After 5 years. We are moving back.

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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think of Pinocchio and his song when he shed the strings of the puppeteer....

I got no things to hold me down
I got no things to make me frown

Free as a bird has a special meaning for you !!!!!
 

Koreano

Bronze
Jan 18, 2012
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Well, I'm still here , in the process of getting used to the idea, organizing the move, getting quotes from moving companies (20' container incl packing, custom formalities on both ends and unpacking is about 6000 euros. That's about 28m3 of stuff.). It can be done for less, but these people do literally everything. The hardest part for me is loosening the ties: family, friends, church , work , even the simple things like bringing the boys to soccer twice a week, working on my phone from the bench in front of my house while the children are playing , I'll sure miss all that. However February is not a good month to evaluate living in DR, starting as early as April it will be too hot to play or work in the sun or even in the shadow. And that will last till November.

When are you leaving?

Since our fate is already set, I want this to be done as fast as possible. I want be in state before end of March. My wife already packed 15 boxes of books and 4 boxes of toys. I've already sent email to school said it will take 3 to 4 weeks to get all the documents? I dont have an idea but I will have them prepare the documents and see where it goes.

I don't need packing or even loading this stuff but I want people to at least unload it to our new/old home in New Jersey. I guess next week I will get all the numbers.
 

Koreano

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Jan 18, 2012
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Good luck Koreano. Unless your car is one of a kind, with what you save on shipping and the premium charged on cars here, you will have some change left over if you sell the car here and buy a new one in NJ.



Wasn't it you that had one foot out the door not too long ago?

I am not going to bring my car. It is going to be way cheaper to sell '12 Kia Sportage here for $14k and buy '14-15 small to mid size sadan ubder 10k. Lol

We dont have strong bonding to our cars...
 

Koreano

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Jan 18, 2012
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The most important would be for your wife to not lose her US residence status.
The next step to become a US citizen to secure her future.
The education of your son in the USA.
The DR will never be lost, it is easy enough to maintain contact and visit every year.
It is also easy to buy an inexpensive Dominican apartment for future use and visits.
Income generated by you and your wife in the US will make all this possible.
Some things you'll miss, others will be substantially better than here.

You are right about everything, except DR would have to wait before all of us come back. I might make trip or two to take care of unfinished business. My wife can't wait to go back.

I am going to miss it all. Even it was short period of 5 years. DR definitely embeded itself in to our life and perhaps we had put small portion of us in city of Santiago/Moca.
 

Koreano

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Jan 18, 2012
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koreano, bless you for kind words, my frien :)
you are one of the people who really make the most of their time and i have a feeling you will have a good life wherever you go.

don't worry about spanish, as long as it is used at home and your family puts effort into this, it will work.

Spanish would be my concern. Perhaps I can keep sending my son to Spanish school in NJ? I will look into this when I get back.

Thanks.
 

Koreano

Bronze
Jan 18, 2012
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Hey! My 1.4k post.
Anybody have a good and cheap place to stay in Samana? We might as go there before we leave.
 

rfp

Gold
Jul 5, 2010
1,402
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Sorry no place in Samana. But wanted to wish you well. We live in Florida after a similar length of stint. We look back with some fondness but there is no question that the US is the best place to be, especially right now with an economy that will see explosive growth in the next 2-3 years.

Best of luck with everything
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
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The most important would be for your wife to not lose her US residence status.
The next step to become a US citizen to secure her future.
The education of your son in the USA.
The DR will never be lost, it is easy enough to maintain contact and visit every year.
It is also easy to buy an inexpensive Dominican apartment for future use and visits.
Income generated by you and your wife in the US will make all this possible.
Some things you'll miss, others will be substantially better than here.

Well said. How was it that your wife was able to maintain US residency while being in the DR, if you could say. For certain, have her get naturalized as soon as possible.

I could not take that area, having been far too long in the north east in the US (born, raised and 39 years there). California? For sure, but not much on the east coast of the US that interests me. Best wishes to you and your family to grow, prosper and select a great place to retire in the future.
 

LTSteve

Gold
Jul 9, 2010
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Hey! My 1.4k post.
Anybody have a good and cheap place to stay in Samana? We might as go there before we leave.[/QUOTE

Google airbnb las terrenas and you will find a number of places. I would recommend checking out Hotel Colibri or Hotel Aliesi. A little more expensive but right on the beach and great pool, both. For dinner go to La Yuca Caliente, Italian or Mojitos, Cuban or Pizza Azul, great pizza and many other things. Your son will love Las Terrenas. If you have snokel mask bring it. If you can go to Louis' on the beach in Coson. They are open all day but not for dinner. This is right on the beach, very informal, great grilled chicken, fish with rice and beans, ensalada and papa fritas. You can walk the endless beach or swim. Order the Pina Colada. They bring it out in a hollowed out Pina. The waves at this beach are great for body surfing or bring a small raft to ride. Great fun. Good luck and good travesl. By the way where in NJ are you going back to. I was born and raised in Verona, Essex County and currently live in Newark, De. We owned in the DR for about 6 years and sold and moved back. I will have to say I do miss it occaissonaly but happy we are back in the States. Buenos Suarte me amigos
 

Lobo Tropical

Silver
Aug 21, 2010
3,515
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You are right about everything, except DR would have to wait before all of us come back. I might make trip or two to take care of unfinished business. My wife can't wait to go back.

I am going to miss it all. Even it was short period of 5 years. DR definitely embeded itself in to our life and perhaps we had put small portion of us in city of Santiago/Moca.



Of course everyone has their own circumstances.
I still would suggest at least one trip a year back to the DR, to maintain the connection.
Three tickets on Jet Blue won't brake the bank, there are a lot of job opportunities in the US.
Definitely have your son continue his formal Spanish education, shouldn't be too hard with mom at home.
Don't forget Korean, languages open many doors for future employment.
Once your wife has US citizenship you'll have many options including the DR.
As nice as the DR may be, Asia, Europe, N.A. provide interesting destinations.
Your life will be richer, you're just gaining another pice of the pie.......enjoy!
 

exeurodominican

New member
Feb 1, 2014
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Well, I'm still here , in the process of getting used to the idea, organizing the move, getting quotes from moving companies (20' container incl packing, custom formalities on both ends and unpacking is about 6000 euros. That's about 28m3 of stuff.). It can be done for less, but these people do literally everything. The hardest part for me is loosening the ties: family, friends, church , work , even the simple things like bringing the boys to soccer twice a week, working on my phone from the bench in front of my house while the children are playing , I'll sure miss all that. However February is not a good month to evaluate living in DR, starting as early as April it will be too hot to play or work in the sun or even in the shadow. And that will last till November.

When are you leaving?



Don’t know if you still have our e-mail address and if not, please send me a PM. We are also trying to sell our property in Santiago and will be leaving for Spain and looking for a professional moving company.
 

bigbird

Gold
May 1, 2005
7,375
163
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...........We owned in the DR for about 6 years and sold and moved back. I will have to say I do miss it occaissonaly but happy we are back in the States. Buenos Suarte me amigos

Never knew that, thought you were still in LT the way you continue to promote the place. Need to add you to the list of the adios la rep dom crew. The list keeps growing.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
4,329
113
Never knew that, thought you were still in LT the way you continue to promote the place. Need to add you to the list of the adios la rep dom crew. The list keeps growing.



Stinky Cologne used to razz him about it.... leaving and still promoting.

Every once in a while, LT chimes in with good advice 
 

LTSteve

Gold
Jul 9, 2010
5,449
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38
Stinky Cologne used to razz him about it.... leaving and still promoting.

Every once in a while, LT chimes in with good advice 

Thankyou. Still love Las Terrenas but as I have said before "paradise doesn't come without a price". Was back there last March for a quick trip and have my ear to ground always.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
4,329
113
and as I say constantly,,,, a steady diet of paradise may not be for everybody.

I look forward to my forays away.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
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Also sorry to see you go. Although our meeting was brief, I would like you to know that you have made good contributions
to this board.

Thank you.

I have a young Korean lad in one of my classes this semester. He is auditing because he wants to gett a better grasp on history!!
I said he could audit but he has to give me a phrase in Korean after each class. So maybe I can learn a bit of the language.

He just recently told me of the Korean restaurant over in Villa Olga...

Stay well...keep in touch. You will be surprised how much you know about the DR that will be useful in the future to some poster....

Abrazos,


HB
 

Dan Spinnover

New member
Nov 1, 2010
101
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0
rant on

thinking about moving out as well, after being here for most of 8years.

Many things are cool here, but the other stuff, while small... keeps coming back. Like a pesky mosquito.

Kitchen sink stops working regularly. Stopped up. Need to pay someone every 3-4 months to empty the dry drain. It's a nasty, smelly job.

Our frost-free nivera / refrigerator frosts up regularly. Some dude came by and 'fixed it' four times already. Gets old.

There is no such thing as a plumber in San Cristobal, AFAIK. Tried many. The last one I paid 2000 pesos to stop the drippy faucets in the banera / tub. He replaced one faucet, and said that the rings / washers were not available to fix the other faucet. Seriously? 2000 pesos for that? Now I put a bucket in the tub- so that the water does not wear a hole in the porcelain in the tub of our rented house. He did empty out the kitchen dry-drain Ok though.

Our car is old. Recently they replaced the coolatta. It was inexpensive. There was a valve ticking noise in the new motor- which they said that if it wasn't good- they would replace it for free. This is the course of action we decided on. Turns out that the mechanic's time to replace it is not free. He says that it's not his culpa / fault. He didn't test it when he put it in the first time?

My wife wanted to surprise me by getting our Dominican car painted when we went back to the US last time. The job looks pretty good... But upon receiving my car... all three of the windows and doors, except one, does not function right. Windows don't go up, locks don't lock automatically... The gas cap cover basically fell off before- which I said before to our friend needs to be welded... is held in place with two loose screws. The first time I get gas, it gets even more looser, and doesn't close. I doubt that the painter has welding equipment... we'll see. The car is back there to get fixed as we speak.

Visa overstay charges... which used to be almost free... are a lot of money now.

Yes, things are generally cheap around here. But if you have to pay, pay, then pay again... It's not so cheap any more. Life here seems harder now.... when looking at the same problems over and over again.

The problems may seem small, but in the US, where I have a condo, I deal with none of these. It's a different way of life there.
 

Dan Spinnover

New member
Nov 1, 2010
101
6
0
More half-jobs tales

Since I'm ranting... one more thing needs to be mentioned.

Our old kitchen ceramic was cracked in a few places. A friend of the family says that "they didn't do a good job". He wanted to replace it... This after many years of just replacing individual tiles.

Well he did. The kitchen looks like new. Fabulous. After closer inspection / use... a lot of the tiles, when you knock on them, return a hollow sound.... like a lot of air is under them. So now my kitchen is covered with something like ceramic eggshells. It's just a matter of time until multiple cracks occur. The ceramic around the electric plug is way too big for the plug.

The hole for the frigadera / kitchen sink is probably 1/3rd larger than it's supposed to be. The sink moves around A Lot... water pipes and drain pipe as well. It's just a mess.

Some dude who spoke to a ceramic guy put putty around the sink today. The better thing would be to make the hole smaller where the sink goes into the countertop.

This is the main problem I find here: Many people here are not really interested in doing an excellent job. It seems that they rather just do the minimal.... even 'friends'. And how do I know in a certain circumstance- if the person is just schlocking by: doing a minimal job, or they just don't have the right equipment and/or knowledge to do the job right? Hard to tell- friends. Hard to tell. Either way... a crappy, half a__ssed result is the outcome.

Life can be hard here sometimes.