My Dominican Adventure: The Brave Beginning

Jazzy, aka villanous_mwaha, is now an exchange student in the DR! We can't wait to hear all about her adventures. —Sparkitors

I have been having a lot of trouble writing of late because my life right now is so full of stuff. But I decided enough was enough—I am finally going to man up and bring you a story of my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Now, you can probably tell from the title that my story has a little something to do with travel, so I’ll take you back to the start and explain. About a month ago, on the 28^th July, I boarded a plane that would take me away from my family and friends in England to the Dominican Republic for 10 months, throughout which time I would be living with a host family and going to school, all to improve my Spanish, gain a new experience and understanding of a different culture, and widen my worldview in general.

The organization I came here with is called AFS. They have been around since the Second World War with the goal of improving peoples' understanding of different cultures and stop things like world wars from happening again. I got involved because of my grandparents, who have acted as a British host family for longer than I can remember.

Unfortunately, AFS in England shut down a few years ago due to lack of money. Lucky for me, the director of AFS in the Dominican Republic used to be a student in England with my grandparents, so an arrangement was made for me to come. I have to say, when I first was introduced to the idea I was extremely reluctant, knowing that I would be a year behind my friends in school, I would miss certain things and certain people, and would be in a country full of strangers! What brought me round to the idea was knowing that many of those strangers will someday become like my family in the same way I consider some of our British exchange students my family.

So the adventure began, as I said, with my boarding a plane on the 28^th of July. Not only was it the first time I’d traveled outside of Europe, it was also the first time I had gone on a plane alone. I had a bit of a freak-out-panicky-oh-my-god-I’m-gonna-miss-the-plane-or-lose-my-luggage-or-die fit, which I like to think was understandable considering the situation. But I made the flight and survived and didn’t lose my luggage, so all-in-all the flight was a success. I had an hour layover in Charles De Gaulle, Paris, and I have to say it was the most beautiful airport I have ever seen!

During the hour layover, I met a large group of Thai students who were going to the Dominican Republic with AFS as well, and they had to be the most excited, happy, friendly and inclusive bunch of people I have ever met! Meeting them really calmed my nerves, because for the first time on this trip I didn’t feel so alone (the curse of being the only student from your country). It was an incredibly long flight (I think I was flying for 11 hours in total that day), but I arrived about 6pm Dominican time—on the opposite side of the world!

To be continued...

Jazzy x

Do you think you could handle flying halfway around the world to a country of strangers?

Related Post: My French Adventure

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