Day 1

I made it safely!  I successfully slept for somewhere around 45 minutes last night between meeting Kate's parents and waking up to go to the airport.  I did sleep on both legs of the plane, but sleep is a very different thing when it comes in the form of sitting upright on dirty aluminum tubes covered with leather and plastic whenever possible.  I am looking forward to my bed tonight.

My flight from Atlanta to Santo Domingo was kind of interesting.  I climbed into my seat only to be interrupted by a man behind me who wanted alcohol, but couldn't buy it as he only had cash.  He asked if I would buy it for him and he would graciously give me the money for it.  I refused, but he must have enticed someone as he was fairly incoherent when we deplaned.

Two other teachers were on my plane and we all walked to what we simply knew as "The VIP room" at the airport.  All three of us felt it was properly named.  We showed up and a lady from the school took our passports and bag claim information.  The next thing I knew I was lounging and talking with a few teachers while an airport aide went to deal with customs for me!  No waiting in lines, no trying to deal with customs agents.  It was all taken care of!

On the drive to the hotel, we suddenly stopped on the side of the road and to my delight, my new boss (principal) asked if we wanted beer.  We said yes, and he obliged by asking for "tres presidentes" and then shutting the door.  One minute later the man came walking out with three beers to the car and gave one to each of the new foreign hires.  They kept it so cold it was almost frozen solid, and went down very easily after a long day of travel.  Needless to say, I met the president today and we really hit it off.

Dinner with the rest of the group tonight at our hotel was kind of a blur.  I am so exhausted from no sleep and lots of travel all day that I could barely focus.  My eyes have bags so big underneath them that I question whether they would fit under the seat in front of me or in the overhead bins above me.

Tomorrow I will have the opportunity to see the school and move into my apartment.  I am hoping that within the week I will have internet at my apartment and will be able to continue to talk with people on here.

Please be praying for an ease of adjustment.  It's not an adjustment so much in terms of living, but it's more of an adjustment of just not having people around me that know me.  Independence is key here, and making sure I can do it will be a struggle for me.  I feed off of caring for other people and getting reciprocal support and care from them.

Love you all and I miss Seattle.  I'm having a lot of fun here and the weather is SO much nicer than Seattle.  But Seattle doesn't smell like this.  Hasta luego.