I think it's good that I started this blog because I feel like I have to write in it every day, which makes me motivated to have something to report (....to who? No idea. I don't think anyone reads this. So to myself I guess?) The report for today is still no work. I applied for a job at a tanning studio. Then I put hot forks in my eyes. Gotta do what you gotta do I guess, but I sure hope something better than that comes along. A co-worker gave me a lead for some positions at a hotel so I'll ...
Life
Another one bites the dust.
Today is a very exciting day in the world of "EM has no money and has to finance a huge trip"... I got my income tax return! Although not as exciting as I had hoped. I thought since I only worked half of last year but had a lot of tax taken off that I would be getting a big return this year. Turns out they hardly take any tax off your EI (unemployment insurance payments in Canada) so that counterbalanced the giant tax deductions in the other 5 months. Dammit!! So I thought I would have a lot of ...
What’s it like being a gringa tourista on Roatan?
From the Roatan New Times:TOP TEN LIES MEN ON ROATAN TELL GRINGA TOURISTAS:10. “This ATM won’t take my card. Can we use yours?”9. “Yes, I’ll definitely be here next week.”8. “You can stay at my place for free.”7. “Of course I don’t have any diseases.”6. “I can get you your residency in three months.”5. “You should see the land I own.”4. “No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”3. “I promise to sleep on the couch.”2. “I’ll be back in a week or two, tops.”1. “I love ...
Why is patience a virtue? Why isn’t hurry the hell up a virtue?
I am having a really hard time with how long it is taking to get things together for this trip. Which is utterly ridiculous as I've only been home from Roatan for less than three weeks, which is not that long at all, and I'm pretty much trying to turn my life upside down and inside out. And I'm not even leaving for like 4 more months. However, I am an impatient person and when I want something I want it NOW. I want money now, want my stuff sold now, want to be diving now, want to get back to ...
Want to know why I love diving in Roatan?
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One step forward, two steps back.
I was all stoked yesterday about how I was cutting down the price of this trip and of course, today yet another thing came up that I forgot about. I had previously thought (I don't know why) that you had to take the Emergency First Responder course, but that the Emergency First Responder INSTRUCTOR course was optional. Nope. Turns out it's not. So that's another $450 back on. Up to $5,425.Small success: sold a handbag for $35! Down to $5,395. Another small success: again, due to my ...
Dolla dolla bills y’all.
Another day, another dollar, another sad face when I look at how much this trip is going to cost. In yesterday's post I laid out the budget I have for a 4+ month trip to Roatan to do my dive courses (and hopefully stay on to instruct, but that's a bridge I'm not ready to cross yet). The cost was twice as much as I had anticipated and I need to get it down, and fast.Wondering why I don't just stick around here a few extra months and save some more money?1. It's March now. I wanted to go ...
Let’s get real.
So here I was in Roatan, talking to instructors in dive shops who were encouraging me to do a divemaster internship and go on to the instructor course. YES! Of course I want to dive all the time and then do it for a job. Obviously I asked about the price... "Oh, a couple thousand dollars". EASY! I could do that in a few months, no problem. I went home and looked up flights for June (it was the end of February) and got super excited.Then I thought to myself, hey EM, since you're mega-OCD and ...
Begin at the beginning….
Where to begin? Always begin at the beginning...This blog was born out of countless hours of internet searching for people's experiences of walking away from the 9-5 grind and moving somewhere awesome and doing amazing things. Okay, yeah, there are some blogs like that online. And they're great, and inspiring, and good reads so check them out. But they don't really tell you how they did it. Or it's like, "I quit my job and sold my guitar and then just moved and everything worked out fine and ...