Places I've Lived

I was born in New York City, NY, a few blocks from Central Park. My parents took me home to the Bronx. We lived in New York a few years. My father worked as a cab driver. While my mom went to school and worked in a factory in SoHo. After about four years in New York my family moved back to their home country, the Dominican Republic.

I attended first grade in Santo Domingo, DR. My family is from the Dominican Republic. We lived here a few years. I learned Spanish in Santo Domingo. My mother worked for Dominican Airlines. This meant we could travel. After sometime my mother received a promotion. We moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

San Juan is a beautiful city. It has all the benefits of living in the U.S. while still living on a tropical island. It was not exactly like the Dominican Republic but there were lots of cultural events and foods in common. I only lived in San Juan for a summer. I was registered for Cathlolic school. Never got to attend, my mother got another promotion. We moved to Miami, FL, USA.

I currently live in Miami Dade County. To be more accurate, I live in Miami. I used the heading Miami Dade County because I have lived in three different cities in Miami Dade. This is the place I have lived the longest. While in Miami-Dade County I first lived in Hialeah, the unincorporated Miami Dade, an area currently known as Doral, the Fountainbleau Village, then Coral Gables, then South Beach and now I'm again living in Fountainbleau Village, not the one on Miami Beach but a small village between Sweetwater and Doral near International Mall.

While living in Miami Beach, I was studying at Miami Ad School and did a semeter away in Amsterdam. I love Amsterdam. It is a small town with all the amneties of a big city. Amsterdam has great food, music, musesums, art, it is a beautiful place. It is pedestrian and bike friendly. I was only there three months but I remember it foundly.

Seattle was the last place I lived in before I moved back to Fountainebleau Village in Miami Dade County, FL. I lived there for two years. It was a mixed experience. I met lots of wonderful people. I also faced racism like I'd never faced before. It was very depressing. I moved there because I was accepted to an all female tuition free code book camp. It was very exciting. It was very hard to find housing. Not because of the price of rent but because no one would rent to me. My classmates were not ideal. They said things like they were not used to being around black people. My mom got sick and I had to move back. I do miss the tech scene in Seattle. I, also, like how I could go anywhere on a bus. The public transportation in Seattle was much better than Miami but way worse than Amsterdam.