Post-Thanksgiving Bootcamp Hike

A tradition for the Boot Campers every year is to do a half-full day hike. This time around the group went to the tidepools on the North Shore - a beautiful hike we've done several times before. The pics below are from Roberta's (Boot Camp Instructor) camera.

Roberta and I at the Tidepools

Beautiful view of the North Shore

Roberta at the Tidepools

It was pretty rough!

The tidepool water is so clear!

The rugged North Shore

Some of our group enjoying the cool down after the hike

11.11.11 Wedding

11.11.11

I think this day will go down in history for having the most number of weddings... just at Carambola Beach Resort alone there were FOUR weddings yesterday afternoon!

Despite the masses of people, we had a wonderful night helping our friend Julianne celebrate her wedding day with her husband James. 

Sayonara Carambola... and hello world!

On Thursday the 14th, I quit my job at the Spa at Carambola...finally. As many of you know, tension had been building up in the circus (aka work), which hadnt made for a comfortable working environment for many of the Spa employees. Sure, the job offered me an opportunity to grow for a while, and make some contacts but due to poor management I reached a point where I was stuck and things turned from bad to worse very quickly.

Since I quit, which has only been three days, I have felt an enormous weight lifted from my shoulders, and nothing but the feeling of freedom and happiness and realising that all the Spa was a starting point for me, and that the management will realise at some point the mistake they have made with treating the actual hard workers, and loyal employees like prison inmates.

Job prospects have been tumbling towards me, and I've met more people in the last two days than I have in the last year - literally! Just yesterday I had already two meetings, with one ending in a possibility of re-opening another Spa on island, and the other meeting being more than I could ever ask for at this point - a Spotlightstx client needing ongoing marketing help, which of whom she has already referred me to another company in Christiansted to help with theirs!

Last night I was offered to star in a music video by Lady Gaga, which is soon to be broadcasted on youtube, local television and schools in the US Virgin Islands. It was an amazing experience and a true honor to work with such talented people and at the same time be able to help towards such an important cause (this video was made to bring awareness to the severity of bullying).

I do believe in blessings in disguises. This is well and truly one of those.

(This pic is one of me and some of the girls with that I worked on set with today - the actual video clip is still to come...)

WTJX Channel 12 Golf Tournament

Yesterday was the big day - WTJX Channel 12 first annual Golf Tournament at Carambola Golf Course and we featured in it! It ended up being a huge success and we are now discussing possibly being in the next one.

Morning hike in Paradise!

The last few months I've started my day with - what used to be - a gruelling hike up and down "The Beast" (as the locals call it). Its a steep hill right near our workplace that took me a good hour to walk once...now I'm proud to say and I can do it twice in about 45 minutes!

The views are phenomenal - to the north is the resort (pics above) and if I'm lucky, St. Thomas and the BVI's on a clear day - and to the south (right pics) is Carambola Golf Course.

A wonderful way to start the workday!

Baby turtles!

Geoff was lucky enough today to witness baby sea turtles hatching and scurrying towards the water! They're so cute!! (I was hosting our Spa event - we had the local orphanage in which we raised $1000 for during the month of February and had all the kids and volunteers in at the resort for a fun day)

Scuba!!!

Today I checked off one of the things on my bucketlist... Scuba diving! We are lucky enough to get great deals through the resort with room rates, food, gift shop and even diving.. we've been putting it off for ages as the thought of spending our one day off back at work again doesnt seem appealing but it was well worth it.

I'm friends with one of the instructors (we live close by and often walk our dogs together in the mornings) so we headed out on this perfect day.. first off we started with some pool lessons: the basics, like learning how to get water out of goggles, hand signals under water and using the diving equipment properly. Although necessary, I was just eager to get out into the ocean!

After about an hour in the pool, we headed out to Davis Bay Beach (where the resort lays) and waded out until we were deep enough to put on our fins.. and off we went! Our instructor held my hand the entire time because I had some problems with my ears.. I was able to equalize, but my ears still had a little pain when we descended or went up too quickly. I surprised myself as I didnt think I'd be able to dive at all - I've always been told by my doctor that it would be difficult and painful and i've always had troubles equalizing when going up in altitude.

Anyway, we dove down to 38ft, which is about average for a Discover Scuba course.. we saw some incredible things - parrotfish, puffer fish, 'nemo', angel fish, blue tangs, yellow tangs, different coral (brain, fan corals) and even a lionfish! Lionfish arent native to the area and islanders are trying to eradicate them in the Caribbean by spearing or catching them with the net (they're fatal if stung by them). As we were on our first dive, our instructor couldnt leave us alone whilst she caught it, but she marked it with a yellow ribbon and went back later to hunt it.

All in all - a great experience.. and one that I'd like to try again as soon as we have some more time! As for becoming certified, i'd like to go out a couple more times before committing myself.. but the underwater world really is something magic!

(I did take photos with a disposable camera, but we'll have to wait for them to develop before I can upload them)

Tide Pools Hike

Last weekend we finally did the Tide Pool Hike, which leaves from Carambola and ends up at Annaly Bay, famous for its natural forming tidal pools. The hike itself was beautiful but the beach was the real reward - not your typical white sandy beach, but very rocky - beautiful in its own way!

Renaissance Carambola Beach Resort

For those who havent visited the website, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the beautiful resort we work at...with more to come from the desalination plant and the Spa!

I got it!

I got my long-awaited phonecall today - I got the job at Carambola! So excited, that the fact that I still had to unpack, clean, sort all day long really didnt matter.

Monday will be the first day, with training first off - they are joining forces with the Marriot and have a whole lot of new computer programs to learn. It will be so good to get back into the workforce and learn new things and meet new people- its been far too long!

Job hunting, Container and Networking

To think we've already been here over a week now! I wish I had more pictures to post at this stage, but we just missed a hurricane and have had nothing but rain, rain, rain, (and a tonne of thunder/lightning), and as a result havent done any sightseeing.

We had our rental car until Friday morning, and spent 3 days over the weekend at home, twiddling our thumbs and powering through the 2 books we had. On Sunday we spent almost all afternoon at next door, playing pool and getting to know some of the locals. The bar owner was so excited to meet a Canadian/Australian couple that enjoyed playing pool at his bar, that he immediately insisted we try his famous BBQ chicken, johnnycakes (a first for me!) and some famous Cruzan rum.

After 3 days of well, pretty much boredom, we rented another car yesterday as I had my second interview at Carambola, and we needed to take care of the container paperwork as it is arriving today! My interview went well I think, and I'll get the result on Friday, at the latest Monday. Fingers crossed!

We're so happy to be getting our container today, but not happy that our roof is leaking... yes, we discovered over the weekend with the heavy rains that we have about 8 leaks in our roof, and although we're not getting flooded (like 2 of our neighbours), its still not fun (or safe) having puddles on our floor. Not just that - half of our house is without power, and thats not due to weather causes.. to cut a long story short, the washer and dryer is our house was never connected, and when the handyman tried to connect it (mind you, the w&d are outside on our porch, completely exposed to the elements), he got zapped and all of a sudden power was out - in our bedroom, lounge room and the other bedrooms. Thank goodness our fridge and bathroom lights are still connected, and that our stove is on gas. Not only that, the poor chap that lives directly behind us suddenly lost power in his whole house - and hasnt had it back since. We've drawn our conclusions and now its just a matter of getting the issue rectified..which is taking MUCH longer than expected. In the meantime, we're going to have a 40ft container stand in our front yard and continue to be without furniture until our landlord decides he wants to fix our leaks.

Chapter 2: St Croix

I'm still trying to figure out how to change the name of my actual blog.. now that we've moved it seems a bit funny that its still labeled Puerto Rico - so if anyone can help out in that department, it would be greatly appreciated!

So - our first few days here have been BUSY! We managed to load up Alpie's crate with an air mattress, towels, bed sheets and about 10 cans of tuna, as well as her food, a Costco packet of batteries and some other bits and bobs. Yes, all of a sudden our little puppy ended up being almost 90lb!!!! We got away with it though ("Yeah, she's just big boned") and Alpie didnt seem to mind the plane ride over at all - she was as happy as a clam once we arrived in St. Croix.

We got ourselves a little Suzuki rental and made our way to our new home - only to find that it looked like something out of a candy store - it was painted bright yellow with a bright red roof...right next to the pink and purple house next door to us .. oh well, as long as it's got a kitchen, bathroom and someplace to sleep, thats all we were worried about.

We set up our room (with whatever we had - air mattress and a backpack full of clothes) and set out to door some chores and a whole lot of job hunting.

On Tuesday Geoff went to apply for his V.I. licence - the process was really easy. Since his Washington licence was still current, all he needed was a print out of his driving record and it was a straight swap-over. Mine involves a little more work - I need a medical exam done by a doctor, take the written test and thats it. No driving test like I was originally told!

On Wednesday Geoff and I went to Carambola Resort, as there was a huge job fair on. There were about 500 applicants! We spent a good two hours there, chatting with people and conducting our interviews and I left feeling pretty confident (Update: I got a phone call yesterday with a second interview on Tuesday).

Yesterday (Thursday) we went to the Department of Labour - now this is something that Puerto Rico can really learn from. Its a small office in Sunny Isle (mid-island) and offers unemployment benefits, resume-writing and career building workshops, and helps you to find work. Centerlink, I'm sorry but even a tiny island provides a more efficient and effective service that you do. We walked in, and were seen within 10 minutes of arrival. A short application form, and then we could look through a book with all the job postings from the last week. We could pick as many as we wanted, and then had to write why we thought our skills/abilities/training matched the job description. We were then introduced to our own careers advisor and she talked through with us about what we were looking for, and if she thought that the jobs we applied for were right for us, then she would go ahead and fax our resume through to the employer. Geoff applied for a couple, and so did I.

He's had some luck already - he had an interview that same afternoon as a plant operator for a corrugated roofing factory!

Alpie is settling in a lot better after her first day being a complete and utter pork chop. She was really confused and upset when we had to leave her on the first day for our errands, but she's getting used to it now -and as long as we do something active with her every day (beach, jog etc), then she's a happy chappy.

Overall we're feeling really happy and positive about this move. The response, support and opportunities regarding jobs has been overwhelming, and although people are still on "island time", things still GET DONE here.. unlike Puerto Rico.

Signing off for today - its back to job hunting for one last day before the weekend!

Note: The one pic is of our new home - and the view from our front porch (yes - no skyscrapers!!!) The other two I put in just for fun.. when Geoff and Alpie were wrestling.