A DAY IN THE LIFE

Careful Bob.......hahahahaha

LONG POST WARNING......as promised,

11 years

Wow, 11 years, so really it feels like just a few weeks ago I arrived here. How did that happen?  Some say time flies when you are having fun. Maybe.  Possibly it has been such an unbelievable adventure that it just flew by. Maybe.   And of course it would have passed exactly the same way, regardless of where i was.

11 years = 4,018 days = 96,432 hours = 5,785,920 Minutes.  Yup time, one of those non renewable resources, when its gone its gone.

Kinda sounds like a broadway hit show tune.... Sorry I digress......

How do I convey what has happened in 11 years?  I learned, I made mistakes, I succeeded, I took 2 steps back, outright failed at some things,  learned a whole bunch more,  had sooooooo much fun,  had some misery, some accidents, some health issues (mostly recently), met some truly amazing people,  met some truly horrifying people (lol) and  lived my life here with PASSION. Yup passion is the name of the game, in life, in business, in relationships, friendships and with your self! Oh and yes, almost forgot, I have danced!!!!  Danced like NO one is watching, but rest assured they are always watching.

Some lessons I learned along the way:

It is so different from what I expected.
I learned I adapt remarkably well.
I can be patient.
I can stick up for myself.
I can learn new things every single day.
I can choose what i want and discard the rest.
I can do that without JUDGING those here. I accept what works for me and just let the rest go.
I love the Dominican culture (or most of it).
To let go of what is out of your control!
You are judged by who you associate with here.
Always have a plan B and plan C is not a bad idea either.
I NEVER take anything at face value.
I NEVER give trust here until it is earned.
It is very important to guard your health.
Everyone here knows everything about you!
Learn the tricks of the trade from others - both expats and locals!
I will never ever be Dominican but I am accepted. I don't pretend otherwise.
Not having Dominican heritage means we don't always "get" it. Let it go.
I find huge joy in life here.
It is at times simple, at other times so over complicated.
Using an old fashioned washer / spin dryer and hanging clothes is okay! LOL


In business:
There are huge opportunities here. HUGE.
I am good at doing business here. And I love it.
My knowledge has value.
While there are opportunities it is not EASY! Its damn hard.
For a woman in business here, it is like 40 years ago in N. America! Get over it.
Its all social first, everything else second.
You must be flexible and patient.
You must cultivate your contacts, build a network and guard them.THEY ARE EVERYTHING.
You must understand politics but not play in it!


Important things:

Open mind.
Stop judging.
Patience.
Adaptability
Electricity
Water
Internet
Cell phone
Support system - whatever that looks like.

Material items are expensive.
Labor based things are not.

Most important:
Friends and acquaintances.  They have become more like family to me. I treasure my friends both here and outside, both local and expat, wealthy, poor, old and young.   Without my friends I would not be what I am today. So, a big big thank you.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this country, I am blessed and I am grateful to be here.

Planner great post and congrats on the 11 years. We finish our 8th year this week. It has probably been 10 years since I contacted you on DR1 with questions about moving here.  Eleven years later you are still giving words of wisdom.  Great job!


Sorry about not seeing you tomorrow

Bob K

What a great post, Planner!  I've been following along on everyone's experience's are and so enjoying the day to day musings.  My husband and I are more interested in Puerto Rico but would love to try many of the caribbean countries, lol.  I think what you've said and others, too, about adjusting to the DR is very true to most if not all other locales.  It is about learning to live and accept their culture and try to fit into it, not expect them to fit into OUR cultural ways.

I kind of wish that over on the PR forum that they start a thread similar to this one just familiarize people on the day to day living.  Keep up the great work everyone and Blessings to you!

There is no reason you could not start this kind of thread on the PR forum.  Go for it.

Bob K

Thanks for the comments. YES go start a thread!!! Then Bob can have it made a stickie for others......LOL

Thanks, guys~  I didn't know if I should since I'm not an expat yet.  But I can try to see if others will contribute.  Have a great day!

That is a FANTASTIC post Planner!  And such wise words of wisdom for members and prospective expats. Given from an expat  with 11 years succeeding - like how can you not follow the wisdom. Wonderful post - it should've been longer!!

And congratulations on 11 years strong in dr, I know ure spanish better be as sharp as the locals..

If not better 

Thank you very much.  I appreciate the nice comments. And honey I could write and write and write. And you know I will continue....

This week I am on a sorta kinda vacation. My Canadian friend is here on vacation so I left the capital and came to the north coast for a few days. We are having WAYYYYYY too much fun. I fit in a day and a bit of work but the rest is about relaxing,  enjoying and of course dancing. Yup my health has improved due to good meds (yayyy) and I am dancing a bit again. Tonight will dance more.

The north coast is a wonderful part of this country,  it has this beautiful backdrop of hills ( some call it mountains but really...LOL)  it is lush and green and of course the north coast is all about the Atlantic Ocean,  nice beaches,  some nice hotel and resorts and lots of local culture nearby.  There is something for just about everyone. So, do I sound like a commercial......

There are a lot of different communities that will attract and be great for different kinds of people. Some want gated, some want very local feeling, some want lots of nightlife some want quiet and chill.   What is great is you can find what WORKS FOR YOU here on the north coast.  And of course if you cant, well we have the rest of the country.

IF you are thinking about it,  start the process. Come visit, get off the resorts, rent in a community,  explore, learn watch listen............ask us questions, ask us for guidance.  Speaking for us regulars - we love to share what we know and what we have experienced!!!!  We cannot do it for you but damn it we can help!  And we have fun doing it too.

Ok it is time for fall!  Once again it has be brutally hot here on the north coast, even at night with very little breeze.  The only good thing is some late night showers to keep the gardens happy.

We could use some cooler temps already.

Bob K

I agree, remember last year this heat extended through November!!!!!

I'm dying. Temp currently is 33 in the shade

Last summer we were fortunate enough to spend the entire summer till mid October in Europe.  Our friend who baby sat the house and kids (dogs) said it was hotter than blazes last summer as well.

Bob K

It was brutal last year and this year seems to be a repeat..... I spent today in the Colonial Zone with a friend.  Enjoyed playing tourist a bit!!!! Had a drink on the Conde, in the shade and people watched....

The Conde is a great place for people watching.  How is the construction in the area going?  Is it looking better and have they really improved the area??

Bob K

If it is any consolation it is already going down to 0 C here in Ontario, Canada at night. We had a cold wet summer and it seems fall is coming early...

Can't wait to spend Christmas in DR.

Sheri

While i am sorry for your weather it bodes well for tourism here!

At our old house in the foothills west of Denver last week -2C and snow....don't miss it

Bob K

I too am in Ottawa and already wearing a coat and gloves when I walk the dogs.  The leaves started changing really early this year, around beginning of August!
Unfortunately my plans to move to DR this fall are on hold until the spring as my condo didn't sell (nothing selling here at this time).  Another winter in Canada will make me push even harder to get down there! 
If I could I'd send some cool weather to you...in exchange for heat!

Another winter in Canada....my heart goes out to you.

Bob K

My heart is breaking for you as well.  Currently  it is  95F in Santo Domingo. It is hot and humid and I am not complaining......

Just off a wonderful time with a good friend who was visiting from Canada.  9 days of visiting, dancing, some drinking, eating, more dancing......more dancing ...............  it was so much fun and very timely.   

Now, back to some form of reality.  but it reminded me of what it was like to come as a tourist, to see it through different eyes.  This country has so much to offer.  I am renewed after months of being  not healthy, ready and raring to go........LOL

Colonial Zone and Conde -  construction continues to disrupt traffic and businesses!  They are sooooo slow at getting this done. Of course they ran out of money and there was just another 60 million US dollar loan to complete the work. 

What they have done looks fabulous!!!!!  It should have been done long ago and adds huge value to the area!

Heat -  bloody hot again today..... LOL

Electricity - well as the heat continues so increase the outages.  I live in a 24/7 zone but we go down every single day now for about 4 to 5 hours - usually in 2 chunks. I have my backup system but feel sorry for my neighbors who don't have any.  They sweat it out.

This is the time of year you will see more and more unrest. In some areas demonstrations will be staged, burning of tires etc.   It is all about the lack of electricity and the heat -  bad combination!   Again if you see a demonstration immediately go the OTHER way.............

Hurricane season - we are in what is normally our most prolific time of year for storms.  Not much going on and we are grateful for that.  The storms all seem to be everywhere else.

I had the pleasure last night of meeting one our posters from here and her two American friends last night. Really nice young ladies, living a bit of an adventure!   Their attitudes are awesome and I am glad to be able to throw some info and advice at them......LOL

Update on MY construction - okay you are going to laugh.  So the cisterna (big hole in ground to hold water)  was done weeks ago, but not connected.  Idiots didn't run the tubing from cisterna to the water pump. SO they were supposed to be here this morning to dig up the concrete in my garage to run the pipes. Yup its now 9:40 am and no one is here.

IN addition - get this - these idiots cemented over my water meter and the water meter of my neighbor!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!   How stupid can you possibly be??? Now both the water company AND the neighbor are pissed with ME.  And you know that means I am pissed with the guy in charge, the engineer, the architect and the owner of the house. 

Lets see how this ends..............  it is not gonna be pretty!  But i might enjoy it..............

Hot here in the north as well. Electricity is nuts here also. In fact the water company is blaming the electric company for the outage last Tuesday (8 hours) that caused two of their main water pumps to burn up (0.5 million USD each). So on top of the heat and no full time power the folks in many parts of PP and Sosua have little or no water.  Should be an interesting week.

Glad to see that things are progressing normally (basically all screwed up) on the Conde construction.  Why would they ever think they could do it on time and on budget????

As to your cistern this also can be so normal.  It is called job security.  Here you never want to do once what you have the chance of doing multiple times.  Sometimes no planning, no forethought in fact no thought at all when constructing a project.  Hope it gets fixed with out too much head banging.

The good news is not hurricanes or storms in the foreseeable future (knock on wood).  Been a very quiet season so far.

Bob K

Well I dont know much about cicternas but Damn, how do you cement over water meters smh!!  I mean like, what the heck did they drink for lunch Planner! 

Now they got to break all the ground up again, and I bet they expect to get something extra for their cement.

NOT!!!!!!!

Update time -  so no one showed up last Saturday to fix the issues. Big surprise.  Water company showed up on Tuesday and the guy YELLED at me.  Really was the look on my face! I gave him the number of the lawyer and said talk to him - its HIS fault. 

Now I am going to get a HUGE water bill cause they will just make the numbers up.

And as I indicated a bit earlier I am looking for a new place,  yup, I reached my limit. No big deal, I am a Gemini, and I like to move and change......

As I need less space and no yard, I am looking for a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment within a specific price range.  I look online and I look in the daily newspapers.  Rule number 1 - don't believe what they say or print.  It says 3 bedroom but there are actually only 2 when you go there - oh no big deal you can use the living room for a bedroom..... hahahahaha.  OR it has 2 bathrooms!  really where is the second?  Hmmmmmm

I went to see one apartment,  the outside of the building was beautiful, really stunning. SO I assumed the inside would be decent at the very least. An absolute disgusting hovel.  Guy says oh we will paint it. Really, paint is not going to solve the mold and water filtration problem!!! Oh yes it will... hahahahah.  Hell no.  I said I would never ever live in this place, it is filthy, falling apart, the ceiling in the bathroom is caving in............  Yuckkkkk

Today the search continues.  I have 4 to see later today, updates later. 

Apartments and house rentals are often handled by lawyers. Its how they make some money. Ok.  Well guys, you really should answer your phones, return your messages, emails etc.  I will bet you I made 25 calls/ emails to various listings and got 1 - YES - 1  response!  Go figure. 

There is room in the market here for good, responsive rental agents!!!! hmmmmmmmmm new business anyone???

Hi Pllanner

sorry to hear of your troubles with the apartment and the maintenance of stuff. Sometimes the road (circumatances) guides us to where need to be. Sounds like the road is guiding you to change!..

sometimes change is hard but when things are continuing to go on that you aint liking - that's the sign

Yup its time and i have nooooo issue with change...... lol.

.

It is just part of the adventure. 

We painted a wall in our condo unit (rental) to day and removed a large mirror on the wall that we no longer wanted on the wall.  To our surprise (not sure why we were surprised) the wall behind the mirror was NEVER painted at all but still the grey paneta (sp?) cement.  No that is Dominican.

Bob K

hahahahha  and soooo typical.  Yup.

Please Keep us posted on the search planner, since I will be doing the same down East in March. Bob maybe the ran out of paint and figure: Who is going to look behind the mirror any way?   Just Kidding Bob, but I kinda get the feeling, their thought process was somewhere along the lines of Who will Know? And if they find out, we will just be hired back to come back and do it later. Someone on the forum said a while back: They never do a complete job, it ensures job longevity

Whose gonna look behind the mirror anyway lmao!!

That's a good one MW!!

Sounds like whoever painted was probably too lazy to take down the picture first Bob. So just painted around it. And Im guilty too lol, I have a big hallway mirror that I just ddnt want to be bothered with taking it down..  so I taped that succer up and painted around it too lmao.

The misses still doesnt know till this day LOL!!

8 years in sosua, hot is relative.in over 30 years in the islands never over 97, never colder than65. several tormentas (hurricanes), including the mother of them all, HUGO ! I was in st. croix for that one too. no power for 4 months, 90% of ALL buildings destryed or severly damaged.  a 6.7  earthquake in the d.r.. with all of that, it was still better than central florida. a heat index of 105 is normal rather than rare. winters down to below freezing. horrid humidity & no breezes. I'll take the heat next to the ocean anytime. you can always cool off but not always get warm.  nothing can compare to a naked shower in the d.r. down pours. try it sometime, it's a spirit freeing thing. plus no soapy residue from the hard water showers indoors. give me the d.r. heat over the hell here. just a few more months & I'll be back. thanks to you all, I feel closer to home when I read all the blogs. it doesn't matter the subject, they all take me home.

Hey Nick I see you committed the same cardinal sin of not painting behind the mirror, hope the misses is not a subscriber to this blog

Hey watsup MW!

Yea I committed the same sin- glad the misses doesn't read the blog. She loves the paint job actually!

Then that is all that counts  We will keep your secret safe here on the blog 

You guys are funny, good thing I do my own painting!!!!!! You all are welcome to check behind my mirrors......

For me hot, humid and breezy is wayyyyy better then S. N. O. W. and cold, and fall and and and....

I agree with you Planner...I prefer the heat even the humidity!  I'm sorry to hear about you moving, it sounded like you had the ideal place to live.

I thought so too..  oh well....