An Internet Date

I posted a personal ad on a gay website and have gotten thousands of responses. It's funny, because it is the same ad that is available for guys in San Francisco, but I never get any responses there. There was a feature where I could say I was visiting the Dominican Republic and guys here could see it. I'm serious about the thousands of responses - well, maybe not thousands, but lots.

So yesterday I met a guy named Miguel who is an intern at a hospital, studying to be a doctor. After some miscommunication (even though he speaks English and I speak Spanish) we finally met. He came up to my apartment and we talked a bit. He saw Eat, Pray, Love and asked me about it. I told him a little about it and how much I am loving it. We were both hungry and he volunteered to take me to a restaurant that serves typical Dominican food. I have not had many good meals here so far, so I was really happy about that. I was wearing long cotton pants, black sandals and a black t-shirt. He looked at me and asked , "Are you wearing that?" - it reminded me of this Deborah Tannen book called "You're wearing that? - Communication between mothers and daughters". It was the first of many times that I felt he was talking to me like somone's mom. The 2nd time was right after that when he lifted my eyelids and told me to go wash my eyes. I get this sleepy stuff caught in my eyelashes and never knew one could wash one's eyes. I said "ok, mom" and went and washed my eyes, feeling like our date was going to be a bit dreadful.

We talked about how we could go to this restaurant. It was not in the Zona Colonial, which I was glad about because I wanted to see some of the rest of the city. We had different transportation options - taxi, or carrito. A "carrito" is like a taxi, but people share them. I remember these from Nicaragua. You'd hop in one that was going in the direction you wanted to go but other people would get in and out along the route. I remember them being kind of fun.

We walked outside and it was rush hour, which meant lots of cars honking. I saw one car hit a guy who was crossing the street. He was wearing shorts and sandals, so I assumed he was a tourist. He started yelling at the driver. I watched to see what happened, but the driver kept driving and the guy kept yelling. We crossed the street in the middle of the street and cars stopped and let us cross, so I don't know how the guy with the shorts was able to get hit - maybe he just wasn't paying attention.

We went to a place where there were some carritos parked. Miguel told the driver where he wanted to go. He got in one car that was empty but they told him to get in another one. He got in the car which was full except for the space he took. At that point there was one person in the front and three in the back, making the car seem full. Miguel said "get in". I thought he was joking. I said "really?", and he said "yes". I said, "really?" thinking he was joking. He got out. I thought he had been joking. Then he said, "ok, we'll walk". Now I was confused.

As we walked, we went back and forth deconstructing what happened. Turns out he was serious. I was suppoed to get in this car and sit on his lap. I am glad I didn't.

It was not really far to walk to the restaurant. I was very hungry and a little tired because I had't had my nap. We were walking to a residential area called Gazcue. We were walking along a major traffic route with lots of people blowing their horns - I guess because there were cars in front of them and they wanted them to move. There was no where to go.

Fortunately, it wasn't that hot.

The restaurant was named "el Conuco" and was very cute. A big space filled with all kinds of colorful things - flowers, baskets, drums, fake people standing behind fake fruit stalls. It was like being in a museum. We went for the buffet so that I could try everything. I had some yummy chicken, a nice beef stew, steamed veggies, rice, macaroni salad and I put this sauce made from vinegar, tomatoes and other spices on everything. It was really good. We went on to have some kind of soup with meat and plantains and finally for desert, sweet plantains in some kind of dark brown sauce (maybe brown sugar or molasses) and some other very sweet things.

Our dinner conversation was ok. Miguel, I was learning, had a bit of an attitude that turned me off. He seemed kind of pissy. Several times I tried to speak and he cut me off. That made me not want to say anything else. I asked him some questions about the Domincan Republic and he answered me, but seemed to blame the people here for their condition, even though he admitted that it is only a handful of very rich people who control all of the wealth (where is that not true?). As the night wore on, I realized I was not going to want to see Miguel again.