Adjusting to life in the Dominican Republic is not easy. As with any new country, there is a learning curve. When we were trying to decide whether to stay or find jobs elsewhere, every experienced international teacher told us that the second year is always much better than the first, no matter which country you’re living in. Stick it out one more year, they told me, it’ll be worth it.
Last year, we spent three weeks living out of suitcases in a sketchy hotel that was quite a jaunt from the school. Our apart hotel included “breakfast,” which was toast with butter or jam, orange juice, and coffee – certainly not enough to keep me satisfied until lunch. We’d arrive at the school after our twenty-minute walk in the 99% humidity with stringy hair and sweaty clothes, while the other teachers arrived fresh-faced in their air conditioned cars. It took us three stressful weeks to finally find an apartment and, when we did, another two to three weeks to unpack and settle-in.
Nowadays, we know how to direct a taxista to our apartment, how to order from the colmado, and are all settled into what we like to call our “closet,” which is, in actuality, a very small (rather expensive) apartment in the posh side of town. Our only stress this year is unpacking and reorganizing. Quite better, I’d say.
I guess we’ll how year two plays out and whether I’ll be offering the same bit of advice to other teachers in the future.
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