Story time - We're back from the Dominican Republic

Well we're back.

Tom and I returned to Dallas last night

after spending two AMAZING weeks in paradise.

Paradise = All inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic.

I'll do a post later all about the resort and

the good and the bad and reviews and such.

But for now i'll just give you guys the story of our trip

in a couple of separate posts to keep it controlled.

First of all here are a few changes that have occurred 

since leaving for our trip two weeks ago.

I'm TAN..woohoo

My hair is significantly blonder

I'm now 24

I have a HUGE bruise on the side of my thigh

& My little pinky toe on my right foot is swollen three times it's

original size and it's not the prettiest of colors.

More on the state of my injuries in a later post

that will make you giggle at my expense...it's ok though

I totally 100% deserve every gig.

...

Ok so let's start from the beginning.

The night before we were meant to leave Tom and I

were going over all of our travel details making sure

everything was good to go.

We booked our flights separately but managed

to get on the same round trip flight from dallas to miami and back.

However, we were not able to get on the same flight to

the Dominican Republic.

We didn't think much of it at the time of booking,

we just said that whoever landed at the airport first would wait for the other.

Well that night while looking through our arrangements

we see POP airport on my itinerary and STG on Toms.

heh..

It's midnight on the day of travel when we

realize that we're flying into separate airports in the Dominican.

We've both traveled by ourselves before.

I've flown roundtrip to England twice on my own

and Tom backpacked Europe by himself a few years ago.

We're pretty avid travelers so while it was a hiccup

it wasn't anything that would be too terrible.

I think it was just a little scary at the time

because we didn't know what to expect in the Dominican.

Tom was more worried about me than anything.

His family was flying into the same airport as me

and he was desperately trying to get someone to wait for me

at the airport while I kept saying I'd be fine, I'll just get a cab,

it will be ok...he wasn't so sure though.

It turned out that I was the first to land so there

was no family to find and before I could get situated 

I was whisked away to a taxi cab by an energetic dominican man.

Oh wait let me backtrack...

Our flight to Miami from Dallas was easy

but it put us in a bit of a time crunch.

When we landed in Miami we became those

people who run through airports to catch a connecting flight.

Tom was minutes away from missing his flight

while I got to my gate when they were boarding group 4.

So we made it and the journey to the Dominican Republic began.

When I landed and got off the plane I went to the exchange people.

I had $107 on me and I exchanged $100 of it for Dominican Pesos.

Then I got in another line that was for the Tourist visa.

I had not known at the time that there was a $10 charge to enter the country.

I only had $7 left and they didn't accept Dominican Pesos.........

-face palm-

So I begged the people behind me for three dollars.

They were so nice and gave me the money with a smile.

After that I went and grabbed my bag and before I could even

set my suitcase down a man approached me and took it off me

and started asking me "bus or taxi" in a very strong Dominican accent.

I said taxi but at the same time I was wanting to stop for

a minute and look out for Tom's family just in case someone had waited.

There was little time for looking around though because

the man who escorted me through the airport was a fast little guy.

He was walking with me and kept looking at me and saying

something that I couldn't quite make out.

"You uh give uh me uh tee"

That's what it sounded like..

I finally came to the conclusion that he wanted a tip.

He walked me about 100 feet from where I grabbed

my bag to where my taxi was and he wanted a tip.

So I gave him one, but at the time I didn't know

the exchange rate between US Dollars and Pesos.

So I'm pretty positive I gave him about $10

because I was a bit frazzled by it all.

Once I got to the Taxi I felt a lot better.

He took me straight to the resort and not long

after I was met by Toms family and then FINALLY

after what seemed like forever I saw Tom pull up.

We stayed at the RIU Merengue resort.

It was all inclusive and absolutely gorgeous.

I miss it already and can't wait to share more

stories about our time there.

Check back tomorrow for a new post about our trip.

I know, two day's in a row, I spoil you guys ;)