A very unexpected surreal weekend in DR - Part 1 the hectic departure.

I just returned from a completely unexpected few days in DR. In fact when asked at the NY reunion last Friday when my next trip to DR would be - I honestly had no idea.

It went down like this:

My girlfriend was supposed to have her appointment at the US consulate for her student visa on Friday the 23rd. Last week I had fedexed to her the I-20 (the acceptance information from the school to the consulate that must go in a sealed envelope). When she got it the package had been sliced open by US customs. We didn't want to take any chances with the consulate rejecting her for the envelope having been opened so she fedexed it back to me. There was no time to fedex it back to her as her appointment was rapidly approaching so I took it to the school to have it resealed and quickly took it to 1 of my bestfriends Ricardo who was making his first trip to DR in 3 years on Thursday the 22nd(his EX-girlfriend had "misplaced" his permanent residence card to prevent him from going).

I made sure he understood the importance of the I-20 envelope and he agreed to hand it off to my g/f at the airport. It seemed failsafe as I trust Ricardo like a brother. I called him before his flight to make sure he had it with him and he said of course. He was to arrive at like 2:30 at POP - my g/f called me at like 5:00 saying he couldn't find Ricardo. My heart skipped about 10 beats because of the importance of the I-20 - I called Ricardo's family who dropped the bomb that he had somehow forgot the I-20 at their house in the Bronx. My heart just about jumped out of my body at this point as my g/f's appointment was less than 20 hours away and no way to reschedule it or to send her the I-20. I called her and told her that she should go to Ricardo's house in Santiago and I would think of something. In desperation I started checking if any flights would arrive in DR in time for her appointment. I saw that Jet Blue was flying from JFK at 9:45 pm to arrive in STI at 1:30 AM. At this point there was less than 4 hours to that flight and I was at work on 23rd st in Manhattan and my passpport was like 40 minutes away at home in NJ and the I-20 package was an hour away in the Bronx. and of course there was only 1 seat left on the JB flight. I called Ricardo's family with the idea that his 17 yr old brother could quickly take that flight with the I-20 - he said ok but then called me back as I was reserving his flight saying his US passport was expired. Nothing was going right so I called my twin bro who luckily was home and asked him to grab my passport and take from NJ to my office as I reserved the flight in my name. At this point it was like 630 and the clock was ticking. Ricardo's father agreed to drive the I20 from the Bronx to JFK. My brother arrived in Manhattan with my passport just after 7 and I jumped in a taxi to JFK. Traffic was not too bad and I got there and luckily found Ricardo's dad and the I20. I got on the flight with only my passport and the I-20 - no clothes as there was just no time.

The Jet Blue flight was ok - this was my first time flying with them it is def. good to have them as an option for DR. I came out of the airport in Santiago at 2:00 am and Ricardo and my gf picked me up.

I think I will continue this in another post tomorrow as I am about to fall over with exhaustion.

Last minute trip to DR: Part 2, the Consulate

After 3 hours of tossing in turning I woke up and me, Magdalena, and her mother went by Caribe Tours from Santiago to Sto. Domingo. We arrived in the muggy heat (it was my first time in the capital) ate something and Magdalena went inside. My only last minute advice was if you get nervous just imagine the consular officers in their underwear. Her mother and I waited nervously across the street in the shade as time seemed to be moving so slowly. After an hour of checking the time constantly I saw Magdalena emerge with a smile on her face giving the thumbs up. This must have been the best natural high of my life. You could see the same reaction when other people throughout the day came out and gave the thumbs up (although there were not many) – their friends/family went about as crazy as I did. I was so high on cloud 9 that I almost got killed crossing that dangerous street in front of the consulate. Traffic was stopped on both sides so I started walking but this motorcycle just came out of nowhere and must have missed by a hair – my life flashed before my eyes.

She was told to return for her passport at 3 so we went to lunch at 1 of the decent places near the consulate and Magdalena recounted the details of interview. I must interject that the consulate did not seem as intimidating as I had imagined (from the outside as I didn’t go in). There were quite a few people waiting but the guards kept the mood light by messing around with the their megaphones and giving “piropos” to every girl who walked by.

Anyway, she went in and was asked by some people to open her sealed I-20 but she refused as it must be opened only by the consular officer. After being shuffled around she finally met the person who would decide her fate. He opened the envelope and only looked at the I-20 and her DS 156 form (the non-immigrant application). All of the other documentation she had prepared (bank statements, her lease to her bar, her tax payment records, her high school/university transcripts, letters of recommendation from the governor of Pto Plata and a US congressman, etc were not even looked at). He tried to make her nervous and asked why you want to study education in NJ if you are already studying it here and why would Barbara (my mother) pay for this education if she they only met each other once. Magdalena then told him of her plan to someday open a bilingual school for young children in the Sosua/Pto Plata region which probably appealed to the guy’s heart. Regarding my mother Magdalena broke down the math that it would not cost her so much (the officer had no idea I was involved as Magdalena said she met Barbara while working in Feb. 2003 while working with her uncles company selling tours which is true). He then asked her if she traveled out of DR before – when she said Ecuador and Aruba he seemed to be happy. He asked where she lived in DR and she said with her parents who owned their home (albeit a modest 1 in La Union). Despite his initial attempts to make her nervous she said the interview was not so bad. I think she was over prepared and it was not as bad as she expected because when we practiced the questions I was a very tough critic and almost forced her to tears trying to refine her answers because I assumed the consulate would do the same. So our plan with a year in the making and hundreds of hours of combined effort finally worked and Magdalena got the visa to study here.

I will finish explaining the rest of the weekend's activities later this afternoon.

Part 3: The "relaxing" part of the trip

A funny side note, as we were waiting for Magdalena to pick up her passport, a huge Mack tractor trailer broke down right in front of the consulate in the middle of the street (now this looks to be a dangerous intersection and I wonder if any other people have been killed crossing to get to the consulate). The truck’s driver got out, threw open the hood, shook his head, made a phone call, and was picked up by a friend. I couldn’t believe it – he just walked away from the huge mess blocking traffic – and for all I know it might still be sitting there.

After coming back from Sto Domingo Ricardo, Magdalena, and I went to eat some fresh fish at this little place in a questionable area of Santiago that we always go to. Just point to the 1 one you want and they drop it right in. We were disappointed when they said there was no ketchup for the tostones but after a fuss a bottle was produced. The same thing happened when we asked for aguacate – slight fuss and all of a sudden the aguacate as they had none but then it appeared out of nowhere. We joked that if we asked to pay with credit card which they surely didn’t accept that if we made a fuss they would say alright sign here and the bottom 1 is the customer copy.

Next we went to Ambis as the Aguacate was performing. Despite the 500 peso cover charge and this ailing economy that I keep hearing about the place was packed. We got a table in the back and ordered the extra Viejo. As it sometimes happens in DR, when you don’t want to buy something people persist in trying to sell it you, but in this case we wanted the bottle but they just couldn’t seem to sell it to us – at least 4 times, 4 different waiters asked what we wanted and we kept telling them but it took at least 45 minutes for that bottle to show up. Aguacate was great and I would recommend seeing them live.

We returned home at like 4 and woke up a few hours later as there was no light and no fan to let us sleep. For breakfast/lunch we headed to Patio Familiar which I have always enjoyed my lunches in Santiago. It is an outdoor, inexpensive lunch spot where I can always count on plates of arroz, pollo guisado, ensalada de papas, and maduros. We then picked up Ricardo’s cousin who flew in from Miami. We all went to Ahi Bar for a little bit and returned to Ricardo’s cousin’s apartment. Later that night we saw Aguacate again at an outdoor festival in Licey which was of course packed.

I returned home last night on Jet Blue. JB was different than most other airlines but I am happy they go to DR now. There is no first class and actually coming home there was not assigned seating at all. All their employees were very friendly and it seemed everyone was on a first name basis.

Magdalena should arrive here within the next week or 2 as her school starts in late August. It is going to be a huge culture shock and the acclimation process will be huge strain on us but we have come this far in the past 2 years so it will be interesting to see where it goes now. I will keep everyone up to date with her transition in school (Hudson County Community College) and her search for menial labor (legally she can’t work with a student visa).

Talldrink said:

This post reminded of Cleef's old stories, it kept my attention the whole time.

Good for you Chris! Congrats and we hope to meet her at the next reunion!

(You must of smelled really good by the time you got to the DR - nice and Musky - Street Dominican Style - LOL)

BTW - if you dont mind, how much was your flight? Last time I had to fly like that I ende up paying close to $700 (

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The flight, which was purchased less than 2 hrs before, was only like $340 (including taxes). Thank God for Jet Blue

And I must have smelled even better on Friday after having the same clothes again all day in that hot and stickly capital.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next NYC get together.