Doug's first post, initial impressions of his new home, many many pictures

(Posted by: Doug)
Edit: Blogger hates me and refuses to let me format this correctly. Apologies for the difficulty to read some of this text.
I’ve been MIA on this co-blog so far, so as far as my reactions to this country I can say honestly that I love it here. Prime among these reasons is the overall laid back attitude of Dominican culture. I love the infectious music blaring out of all directions, and of course, being the Caribbean it's beautiful here. Even in the more impoverished parts of the city, of which there are many, there is an abundant variety of plant life that grow authorized or no, birds, strange bugs and colors everywhere. At first glance Santo Domingo is a chaotic place:

• The traffic is litterally lawless, including a kind of decriminalization of things like DUI, and by no means do pedestrians have the right of way. Ever.
• Though rich and colorful said music is generally very up-tempo.
• About 3 million people are stuffed into an area which by my estimates can't be much bigger than greater Boise/Meridian/Eagle.
• The volume of day to day life is almost impressive. From the horn-happy and ever present traffic to the music to the people.
  

Regardless, a tangible calm pervades all things. Very few activities are rushed and personal interactions are savored. Dominicans as a culture are outgoing and friendly, even to poorly dressed gringos who speak very little of the language. Very few things can be settled before recounting what you've been up to, how you've been getting along, etc, and tardiness is expected (you probably ran into a friend and had to catch up). Though motorists are remarkably pushy and aggressive, I've seen only one case of identifiable frustration let alone the road rage infused traffic in the states. A kind of “don’t cry over spilt milk” is very much the rule and is followed religiously. I greatly appreciate and readily identify with, especially being late all of the time and a certain flair and happiness for constant performance. This is not to say that there haven’t been instances where this laid back attitude hasn’t been frustrating or worse, but who wants to hear about that anyhow? :) Also, though louder than Boise still, Sunday’s are far more slow and quiet than the rest of the week and have quickly become our favorite day. Again, things have been awesome thus far and now that we’re settled into our place we’re looking forward to some stability in our schedule.

Thus far, for several reasons (see: time and money), our adventures have been small but we have indeed seen a lot. For the first few weeks we were unfortunately in a hotel that the school put us in till we found a place, and after spending the day at work most of our evenings were spent looking for apartments.Here's a shot of the place we were in. Doesn't look too bad, I know, but inside all I can say is bluk. Fine for traveling, but no good for living in and even more difficult to set up a teaching practice from.

The "breakfast" provided by our hotel , compliments of the school. Taost, coffee and OJ.

Lebanese food. Oddly there's a ton of Middle Eastern food here and much of it is a lot better than home.

A Lebanese take on the ubiquitous (here anyhow) empendada.

Stace modeling Presidente, a locally brewed pilsner and unquestioned king of the DR. I'm generally not a fan of such a light beer, but Presidente seems to be brewed with special insight into the thirst that this particular climate creates and is generally served so cold there's a few ice chunks at the top. Nothing cools you down like one of these suckers.

Like Stace pointed out in her blog, notice the wiring on the power poles. It's not uncommon for transformers to blow here.

Supermercado, where we bought a ton of water, PBJ ingredients, and empanadas.

Every five seconds it rains buckets and the streets flood. Watch out for sewage!

Here's a few of the new digs.


Here's our view to the East. We're pretty certain the people in this house do something illegal for a living...a pretty amazing place.

And to the West.

And the North

I wanted to post a few more pictures, but this thing has given me a remarkably difficult time so I think I'll take a nap.

Adios

P.S. click here for proof that even the burliest of us can appreciate an ice-cold Presidente once in a while.

photos and such.

Here are a few pictures! Blogger uploaded them backwards, so this is in reverse chronological order. :)

At a supermercado in Santo Domingo:

One of many skyscrapers in Santo Domingo

A power pole with a mess of electrical wires (very common)

At the Adriana Tropical Restaurante

Santo Domingo

Boca Chica, the closest beach (30-45 minutes by gua gua, which is a mini-bus)

Our first meal here, fried plantains and boiled green bananas

I hope you enjoyed these photos, I'll post more later. Miss you all!

Adjustment

(posted by: stacy)

Note: Please pardon my punctuation, I am using a Spanish keyboard. :)

So, we are finally settling in to what is now our new home. After several months of reading, dreaming, and planning, I have come to realize that, honestly, all of that was pointless. A book or DR1.com could not prepare me for this country or its people. Nothing could prepare me for the language barrier, or the fact that I cannot wear my ring in public, or the fact that nothing that I expected has happened. But, despite all of this, I am finding that I really do love it here. I say love loosely...perhaps I should say I am learning to love it here.

We spent the last two days exploring the city, trying different restaurants, and getting used to using pesos. The city is very loud, very humid, and very dirty. It is hard to navigate, dangerous to cross the streets, and confusing for the English speaking foreigner. Nevertheless, I am learning to appreciate this Caribbean city and the hustle and bustle that will be a part of our lives for at least a year. The people are friendly, there is music everywhere, and most people seem happy, despite their economic conditions. I love seeing people playing checkers on the streets or dancing in a convenience store.

Today, we took an express buss to Boca Chica. These mini buses are shared by about ten or fifteen other people and are fairly inexpensive. In total, it took us about thirty to forty five minutes to get to Boca Chica, which is the closest swimming beach. We ate lunch at the beach, then went swimming in the warm Caribbean ocean...it was lovely!

After we took the express bus back to Santo Domingo, we walked through China town,then through a very poor part of the city, to the Colonial Zone. The Colonial Zone is a very busy market that houses vendors, stores, restaurants, fast food, and all kinds of entertainment. During dinner, a marching band came through the Central Ciudad and I was able to catch some of it on video. Unfortunately, I am unable to access wireless internet, so I am using the internet at our hotel and cannot post pictures.

Anyway, I will wrap this long post up once and for all! We have orientation tomorrow and need plenty of rest to be up bright and early for school. We miss you all! Please email me at stacylynnh@gmail.com if you get a chance.

16 days

(posted by: Stacy)

Everyday, July carves a little notch out of its ever-too-short stick. (How's the metaphor, is it working for you?)

Most people would be saying, "Yay! We leave in 16 days!"

I'm saying, "Crap! I have so much to do!"

(This, my friends, is the manifestation of my ever-present fear of things not getting done. Can you imagine a worse fate? The stuff not packed. The things not sold. Oh what would I ever do?)

But, I'm trying to look past my anxiety-ridden thoughts and imagine white sandy beaches and new smells and people and a new language and everything being totally new and different and very, very cool.

I will say - all of this craziness is so worth it. I can't wait to leave!

Just another neat photo

Oh, silly.

(posted by: Stacy)

Just a fun, non-beach photo of my future home:

I can't wait to see things like this!

July 31st at 7:00 a.m.

(posted by: Stacy)

The above is our official date and time of departure.

In many ways, I'm still in denial that we're actually leaving. I feel like we're taking an extended vacation, or perhaps that we're temporarily relocating and will be back in a few weeks. It just hasn't really hit me yet, I guess.

One thing I'm not in denial about is the packing that I have to do. Oh, lordy, is it a lot! Last week, we found out that US Airways has an embargo from June 2 - September 1, limiting travelers to two checked bags, one carry-on, and one personal item. I have to fit my whole life into four bags!

But that's okay. In many ways, it will be a sort of cleansing experience. Ridding myself of the old, embracing the new, learning to cope with less "things" around. A tidier house, less laundry, less stuff to worry about - it doesn't sound so bad. That being said, it's not easy to whittle down the stuff from my three bedroom townhouse (of which I own all of the furniture, the washer and dryer, and almost all of the kitchen items) and cram it into four little pieces of luggage.

Aside from the packing crisis, we're finding out more and more about our new home every day! I found a Facebook page yesterday that has photos of the kids and the school. The school looks pretty amazing and the kids are adorable. We're also running into difficulties with banking and mail, but we'll get it all sorted out eventually. (And, on a side note, I finally found my passport yesterday - yay!)

I can't wait until I have some of my own photos to post, but in the meantime, here's a few photos of Santo Domingo to enjoy: