Made it to Curacao

Just a quick update to let you all know that I have made it to Curacao. I will update again this week with pictures.

I had a wonderful two weeks in the Dominican Republic. I was able to see all of my students from last year, which was absolutely wonderful! I felt so loved and appreciated. It made it really hard to leave them again because they are such awesome people. I also had to say some hard goodbyes, but I know this will not be my last time in the Dominican Republic.

I had a little trouble at the airport because of an alleged problem with my visa. I was told that I needed to have a return ticket in order to get my student visa, but had not decided if I was going to go to the Dominican Republic first before going back to the States, or just go directly to the States, so I had not bought my return ticket yet. So I got to the airport, first time flying Insel Air, and had to switch around all of the stuff in my luggage because each was roughly one pound overweight. Then they wanted to weight my carryon (which was 16 kg). :-O Thankfully, because of the other problem, they let me take my carryon even though it was overweight.

When I went to check-in, they told me I could not travel to Curacao because I did not have a return ticket. I explained that I was a US citizen and as far as I was aware, I did not need one yet. But they said that because I was coming from the DR I needed one. So I had to go to the office and buy a ticket for a return trip. I had no idea when my semester was over, but I bought a ticket back to the DR because it was the cheapest thing I could do at the time. I picked a date around the time my semester finished and bought the ticket. $250 later, I was able to board my flight.

When I got to Curacao, there was someone from the school waiting for me, which was awesome. My dorm is a little dingy, but I think I am going to be happy here. It is in a chill part of town and right across from the Denny's and close to a Starbucks. While we were driving to the dorm, I saw a nice bike/running path.

The money is going to be weird. I went to Denny's for dinner because I got here to late to go to the store (things close here SUPER early) and paid with a $20. She handed me back a handful of coins, then got my first lesson in the money here.