Tales from the Tropics.

I woke up on Monday to pouring rain.  For some odd reason I was wide awake at 7:30 am, so I made a pot of coffee and drank it on my balcony while watching the rain and listening to the sounds of assorted tropical creatures.

My vacation buddy Nadine messaged me from next door sounding quite dejected about the rain.  However, I could see blue sky peeking out from behind the clouds.  I took a picture and sent it to hee with the message "it's going to clear up".

I was right, and the day ended with me looking like a sunburned lobster.  (My beach skills are awful.)

***

Yesterday we went for lunch at the snack bar near the privat beach.  It was busy, but we scored a table.  As we started to dig in, an older couple (whom we have now named Helga and Boris... I'm sure they had names of their own but we didn't care to ask) asked if they could join us as there were no free tables left.

Being that we are polite Canadians, we said yes.  Turned out they were Canadians too.  After the waiter asked Helga if she'd like a drink, she commented to us "why do they always assume that you want a drink here?? Don't they know that you can be healthy like us and just drink water?" Nadine and I exchanged glances.  I guess Helga didn't get the memo that people were on vacation and might want to let loose a little.

We chatted with them, and as they told us about some resort they once stayed at which was better than this one, they begrudgingly accepted that this resort was okay, but then started harping on the fact that the wifi connection is a little slow and spotty.

Boris started going on about how he purchased a $10-a-day travel plan so that he could make his important business calls on vacation.  Helga mentioned "I'm a teacher and not having reliable internet here is difficult for me.  I sometimes get ideas for lessons and want to work on them right away."

I kept my mouth shut and Nadine looked at me.  There was an unspoken agreement that we would not bring up that we are the kinds of teachers who go on vacation during March Break and do not think about our lesson plans.

Luckily at that point we were done eating and excused ourselves and headed to the beach.  However from our encounter with Helga and Boris we have a fun running vacation joke where every so often one of us will exclaim "I have an idea for a lesson plan but I don't have access to the Internet, what do I do?" To which the other person will reply "how will I make my important business calls?"

***

I have a well-developed silly side.  I don't even need to be drinking for it to come out.  This evening I didn't drink at dinner, and then afterwards we went for a walk on the dark deserted beach.  It ended up with me taunting the ocean, and the ocean getting my shorts wet in return.  (Don't ask... I was kind of re-enacting an episode of the Osbournes... remember that reality TV gem??)

We decided to head up to the lobby bar to get a drink after Nadine assured me since my shorts were dark, no one would notice that they were wet from taunting the ocean.  As we were walking inside, a woman stopped me and asked me if my name was Chrissy.  She thought that she had gone to
elementary school with me.  (For some reason I decided I wanted to be called Christy in grade 5, however most family members still call me Chrissy.)

Turned out we had, and she had seen me on the beach earlier in the day and was trying to place me.  I would not have recognized her, but if there's one thing I've heard, it's that I look exactly the same as I did as a kid.

We had a nice conversation and reminisced about people from back in the day. And it turns out she is a teacher too.  However, thinking about childhood and growing up sometimes leaves one unsettled.  One thing I am glad of, is that I'm still good friends with one person from elementary school, my friend Mel.  It's nice to have someone who's known you through it all.

Oh, but the funniest part was that I had that convo in wet shorts.