Day 1: Arrival to the Dominican Republic

The day started off with a very hard decision: to stay up all night or to sleep for a solid three hours. While I chose the latter, many members of the [DR]EAM TEAM chose the former because of the daylight savings time change. As a result, many were only half awake as we met up at 5am. We also found out that we were tricked into coming early so that we wouldn't wake up late for our 6am shuttle. Ironically, the shuttle ended up being late by an hour, forcing all of us to shiver in the morning cold. In the end, it was just a misunderstanding, and the shuttle remembered to pick us up!

We all got on the shuttle to Dulles, checked in, and board our first flight to New York where we would have a 3-hour layover. We seemed very quiet at first, but as time went over, we gradually bonded and grew closer together although only a few hours had passed. Before we knew it, we were boarding our second flight to Santo Domingo. At this point, I felt comfortable enough with everyone to take pictures of them should they fall asleep - it was supposed to be funny and, to be fair, I forewarned everyone.  You can see their beautiful, sleepy faces in the photos below.

As a result, I kept myself entertained the entire time. I was also excited about the movie selection - I tried to watch two full movies, but was cut off literally five minutes before the second one ended. If I sound salty about that, it's because I am. Furthermore, I made the mistake of drinking a large cup of iced coffee as well as a cup of water. Shout out to my boy Charles Ray who had to get up every hour as I scrambled to the bathroom on the airplane. All in all, it was a fun plane ride.

Crossing the country was pretty exciting as well, but we were more distracted with the humidity - you could literally smell how humid it was. The employees all spoke Spanish to us, confusing those who didn't understand and allowing those learning the language to practice their skills. We were picked up from the airport and drove for almost two hours to our villa.

It was a pretty sketchy neighborhood with bumpy roads and stray dogs. However, we really enjoyed the villa. It had a nice view, a nice pool, and plenty of room to run around. With lots of room also comes lots of rooms for bugs and other creepy crawlers, though. There is literally a huge beetle-tarantula hybrid near the pool that scared most of us off. Yet, I doubt that will deter most of us from jumping back into the pool for a night swim. 

As we made our sandwiches for dinner, we gathered for our first trip meeting. We reintroduced ourselves and talked about expectations. We were all on the same page: respect and safety. Afterwards, we completed a group activity where we wrote our first impressions of people on a sheet of paper taped on each respective person's back. You can see a picture of that below. It was a fun and interesting activity as we saw how we initially judged each other. Yet, I'm sure our views of each other have changed now and will continue to change as we build stronger bonds and become a family, the DR[EAM] TEAM family. 

I am so fortunate to be a part of such a wonderful team filled with amazing individuals. I was scared most about working with people I wouldn't like, but that's impossible with these people. I can't wait to see what we'll do in our week here. I'm sure it will be life-changing for all of us.