Hey folks, my name's Cary, and I'm obviously brand new around here. My wife and I are coming to the DR in about 3 weeks to scout apartments and such for a move. Tons of great info here, but I gotta ask...what is 'AI'? I've looked around and cannot find out what that means. I tend to get the context of it well enough, but I'm really curious what it actually stands for.
As bit about us, we're Texans, currently living near Austin. My wife's a teacher, I'm a commercial diver. We're kinda sick of living where we are, and we're looking for a change of scenery more than anything else. A long term change rather than a couple weeks worth of vacation.
Several years ago, when my wife and I first met, I was planning a trip down to the islands to look at buying a boat and just sailing for the rest of my life, but we put all that on hold, got married, had a kid, and life kinda derailed all that for a while. After a pretty stressful year for both of us, we talked and decided that a change was in order. Somewhere warm, with nice sandy beaches and tropical climate. Add to that a couple of friends of mine already living in the DR, and it started looking pretty good. We plan to settle somewhere on the East coast, close enough to airport so I can fly in and out for work without too much trouble, and after that...we have no definite plans beyond tans and a good bit of recreational diving.
At this point, I'd have to gauge our attitudes as 'cautiously optimistic'. I've read a lot of things both here and elsewhere about all the hot topics like crime, lifestyle, etc and it seems to me that the DR is much like anywhere else really. There's no where in all my travels that I didn't have to use a good bit of common sense and take ordinary precautions. That's just life in our times. I think once we arrive, get to know some folks, and immerse in the day to day life, things will all be very nice indeed. If nothing else, it'll be an adventure!
As bit about us, we're Texans, currently living near Austin. My wife's a teacher, I'm a commercial diver. We're kinda sick of living where we are, and we're looking for a change of scenery more than anything else. A long term change rather than a couple weeks worth of vacation.
Several years ago, when my wife and I first met, I was planning a trip down to the islands to look at buying a boat and just sailing for the rest of my life, but we put all that on hold, got married, had a kid, and life kinda derailed all that for a while. After a pretty stressful year for both of us, we talked and decided that a change was in order. Somewhere warm, with nice sandy beaches and tropical climate. Add to that a couple of friends of mine already living in the DR, and it started looking pretty good. We plan to settle somewhere on the East coast, close enough to airport so I can fly in and out for work without too much trouble, and after that...we have no definite plans beyond tans and a good bit of recreational diving.
At this point, I'd have to gauge our attitudes as 'cautiously optimistic'. I've read a lot of things both here and elsewhere about all the hot topics like crime, lifestyle, etc and it seems to me that the DR is much like anywhere else really. There's no where in all my travels that I didn't have to use a good bit of common sense and take ordinary precautions. That's just life in our times. I think once we arrive, get to know some folks, and immerse in the day to day life, things will all be very nice indeed. If nothing else, it'll be an adventure!