Let the fun begin!

First day of school in the Dominican Republic - check.

I had a great first day. I'm overwhelmed with all the new names to learn, but I can already tell that the students are going to make me laugh - a lot. This is GOOD. Today was just an intro day and we met for a short time with all the classes, so tomorrow starts the "real" deal. I need to take a photo of my classroom to show you how much progress we have already had! I can post the before and after photo when I really get it going with student work...

Thanks for all your support - I feel much better now :)

Moving AGAIN

Relax.... I'm just changing apartments. For some reason, out of all the new people, I was the only person placed with a roommate. It's not horrible, but our personalities don't match, at all, and she wants to have her boyfriend come stay for a month. On top of that I pathetically let her have the master bedroom and have been regretting it ever since. I let someone 10 years younger than me bully me into something I didn't want, and YOU would think I'd know better! This move has been quite a learning experience.

So, one of the single teachers was placed in an apartment where no other teachers live and she's been super vocal about wanting to be closer to everyone (she's not that far). The school found a place for her to move and now her place is open. It's much smaller than my place, but quiet, and closer to the park. Why doesn't my roommate move, you ask? Great question. Well SHE doesn't see a problem with the way things are and says that she wouldn't mind if I had a guest for a month, so she won't move because she doesn't care about living alone. All I can say is GET ME OUT OF HERE!

So it's a good thing I haven't posted any pictures of my new apt because I'm erasing it from my memory!

Come on Irene

This is a crazy big storm! Apparently because of the 10,000 foot mountains in the Dominican the hurricanes and tropical storms that come our way are usually pushed north and tend to miss Santo Domingo... Whew, good for us, but bad for my parents who are in the direct path right now!

I'm not ok with this

I'm in frustration mode right now... It's new, different, yes, but there's more. I think of myself as a little naive about things, especially when it comes to safety. I walk around with my head high like I own the place. I put my shoulders back and leave my scowl on and head out, on a mission. And being covered with tattoos has created this illusion of toughness that I've been playing off of. Here's the problem... I spent today hearing stories about how only a few months ago the EXACT apartment I live in was broken in to and robbed. How on the SAME street I walk to school on a teacher was robbed. How motorcycles drive by and rip your bags off your body. How the strategy is just don't carry anything you are not willing to loose. How almost everyone has had a mugging/robbery experience. How the strategy is to just give them your stuff. Wait? What? Don't carry a backpack, purse, anything. Ok, so where do you keep your stuff? Well don't bring stuff, ok, so what? Seriously. Yes, people are living like this. Like, oh, I may or may not get robbed today. If I get robbed I'm going to be PISSED. I appreciate the honesty, don't get me wrong, but how bad is it here?

I got home today and headed straight to run in the park without my ipod. Ok, so I'll get used to running without noise. I need some digestion time. I'm self medicating with music right now. You can make fun, but I've got Dave Matthews blaring as much as my computer speakers can blare. It's not like I'm going to be buying any serious electronics just so they can get stolen.

A little better

I spent some quality time in my ugly classroom today and I must say that I'm feeling a bit better. You are all right, it's going to take some time to make that space my own. This is the exact same situation I'm in every time I move and I keep thinking that moving is a good idea, so I must learn to deal with it better.

One of the other new teachers has rented a car for the weekend. Another new teacher has her first visitor, her sister, and the four of us are heading east along the coast to Juan Dolio, a small coastal town with a bunch of resorts. I plan to explore every safe inch of this tiny country... if you want to join me check out Spirit Airlines and JetBlue! I have a spare room and everything, although the price will be that you have to bring me stuff :)

Out of sorts

So I was supposed to be better about blogging, especially when I became "connected" again, but honestly, I've been out of sorts lately. You know, moving again. It all started when I found out that my plan to take three suitcases was foiled by the "embargo" on American Airlines. Ok, ok, so I'll zip my life up into two 50 pound bags. Thankfully the AA guy was nice enough to let me go just a tad bit over on each bag and now my life is condensed to 105 pounds. Well, that was until my AA flight was canceled because of weather in Miami (funny that everyone else from the school got to Miami just fine), and I was shuffled over to JetBlue. You've heard good things about them? It's probably true, except for the fact that the guy at the counter was not about to slip my 5 extra pounds into my checked bag and I was forced to drag around my belongings while I was rerouted to NYC. Just a few hours in the opposite direction, hey, at least I was on my way to my destination!

The human resources person had set up a nice welcoming in the VIP lounge at the Santo Domingo airport, but of course my delay put me in after the lounge closed, so I'll have to catch up with VIP at a later date in my life.

I've been in Santo Domingo for one week. Five days of teacher workshops and meetings, afternoons spent looking for sheets, towels, food, evenings trying to stay cool. 

There are a bunch of new people, like 16, and for some reason my roommate and I are the only ones to have been assigned roommates. We have a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath apt, with a decent kitchen, big living room and porch on the 3rd floor of a building on a busy corner about 3 blocks from school. The location is great in reference to the school, but caddy corner from my bedroom is a corner store (colmado) that is ridiculously loud and obnoxious. The bedroom situation got sticky right away because there is a master bedroom with a bathroom inside the room and then two other smaller rooms with a bathroom in between. Well, my roommate informs me that her boyfriend wants to come visit so it makes sense for her to get the master and I thought, ok, but I want both small rooms so that I can have a small office space to work. Well, this was before I knew that ONLY the two bedrooms have a/c. Seriously. THIS was something that I had not anticipated and although I am used to never knowing what is going on, I didn't see this coming at all! No other space in my apt is climate controlled, none. Right now Santo Domingo is super hot and sticky. We've had torrential downpours and blazing sun all in one day. I am told that by November the humidity will subside and I'll be find without a/c. Let's hope so. Actually I've already gotten a bit used to it. I still hold my breath when I come home, just waiting for that blast of cold air that never comes. We are told that the electricity is super expensive here so we'll be glad we don't have central a/c. Sure.

Not too much to say about school right now. I still have one more week of meetings before kids come, so I don't really know what to expect. The returning teachers start Monday, so I haven't even met anyone in the science department yet. I'm not super impressed with the classrooms, but it's hard to tell at the moment. My room is a dump, but maybe I feel so out of place since it's not mine yet.

I have my very first smart phone and I LOVE it. I ended up with a Blackberry because that is what everyone has here and it was more reasonably priced and they actually had them in stock. I've been a bbm'ing fool, talking to my Bolivia kids. It's hard not being there right now. I just keep thinking how much easier my life would be if I had just stayed. I know, I know.

should have taken a raft

I know, I know, it's been a while since I've written, but I have a bunch of great excuses.... like - I was in Chicago, then Denver, then Hawaii and now I've packed up my life again and am headed to my new home in Santo Domingo, DR. You still don't buy it, well, I don't blame you, especially since in 2011 there is this cool thing called an ipad, or iphone, or things that you can access the internet anywhere on... soon, soon, I'll have one of those cool devices, but until then I need my laptop and free wireless. So I guess it's a good thing that my flight to the DR has been rerouted to New York where the wireless flows free unlike the ghetto Miami airport which is apparently to wet to accept flights from North Carolina, but ok for flights from other cities. I guess it was fate that brought me to this free land of internet.

News? Well, other than the fact that I have a new job, new apartment, new everything, not much... I did have a minor panic attack when the airlines told me that there is an embargo in affect for the DR right now and ALL I can bring is 100 pounds total. Damn. I really wanted a little more of my own things with me, but I guess I'll take my own advice and not worry about stuff so much.

I have lots of fun summer stuff to tell you, but that's going to have to wait and I'm sure I'll be needed to write about my first few days... until then