A Couple of Questions For the "Sages":

Not sure I qualify as a 'sage' maybe a sageita. But anyway here we go.

1. I miss my family, British television, lamb chops (but will go and visit Whirleybird one day for that), fresh cream, snuggling up under a thick duvet with an electric blanket on a cold night. None of them enough to want to go back though!!!

2. What I would have done differently is not spent my money so fast (!!!), it just somehow disappears here!!!

Matilda

cobraboy said:

1) What do you miss about where you came from that you don't have and can't get in the DR?

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Little berries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc.
Nothing else.

cobraboy said:

If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently when you made your move?

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Would have done it sooner.

Food Items: Miracle Whip (I hate mayonaise).
As someone else stated, a larger variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

What I would have done differently: Not shipped my belongings as I can find most of what I want here (in terms of furniture). I've also found that I can do very well with less. Also, I've found that I could have rented a very nice apartment already furnished if I had so desired. The money I spent could have continued to accumulate interest. For me anyway, that would have worked better.

Being able to walk on the sidewalk without having to walk out into traffic to get around parked cars.

Being able to give people the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming that everyone I deal with is trying to screw me.

Being able to feel like most of the police and authority figures are working hard to protect and make life better for us.

Being able to converse in my native laguage regularly.

Being able to regularly find peole that know enough about what they do to teach me something.

Being able to assume that machanics know how to fix cars, electricians know about electricity, computer technicians know computers etc. (there is word called competency but I forget exactly what it means now)

Being able to bet that people who **** me off on the road by breaking traffic laws will likely get ticketed sooner or later.

Being able to find a radio station that might play something interesting once in awhile.

Being able to consider that free to air television does NOT qualify as a premium cable channel.

Being able to fantasize that Europeans are artsy, intellectual people with lots of culture and not just drugged out, sunburned whoremongers who got so high at the last rave they forgot their flight home.

Not having to assume that Dominicans who speak English are deportees who have likely done time.

Not having to guard against the terrible Spanish that I hear spoken around me to keep it from REDUCING my level of fluency.

Not having to turn my TV up loud enough to drown out the traffic on the road outside my house and 3 of my neighbors radios.

Actually there are alot of things I miss, those are just a few.

i can find anything I want right here and if its not available then I make frequents to USA anyway to bring whatever I like. So i am not worried about part #1.

If I had to do it all over again, I certainly would not have started out in puerto plata. it was a total waste of time and money for me. I would have made the move to santiago initially and then to santo domingo after 2 yrs. Too bad it took me more than 2 yrs to realize, i was not meant to be in puerto plata. I wish I had made my move earlier to santiago or even to capital.
AZB

cobraboy said:

1) What do you miss about where you came from that you don't have and can't get in the DR?

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Nothing. I missed things like gravy granules for the first few years but not any longer. I can now find anything I want or know how to substitute using local stuff. My particular brand of HRT isn't available here so, like AZB I stock up when in UK or get my UK pharmacist to send it. I don't miss old friends because they visit anyway and we aren't exactly short of local friends. My family is here so nothing to miss there either. And unlike Matilda, I don't miss winter :cheeky:.

cobraboy said:

2) If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently when you made your move?

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At the time I wouldn't have chosen to rent part of a house from the person we did and who drove BB nuts. But a few years later I was glad we did - it was our first intro to seamy expats & we learned the lessons fast.........real fast & at minimal cost to ourselves. It probably would have been nice to have moved here financially rich & live a life of luxury but I wouldn't have learned the half of what I did in a short space of time, so I'm really, really glad we had it a bit tough at times. It helped me get inside what it's like to be an average Dominican and it brought out the better parts of me, which up to that time, had been pretty convincingly hidden.

1. My family, Greek pizza, abundant golf courses, NY style deli food.

2. Sure I would do it again, my kids are much happier and the people are very friendly. It has helped that my Spanish has improved a great deal here too so I don't have communication problems anymore.

Lambada. I don't miss anything about winter - just the bit about going to bed and being all snuggly!!!

mattie

Lambada said:

My particular brand of HRT isn't available here so, like AZB I stock up when in UK or get my UK pharmacist to send it.

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Umm... you may wish to rephrase that bit.
1. I don't miss anything that desperately and there are enough people visiting and I travel often enough to replenish supplies of things I do find it difficult to live without, like Marmite and... that's about it. Just about everything else is available, although supplies of certain exotic food items like Indian spices, pickles, couscous, basmati rice are often inconsistent.
2. No, although certain things didn't work out to plan they were learning experiences that served their purpose. My first job wasn't a great experience professionally but it gave me a taste of living in a pueblo and put me in contact with some wonderful people. I wish we'd found the place we're living in now much earlier, and that our son's school hadn't moved so far away, but these are things that one has no control over.

Matilda said:

Lambada. I don't miss anything about winter - just the bit about going to bed and being all snuggly!!!

mattie

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Well Matilda, you are in luck!

If that is the only thing you miss about the UK, then you really miss nothing of the UK because you can experience 'the bit about going to bed and being all snuggly' by checking in at Rancho Guaraguao in Constanza for a few days.

The days will be fine, its the nights that will make you nostalgic for winter nights in the UK. If you are lucky, you might even see small rivers becoming complete block of ice.

Of course, unlike your British counterparts in the UK, once you had enough of the cold all you have to do is hop in a car and in about an hour or so its all tropical again. :cheeky:

-NALs

Humm. can't say I miss much, although I could go wild in a Home Depot.

I would have bought more land and more land...

20-20 hindsight being what it is....

HB

What do I miss most???

Well, you asked, remember that!

1) Beef that is cut X-grained and not at such an angle that it takes a mechanizes soil aireator to tenderize it.
2) Marbly beef with some modicum of real flavor instead of the non-aged type here.
3) I would KILL for some REAL Sweet Potatoes. he kind that you can bake or boil with sugar and cinnamon for "candied yams" Southern style.
4) Turnips and Greens, canned or fresh. I have seed and am about to try my had at "backyard gardening" of these and other veggies, like carrots, tomatoes and YOUNG okra.
5) Like all others, electricity 24/7 without interruption at odd times for no reason.
6) Reasonable priced telephone service.
7) Is this enough??? I still got some more, if you're interested.
I know, BITCH, BITCH, BITCH.
I TOOK A POST GRAD COURSE IN THAT.

Texas Bill

what cannot be replaced or stocked on while in civilized country:
islington libraries. yes, that's it. going to local newsagent dressed in pyjamas without being judged as "loca". going out on a cold winter evening and see the icy asphalt shine like millions of stars.

what would i do differently?
make miesposo live in europe...

Chirimoya said:

Umm... you may wish to rephrase that bit.

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You're right...................he probably isn't old enough to use it :cheeky:.

Hillbilly said:

Humm. can't say I miss much, although I could go wild in a Home Depot.

I would have bought more land and more land...

20-20 hindsight being what it is....

HB

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Good point! Just remember, how in the world could I have forgotton to post Wal-mart among others, like CVS pharmacy or the Bass Pro shop(outdoor stuff) and all of the discount outlet clothes and shoe stores in Orlando. Come to mention it, I miss Christmas back home too. Maybe that is why I sometimes listen to the music in July, now if I could just get some eggnog...

Chip said:

Good point! Just remember, how in the world could I have forgotton to post Wal-mart among others, like CVS pharmacy.......

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And if we have to be reminded of what we miss, how much do we really miss it...............?:cheeky:

Lambada said:

And if we have to be reminded of what we miss, how much do we really miss it...............?:cheeky:

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That's the beauty of the simultaneously aging body and deteriorating memory.
I can't even remember what it is I'm supposed to be missing.
And then there are other bonuses, like "the first time".
I've always loved traveling to new places, as you can only see a new place once.
Now, I can see it twice, thrice, blah blah blah.

What was it I was saying?

I think when we immigrate to a new country, part of the challenge of the settling-in-process is to adapt to newly discovered things and not to focus on our creature comforts from "back home" constantly.