was so nice to see Amedee!

So i have my luggage back, thats a good thing. Today i didnt went to another resort yet, surpise surpise. Pff dont know if ill ever get used to this way of life. If its not today, its tomorow. And i know i know, we allready knew that about countries tike that, but that an international diving club works like that aswell.. Mhmm i dunno if ill stayu with them to be honest. Here are the facts. they lie about almost everything. So first there was the welcome lodge that doenst exists (btw why did i have to take bedclothes then???), than apparently 'the yeah u can dive and go to cozumel stuff during work hours is a total lie'. the tourists think is it weird dough that im selling divinglessons and exersions to cozumel if i dont dive and have never been to cozumel.. (more about the tourists later). Then the working permit, apparently what they say in the beginning and what they actually do is not really the same. they probably ask me in a week or two if its ok that i just buy one (illegally because that is how immigration works here), for 600-700 dollars. So i dont want to do that since im not gonna stay here that long. it wont be wurt it i think. Hopefully tomorow i get to go the the other resort, hopefully the colleages there will be better... Because if i would have to stay at the place im now, i would leave defenitely. today i met another one of the girls, and no, they are not friendly at all.
So the plan is, i wait till tomorow.. if i really like it there ill stay for a while but probably just a month till im forst to get a working permit. if i dont like it, ill look for another job. yesterday i met someone thats working in a bar, and has never used a working permit. apparently there not that strict here... They actually laugh at me when i ask about it.
today was a boring day, because red flag was out, so no diving and no work for us. just two demo's at the pool. thats nice to do, but pretty hard when u dont find people. Basicly its an 1.5hour u walk around and try to convince people to take a free diving lesson in the pool. The tourists are really nice dough. i try to talk to them like i like to be talked to when im on holiday. Try to convince them, but not to hard. u see it immediately when they dont want to do it, and then i just try to talk about something else. Ok sometimes they are really short, but most of them appreciate that u come and talk to them and are even interested in me and why im here, and those kinds of things.
oww another thing, theres also working a little fat spanish girl at our desk, totally not friendly. She only speaks spanish. And today she asked me if i speak spanish and i said no, and than she said in spanish but i understood "pff who nowadays doesnt speak spanish??" that was one of the moments here i had to count to ten. Quite some nerve i would say. i speak four languages, and she speaks uhh just her motherlanguage!
tomorow more of the excitements in mexico! ciaooo

mexican adventure

yep adventure it is. Ill first tell u about tonight. my boss told me to put my stuff in the office this morning. However he forgot that when he left this night... Now im in town with no money, carts, clothes, laptop, ... There is no such thing as a welcome lodge, its just a little hotel. Really limited, but clean. They advise u to put ur expensive belongings at the desk dough, because there will be robberies. Yes yes Mexico is fun :-) I know i shouldnt tell u all this, to avoid u getting worried.. but im fine. Not superfine yet but ok.
For the rest all went pretty good. The job is nice, just have to sit at the beach, explane to and help people, and two times a day a PR goes to the beach to collect people for the demo diving in the pool. So ill think ill like doing that, once i figured everything out, because all the different diving and snorkling stuff, it is quite complicated. And its not like they explane u a lot, most of it ill have to figure out myself, there like yeah ull pick it up soon. This mexican way of dealing with things, ill have to get used to it. If it was me, it would want a full day training, so i can start Working tomorow. now i have to look to do things all the time. I even helped the dive instructors cleaning there stuff. the other pr just sits there if she hasnt got anything to do. mhmm probably because she is already here for a year, but still... ok my colleages, just like always, the guys are really friendly. One of them is staying in the same hotel for now, so he is taking care for me a bit. But the girls yeah, two of them are quite friendly, one of them is not.
Not that it really matters, because ill probably work at an other resort, a bigger one-Paradio or Barcelo, but ill still live in playa del carmen. i cant wait to find my one place. This living out of a luggage is getting a bit ennoying, well and now even more because i havent got any...
The food in the hotel isnt bad. Well for some it would be discusting :-) but they have salad en bread... its good enough to eat twice a day, and mabye sometimes at night.
In a month ill have to do an exam to see how good my languages are. I have to speak three. So ill take dutch, english and french. Not really fare because the other pr only knows english and spanish, but yeah since spanish is so important here.. ill have to do that in order to get a paper that says im a pr. Oh another thing, since i have to sell divingstuff, ill get the change doing it during work, and i also get to go on the cozumel exursion because we sell it.
i think that were the most important things. the rest ill tell tomorow if i have my laptop because this mexican keyboard is ennoying. the guy that is in my hotel is know at spanish class. Afterworths hes coming to get me to go to a bar where a lot of people are from dressel divers. Its a good thing i put my short and tshirt of this morning in my purse(thats it, ahh and my make up and camera are in there too) because otherwise i would have to go in my workingclothes, and that would be dangerous for immigration..

Sitting at the pool with Shakira in the background...

No i am not a laptop addict! I just take advantage of the fact that i have lots of time to write on my blog now, and i probably wont when i start working. That and the fact that i just love to write my experiences down, and im not tired enough to go to sleep but i dont know what else to do. (i didnt do bad dough, kept myself busy till eleven before i started up my laptop again). Said all this, i would also like to say, dont feel obligated to read all this crap :-) Ok i have my diary (thanks Nelsie) but u never know what happens to a diary(people here are just dying to steal it!), thats why i like to write most of it on this blog, because (ok internet can suddenly dissapear, but whats the change of that happening?), my blog will allways be there, and it will be a great souvenir for me. Also if u have any remarks on it, lay-out, type of letters, the fact i write huge amounts between () what makes it problably difficult to read, ., ... just call me at the .... my god, i am sooo simple, and i dont have anyone to talk too at this point except my two stuffed animals, and they dont understand my humour...
















Ok now seriously, what did i do tonight. After i finished the first part of my blog of today i went to have a bite to eat at my hotels restaurant. Its empty most of the time, and thats the way i like it. not to much staring eyes because of the fact im eating by myself. Only the waiter gave me a sad look when i said table for one. It made him treat me extra nice dough. I had fajitas with shrimps. It was really good. Really happy to see most of the restaurants have there mexican specialties also with shrimps. Ok what else, checking my diary now, yes i know, im a dork, i write in my diary when im eating so i wont forget anything...
Really funny (at least i thought so). The waiter gave me a water with a stro with the plastic still on. Oww another remark, the white wine is to this point drinkable... And the waiter told me that they always start there shift with a shot of tequila. So if i ever want to make it in this mexican world ill have to learn to drink tequila... (that was after i told him four times i wanted a glas of wine instead of a sex on the beach). I learned that a normal coffee like we drink it, is called an american coffee, the small one is an espresso. And now i have heard how tourist order (ask questions about almost everything on the menu), i understand why they have so much staff for so little people. It is just so different. Belgium has strict rules and yeah u could call it an eating culture. I used to think that is such an arrogant word, but i wouldnt know how to describe it differently. Dining here, it is just so relaxing, no wonder they dont have problems finding staff. Im starting to think we just expect too much. Here there is no such thing as waiting till the entree is finished till they serve the main course. They just serve when its ready. They have never heard of a menu (i wonder what would happen if u trie to explain them why whe have a sorbet between courses). I actually dont know what the proper word is for the dutch word menu, here a menu is like a menucard. Mom, ask Lawson please!
Being here for two days now, also made me realise that i have to learn Spanish quickly, because the people that work in the restaurants and shops, there english is really bad. i feel like im talking or explaning to a little kid. Well... starting tomorow people propably will feel the same, when they trie to explane me something in french or german :-)
ok last topic for tonight. a passage i read in my book that really got to me.
Women says to her friend: "It is wrong to base life on love. Women dont fall for that anymore. From an organisational point of view love has a lot of weaknesses."
Mhmm it made me think... It is kinda true dough. Love indeed is quite unstable (certainly the world we live in now), why would we base(kinda thinking to base is not the same as iets baseren, but too lazy to look it up) important decisions on that... Thinking that there are two types of persons. A) The romantic ones, those who think love is wurt fighting for, and make sacrifices for, and then B) those who think love is relative. Kinda wishing i was B, kinda thinking i lean more to A...:-)

Ok, think ill call it a day, because tomorow is a big day! Byeeeee. And since i write u loaaaads, write me back! Pretty pretty please??

PS: U know what i was wondering, if i would do this (coming her for such a long time) without the internet. Can u imagine us sending letters all the time... internet really does make everything much easier.

Exploring Playa del Carmen

Ok, i think i can live here for a bit :-) I did lots of exploring today! Was planning to do lots of studying...(spanish, and information about dressel divers). At the end i decided ill do the information tomorow at breakfast and Spanish ill learn by talking to people:-)

After breakfast i went to the touristic side of Playa del Carmen.

A lot of shops, most of them touristic. After i bought myself some sunglasses some people started to talk to me. I know it sounds stupid:-) but it is true! Dont think a lot people wanted to talk to me yesterday because of my said eyes. Then i went back to my hotel because i needed my bathing suit really bad. Talked to Chris and my mom, cried again, and i think than it clicked... Feel better know. Started to realise im acting like a spoiled brad, who can be sad when ure in Mexico.

Then i explored the umhh not touristic side of Playa del Carmen, the outskirts?

Some guy i met this morning told me that there were cheap apartments at 12 and 30th avenue, so i went to check it out. It didnt look bad actually. Is not like it is very poor there. Nice buildings, flowers, ... AND i discovered a Walmart! I know its stupid, but i was sooo happy :-) They had Walmart in Canada, so it was a bit like discovering a GB or Colruyt :-) And they have Special K and 1000islands sauce. Than i also found a police station, a hospital, bancs, ... Not that i would know how to get there again, but just to know there there :-) is a good feeling. Ohh and Coco Bongo is just next to my hotel. Dad, is that the disco where that animator worked? Or was that in Cancun?

After my nice discoveries i went back to the beach to have lunch. The food here is asome btw. I think im just happy everywhere i go, because i love the food everywhere:-) I ate avocado with tuna. And at that place they had all the mexican food i like, but Vegetarian!! So ill go there again, the moment i lost my Canadapounds. I saw the weirdest thing happening there dough. there was like a band going round the tables, and they started singing a song for two girls sitting next to me. Quite normal, but after the song they asked for money! It costed 5dollar. Huhh? I almost said to the girls 'dont pay, u dont have to!'. Luckily they only had two dollar so.. But huhh? Since when are u obligated to pay them? Well... they were from Cancun, and just a minute before that happened she told me that she loved playa del Carmen because it is way more Mexican than Cancun that is totally Americanised(dunno if this wordt exists..). So i told here, well u wanted mexican so u got it! :-)

After lunch i walked some more. Discovered they have Subway, Bershka, and some other good and not that expensive clothing shops ( not that i want to buy anymore clothes, but u never know, maybe later...)

Than i had (according to the guy that sold it) the best handexperience ever!!! :-) Some salt from Israel u had to put on ur hands. Then he put some stuff on my nail (i know this is sooo not interesting:-)) that made it really shine. So i promised him i would go and buy it from the moment i get my first paycheck. I dunno how, but i also promised ill go see Cozumel with him next tuesday. Probably because he said he's been here for 6months allready and havent seen it yet. So now i mention it, the guys here are ok. Totally not like in Turkey. its quite intimitating sometimes, walking here alone, but they leave u alone, and just ask something. They do give there phonenumbers really quickly. In case im in trouble:-) AND they do think i am 17-18. an other one insisted in explaning me how to get back to my hotel.. that was funny because playa del carmen is like 10blocks. I get lost all the time, but i always find my way back. Since the weather here is umhh very good to work in, but not that good as a tourist (windy and clouthy) i left the beach at five and went to a little park to read some.

I took a shower, and now im here in this little bar, were people think im typing german :-)

Tomorow my first work day... quite excited! Hope ill have internet at nights, so i can tell u how it was!

PS: Things i realised so far:

-i'll have to learn to enjoy melon and pineapple because that is all they give if u ask for some fruit. (was the same in Canada).

-it sucks if u have to go to the toilet if ure travelling alone, like now i had to take everything including my laptop with me. (im in a bar now where they have free internet)

-at the beach, u have guys just sitting there, staring at the ocean for hours and hours. (see picture)

-I will not have to work hard, if i see how the people here are.

-they have traffic lights for cars, but not for pedestrians, still have to work out how that goes..

Mexico

Arrived in Mexico... I know i should be thrilled but im not. (who said a blog should always be positive e). Saying goodbye was harder than i thought...
The flight was ok. Flying from Toronto to Cancun i even had two seats, so i was able to do a little nap. Luckily i had no problems with the immigration and the nice mexicans had no problem excorting me to the busstop. On the bus i sat next to a musician that toured the world with his band, so had a interesting conversation with him. He also helped me to find my hotel. As u can see on the pictures, my hotel is amazing. It breeds mexican for the full 100procent, just what i wanted.













Around three oclock i was ready to do some exploring. Went to the beach, ate something. Still have to figure out how much a dollar now exactly is, because i think ive tipped loads today.. Afterworths i rested a bit on the beach, but not really long. was kinda afraid of falling asleep en leaving my bag unsupervised. Went back to the hotel, showered, walked through the shoppingstreet, and now im going to bed.
I know i dont really sound excited.. and i feel guilty about that, because i realise i am really lucky to be here. Hope i feel better tomorow, and if i dont i just go back to Canada. (kidding...)

Buffalo's!!

We' ve been kinda lazy again... So we were soposed to go out with Jill and Megan yesterday, but we were kinda tired and just watched a movie: The Bucket List, good movie! they forgave us in one condition, that we had lunch with them the next day. So we went to West Edmonton Hall and had a superlunch in Moxies. Afterworths we went to h&m for me. they wont have it in Mexico, so i wanted to say goodbye:-) The h&m here is pretty oldfashion, i recognized all clothes, we've had them for ages. It probably takes longer to get the new stuff since H&M is swedish. We took a ride on the rollercoaster and then we left because Megan had to go to work.








Chris and me went to Elke island national park. It is a park u drive through and if u're lucky u see moose and buffalo's. Well we were lucky :-)

At night, Chris his uncle bought us dinner because i'm going soon. Nice soup and pasta in a italian place.

Today we went to buy groceries for my goodbye dinner tonight. Chris his dad, stephmom, sis and boyfriend of the sis will be here, and we're having lobster, asparagus with a hollandaise sause and mash potatoes. Yeah, he can cook... pfff i dont want to go!!! :-)

Bags are ready, airplane is checked... i actually just want to go now. I hate this part, nowing u're leaving, being sad because u have to say goodbye.. But like u've probably seen on my pictures, i had the best time here. And yes it breaks my hart to say goodbye to Chris, but it was wurt it. He's planning to come see me in Mexico, and wants to come to Belgium to next year. So we'll see...

So next message will probably be from Mexico!! Hasta Pronto! xxxxxxxx

Dining in Canada.

Things ive noticed about Dining in Canada:
-way more chains ofcourse: every town has a Mc Donalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Benny's, Wendy's, Smitties, Tacobell, Quizno's(my favorite! a sandwichplace), Tim Horton, .............
-almost no managers in restaurants, so the staff isn't that rushed
-expectations of the costumers: in two minutes they expect a drink on the table.
-rushing, dining for three hours was a long time for Chris (even dough we had a starter, main course and desert). That is also the reason why people here eat so much fastfood and use drive trues.
-cleaning tables when people are still eating.
-bringing the check whitout us asking.
-tip is expected. Even dough the serving was crap. I have a hard time with that. Whe have to do a lot to get five euro, and here that is what i am expected to give if the serving is crap, if it was good they even give more.
-very good food, but canadian?They import good stuff of other countries. For example, on almost every menu u can find bruchetta. Ever seen bruchetta on a belgium menucart? (correct me if i am wrong!) The only canadian food they actually have is poutine: chips with gravy.
-ze aperitieven niet echt. Er is zelf geen woord voor dat in het engels.
-U can have glasses of different wines in most restaurants. That impressed me, even in little pubs or diners, u find different white and reds u can have per glass for a reasonable price.
-u always get water!
-they dont have menus like we do.

Since i'm quite interested in dining and food, i thought it was interesting to give u some of my observations.

And now in general

Roadtripping is FUN!!! Just driving, no pressure, no planning, just do what u what when u want. I really love it! Have to do it with the right people dough.. And i think i made a pretty good choice:-) Chris and me get along pretty good, have the same interests, have lots of discussions but (almost) no fights. Yess it was a good experience!
So we got back on monday (yesterday). In the evening we went to Jill, to have a taconight. It was cosy, but i was exhausted. So i was really glad they didnt want to go out yesterday. Instead we go tonight, my last evening of going out in Canada... Allready have to say goodbye to certain people...:-(

Day 7: Drumheller and going back home...

Our last day...

Drumheller is actually pretty funny. It is a tiny town in the middle of knowwhere. But the middle of knowwhere is really flat, and Drumheller is full of hills and ravins(not sure this is the translation of ravijn but what ever..).

We started the day with The Willow Creek Hoodoos

-->Hoodoos take millions of years to form and stand 5 to 7 metres tall. Each hoodoo is a sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale that is capped by a large stone. Hoodoos are very fragile and can erode completely if their capstone is dislodged.

After the Hoodoos we went to visit the Biggest Dinosaur (Drumheller is also a town with loads of information about Dinosaurs because they found quite some fossils there), a reptilehouse, a tiny little church and a mine.

And that was it for this roadtrip!

Day 6: Drumheller.

Saying bye to Penticton wasn't easy. Surtenly because i knew we were going back to the cold snow. That is so weird here. Drive from one climate into the other. Tempature changes from -10 to +10 in a few hours, snow, sun, rain, good road conditions, bad ones, ... we've had it all.

We saw a lot today! To begin with the biggest truck in the world! The Titan.

Then we went to The Frank Slide. That was really impressing.

--> In the early morning hours of April 29, 1903, Turtle Mountain collapsed, resulting in the greatest landslide in North American history. In 100 seconds: at least 76 people were buried alive under tons of massive limestone boulders; three-quarters of the homes in Frank were crushed like balsa wood; over a mile of the Canadian Pacific Railroad was completely destroyed; and a river became a lake.

Than we went to Head -Smashed-In buffalo jump. This site is known around the world as a remarkable testimony of prehistoric life. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump bears witness to a custom practiced by native people of the North American plains for nearly 6000 years.
Thanks to their excellent understanding of topography and of bison behavior, they killed bison by chasing them over a precipice and subsequently carving up the carcasses in the camp below.
In 1981, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the jump as a World Heritage Site placing it among other world attractions such as the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and the Galapagos Islands.

Both Frank Slide as Buffalo Jump impressed me with the loads of information they give. I thought it was just gonna be a cold walk outside. Both sites gave a good movie where they explained the whole history and both had exhibitions with more information. In Buffalo Jump we even got to taste the indian food. (there bread and soup wasnt bad at all!). Seeing how the indians killed the buffalo wasnt that easy, but it is however the way i prefer to see people eat meet. They killed them to survive and they used every little thing of the buffalo, plus there was no such thing as massproduction or anything. nevertheless, hearing how people later on started hunting the buffalo's for fun and for they fur was horrible. Chris even told me that some of the hunts were in order of the government. In order to make the indians obey them they killed there main foodsorce so they would starve if they didnt.

After these two intensive visits we started our way back. Our last stop was gonna be Drumheller. We hesitated to go there because one of there main attractions was closed. But then again, almost all of the tourist attractions were closed due to the low season.

We kinda regretted our decision once we were on the main road there.. The road conditions were terrible. And Chris had to go pretty fast, otherwise we could get stuck. Our harts pounded like nuts, but we made it!

Once in Drumheller we took a stop at the suspencion bridge, and then went to look for a hotel. This hotel even had a slide! So after dinner in an Irish pub we had some fun in our private waterpark (we were almost always alone in the pool and hottub!).

Day 5: Cranbrook

Today we just drove. We ended up in Cranbrook. Not to much to do there. it is quite amazing dough. U drive miles and miles in the middle of nowwhere, and than u enter a small town, and they have everything! McDonalds, Tim Horton, Dairy Queen, Quizno's, Pizzahut, .... All the chains are present.
We were quite tired so we just relaxed in the hotel. Watched some television, went for dinner in a italian restaurant, and then some hottubbing. We have actually done that every night. I loveee the hottub! :-)

Day 4: Hope and Penticton

We went back to Hell's gate because yesterday we weren't able to do the whole trip because whe had an oil change appointment at four. Chris climbed some more, but i decided to gave my ankle some rest. the exploring of yesterday made him a bit tired and angry at me i think...

We were supposed to do a whole lot af driving today, but fate had something else in mind :-) When we were driving out of Hope, we saw a car in problems. We pulled over to ask if we could help. It was a familie with three children, and there car broke down. So at first we drove the dad to his unkle in the closest town, but he wasnt home, so we went back to pick up the rest of the family and drove them back to Hope where they could rent a car. And then it was 2.5 hours later:-) So we drove to Penticton, not as far as we hoped, but i am so glad we did, because it was one of my favorite towns. The view was unbelievable. It looked familiar actually, saw it before in the US, and then Chris told me it looks indeed a bit like Arizona.

Day 3: Hope

Hope is a really tiny small town owned by azian people (we think). The only restaurants we could find where azian and our motel was also runned by azians. Doesnt mean it wasnt a great day! We eat sushi as lunch and Teriaky (or something like that) salmon as dinner. As u can see the nature there is beautiful. We drove to Hell's gate. That is a point in the river, the entire flow of water from over 84 000 square miles of British Colombia roars through a narrow gorge at 200million gallons per minute.

After we found our motel we went exploring the neighbourhood. And exploring it was, i dont think we were supposed to follow the road we did. It involved climbing, descenting and falling but it was wurt it!

Day 2: Kelowna

Day two started again with an amazing drive true the mountains. (I know, i need another word for amazing, ive been using it way too much:-)). During our drives we almost never talk. No time for that, we just watch, be amazed and listen to music. Rap, hiphop and western for him/ pop and rock for me. He doenst really like my Marco Borsato, Laura Pausini and Eros Ramasotti songs, but he does like Tracy Chapman! So that is a releave :-)

After a couple hours of driving, we arrived in Kelowna. It was 10degrees so a perfect temperature to do a walk. At night we took a sauna in the hotel, and went for dinner in a great seefood restaurant.