We're back from the Dominican Republic. Our resort in Boca Chica was
beautiful, but hot. And humid. Oppressively humid. Spent a lot of
time in our room with the air conditioning on, just relaxing.
Took a day tour into Santo Domingo, walked through the old part of the
city, walked through Diego Columbus' palace.
That's the thing you learn when you venture outside of the United
States... aside from some of the Spanish missions in SoCal, we don't
really have "old" here in the USA. Diego's palace is 500 years old, as
is the cathedral. And then you get to Europe where there are buildings
that are 1000 years old or more....
I will post some photos as soon as I get done sorting them. Didn't get
out to see any other cities primarily due to financial concerns, and
they absolutely recommended that you don't venture out on your own.
Like most Carribbean islands, the poverty level is so bad that crime is
fairly rampant.
Some cultural observations, at least on the resort - the Dominican
people, on the whole, are very polite and proper. And at least the ones
we saw were all very attractive. It's interesting - they have the dark
skin, but very fine, Caucasian-like features.
However, not really Habla'ing was a definite disadvantage. Most of the
staff spoke just enough English that you could usually make yourself
understood, but not always. However, if you made an attempt to speak
Spanish, they appreciated it and tried to work with you.
The E1 worked beautifully. Good thing I bought the 2gb card before I
left, though, since my trusty ThinkPad for some reason refused to
recognize the camera over firewire so I couldn't offload anything. And
I forgot the standalone card reader. D'oh!
We flew back on Saturday night. Went into my office on Sunday just to
see if everything was OK so there were no surprises when I went back to
work on Monday.
There were.
The cowardly bastards I worked for decided to wait to eliminate my
position until I was on vacation. They had already packed up all my
stuff and cleaned out my office... so I had to go in Monday morning to
be officially let go. Nice touch. Classy move. Bastards.
So I'm on the job hunt this week.
--
Paul Braun
Valparaiso, IN
"There's a fine line between stupid, and clever." - David St. Hubbins
"Enjoy every sandwich." - Warren Zevon
"The Fountain of Youth is a state of mind." - The Ides of March
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