The New Digs... and Settling In...

A Few Pics of the New Digs...

 Kitchen...

Bedroom... 

 Living/Dining Room..

 One of my walls...                          

 

                                        

   

                

The front door of my apartment...                                                           View from my apartment...

 

Views outside my apartment....

Across the street...

I will admit that it was actually a bit harder leaving the U.S. this year than it was last year. It could be that I had no idea what to expect last year, and the "unknown" seemed to be easier to handle. This year I know (somewhat) what to expect-- the heat, lack of transportation, the distance away from family and friends, etc., etc., etc. and it's sometimes overwhelming. 

I arrived in the DR Tuesday evening-- my flights were delayed some, but not b/c of weather. I was a bit nervous about my luggage, b/c all the other times my luggage has arrived relatively early. This time, however, it was almost the last ones for me to pick up. By Wednesday afternoon I had AC and wi-fi, so everything was (almost) settled... I had a leak in both my bathroom sink and shower faucets, and then discovered that when I flushed my toilet, a stream of water would come out onto the floor! Thursday, maintenance from school came to fix my bathroom, leaving for a few hours to get supplies from the store, leaving my toilet torn apart. It definitely makes you thankful for a working toilet! They returned, fixed the sink and shower, but the toilet was still leaking after they left. Thankfully they came again on Friday and it was fixed completely!! I was able to meet my new maid today for the first time, and we were able to communicate fairly okay. She worked for the previous teacher who lived here-- she doesn't speak any English-- so I wrote out everything I needed to tell her, using Google Translate-- which is the best thing EVER!!! 

We start inservices Monday, with a 2nd day of inservices Tuesday, and then actually 5 days off (well technically 7 with the weekend)-- b/c we don't go back until Thursday/Friday of the week after. We originally were supposed to start school Wed the 17th, but it got pushed back to Monday the 22nd. 

All in all it's going well so far... :-)