Learn. Speak. Belong.

El Callejón de los Sueños Cortos: Why a 2-Minute Ride Became My 10-Year Classroom I still remember the first time I hopped onto a bicycle-taxi—locally crowned a bici—outside the Colón Park in the Colonial Zone. It was 7 p.m.; bachata spilled from a colmado speaker, and my date waited only four blocks away. Four Dominican […]

From Peanut Panic to Pastel de Quinoa: My First Allergen Adventure I still remember the day my Dominican landlord, Doña Lidia, handed me an invitation to her niece’s birthday. “James, tráete un bizcocho vegano, pero sin gluten,” she said, waving her hands as if the words themselves might give her hives. Ten years in Santo […]

Roosters at Dawn: How a Last-Minute Cabin Plan Became My Spanish Classroom The first time I tried to book a mountain cabin in Jarabacoa, my Dominican friend Carlos swore, “Eso es fácil, manito, lo resolvemos por WhatsApp.” I believed him—after all, I’d survived ten hurricane seasons, two bachata break-ups, and a dozen weekend hops to […]

Primera mirada: el guante que me abrió el barrio I still remember lugging my cracked Wilson glove through the tropical heat of Santo Domingo Norte one Saturday morning, determined to sign up for the local Liga de Softbol. I had survived on basic survival Spanish for years, but the moment I heard a coach bark, […]

I still remember the night I landed in Leticia, that sleepy Amazonian town where Colombia, Brazil, and Peru shake hands over the river. The plane’s wheels screeched, the jungle sang louder than the jet engines, and my phone promptly lost signal. I was carrying two things that suddenly felt heavier than my backpack: a reservation […]

When the Shower Becomes a Drizzle Three months after I moved into a pastel-green apartment in Santo Domingo Este, my morning shower performed a magic trick—it vanished. One minute I had a respectable stream; the next, a tired drip that couldn’t rinse a coffee cup. I marched out, shampoo still in my hair, and waved […]

When a Hand-woven Hat Schooled Me in Humility I still remember the morning I tried to bargain for a sombrero de cana in Santo Domingo’s Mercado Modelo. After ten years in the Dominican Republic and countless jaunts to Medellín, I fancied my Spanish airtight. I grinned and tossed out a rehearsed line—only to watch the […]

That First Time I Tried to Register with Sunburned Shoulders I still remember crouching under the bleached palm-leaf awning in Cabarete, board dripping, ankle leash tangling round my flip-flops. A volunteer shoved a wrinkled ficha de inscripción into my salty hands and asked, “¿Ya tienes tu seguro, bro?” I’d been living in the Dominican Republic […]

The Knock at Dawn: How a False Alarm Became My Real Classroom Two Tuesdays ago, at the unforgiving hour of 6:17 a.m., a delivery guy pounded on my apartment door in Cali. I jumped out of bed, halfway tangled in my sheets, convinced the thumps were gunshots. Blame a decade of Caribbean merengue nights in […]

Back in 2016 I was sweating in the immigration line at El Dorado airport, clutching my best friend Mateo’s handwritten carta de invitación. The agent raised an eyebrow the moment he spotted my gringo last name. One smooth sentence later—“Él va a hospedarse en mi apartamento en Chapinero y yo cubro todos sus gastos”—and the […]

How I Almost Ended Up Standing for a Shakespeare Play in Bogotá Ten years of living in Santo Domingo have taught me to dance bachata without stepping on toes, order pastelitos before they vanish at dawn, and diagnose a power outage by the collective groan of my barrio. Yet last December, in Bogotá, all that […]