Santo Domingo

We spent almost all of our vacation in Santo Domingo staying at the house of my boyfriend's mother. Thus I can't tell you anything about the hotels though some look really lovely from the outside... Fortunately, we get along really well, although my speaking skills are not really developed. It's also very hard for me to understand some Dominicancs because they swallow all "s". Anyway, I had a great time and I think my pictures will tell you that as well.

I only took pictures from the beautiful places. There is also a lot of poverty, much more than we could imagine living in Europe but I feel bad about photographing poverty and it's also not that safe in some areas.

The locals call their government building "White House", which it ressembles indeed, although I would rather call it sand-colored than white... It's quite nice to walk around that area because everything is clean and the streets area nice. There's also tons of security with machine guns. I don't quite like that sight because it scares me but some people might find it safe...

The "White" House and El Conde

The colonial influence of Columbus is quite visible. Since I'm a big fan of white and pastel colors for houses and dark ornaments as decoration, I must love this style of course... but see for yourselves...

Buildings in El Conde

Amongst others, Columbus landed in Santo Domingo on his first journey to the "Asian" continent. You can see his son's house on one of these pictures.

Casa de Colón

It's rather funny that there are actually quite a lot of Chinese on this island. They own most of the supermarkets and shops for clothes and shoes. I talked to some in Chinese and even danced Salsa with my boyfriend in a small touristic store whose owner Juancito told us I was the first Chinese Salsa dancer in his life ˆ-ˆ. He was a bit sad because apparently, Chinese don't dance in the Dominican Republic although there are many Asian dancers all over the world... Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to any Taiwanese restaurants he recommended because we didn't have enough time... maybe next time ;-)

Most of the Chinese that we met couldn't believe that we were a couple. Interracial couples are quite rare and according to Juancito there are a couple Chinese men dating latinas but no Chinese women dating latinos. Some Chinese have an issue with black people (or other races in general but there are more prejudices against blacks) and since men have more freedom in Chinese families, that might be the reason...

Chinatown

The campus of the University UNAPEC is very beautiful and modern. Some people study for several decades mostly because they need to work to support themselves. Graduating from university isn't a prerequisite to succeed in work. Being a phd-student isn't considered a full-time job in the Dominican Republic...

My boyfriend was a trained contemporary dancer when he still lived in the Dominican Republic. He danced in the University, private dancestudios and also in the Bellas Artes, working also for hotels in Punta Cana. It must have been great and exciting back then. Walking around the streets we usually met a couple people by accident who know him as a dancer. His teachers still give classes and have invited us several times for various events. I was really impressed by the dancers, the classes and I might show you some more in another post...

UNAPEC and Bellas Artes

PS: Btw. just in case you wonder, my boyfriend is okay with his pictures on my blog.