Dominican Beginnings (Katie and Jeremy)

Two months after shopping for our unidentified home's furnishings at IKEA in Massachusetts, we have arrived in the Dominican Republic! Jeremy arrived three weeks ago at 6:30 in the morning and started his first day of work as a Protection Officer with UNHCR two hours later. His first few weeks were full of work, apartment searching and reporting back to Katie in Minnesota. Katie arrived last Tuesday and promptly threw away all of Jeremy's work, blazing her own trail to find the right apartment.

Jeremy sent Jose to pick Katie up at the airport

Katie found the apartment herself with only three hours of Spanish classes under her belt. Language was unnecessary when she and Amanda, our landlady, quickly became friends. The apartment is in the colonial zone, the oldest part of Santo Domingo. The neighborhood has a large population of foreigners, but is overwhelmingly Dominican. The architecture is Spanish Colonial with small cobblestone streets winding their way past old churches, ruins, cafes and corner stores called "colmados". There is no shortage of domino playing under shade trees.

Celebratory dinner en la zona colonial

As it turns out there is an IKEA in Santo Domingo. We would like to think that the prices are three times as high here and that having sent our furniture from the U.S. we have, in fact, brought a bit of home with us. We move into our apartment on Tuesday and hope our shipment arrives soon thereafter. In the meantime, we have been enjoying the pool, gym and convenience of Hotel Embajador where the UNHCR office is currently hiding out while waiting for their new digs.

Jeremy is working away and Katie has jumped right into her intensive Spanish program. The adventure has begun!

We will keep updating our family and friends throughout this journey. Sometimes we will write together and other times separately, so that you get a taste of both our joint as well as our individual experiences. Let us know if there is anything in particular that you are curious about.

¡Saludos!