Live the same

In the Dominican Republic, there’s this vibe of slowness and laziness everywhere—it drove me crazy during the first few months! You can be second in line at the supermarket, the person in front of you is buying just 1–2 items, and somehow it still takes half an hour! Don’t even get me started on banks. Before going to a bank, you need to do your homework: research your issue thoroughly, figure out multiple ways to solve it, ask people who’ve dealt with it before, and even after all that, there’s still no guarantee it’ll work out. There’s this constant mañana (which means "tomorrow," but in reality, it’s more like "never").

One time, the lock on my door broke. For two days, I had to climb into my apartment through the window using a ladder, and on the third day, I just went to the store, bought tools, and fixed it myself. The repair guy showed up on the fifth day! But you know what? Even that becomes something you get used to eventually. 😅

In this atmosphere of laziness and unhurried living, many people ended up dealing with boredom. During my first year there, this wasn’t an issue for me because I worked almost seven days a week. But for many, boredom turned into a real problem — cheap alcohol and drugs often led to trouble.

Honestly, at one point, it kind of became a tradition for us to watch the sunset on the beach every evening with a bottle of rum. We’d get together as a group, buy a "suitcase" — that’s what we called a 1.75-liter bottle of dark rum with a handle — grab a couple of big bags of ice, and hang out on the beach until everyone else was gone, sometimes even until sunrise.

Working after nights like that? Yeah, it wasn’t always easy, haha!

The photo shows a sunset on the beach 120 steps from where I lived.

How interesting the details you tell about the Dominican Republic, it seems as if time stands still there at times.
The capture of the sunset is spectacular, if it's so close to your home there must be an atmosphere of tranquillity and zero stress where you live, but I'm still fooled by appearances.
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