Packing up...

Well, its finally here, we leave tomorrow. We've been packing all day and are just about done, just those little necessities that we need for tonight and tomorrow morning. We've got our appointment with our landlord to have the inspection to get our deposit back (lets just hope she shows up on time) and then friends are taking us to the airport about noon.

Later today, we are going to drop off some remaining items that we aren't taking back (food, cleaning supplies, etc) at a friends house and then its off to dinner with everyone for our last night here. We are hoping our airline tickets have finally sorted themselves out even though we can't view our seats or change them. Keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow.

We are going to drastically miss our relaxed laid back lifestyle here but are looking forward to being in our home and skiing. It will be quite the culture shock to have to drive everywhere, to have one store where you can buy everything you want at one time and last but not least, to have to wear shoes!!!

I thought I'd share a few more observations from living down here:

• Its really bad when the electricity goes off before you've made your morning coffee.
• Washing clothes in a bucket in the shower for 5 months gets a little old.
• In the Dominican Republic, Santa arrives on a donkey instead of a sleigh.
• When doing dishes in a single round kitchen sink, you tend to come away wetter than the dishes.

We're not sure when we'll return to Cabarete, but we know we will at some point. Its been a great 5 months and we are already looking forward to our next trip even though we don't know when or where that will be. We have been so fortunate to have our time down here and to meet all the wonderful people that we have. We will truly miss them and look forward to meeting up with them again in the future. Thanks so much to everyone who has made our time here truly GREAT!!