2 Months Hell and Back

[Larry]

Shame he went to Sosua, when Santiago or La Vega would have been kinder and gentler....-Hillbilly

Yes and cheaper. I dont know what you spent $5000 on in 2 months. I stayed in sosua for 2 weeks once and I spent about $1000 but I was paying for a nice hotel room and went out to dinner every night, lots of drinks,girls..etc. I think if I was living in sosua I would spend about $1,500 per month and be very happy. Santiago and La Vega , like Hillbilly stated are cheaper. You need to get out of the touristy areas where the prices are jacked up and go towards the middle of the country. I personally like Jarabacoa very much and it is definately cheaper thank sosua. I think I could live nicely in Jarabacoa on $1000 USD per month. That may be where I wind up when I eventually make the move.Anyway, I am sorry things didn't work out for you.
Larry

 

[andy a]

Cmilliman, I have a few comments.

Don't feel bad about spending too much money - you did NOT.

There is such a thing as "efficiency" when referring to a trip or anything else. It depends upon various factors, but especially the primary objective. Whether that objective be playing golf, chasing women, snorkeling at the beach, renting a car and living out a fantasy as a demolition derby driver, whatever - the objective must be met in order to make the trip worthwhile.

You said something about a job. I don't know the details, so I assume that that was NOT the prime objective.

You only spent about $80 per day, of which probably $30 or so was for hotels in tourists areas - cheap. Then you had food, transportation, Presidentes (necessary in the DR), etc. That probably left you with less than $30 per day to pursue whatever you were after.

Actually, the primary expense (pursuing the objective) could equal ALL other expenses combined before becoming questionable.

Had you only lived to exist, then instead of saving $2500, you would have wasted the $2500 that you spent PLUS airfare and your entire vacation. In such a case, you should have stayed home.

Concerning diarrhea - yes, it is a problem. I am VERY careful, drinking Presidentes only out of the bottle, drinking only bottled water (which might have come out of the gutter anyway), and not using ice at all (except out of my own refrigerator). I also seldomly eat anything that I or my trained maid didn't cook WELL. Still, it's not enough.

Concerning gunshots - YES, I hear them many times at night, or at least what sounds like them to my semi-trained ears. I actually SAW a soldier fire his HK 91 (German assault rifle) in anger - a warning shot at a vehicle that wasn't stopping. It was unclear whether the driver knew that he was being stopped, but he was released after a few hours. It happened about 50 yards in front of where I was sitting with several others outside a colmado. I saw the muzzle flash, heard the sound, and saw the dirt kick up where the bullet hit the ground.

Overall, it sounds like you had a very meaningful trip, even if it didn't turn out the way you wanted.

 

[Cleef]

Meant to add this.

As for people getting food poisining it seems the common theme is that they are always eating out.

I've had no problems since moving here (one bad sickness but I'm not positive it was anything I ate) and my hunch is that because I did so much of my own cooking that I was able to have more control of sanitariness (is that a word?).

I've never hesitated to brush my teeth with tap water and surely have ingested some. I cook with it, use it in coffee, etc.

Over a period of time your body is bound to adjust.

Eat lots of fruit, and of course drink tons of the fresh OJ. It's incredible that you can get fresh squeezed OJ far cheaper than the boxed/bottled stuff.

Going back to the states is what beats me up, ingesting so many preservatives makes me get "angrytummyosis".

It could be the 7 pints of Ben and Jerry's I eat weekly, but I refuse to believe that.

 

[Hlywud]

Thread

A very interesting thread, I was interested in looking at Coreys pictures but the link takes you to a Fotopic home page, I type in his name and search for his gallery, under Dominican Republic his pictures come up of his home, dog and stuff in Wisconsin, either he deleted his DR pics or Fotopic is a terrible gallery site.
???:bored:

 

[Adrian Bye]

Actually I think cmilliman made a mistake by leaving when he did.

Whenever you move to a new country, you go through 4 stages of culture shock:

1. The honeymoon phase. Everything is new, exciting and different. This lasts from a week to a month.
2. The "down in the dumps" phase. Everything is bad; life sucks, and you hate it. Nothing works properly and things are much better back home. This can last anywhere from a month to 6 months.
3. Adjustment. This is when you pass the second phase and start to truly integrate into the culture. You know how things work and understand what is going on around you.
4. Reintegration. This is when you return home and you've changed - but people don't realise how different you now are. They think you're still the same person, but you're not. People often tend to change all their friends when they're back.

In cmilliman's case, he left in stage 2. If he'd stuck it out a bit longer, he might well have been able to make it work.

 

[Ken]

Good post, adrianb. I agree with your analysis. You don't just arrive in an foreign country/culture and continue life as you lived it at home. The country/culture won't change to accomodate you. You must change to fit into the country/culture.

Not everyone can make this adjustment, as I'm sure you would agree.

 

[Timex]

If your post got wacked.....

Then so be it, I left just enough to make it thread worthy, thats it.

Now it's locked.

Thanks
Tim H.