiling. And other guests at the hotel have told nme that they have mice in their rooms too!

And now for Jack....no, it´s not a baby. I haven´t been gone long enough for that! Jack is my new puppy. He´s a wiener dog and very cute. That´s it. I have less to say about Jack than about Mickey. Jack lives at Alex´s house as I obviously can´t have a dog in the hotel. Althoiugh it could help get rid of Mickey!

Last week was incredibly busy. I had a huge arrival on Thursday from Calgary. I like people from Calgary. They tend to be very nice, friendly and laid back unlike other guests of ours.

Something funny about Cuba but no Ha Ha funny. People have received (not for free) new pots and pans from the government and new cooking utnesils. The pots and pans are teflon. That´s great. It means using less oil when cooking (cheaper, healthier), easier cleaning, etc. But of course all of you back home know of teflon and how t care for it. Nobody here seems to have bothes to inform the people!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I see Alex´s family still cooking with huge amopunts of oil then cleaning the pots with steel wool and detergent! And using metal spoons to stir things in the pots. I explained to them about the oil, how to clean and care for their new pots but not everybody has a Canadian living in their house!!!! What a bloody waste. These people have bought these pots and pans that will get ruined in no time because no one´s bothered to inform them!

On another note, a Canadian won the tour of Cuba. Woo hoo.

I miss food! I have lost quite a bit of weight and I´m worried about my health. It´s very hard to eat healthy at the hotel and outside, well, the food is very varied or good either. I shudder to think of what my cholesterol level must be like. And I haven´t been exercising either! It´s really bad. Alex should be going to Havana next week to train so hopefully he´ll find a bike for me up there. >Unfortunately, I won´t have much time to ride it but we´ll get me a thing to turn my bike into a stationary bike so that I can use it to train and then on my day off, we can go for rides.

I´ll be home soon. We´re already March (well, almost). Time goes by eally quickly. I still don´t know when or what I´ll be doing after this contract ends but I should be speaking to my boss soon about it so I´ll have more news soon.

Ciao everybody