Dominican surprises!

bill11 · Jan 1, 2006

I have been living here in the Dominican republic pretty long but still there are some things that do not stop surprising me.
Here are some of them.

1. Always, when I am leaving supermarkets and go to the car the guards in the parking lot ask me to give them some pesos. It does not stop surprise me.

I just can not believe that the gaurds can do a fortune on this so why they ask? I cannot believe that they starving to death either, by their looks at least. Maybe it comes from the nomads ( no-mad, or the no-proud men that always beg, partly because being proud of themselves is equal to being crazy) that i heard beilieve in that if you take a peso or dollar from the rich you will become rich too. I do not know.:surprised

4.The boys that clean the windshields of cars in the streets do not stop surprise me. They start to wash the windshields or your car without asking a permition or even looking at you while you are protesting of all mights.They start do their work with grown-up expression on their faces. :classic: What surprised me more one day was that one boy started to clean the windshield of my car that was ablsolutely clear (I had just left the car wash). He had cleaned the windshield and went to another car that was on the opposite side of the streets. And ...he did not come up to me to take the money it looked like he forgot.:classic:

Happy New Year to everyone:classic: and God bless you all

Potato_Salad · Jan 1, 2006

bill11 said:
I have been living here in the Dominican republic pretty long but still there are some things that do not stop surprising me.
Here are some of them.

1. Always, when I am leaving supermarkets and go to the car the guards in the parking lot ask me to give them some pesos. It does not stop surprise me.

I just can not believe that the gaurds can do a fortune on this so why they ask? I cannot believe that they starving to death either, by their looks at least. Maybe it comes from the nomads ( no-mad, or the no-proud men that always beg, partly because being proud of themselves is equal to being crazy) that i heard beilieve in that if you take a peso or dollar from the rich you will become rich too. I do not know.:surprised

4.The boys that clean the windshields of cars in the streets do not stop surprise me. They start to wash the windshields or your car without asking a permition or even looking at you while you are protesting of all mights.They start do their work with grown-up expression on their faces. :classic: What surprised me more one day was that one boy started to clean the windshield of my car that was ablsolutely clear (I had just left the car wash). He had cleaned the windshield and went to another car that was on the opposite side of the streets. And ...he did not come up to me to take the money it looked like he forgot.:classic:

Happy New Year to everyone:classic: and God bless you all

Very good points and I agree with you! :classic:

I hate going to the casinos. The hookers would always try and organize my chips and root for me to win.

And while the dealer shuffles the cards, they would walk up to me and say, "Chino, s*ckie s*ckie tonight?"

As for washing the windshields, this was the case in Korea up to the early 1980s. My uncle used to wash windshields so I have a soft spot for them. So I usually give them 10 pesos and just tell them to leave the car alone.

sunshine_79 · Jan 2, 2006

Potato_Salad said:
And while the dealer shuffles the cards, they would walk up to me and say, "Chino, s*ckie s*ckie tonight?"

Me love you long time

miguel · Jan 2, 2006

Oh boy!

bill11 said:
I have been living here in the Dominican republic pretty long but still there are some things that do not stop surprising me.
Here are some of them.

1. Always, when I am leaving supermarkets and go to the car the guards in the parking lot ask me to give them some pesos. It does not stop surprise me.

I just can not believe that the gaurds can do a fortune on this so why they ask? I cannot believe that they starving to death either, by their looks at least. Maybe it comes from the nomads ( no-mad, or the no-proud men that always beg, partly because being proud of themselves is equal to being crazy) that i heard beilieve in that if you take a peso or dollar from the rich you will become rich too. I do not know.:surprised

4.The boys that clean the windshields of cars in the streets do not stop surprise me. They start to wash the windshields or your car without asking a permition or even looking at you while you are protesting of all mights.They start do their work with grown-up expression on their faces. :classic: What surprised me more one day was that one boy started to clean the windshield of my car that was ablsolutely clear (I had just left the car wash). He had cleaned the windshield and went to another car that was on the opposite side of the streets. And ...he did not come up to me to take the money it looked like he forgot.:classic:

Happy New Year to everyone:classic: and God bless you all

Welcome to the everyday life of SOME people from a third world country!.

I also hated it, too, when I tried to get into the Holland Tunnel(while on traffic), on the greatest country on the globe, the Good Old U S of A, and 20 homeless people tried to clean my windshield. Oh the insanity!.

People have 3 choices in the DR, when it comes to what you described: 1) see it as an everyday life event, 2) think that it has been happening for generations and 3)know that it will never change, not for you, for me or for them!..

Nothing wrong with saying "NO" with an stern face.

Potato_Salad · Jan 2, 2006

sunshine_79 said:
Me love you long time

Me very very happy you know? lol

You very very kind you know? lol :classic:

lindalin1 · Jan 2, 2006

hey you think the dominican is bad...wait until you go to cuba....it is very sad ...the only thing I can say is really bad about the dominican, in comparison to cuba is that the police in the DR are disgustingly corrupt...I just got back from cuba today and am still shocked at what I saw. I have lived in the DR for approx. 3 years and it is still not as bad as cuba..I am speachless...

bill11 · Jan 2, 2006

Dear friends,
Why have you come to think that the surprises I told you about make me think bad about the Dominicans or that they were bad surprises for me.
On the contrary, they were very funny and made me smile. I just wanted to share them with you to make you smile too.:classic::classic::classic:

RHM · Jan 2, 2006

lindalin1 said:
hey you think the dominican is bad...wait until you go to cuba....it is very sad ...the only thing I can say is really bad about the dominican, in comparison to cuba is that the police in the DR are disgustingly corrupt...I just got back from cuba today and am still shocked at what I saw. I have lived in the DR for approx. 3 years and it is still not as bad as cuba..I am speachless...

You have lived here for three years and still call it "the Dominican"?

Scandall

bob saunders · Jan 2, 2006

Scandall said:
You have lived here for three years and still call it "the Dominican"?

Scandall

My wife is Dominican and she sometimes calls it the Dominican, so do many other Dominicans.

Victor Laszlo · Jan 3, 2006

What happened to 2. and 3.?

bob saunders said:
My wife is Dominican and she sometimes calls it the Dominican, so do many other Dominicans.

They obviously need a good talking to from the DR1 Language Cops.

buseouno · Jan 3, 2006

Victor Laszlo said:
They obviously need a good talking to from the DR1 Language Cops.

A large part of the local population need a good talking to, as they call "the Dominican" ,Santo Domingo.

Many times when I meet someone for the first time, they ask me how I like living in Santo Domingo, meaning the DR, not the city.

Language Cops, what are you waiting for, there are a whole lot of people out there that need your help.
Go for it.

RHM · Jan 3, 2006

bob saunders said:
My wife is Dominican and she sometimes calls it the Dominican, so do many other Dominicans.

Really? That's a first. Was she born and raised in the DR or is she the offspring of Dominicans born and raised elsewhere?

Scandall

qgrande · Jan 3, 2006

bob saunders said:
My wife is Dominican and she sometimes calls it the Dominican, so do many other Dominicans.

you mean in English ('the Dominican') or in Spanish ('la Dominicana' :ermm

, both sound stupid, but in English it could just be copying what might appear the most used term.

qgrande · Jan 3, 2006

buseouno said:
A large part of the local population need a good talking to, as they call "the Dominican" ,Santo Domingo.

Many times when I meet someone for the first time, they ask me how I like living in Santo Domingo, meaning the DR, not the city.

Language Cops, what are you waiting for, there are a whole lot of people out there that need your help.
Go for it.

Even Air France makes this mistake: on their website when you have to indicate your country it only says 'Santo Domingo' not 'Dominican Republic', among a long list of nation-states :ermm: .

acmike · Jan 3, 2006

If the windshield washers approach your car turn on the wipers.It stops them every time.

RHM · Jan 3, 2006

acmike said:
If the windshield washers approach your car turn on the wipers.It stops them every time.

Not all the time.

Those guys are getting good at throwing their nasty spunges from 15 feet away too. That way you can't tell them not to because you have no time to do so.

I am sick of the song and dance about them just "trying to make a living". Bull****, they are street hustlers. Anyone who tries to coerce others into paying for their "services" is a scumbag.

Scandall

miguel · Jan 3, 2006

Here we go again!

buseouno said:
A large part of the local population need a good talking to, as they call "the Dominican" ,Santo Domingo.

Many times when I meet someone for the first time, they ask me how I like living in Santo Domingo, meaning the DR, not the city.

Language Cops, what are you waiting for, there are a whole lot of people out there that need your help.
Go for it.

DISCLAIMER: NOT "talking" about anybody in specific.

I believe (as in ME) that those Dominicans that call the Dominican Republic "Dominican" have a little lack of education. I am NOT saying that they are stupid but anybody that calls his/her own country by a different name is lacking information/knowledge about such.

I know of Dominican people in the US that are not well educated and they DO call the DR "Dominican" and I also know of many that when referring to the whole country, they call it "Santo Domingo". It does not mean that they are right, it just mean that they need a little education about the country.

But I do have well educated Dominican friends here in the US and in the DR that they would not be caught dead calling the country "Santo Domingo" or "the Dominican".

If a person like Pedro Martinez (I wonder about his education, of lack of, sometimes) can call it the "Dominican", I guess that others see it as being ok. Well, it's not but to each their own!.

That maybe there are college educated people calling it the "Dominican", perhaps, but I am yet to know of one.

Again, this is not an attack on anybody or anybody's spouses, it's just my opinion.

Btw, buseouno, going soon to the "DOMINICAN", opps, the DR(lol), and I will get the "gang" together again and maybe you can join us again.

Stodgord · Jan 3, 2006

I am one of those that says "me voy para Santo Domingo, la proxima semana" and it does not mean that I am not educated. From grade school I new the oficial country's name, but somehow when I came to the US and people asked where I was from, I automatically would say "Soy de Santo Domingo"
It is just easier and popular to say "soy de Santo Domingo" than to say "soy de la Republica Dominicana". I guess that all has to do with Santo Domingo being "la capital" and the rest "montes y culebras". By the way, Dominicans in the rural and other towns cannot bring themselves to say "voy a cojer la guaga para Santo Domingo" they would say "voy a cojer la guaga para la Capital". The name Santo Domingo is non-existant to Dominicans living in the island, it is just a name on paper.

bob saunders · Jan 3, 2006

Scandall said:
Really? That's a first. Was she born and raised in the DR or is she the offspring of Dominicans born and raised elsewhere?

Scandall

Born and raised in Jarabacoa, with Degrees at USAD. I didn't say that she never says Dominican Republic, but when talking in English, she will sometimes refer to it as the Dominican, and if I refer to it as the Dominican she doesn't correct me. It's kind of like calling the USA, the states. Nobody gets offended and it seems to me the only people on this board that get offended aren't Dominicans. I don't care if someone calls me a canuck instead of a Canadian, and you can call my country whatever you want to.

RHM · Jan 3, 2006

bob saunders said:
Born and raised in Jarabacoa, with Degrees at USAD. I didn't say that she never says Dominican Republic, but when talking in English, she will sometimes refer to it as the Dominican, and if I refer to it as the Dominican she doesn't correct me. It's kind of like calling the USA, the states. Nobody gets offended and it seems to me the only people on this board that get offended aren't Dominicans. I don't care if someone calls me a canuck instead of a Canadian, and you can call my country whatever you want to.

Actually, it would be more like calling the U.S. "The United".

And you can call my country and I whatever you wish. Just don't mess with my momma.

Scandall

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