Hi all, my name is not dale and I'm not a farmer,
I've been lurking DR1 for a couple of years now and have enjoyed all the convos(good, bad, and the CC
) and I'm happy to finally join! I finally took the plunge to be part and hopefully contribute to this community and offer by story(warning: contains dreams of becoming an expat).
I currently reside in New York City, you know the city that never sleeps(like that's a good thing...) and have endured 23 years of cold, dark winters since leaving my native DR in 1990. I've lived a pretty normal american life, graduated from the university at Farmingdale(now you get the screename) with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and working in a fairly related field of project management at a global financial firm(corporate). I have a wife, one kid(3 years old), and renting. Now here is where it get's interesting(IMO):
I have about 50K saved up and will be looking to buy a house, you know what normal americans do, the american dream! Yea, right. The way I look it at: A sound investment for my future and a 15 year(minimum) sentence to more cold, dark winters.
This is my fork in the road sort of speak, do I invest in real estate here in NY where I am happy, no complaints since I love my family, but the mundane, unhappy train rides, dark at 4:30pm, stress, concrete everything, over and over for 20+ years is beginning to take a toll on me AND my wife - or escape and move to the DR, and have a fresh start, a reboot to my life?
BTW, I left the DR when I was 5 years old, my mother sold all of the real estate we had to come to NY, so I would in essence be starting from scratch, a native expat if you will. I have been completely americanized I know, I might be very dominican here in NY, but dominicans from DR have that extra thing in them, which I lack, you know, like I could never own a banca in Sto Dmgo, the culture is just unusual, unique, special, strange, rare, extraordinary, bizarre, distinctive, something else, peculiar... Even though I was born there, I feel like an alien.
I did visit for 3 months every year until I was about 14-15 yr old, this is when I 'rebelled' and went full in to the hip-hop culturelaugh resisting to spend my NY summers in the DR(ugh!). Now I can't stop going (twice a year), reading DR1, hearing bachata, merengue ripao, and eating platanos every which way, everyday. Is my country calling for me? I hear it(come back, come back).
It will be an interesting couple of months as I battle with these two different roads I could take in my life, and I wanted to leave this here to see what you guys think. All opinions are welcomed, even the ones with too many punctuation marks. (That 2 shots from a rookie!) :laugh:
I've been lurking DR1 for a couple of years now and have enjoyed all the convos(good, bad, and the CC
) and I'm happy to finally join! I finally took the plunge to be part and hopefully contribute to this community and offer by story(warning: contains dreams of becoming an expat). I currently reside in New York City, you know the city that never sleeps(like that's a good thing...) and have endured 23 years of cold, dark winters since leaving my native DR in 1990. I've lived a pretty normal american life, graduated from the university at Farmingdale(now you get the screename) with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and working in a fairly related field of project management at a global financial firm(corporate). I have a wife, one kid(3 years old), and renting. Now here is where it get's interesting(IMO):
I have about 50K saved up and will be looking to buy a house, you know what normal americans do, the american dream! Yea, right. The way I look it at: A sound investment for my future and a 15 year(minimum) sentence to more cold, dark winters.
This is my fork in the road sort of speak, do I invest in real estate here in NY where I am happy, no complaints since I love my family, but the mundane, unhappy train rides, dark at 4:30pm, stress, concrete everything, over and over for 20+ years is beginning to take a toll on me AND my wife - or escape and move to the DR, and have a fresh start, a reboot to my life?
BTW, I left the DR when I was 5 years old, my mother sold all of the real estate we had to come to NY, so I would in essence be starting from scratch, a native expat if you will. I have been completely americanized I know, I might be very dominican here in NY, but dominicans from DR have that extra thing in them, which I lack, you know, like I could never own a banca in Sto Dmgo, the culture is just unusual, unique, special, strange, rare, extraordinary, bizarre, distinctive, something else, peculiar... Even though I was born there, I feel like an alien.
I did visit for 3 months every year until I was about 14-15 yr old, this is when I 'rebelled' and went full in to the hip-hop culture
laugh resisting to spend my NY summers in the DR(ugh!). Now I can't stop going (twice a year), reading DR1, hearing bachata, merengue ripao, and eating platanos every which way, everyday. Is my country calling for me? I hear it(come back, come back). It will be an interesting couple of months as I battle with these two different roads I could take in my life, and I wanted to leave this here to see what you guys think. All opinions are welcomed, even the ones with too many punctuation marks. (That 2 shots from a rookie!) :laugh:
