Well, hello! It's been awhile. I've been drowning in to-do lists and work. I was crazy when I thought I could do this two full-time job thing until the end of September. I absolutely can't, so it's a good thing I'm leaving early. I'm exhausted and cranky (sorry to everyone who has to deal with me at either workplace). I've gotten TWO eye infections in the last few weeks. I've never had a damn eye infection in my life. What the hell? I know I need to slow down and rest but the countdown on my ...
Life
I’m a real diver now.
Another misleading title, brought to you by Cubicle Throwdown!I'm not a real diver. Well, not yet. I mean, I really do dive, but I'm nowhere near being an awesome pro diver... although talk to me at Christmas and you will (hopefully) get a different answer.However - I made my first expensive gear purchase today (and it was cheap by scuba gear standards, trust me... this sport is not for the faint of heart OR wallet). So I'm prancing around and pretending I'm a rockstar scuba diver ...
If something should go wrong.
Long-term travelers & expats: what are you doing for travel/medical insurance?I'm having a hard time deciding what to do for long-term travel and medical insurance while I'm gone. I'll be moving to my home province before I go, so I have a government health plan, but you definitely can't just travel on that. On top of a travel/medical insurance plan, I need diving accident insurance because after completing my courses I will be working and considered a "professional", so most ...
Roatan Budget v.2
As I mentioned, I have had to completely revamp my budget for Roatan now that I'm leaving seven weeks earlier than planned. I was happy that I was going to be in good shape financially, as this extra 7 weeks would amount to at least another $2500-3000 in the bank before leaving. I am leaving in two short months now, and I can make this work but it's going to be a lot tighter than I would like it to be. I also was missing a new list of things in my budget: cell phone in West End, ...
Don’t wait for a guarantee before taking action.
It is no secret that I love Kute Blackson - this recent video of his makes me feel a lot better about what I just did.First couple minutes are a little fluffy for me, start at 1:30 if you want. ...
In my hands.
As I mentioned yesterday, I have big news to share.Operation "move to Roatan at the end of September 2012 and become a dive instructor" is no longer happening.Because.......I'm holding a plane ticket, and the date on it is August 11, 2012.Holy. frickin. crap.There is a good reason and a long story behind this, but at the moment I'm spending half my time panicking about leaving nearly two full months earlier than planned...and the other half completely giddy at the thought ...
Roatan recap.
Let's get real for a minute here. I could have written this post a lot earlier. I have been home for almost two weeks. What gives?I have been avoiding writing about my Roatan trip.I don't know how many of you are "travel back-ers" (ie. you go back to somewhere you've already traveled to before) but up until this point, I was not one of them. I have had limited time off and limited budgets so I have tried to get to as many different places as possible. This was my first time going back to a ...
Decompressing.
I am home and definitely have a lot to share with you all about my Roatan trip. It was a different experience than the first time I was there, in both good and bad ways. For now though, I am still overwhelmed by being back in a huge city and being right back to work with both jobs... and also with not drinking rum at breakfast. So thanks to everyone for the emails and comments while I was away. I will get to you all, I promise!Stay tuned for a detailed post but in the meantime, here's the ...
She's royal.
Still in West End, Roatan.... still loving life. The rain has stopped and the weather is gorgeous! We've had a beach day and today my friend started her open water course. I came along for the confined water part to test out my new equipment and she ended up not being able to complete it. Poor girl had a panic attack underwater. Some people just aren't cut out for it. She is going to try a Discover Scuba course instead - if she can do two more skills then she can try an open water dive. We will ...
Hola from Honduras.
That is a pretty misleading title. Not because I'm not in Honduras (I am!) but because I am in my beautiful second home of Roatan, and they don't speak Spanish here! Well, they do, but English (with a delicious Caribbean accent) is most islanders' first language.I arrived yesterday, promptly got a rum punch in each hand and have been catching up with friends since. There is definitely a different vibe here in the slow season. It's also really rainy and gross right now and that always tends to ...