Archive for February, 2010
To the seas!
Baron and I recently came back from our 2nd ever all-inclusive vacation to the south. We tagged along last year with some friends to the Riviera Maya of Mexico. I was skeptical – I’m not a huge beach person and I thought I may get bored. I was wrong. There were 7 of us total and all levels of fun and different activities to be had. I had never been on that type of vacation – a truly relaxing one. One where you never have to stress about anything, other than choosing one of the millions of buffet foods or drinks to have.
This year we went to the Majestic Colonial in Punta Cana, Dominica Republic (reccomend it). In searching out resorts, I turned to www.tripdadvisor.ca for the scoop. It’s definitely a helpful webiste but I’ve found some interesting things in my reasearch.
1) This one resort in the Dominican has a kids club area that features a pirate ship to play on. Doesn’t anyone else find this ironic? Considering the history of actual piracy that took place? That while the pirates we know of today are a wonderful thing of whimsy and fantasy, their historical counterparts were… creepy.
Yay for pirates!
Part of me wonders if these kids realize, or even if at this age if they should realize the real history of piracy. I suppose they can have their childhood innocence. Since I no longer have mine, however, I feel it would be my right to find said play pirate ship, shove the kids off (as was surely common in real piracy), get drunk off of rum (again, based in fact) and tell the kids ‘dems de breaks’. That ought to teach them about piracy enough. Ok, so maybe I’m just a bit jealous that I don’t get to play on a giant pirate ship. whatever. I’m taking destiny (and piracy) into my own hands.
2) There is a resort in Puerto Rico called El Conquistador resort. um. So perhaps on the surface being a Spanish explorer who took over a nation isn’t the worst thing – par for the course at the time. Yet again, visions of the extreme acts committed by Hernan Cortes jump to mind, and find it is beyond ironic for a resort name. Espcecially if you consider the amount of people who can and will go on all-inclusive resorts to ‘exotic’ countries to use their best, most beautiful land and never learn anything of the history, the people, the cultures and current social situations in these places.
I suppose this makes me a bit of a hypocrite because I have gone on my 2nd here. :/ however this does bring me to the 3rd awesome thing I’ve noticed
3) Reviews on tripadvisor. Most of them are great and informative, but it’s really interesting to see what people complain about. Of course everyone has different standards and expectations, especially of a vacation that is designed, pitched and sold for the ultimate in relaxation, fun and luxury. However, I cannot get past some of the most ridiculous complaints. This includes:
Bugs
Heat
Seaweed on beach off the coast of Mexico
Undertow in ocean
Strong Winds
Rain
Poverty in country (having to drive by it).
Leaving the resort to go to a restaurant and seeing an armed guard.
Ok, as this list goes on I can understand the last item – though people don’t realize that police in different countries carry different types of weapons. some countries are not as safe as ours, and we should realize this. But the bugs? you’re in a hot country! heat? you’re in a hot country! seaweed? SEA. WEED. FROM THE SEA. You don’t deserve to experience nature. Undertow in the ocean? A real resort would build a weather device and control all of this.
Obviously, any sort of peer-review system needs to be taken with a grain (or a thousand) of salt, which is what I’ve done. Reading through the negative reviews becomes kind of an entertainment. A sad one.
Team Banana Wedding!
It finally happened. After over 9 years of dating, 5 years of living in sin, and 7 months of home ownership, I am officially engaged to my partner in crime Baron Zemm. It happened on Wednesday, February 10th. The quick summary of how it went down is at the bottom under the ‘more’ link if you wish to read.
Sparklor, the engagement Ring
Now that I’ve had a few days to share the news with family, close friends and then the greater internet – I must say how happy I feel. In fact, I’m actually very surprised about how happy I am. I never imagined I would be this happy to be engaged. It’s almost a bit scary. I’m thoroughly warmed by all the well-wishes and congrats from people. They all seem so genuinely happy for me and I’m pleasantly shocked.
I’ve always been a bit cynical about love and romance, even when I’ve been in this amazing relationship. I have a bit of issue with the corporate and commercial nature of weddings vs. what the real meaning of marriage should be. There are a whole lot of bananular thoughts in my head.
Regardless, I’m really happy to make it official. I’m very touched at the fact that Baron went through the process to express himself in this way and it really does mean a lot to me. I feel so redonkulously blessed that I’m a little afraid to cross the street as I fear I may be struck down soon to even out the good karma.
Another thing? Google released a suite of wedding planning templates for google docs. What could be more perfect for my nerd tendencies? Nothing!
tweet tweet