first impressions..
Hello all,
I have finally got round to making this blog and posting something on it, so here goes.
I hate to start on a negative note but my trip here was full of bad omens. My flight from Paris to New York went smoothly until we landed and had to wait 45 minutes to get off the plane due to technical problems with the docking station (that corridor they attach to planes when they land). After a little manouvering and a long wait I finally stepped into Newark airport only to find that I had missed my connecting flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. After a thorough frisking by American customs officials, I was put on the next flight two hours later. Unfortunately, that flight was delayed and caused me to miss my next flight to the D.R.
As a result I spent at least an hour running round the airport looking for someone from Continental Airlines who could get me on another flight. At this point I’d been up for 22 hours and all I wanted to do was go to bed. Anyhow, I finally found a representative who gave me a free night in a hotel and put me on the next flight the following day.
I got to the hotel – which, luckily, was in the same building as the airport – and collapsed on my bed. And it wasn’t until I decided to read a bit of my book that I realised I had forgotten my glasses on the plane! So I got out of bed (by which time it was 1AM local) and asked around the airport – in my best Spanish - if they had a lost porperty office somewhere. I was told to try again in the morning because everything was closed and most airport staff had gone to bed. Great!
I went back to my room and opened my case to get my sponge bag only to find that a bottle of blue shower gel had exploded all over half my clothes accompanied by note warning me that my case had regretably been searched. Whether it was customs officials searching for liquid explosives or the drop in pressure at high altitude while flying, I shall never know. In any case, at this point I was thoroughly pissed off (excuse my French) and it left me wondering if I should even have embarked upon this crazy adventure in the first place.
Anyway, I’m here now and my perspective has changed entirely. The Dominican Replublic is a beautiful country and the weather is almost too good. Everybody is so generous and welcoming and I’m really starting to feel at home. I have been spending most of my time with a French family and they’ve been taking extremely good care of me.
Philippe and Marie-France, who own and run the school, have shown me around and taken me out to dinner every night. Their two daughters, Pauline and Christelle, are a good laugh and have kept me entertained during my first few days here.
The school I’ll be working at is a nice little place with 400 students (see photos). You’ll notice that it even has a swimming pool and a trampoline! I start teaching on Monday 4 September.
At the moment I’m still living in a hotel but on Monday I’ll be moving into an apartment. I went to visit it on my first day here and it’s incredible. The place is MASSIVE! There are three bedrooms, three balconies, a massive living room and an equally massive kitchen. All in all, a pretty sweet deal.
Really don’t have time to post photos right now but will do tomorrow.
Ciao for now!
