Wandering, part three

Taking advantage of the very-empty state of the streets of Santo Domingo, and seeing that I had nothing better to do with my time on a fine Saturday afternoon as was yesterday, I grabbed my camera and went for a nice long walk.

Empty streets

As I said in the last post, people took advantage of the so-called “Holy Week” and did some traveling to other parts of the island. Today, I saw a photo in the paper that made me think “what’s the point?”. It was a beach, a very crowded one. I don’t think I’d bother going there if I’m only getting one square meter of salt water and constant noise from the crowd. Doesn’t seem enjoyable, or relaxing.

Anyway, while people were supposedly enjoying themselves, Santo Domingo remained calm, with hardly a person on the sidewalks and the occasional vehicle zooming by. It was quite sunny (good for the beachgoers, I guess), so I didn’t make the walk as long as it could have been, had there more clouds in the sky.

Urban shots

As fun as capturing streets might be, I also took the time to get some of the things I find when I take the time to look around while going in no particular direction. With the place being near-desolate, I had a bigger sense of freedom, aiming my camera at places without getting yelled at or getting weird looks from people.

Of course, I did make sure to avoid aiming the lens at anyone in particular, in case they’d walk away because of that weirdo with the camera taking pictures of them. For a moment, I heard someone yelling Hey! as I walked away after making a photo. I didn’t pay attention to it, in case it was me they were hey-ing at. I’ve already found myself in trouble for trying to take pictures where I shouldn’t, so I’ve learned to avoid people unless I’m at some event where they hope to show up in a shot or two.

As I headed home, I walked by the Plaza Simón Bolívar, up to where his statue stands. I’ve gone through the lower part of this small park, but  I’ve never bothered to walk up to the statue to see it up close. And that’s bad, because it’s been there for about a decade.

The plate under one side of the statue reads “I wish, more than any other, to see formed in America the greatest nation in the world, more for its freedom and glory than for its size and wealth”. Note that the term America is used here (and, well, all Spanish-speaking countries) to refer to the entire Western Hemisphere, in case you ask.

When I got home, I was greeted by the neighbor’s dog, who popped its head out from the second-floor balcony and stayed there while I attempted to get a good photo of the moment. Unfortunately, the daylight was running out, and none of the photos turned out right (shaky, noisy, blurry, etc.). You’ll have to settle for this other shot on the right.  Some guy’s dog ran away!

So ends part three of this wandering thing. This is only about one third of all the good shots from yesterday, as I went around and through one of my favorite places, the Plaza del Conservatorio, of which I’ll write (and show) more about in part four, later in the week.

Lazy days

Ahh … nothing better than a long chain of lazy days. I’ve spent the last two days in bed, watching TV or just browsing websites (thank you, StumbleUpon, thank you).

After next week, my staycation vacation will officially start, and most of that time will be lazy time. My homepage will see a redesign, sure. I’ll get that much-needed haircut, yes. But, oh, the mere thought of spending a long time doing nothing (after three weeks of doing everything) makes me wish I could fast-forward the upcoming week and be done with those two final exams and the graphic design presentation that are just getting in the way.

Next term, I’ll only have three classes. The final three. Easiest thing ever, I hope. I’ll have to take a couple of courses to make the rest of the required 60 hours in order to graduate and be done with the whole college thing. I can’t wait to see that time when my family will not have to bug me about getting an education, because school sucked for the most part, college is sort of meh and, if I’d had a choice, I would have liked to start working right away. But now, I’m tied down by student credit, which I’ll have to start paying after graduation.

Anyway, back to the whole lazy thing. This is the “Holy Week”, as they call it. Back in school, we’d get the whole week off, but all I get now is a four-day holiday starting Thursday (yesterday). Not sure if the school kids still have it the same, but they’re already lucky to have a whole summer of doing nothing, if they so desire.

I’m wondering what I’ll do following the upcoming term. I can’t do my final project thing until January (something about the September-December term being too short), so I’ll have four months for doing whatever my family wants I want. I hope I can use that time to become better at everything I want to become better at (especially Blender, because it seems I’m perpetually rusty when it comes to it), and use the remaining time to get a well-deserved rest of around 19 years of “education”. Too many years, in my opinion, and not everything (especially what was actually necessary) was well-taught.

As for reading, I haven’t done much of it since The Magic Mountain. Nothing of it, in fact. My motivation has suffered greatly with much of it (and my time) spent on college work, and some lazy time is just what I need, to allow it to replenish, as slowly as it ever does. Maybe after next week I’ll have enough motivation to pick up a pocket book or something.

I’ll see if I can take advantage of the city/town/thing being empty (everyone’s making the most of their long weekend) to take a nice long walk and get some photos. Photos are good. It’s the stuff of memories, second only to the mind (but even that fails sometimes).

Until then (if it does happen) go read some other blogs. They also want to be read, you know!

A long-unexpected reunion

This past Friday was the annual family reunion for my father’s side of the family. I would’ve appreciated if my mother had let me know about it earlier in the day, or the day before, rather than three or so hours before said reunion would commence.

One of my aunts is a nun, and she has worked (and lived) at various schools, mainly those for underprivileged children. Anyway, it turns out that the reunion was to take place at the school she works at (and lives in) currently, as opposed to another aunt’s apartment where the previous two had taken place. It’s a Catholic school, naturally. I didn’t see it as that big a deal, as I was just going to be another attendee in a group of thirty-some-odd relatives.

The school seemed to be in another world. It was in a part of the city I had rarely (or never?) been to. The streets were initially very crowded, with people getting their end-of-year shopping done, or just looking for a place to hang out on a Friday night. After much turning around in the dark streets, we finally made it to the school. A dark, ominous place with no noticeable signs of life. We stopped at the front entrance, only to be redirected to a side-entrance where we would be able to park inside.

Once inside, I noticed that the place wasn’t as devoid of life as I thought. Several windows were fully lit, while the rest of the school remained dark. It’d be a great setting for a horror film, especially if a power outage followed. Fortunately, none of that happened, and the reunion took place on the ground floor, under some very dim fluorescent lights.

Now, most of the relatives I see at those yearly reunions, I only get to see then and there, meaning that each time I see them, a whole year has gone by. As usual, I was in charge of the camera, and had to go here and there taking the occasional photo. Heck, I even recorded some videos. There was a nice chapel there, with a few ornaments in it, where I was forced to take took a few pictures of relatives next to baby Jesus.

Judging by the talk and the whole prayer thing that has gone on in these reunions year after year, it seems that I’m the odd one out. The only non-religious person of the bunch (at least on my father’s side, but I’m sure the other side is very similar). It wouldn’t be a terrible loss to them but, if this were a war, I’d be on my own side against the rest of them, including my dear nun-aunt. Yikes!

The food was good. The music was so-so, and there was little dancing going on, so the whole thing ended quickly. Shortly after we had eaten, people started to leave. I wanted to go home because I hadn’t slept well the night before. I jumped at the first chance to do so, and seven of us all took off in my brother-in-law’s car. Once again, we took to the dark streets. This time, though, they were empty. Almost as if a plague had swept away all life in this dark neighborhood. The only lighting was provided by the small stores that were still open. The occasional shadow of a person would pass us by and, every so often, the headlight from the car would reveal an actual human being.

At one point, as we approached home,  I saw a shadow in the middle of the street. The headlamp was off, so I quickly told the brother-in-law to turn it on. Apparently, this man was feeling very confident, walking in the middle of the dark street late at night (accident wanting to happen). He quickly got on the sidewalk, where he should’ve been from the beginning,  as we drove by.

As soon as we got home, I jumped into bed. Not to sleep, but because I just missed it. I had been away for just a few hours, but the change of setting between home and that school –along with the neighborhood it was in– made it seem as if several days had gone by. I thought I had just avoided some great danger and I was finally home, safe and sound, in the comfort of my own bed.

So, the point I’d like to get to with this whole post is … could we please have the yearly reunion at some other place?

Please?

Pretty please?

All about Christmas Eve

That’s done and … that’s done. We had dinner a few hours ago, had a couple of guests over. I needed something to do, so I grabbed the camera and began taking pictures of everything. While I got many photos of my family and the guests (who are also family), I won’t put them here. Instead, I’ll just show everything else.

Like I had mentioned and, as you can see in that second photo, there were lots of presents. It’s a tradition here to open the presents right after dinner.

Dinner was good, and there was plenty of it (not picture above are the two hams and dessert). I stuffed my face ate a plate and a half of it, unlike the rest of the people who didn’t seem excited about the eating part of it. By the way, remind me later to yell at my sister for making me read a Christmas prayer out loud. An actual religious person would’ve been better suited!

After dinner, there was the usual delivery of dinner plates to various neighbors. One of them lives in a fourth floor … a bit of post-dinner cardio for me (on the other hand, she likes to return the favor, and her cooking is a hidden gem of this world). Both for the sake of generosity and because there were enough leftovers to feed a small country.

We also got calls from our relatives in New Jersey. I got to speak to some uncles of mine whom I hadn’t talked with in years. That was nice. Afterwards, we all sat down for the opening of the presents. It’s become a tradition here to respond to every present announcement (to x person, from x person, etc.) with a collective Aww! I got nine boxes/bags of presents from various people. As it was expected, my nephew got the most presents. Plenty of baby clothing and noisy toys that are bound to keep us annoyed (should’ve wished for earplugs!).

Now, my eyes have a life of their own and are threatening to shut down for an extended period of time. Yet another reason why it is a good thing that we open the presents after dinner.

I leave you, reader(s), with yet another happy holiday wish, and a photo of that delicious cake we had for dessert. Well, half of it.

Hair (or the holiday post)

Yesterday, I went to my hairdresser barber to get a long-overdue haircut. And by long overdue, I mean really, really long overdue.

I didn’t feel as bad going out as I usually do. In fact, I felt very good and happy and everything. As I sat there, while Noly (my barber) was cutting my hair, I felt like making some small talk. I have been going to that place for the longest time (fifteen years or so), and I know so little about it. I learned that the place started in 1975, with the hotel that it’s attached to, and that Noly, Cheo (my previous barber, who now works at his home) and Cheo’s brother had been there from the beginning. Now, he’s the only one of those three who still works there.

I remember when I first started going there. My father would take us (my brother and I), and the place was very small and crowded, all painted in blue-green. I didn’t even notice that it was part of a hotel, because there was no indication of it. In the mid-90s, the hotel was remodeled, and that included the barbershop. New tiles were layed, the place was painted in white, and the open-air space between the hotel and the barbershop was turned into a lobby, with a tinted glass roof and air conditioning.

A few years after the turn of the century/millenium, Cheo retired from the place and started working from home, in a quiet neighborhood, to spend more time with his wife. My father continued to take us (mostly just me) to him. While it was nice to be there, the place was much farther away from home, and getting to the hotel was easier, so I decided to go back to the barbershop. Noly’s style is very similar to Cheo’s (they worked together for a very long time, after all), so there isn’t much difference. I’ll probably continue to go there for a very long time.

Anyway, after the much-needed haircut, my steps felt somewhat lighter, and I walked at a fast pace, occasionally jumping some holes and obstacles. I decided against using the public transport at the start of the avenue and walked a longer distance. As I walked, the weather seemed to go from sunny to cloudy at times. It poured a little, but the sun was still out. As I got on the public car (literal translation), I commented about this to the driver, saying that the weather didn’t make up its mind.

The rest of the day went faster than usual, which brings me to this day, the 24th. I’m laying on my bed, typing this on my brother’s laptop, just a few hours past noon, and the smell of the two large hams in the oven seems to fill the whole apartment. My nephew’s playpen, in the living room, is filled with presents (we can’t place them on the ground, because of the dogs). The tree, in the balcony (also because of the dogs), remains lit throughout the night this week.

I’m out of things to type for now. The day is far from over, and the fun part of it is many hours away. All I can do for now is to wish you, reader(s), a merry Christmas, a happy Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, Yule or whatever holiday festivity you celebrate. Happy everything. Go away, now.

Even today, the weather remains indecisive.