- Thread starter Mauricio
- Start date
What's with the attitude?
We have strict condo rules where we live, but many are ignored by some residents (both Dominican and foreign).
As a result the management company has made signs for almost every little detail, including things that should really not need to be spelled out, like no dogs in the children's play area or by the pool, no tocar bocina, etc.
In an amusing twist, one of the Dominican residents is up in arms about her noisy neighbours, who are Swiss.
As a result the management company has made signs for almost every little detail, including things that should really not need to be spelled out, like no dogs in the children's play area or by the pool, no tocar bocina, etc.
In an amusing twist, one of the Dominican residents is up in arms about her noisy neighbours, who are Swiss.
ranting
one of the great USES of this forum is that it is a place to rant.. in that we have monikers that we can hide behind... most of us... and we can just say what we are thinking. I think that it allows those people who are thinking of moving here a true and accurate picture of how life is for us... And like Rey said, it is like a relationship, there is the falling in love, then the honeymoon, then the first year second thoughts, then the five year wall, and then I do not know what happens because I always got divorced at seven and have only been here five...and never lived longer than 14 years in any place but by that time i may be ready for a nursing home.... or Matas de Farfan... who knows?
As one of the main ranters here I use this as an venting space when I am having a particularly tough time (five year wall) so that I DO NOT rant out on the street or in the company of Dominicans I know and so I can survive with not having but two or three English speaking friends and NO chance for much intimacy with the native men.. since, well,, read the Mars and Venus forum..
Few of us are going to get voting status.. which I think comes only with a passport, not a residency, so here we get to voice our opinions like they made ANY difference to anyone... I guess it makes us feel like we matter.... because in the end, of course, we know that we do not, because we are indeed perched here very precariously.
i loved the comment about the towels on the balcony because here in the Capital, my Dominican downstairs neighbor came up and told my maid while I was out that she had to take my plants and my hammock down from the balcony. Since she (the neighbor, not my maid) used to work at the UN in NYC, I wrote her a note in English that said that if she did not like the look of the plants and the hammock on my balcony, she did not have to look up.
Mauricio said:
waytogo said:
one of the great USES of this forum is that it is a place to rant.. in that we have monikers that we can hide behind... most of us... and we can just say what we are thinking. I think that it allows those people who are thinking of moving here a true and accurate picture of how life is for us... And like Rey said, it is like a relationship, there is the falling in love, then the honeymoon, then the first year second thoughts, then the five year wall, and then I do not know what happens because I always got divorced at seven and have only been here five...and never lived longer than 14 years in any place but by that time i may be ready for a nursing home.... or Matas de Farfan... who knows?
As one of the main ranters here I use this as an venting space when I am having a particularly tough time (five year wall) so that I DO NOT rant out on the street or in the company of Dominicans I know and so I can survive with not having but two or three English speaking friends and NO chance for much intimacy with the native men.. since, well,, read the Mars and Venus forum..
Few of us are going to get voting status.. which I think comes only with a passport, not a residency, so here we get to voice our opinions like they made ANY difference to anyone... I guess it makes us feel like we matter.... because in the end, of course, we know that we do not, because we are indeed perched here very precariously.
i loved the comment about the towels on the balcony because here in the Capital, my Dominican downstairs neighbor came up and told my maid while I was out that she had to take my plants and my hammock down from the balcony. Since she (the neighbor, not my maid) used to work at the UN in NYC, I wrote her a note in English that said that if she did not like the look of the plants and the hammock on my balcony, she did not have to look up.
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Hmmm.
Anyway,
people need a bit of imagination to even consider a voluntary move to the D.R. so these can be by nature interesting people.
Most expats come to the D.R. specifically for the culture, not under political or economic pressure. Most immigrants to Europe are looking to work at anything they can to survive/live well. Good on them.
But they are qualitatively different.
The expats in Europe go in at the bottom.
The expats in the D.R. go in near the top.
An Aussie prime minister once said that he was truly happy for Australia to grow more multi-racial, but no more multi-cultural. (I am still not sure how I feel about this.)
But hopefully the expats' influence in the D.R. will not change things too much - be careful what you wish for.
If the D.R. did function like a 1st world nation, it would be a 1st world nation. Then the 'freedoms' would disappear.
This would be great for the Dominicans but not so good for the expats?
Currently I think there is a nice balance between the 'wild' and 'tamed' elements of the D.R.
Wild enough to be free yet tame enough to be comfortable.
Free enough to complain about it on DR1 yet comfortable enough to have the opportunity.
I think these will be remembered as golden years on the "D.R.1 Reminisces" page of 2025.
:bunny:
Some expats do it right and prosper while some just get frustrated.
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Yeah, but where are the statistics to back that up??:bunny::bunny::bunny::bunny:
There really is a qualitative difference in complaining to open up a discussion to see if we can improve things at all, expats and Dominicans working side by side on issues of mutual concern... and those complaints which are designed to put Dominicans down. The former stem from love of and committment to the country, generally speaking. The latter stem from insecurity in the expat, not necessarily as an expat (everyone goes through that) but as a person. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to distinguish between an expat going through a stage of cultural adjustment, which they will come through, survive & thrive and those people who would have the same issues wherever they lived because they come from inside and not the country or environment.
So.........there is constructive ranting, frequently humourous with the poster pointing at their own shortcomings and there is destructive ranting, never pointed at the self, always pointed at the locals. At the latter says far more about the poster than it ever will about Dominicans. Which is good because.........the rest of us know who to avoid.
So.........there is constructive ranting, frequently humourous with the poster pointing at their own shortcomings and there is destructive ranting, never pointed at the self, always pointed at the locals. At the latter says far more about the poster than it ever will about Dominicans. Which is good because.........the rest of us know who to avoid
.
Great sometimes you really hit the nail on the head, right she does not have to look up. probably has to crane her neck anyway to see anything.
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