Back to life, Back to reality

Coming back from vacation is always unpleasant, but it seems especially bad when you’re trading at least 8 full hours a day in the sun, interspersed with floating in the Caribbean Sea, water slides, hot dogs and bingo poolside, swimming up to the bar for some fruity drinks, and getting massages, for work and all the responsibilities that had been put off until “after the trip.”

I’d go back to Aruba in a second, but there were one or two issues:

1. It was so touristy that it didn’t even feel like another country. While this was convenient, and maybe contributed to all tourists being very friendly, which was fun, I sort of like my vacations a little more authentic. Of course the one way in which it was not Americanized was the thing that annoyed me: there wasn’t the 24-hour availabilty of amenities we have. The internet cafe was supposed to be open from 8-6, but if the guy didn’t wake up it didn’t open until he felt like it. The gym, tennis courts, spa, etc...were open from 8-4, but again, it was more like when they felt like it. Nothing is open on Sundays, and combined with the 2 holidays that fell during our week when nothing was open, we were forced to spent even more time than expected lounging on the beach.
2. EVERYONE is from Boston. Seriously, probably 90% of the tourists are from the US...87 from the East Coast, 5 of those from Long Island, 2 from various locales, and the other 80 from Boston and the greater New England area. We thought at first that the Boston people were just more visible with their Patriots bathing suits and Sox hats and their screaming conversations about Coco Crisp, but almost everyone we met or could just hear talking had an accent. To the extent that at one point my Boston-born traveling companion said “Boston people are everywhere, and they’re really annoying!”
3. The tv situation is strange. They have the NY affiliates of all the networks, plus a few others, including ESPN2, but no ESPN. I don’t necessarily need to keep up with sports when I’m on vacation, but having one and not the other is much worse than not having any at all. You get taunted by the ads for games on ESPN, only to realize that you’re stuck watching the Paintball Championships. Also, if you choose not to watch the NFL draft and say, want to find out the top picks the next day and the internet cafe guy decided not to get out of bed, you end up stuck in the 7th circle of hell watching Stephen A. Smith and Eddie George yell (who knew he retired 2 years ago btw?!) at each other about their own picks and trying to decipher what the heck happened with Reggie Bush.

Other than that, I love Aruba. Pics for anyone interested.

To update my last post, unfortunately I failed in my Vacation Book It! mission. No personal pan pizza for me. I got off to a great start by finishing 2 magazines, a book, and a movie on the plane there. At the beginning of the 2nd day though, I realized I was only half way through my 2nd book, and if I was going to accomplish my goal I’d need to finish that and another book that day. Faced with the choice of feverishly reading the entire day or going for a float, I choose the float and gave up on the plan. But I did still finish all my magazines and 5 books, which I don’t think is too shabby at all.