Do you sometimes experiece an identity crisis while living in D.R.?

First off not all here hail from America but many other lands.

Second no never wake up in a cold sweat yearning for something that I miss from the US.  As a matter of fact one of my favorite things about here is the lack of mail service

Bob K

I agree, first don't assume we are all Americans, big mistake.  So  the question might be:  do we yearn for "home" wherever that might be?   

For me rarely if ever. I have adapted well to my chosen home.  Occasionally I miss specific products or foods,  but rarely enough to make me want to jump on a plane. The people I miss  - they visit me!

There are a few things I do miss from back home from time to time.  Going to a college football game live used to be so easy and I could do it any weekend I wanted to without needing to hop on a plane and incur extra costs and time.  I could walk into a Wal-mart/HomeDepot center and get everything I need in one place.  I used to miss some of the sweat foods but now I'm glad I can't get them as easily.  But there are way more things I miss in a good way.  There are always pros and cons and tradeoffs.  Once place will always be better for some things, but I find a lot of things here that I like that I wouldn't be able to do (or do as easily/cheaply) back in the States.

Sushi, I miss good sushi.  All you can eat, fresh, $15 canadian.  Can't be beat!!!

Cjp funny you should mention Home Depot.  On the rare occasion I find my self in the US the first stop I make is to Home Depot, Lowes and such.  It is an adult toy store!

Bob K

DominicanadaMike  we have great and fresh Sushi here on the north coast.  Fish is flown in daily.  A bit pricey but very good.

Bob K

For sure the differences are huge between US and DR. If you are experiencing this crisis due to what you are missing and can't find here, then I guess materialism is an identity crisis.

The only thing I miss a bit is the security, and the freedom to walk any time of the day or at night in the city, without any worry of being assaulted. The rest can be fixed with an airplane ticked.

cheers

it's not only the material things that one can miss.  i remember ages ago that my father sent me on a trip to greece so that i could get in touch with my cultural roots and i was swimming in the sea around a small island named mykonos and i could see twenty feet or more  below me because the water was so clear and my thought was not "what a paradise this place is, how lucky i am to be here".  my thinking was "what am i doing here?"  when i got back to the united states i remember coming into new york in the times square area. in those days the times square area was like hell, full of con artists, prostitutes and other sleazy activities, as well as filthy and unkempt.  when i saw the place my thinking was "this is great. i love this f****d up place".

why do you enjoy the lack of mail service here?  so you don't have to deal with junk mail?  nowadays junk mail has been replaced or added to by junk emails.  i think i spend a third of my waking life sorting through junk email.

i am not assuming that all expatriots are american.  i am singling out americans because i don't have anything to do with people from countries other than  the united states.

Hahahahahahaha  now that will get you friends. So for you expat = American???

Note to self: Don't respond to his posts. He only does Americans.....LOL

you are correct. i am mixing up two things.  separation anxiety from the united states and cultural alienation in general.  of course i can relate to canadian expatriots or expatriotes from english speaking countries or even to europeans who speak english.  some of my favorite films are italian. and my all time favorite actor and alter ego is marcello mastroianni.  you know in the end it's all a matter of intelligence and not so much culture that determines the ability to relate.  i must state if i haven't already, how impressed i am with the level of intelligence in the members of this forum (or blog).

I  think its now refered to as emotional intelligence.  There are some very very high IQ people who have zero people skills and some lesser IQ;s who are masters at dealing with people and culture.......   

There are some very interesting  characters here. I love that we get a cross section of opinions!

Dear drtuttle:

Funny you should say that you miss the freedom to walk anywhere day or not without fear of assault.  I'm a female who grew up in a relatively large northern U.S. city and I've never known that freedom.  I was taught from a young age to always be aware of my surroundings, to look over my shoulder and to watch my back.  Not only did my parents teach me this, but the police use to come into our school and teach us about personal safety and what to do if followed, or grabbed, and good thing they did.

At age 12, I was walking home from a friend's house, roughly 9 pm on a summer night and I was followed.  I did what the police taught me, I turned around, looked at the person to let them know I knew they were there.  I then immediately went to the closest well-lit place, which was a convenience store and notified them that I was being followed. They called the police.  End of story.

So with that said, I'm glad that you and others have been able to experience that sense of security and freedom to just be, but as a female, I've never known that.  Even where I live now, which is relatively safe as safe can be, I still try to be aware of my surroundings, I still look over my shoulder, and I still watch my back.  I've taught my children, who were born here in this safe environment, to do the same thing and to ALWAYS keep the doors, windows and car doors locked, and never open the door for someone you're not expecting, even if you know them.

didn't the police tell you that you that a twelve year old should not be walking home alone at 9 p.m.?

No, this was a very long time ago and it was not uncommon for kids to still be out at 9 pm in the summer time.  My curfew was 9, which was not long after the street lights came on.

but you say that at an early age the police came to your school to teach about safety in the streets and that helped you when someone was following you on the way home at 9 p.m.  if the police were so concerned about public safety that they would go into the schools to talk about it there must have been a problem at the time.  so part of the lesson must have been don't walk around the street at nine p.m. alone.

i remember a friend who made the following observation regarding one of the ten commandments:  one of the commandments is that kids should be respectful of their parents (or something like that). my friend concluded that since they were talking about respect for parents 2000 years ago there must have been a problem with kids being disrespectful of their parents at that time.

so instead of the police preparing you on how to react to be followed by a stranger when you are twelve years old walking around by yourself, they should have just told you to get off the street at that hour unless an adult is with you.