A (Sun)day in the life of...

My alarm goes off. It’s not an alarm clock like I’m still used to; it’s my cell phone. It’s got a nice tune, though it’s time I found an alarm clock; I trust them a little better than my cell phone...the battery might die. Then again, the power outages that occur here regularly might just make my cell phone more reliable than an alarm clock that runs on electricity.

It’s 7.00 am. I get out of bed and walk to the living room. I turn off the exterior lights. Then, I check the box where it states how much electricity I still have. It says 40.38 that’s not much, it might last for about three to four days. I should remember to buy electricity when I come home from work. I go to the kitchen area of my studio apartment and get some oranges from the fridge. I go to the bathroom with my water boiler and fill it with water; the water from the tap in the bathroom runs three times faster than the water from the tap in the kitchen... Back in the kitchen, I turn on the water boiler and start pressing oranges. SHT..this is the third orange pressing machine I’ve bought, it’s a Princess and this one isn’t working either. I press the oranges manually and start thinking weather to buy a tranformator for 100 guilders to see if the appliances run better on a 220V or maybe I should just give up on electronic appliances and by a manual press. ... After pressing three oranges, the next one seems to be frozen. I guess I need to adjust my fridge... I drink the orange juice that I was able to press from a glass that I bought at the supermarket; they really had the nicest ones!


At 5 pm the store is closed, I’ve changed my shirt in my office – i’m the only one out of 6 present today - and my colleagues gather at picknick tables. We go to Hemingway’s the beach bar next door and have drinks. I have a frozen awa lamounchi; it’s delicious. I feel like I haven’t had a drink all day. I meet some new people and I get offered another frozen awa lamounchi. At 6 pm I leave. I’m meeting some friends that are visiting from the Netherlands at Wet & Wild. I walk along the beach and see them sitting in beach stairs. We have a few drinks and catch up. After they leave for dinner, I walk through the crowd and see someone I know from salsa class. We talk for a while and then I see a colleague. I catch up with him till I see the colleagues I had drinks with earlier. I sit with them for a while and we have another drink. At 8.45 pm, I call it a night. I go the ATM machine and withdraw some money, go to the restroom and walk back to Lions Dive & Beach Resort. I exit the hotel and walk to my car.

I drive to the gas station. It’s busy; tomorrow the gas prices go up so everybody is filling up their tank. I go to the counter. I give my bank card to the lady and tell her to keep it so I can fill up my tank. I’m at pump 20. She asks me how much I want to put in. I tell her again that I want to fill it up. I’ve been there before and it’s never been an issue. She tells me to go to my car and get gas. The machine isn’t working; another customer tells me that the woman in the window wants me to come back and see her. Then see tells me that it’s how they work, I first need to pay and then I can get gas. I tell her that I don’t know how much gas I need. So I tell her to give me back my card and that I will just get gas somewhere else.

But first I go next door. I leave my car at the gas station. I don’t care that a line of people is waiting to get gas. I get to the little store and go to the second counter. I give my pagatinu card and give 100 guilders. She charges my electricity card and I walk back to my car. I drive to Biesheuvel. Another gas station. I’m the only customer. I give the gentlemen at the counter my card and tell him that I want to fill up my tank. Go ahead he says. I fill up my tank and when I ‘m done, he swipes my card and I pay. Right...how difficult can it be. Guess where I’ll be getting gas for the rest of my life on Curacao?
I drive towards my house and see a store that’s still open. It’s Sunday and almost ten o’clock. Good to know. I buy a few things and then I go next door. It’s a little bar type place where they also sell food; they always do.

I tell the women that I’d like a meal but I don’t know what she has on the menu. She starts talking to me in Spanish ( I spoke to her in Dutch) and then she starts yelling. She keeps smiling so it can’t be bad. Here colleague is coming, I guess she was yelling for him. Oh, he speaks Dutch and after a I repeat my question I get a long list of food; white rice, brown rice, rice with beans, fries, beans, chicken, pork chops...I end up with sate chicken hasa pinda saus sla tomati.

I drive home; I stop the car, open the gate, drive the car through the gate, park my car, close the gate, get the food from my car, lock the car, open the door to my house and close the door to my house and lock it. I charge the electricity machine. I now have 193.38 power units left. That will last a while. I crash on the couch and eat the food. It’s very tasteful. I unlock the door to my bedroom. I turn on the air conditioning. I take a shower – another cold shower - and brush my teeth . I brush my feet as well. They’re black and full of sand. After my shower I go back to my bedroom, I wonder what the neighbour hood dogs (15+) are barking about this time, start up my computer, sit on my bed and write a story....The water is done boiling and I make instant coffee. While my coffee cools off, I get into the shower. The water is cold. There is no hot water in my shower. If I want a hot shower, then I need to take a shower between 2 and 4 pm. So after a morning shower I’m definitely awake. I use soap from a travel bottle, it’s the last one of my travel bottles; not that I still had the feeling that I was on vacation but it’s a change to go buy bottles of shampoo, conditioner and soap. After I’ve fixed my hair, I sit down on my sofa bed and drink my coffee. It’s Sunday and that means less traffic; I get to get up half an hour later than usual. Though today I’m a little slow. I go to my bedroom, put some anti repellent on (cream against mosquitoes) my body and I get dressed ( a shirt from work, a jeans skirt and flip flops). I find a tank top in my closet and put it in a plastic bag. I turn of the air conditioning in my bedroom, close the door and lock the dead bolt. I get my bags (swim bag, lunch bag, happy hour t-shirt bag) and I open the door – I unlock both locks and close the door again. I walk passed my car and open the gate. I drive my car through the gate , get out of my car and lock the gate again; I get into my car and check the clock. It’s 15 minutes to 8. I’m going to be late for work! I need to be there in 5 minutes and it’s a 15 minute drive. It’s Sunday so at the traffic light I can’t buy a newspaper from the lady in the blue shirt that sells newspapers on the street every day. I get to work at exactly 8 pm...

Classes, classes, classes.....

my discipline is slacking....

I was going to write as much as possible on this Blog. That changed to at least once a week. Then every week...and today I see that almost two weeks have passed. And what have I been doing in those two weeks? 
Good question.

I started  on Monday with the Advanced Open Water Diver course. Unfortunately after the first day, I fell ill so I couldn't finish it. Next chance is May 5th. Let's hope I can make the deep dive then and the two electives, preferably Fish Identification and Underwater Photography.

I'm also taking a course for work: the Emergency First Responder Course. I've had the first class last week and next week Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening I'll have the second and third session. After that I can do CPR and what not! 

I'm also taking Salsa classes. I started with one dance school at beginner's level, but wasn't really satisfied by how it was organised (A bad case of culture shock didn't help). So after the third lesson (at which I walked out off the class), I started with another dance school. And  I could start with level 2 already! Brilliant. Of course, as a good Dutch person, I'm still going to the first dance school; I paid for 7 lessons! Which is good because last Thurday evening it was a really nice class!!!! FINALLY! So I'm dancing every Monday & Thursday;

I'm diving on Tuesday or Thursday (my day off from work).....and w/ a few courses from work, the weeks are flying by!!!  Of course there's having drinks with colleagues & listening to singing colleagues at Mundo Bizarro every other Friday evening (for those visiting and staying at Pietermaai Small, it's around the corner ;-)

• most surprising event: the project manager from Holland Heineken House Vancouver showed up at my work this week with a special delivery from the Netherlands. I got beautiful presents: the official Holland Heineken House Vancouver 2010 sweater and a postcard. Special thanks to Renate & Monica! It came at the right time, it's been raining and getting a little cold on the boat!
• # of dives to date: 19
• most interesting dive event: underwater navigation; i found my way home ;-))))
• nice gesture of the week: i got an orange press machine for free from an appliance store ; the sales men said 'it so bad, i can't sell it to you, take it for free'. i did, i already bought one that didn't work, this one was actually a lot better, but still a piece of crap, like the salesperson said.... today i got another one. well three is a charm and so far it looks very promissing
• best taste: soato soup with egg from Warung Jawa

Happy Easter!

Hope you've all had a nice Easter. I'd love to tell you about the Curacao traditions right now, but since I was working I've no clue what the traditions are. I did get to buy Easter decorations for our store and that was very interesting. Especially because these stores also sell wall and window stickers which can be nice decorations in your house. Don't think I don't have fun.... I spend my days off in style!

Last week Thursday and Friday for example, I went sailing on Spanish Water. Two hours in a row each time. Since I have my sailing licenses but no experience sailing, I decided to take some classes so I would qualify for renting a sailing boat. I only needed two classes of 2 hours each. The weather was beautiful on both days (I hear you thinking 'of course, you're in the Caribbean' but it was raining today!); sunny and windy, perfect for sailing. I was glad I bought a UV-skin shirt otherwise I would have burnt my shoulders. So, when you come visit we can rent a sailing boat! I still need to convince the owner of the sailing boats that he needs to rent them ín the evening of full moon. That would be increadible especially with a little bit of wine and some snacks! Something else to look forward to.

And tomorrow when everyone starts working again after the Easter Holidays, it's my day off! And lucky me...there still were some spots left on the boat to East Point and Klein Curacao. It is a day trip with two boat dives. I have been to Klein Curacao before but it's the first time I'll go diving at East Point and that should be wonderful: it's one of our top diving locations. These will be my third and fourth dives this week.

I went diving on Saturday. Yes...a work day, but since it was Easter, I had to organize an underwater Easter Egg Hunt. In the morning one of our boat captains dropped one of our dive instructors and me at Tugboat (nice location for diving and snorkeling) and we made a descent to about five meters and hid about 33 eggs. In the afternoon, when our customers went on the Egg Hunt, I got to come along so I could make some promotional pictures. So I took my first underwater pictures! Next Monday, I will start the Advanced Open Water course and I hope to specialize at that time in Underwater Photography and Fish ID. Let's hope the other students have the same interest. So when you come visit and you go snorkeling or diving...I can take an underwater picture of you. How's that for a vacation pix!

Funny...I think this is my first blog without pictures! I forgot my camera while I went sailing and I used the underwater camera of one of my colleagues and he hasn't downloaded the images yet, because he forgot the download cable.

...must be the Caribbean climate that's making us so forgetful.