My First Book!

Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone! Or, if you speak Spanish, feliz navidad y prospero año! I have put together a collection of my favorite photographs taken in the Dominican Republic, and published a book. I named the book Tesoro which means "treasure" in spanish. I chose this title, because I discovered so many wonderful things in the Caribbean - beautiful sights, new friends, a new perspective on life...it feels like I discovered a treasure, and now I am richer because of it. The photos in the book really capture the spirit of life, in the people and places that I visited, and I would like to share them with you. Click here to buy it, or click on the picture below.

Discover the treasure of faces and places in The Dominican Republic. A collection of photographs from the Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo, to the Yaque del Norte river in Jarabacoa, to the beaches of Punta Cana, and places in between.

What Now?

People have been asking what is going to happen with the blog now that I'm not in the Caribbean anymore. I still intend to post here on a regular basis, I'm not going to abandon this! Plus, I know in my heart that I will be back in the Dominican Republic one day. And I don't mean when I retire. I mean one day soon.

I remember on my last day there, when I was in the taxi on the way to the airport, I dropped off Meghan at her new apartment, and I wasn't sad to be leaving. Because I knew it wasn't the last time I was going to see her, and I knew it wasn't really my last day in the Dominican Republic. It wasn't "goodbye". It was more like "until next time". It was a happy feeling. And for me, that feeling is so easy to find when I am there. Every day.

So keep checking in here, because you never know. One day I will be posting messages from the beach again!

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Here is the last photo of me in the D.R! After a night of fiesta-ing, and not sleeping, I took a 20 hour journey home to Vancouver. There was no way for me to prepare for the cold weather, so I found myself wearing flip-flops and capri pants in the snow at 2:30 in the morning.

I miss the Caribbean already...my body is still on Dominican time, I think it will take a while for the jet lag to wear off.

But it will take even longer to get used to the fast paced urban life again. There is so much traffic, and people rushing to be here and there. There are Christmas lights, but it doesn't feel genuinely festive like it did in the Dominican Republic. It feels commercial and fake. Nowhere does it say "Merry Christmas." Because people want to be Politically Correct. It's like we are being brainwashed. It's not Christmas anymore, it's a Happy Holiday. There are so many things to be cynical about! I am beginning to feel like I have to fit into a little box that that I spent the last two months escaping from.

I've been back in Canada one day, and I already want to go home.

Can I still live as Caribbean Janet here? Can I relax and have all the time in the world? Can I live each day full of life? Will I smile and and say "Hola!" to every person that I walk past, as they smile say hello to me?

Am I going to see flowers, or heaps of garbage?