As an expat, one of the highlights of life is having visitors from overseas. Friends and family from your home country, or, in my case, visits from new friends you have made on line. Someone to remind you of where you came from. I think that visitors are so much more meaningful when you live … Read more
When you think of a Caribbean island the whole idea of winter does not enter your mind. This year, for the first time in my 12 years here, I am living in the mountains and the change of the seasons seems a lot more pronounced than on the coast. The change in temperature and humidity … Read more
I have absolutely no idea why God invented mosquitoes. I cannot see they do anything useful at all apart from being a tasty snack for lizards and tarantulas. However, living in the tropics they are all over the place and you would think you would get used to mosquitoes and not let them bother you. … Read more
The new school year begins this week so I thought I would explain a little about the education system in the Dominican Republic. The vast majority of children go to public school, which is free, although there are private colleges and international schools as well, which have fees. The schools are all of a similar … Read more
One of the good and bad things about living in the Dominican Republic is that there is very little imported fruit and vegetables – at least not where I live, so we can only eat things when they are in season. Now it is the mango season, which everyone looks forward to for weeks. Traditionally … Read more
I think that one of the things that all expats probably have in common is missing something from ‘back home’. Most often people – I miss my mum, the daily Skype chat is not quite the same; sometimes places, I miss wandering around the local town, meeting friends for lunch, shopping in lovely shops; miss … Read more
Moving house in the Dominican Republic is not exactly like moving house in the UK. There are no packing cases, no wrapping things in bubble wrap, no newspaper, no labelling of boxes. Everything gets thrown, literally, into the back of an open truck. It usually necessitates several trips. The problem with this approach is that … Read more
This country constantly amazes me as you expect things to be a certain way – and they are not. The Dominican Republic is a staunchly Catholic country, catholicism is the national religion and it is said that around 80% of the country are Catholics, albeit not all practising. In addition, in several areas you feel … Read more
I was chatting to a friend of mine the other day, a fellow Brit, who also lives here in the Dominican Republic, and he was telling me that sometimes the frustrations of living here become too much and he just wants to go back to good old Blighty. It got me thinking as although of … Read more
I sometimes wonder what I used to do with all the spare time I had in England, as everything must have been so much easier when I was there. I know I was up early every morning with a two hour commute to work and back, and now I just walk from the bedroom to … Read more