First let me say I was close to, for the Hell of it, recording this and putting it as an audio file instead of writing it. I chose not to since I was in a writing mood, but I may do some audio stuff just to try it out. So instead of reading the ramblings of a madman, you'll get to hear the ramblings of a madman.
Last week I spent it at a resort that was in the Dominican Republic. I don't say I was in DR, because I wasn't in the REAL DR. The resort was great, but it was a "whitewash" of the country. I didn't get to experience the true nation. One day I'd like to. My girlfriend's mom and many of my friends are from DR and I'd love to see where they are from.
I won't bore you with getting to and from there, since I already had posted my thoughts on the running joke that is security. I will tell you about two things I have learned and what has stuck with me since the trip.
First off, this trip is the first time I've really experienced "white guilt". Its the guilt that has eroded society and, as I've seen it, worsened race relations. I've not been one to feel for minorities beyond moments of BS and injustice. I was told to treat people as the same, so why should I feel bad for someone's "plight"? In DR, that was different.
Seeing the workers and their hustle, is felt odd that they were there to please the tourists. Seeing how the morons who also were there and how they treated the workers like servants, it was just off putting. Not just the foreign tourists, but Dominicans from the country who were either upper class snobs, or like the family in Florida on vacation spending the week being assholes because "we get to dish out what we get all year". I was nice and respectful to the staff, did my best to speak in Spanish to them, and just was the guy on vacation happy to have a good staff at the resort. At one point, one worker asked if I was Dutch or German, because how cool and respectful I was. I said I was American, and it seemed to surprised him. I told him I was just not an asshole like most of the ones there.
Once I got back to the US, that guilt feeling left, but what I did feel has stayed with me. What the experience has also done has led me to realize one more thing....
Americans, and Canadians from what I saw, are ASSHOLES on vacations. Its always the gag of the "ugly American", but holy shit did I see that first hand. The sheer disrespect I saw to the staff, other tourists, and the place itself was eye opening. Drunken ramblings, verbal fights, sense of entitlement, and just sheer ignorance was almost irritating. Canadians are horrible drunks, and really turn into psychos. Don't get me wrong, there were many decent people on vacation, but there were just as many jagoffs as well. Sort of sad to be stuck with those dummies in the eyes of some of the locals.