First and foremost, a belated Merry Christmas.
This December had been both quiet and busy. Since I started my cake business in mid November, there was some orders and I kinda was happy that it was not too much. Yeah, maybe that sounds a bit weird. Everybody loves big orders every day and especially with December. Probably because I just started and my oven is still a very small one, I believe the amount of orders I got in December was just the perfect amount. Otherwise I might be overstressed with everything else that's also happening at work.
It's New Year's Eve. One year has passed in something that felt like a wink. So many lessons and laughter, so many ups and downs. And for the first time in December I have not really been partying nor food fests like all those years, but today is New Year's Eve, it's a time I make an exception to everything like: going into big crowds, go wild and go crazy.
There is just something about Suriname's New Year's Eve. Maybe it's the smell of fireworks, the seeing of old friends, who you haven't seen in ages, the drinking with complete strangers, who are willing to share their bottle of alcohol. And the rain?? Nobody cares about the rain, but it's preferably after you're already at the spot you wanted to be. I believe most people see the rain as a kind of blessing, a shower from heaven.
It's still 9:30 in the morning and streets are still quiet and the sun is shining, but once it hits 11am, then the crowd has risen from their needed rest to go through the many hours of partying.
I still need to decide what to do today. Will it be Pagara Estafette Downtown or Pagara Estafette North? Shall I go to Galaxy after that or Instyle? Choices, choices......even the last day of 2014, choices need to be made.
So for 2015, I wish you all get the right guidance to make the right choice!! It might be that one decision that might change the course of your life!!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Sweets: reasons to eat cake!
On November 13, 2014 I officially launched my cake page on Facebook: Sweets!!
Had been thinking about it for a while and been working on my logo and finally last Thursday, it felt like the perfect moment to launch it.
Associated with the launch, I will be giving away a cake on November 19!! The requirement to participate is to like & share the page and give a reason why you should win it. Check my page Sweets for further details.
Whenever people read 'reasons', the first thing that comes to mind :' is it my birthday or someone else's birthday?'. But the whole idea of this requirement is to let people think about why they should have cake.
There are a lot of reasons to eat cake and whenever it's free, all the better.
Like mini temptations has its top 10 here, I will also create my own top 10 reasons why you should have cake:
1. Everybody can use something sweet in their life.(that's why my page is called Sweets!!)
2. It makes a perfect combination with your cup of hot beverage.
3. It's like the cherry on top of a balanced diet
4. You're alive!! It's something worth celebrating and celebration means cake!!
5. It's someone's birthday (didn't your neighbor's dog became 2?), graduation, achievement, retirement....just fill in the blanks.
6. The most standard flavors are vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. But actually, there are hundreds of cake flavors and textures to choose from. Check here for the countries with their cakes. ( the most interesting one: Better than s3x cake. I definitely should check the recipe of that one!)
7. They come in various sizes and forms: cake pops, cupcakes, bundt, round, square, sculpted. Even life-size cakes exist.
8. It's good to give in to temptations sometimes, especially the sweet ones. Repressed emotions (towards sweet) might result in a disastrous outcome ( pig out party!!)
9. It gives your meal a happy ending. :)
10. It always brings a smile to whoever receives it.
That's my top 10. Do you know any more reasons why you should have cake, please share!
Had been thinking about it for a while and been working on my logo and finally last Thursday, it felt like the perfect moment to launch it.
Associated with the launch, I will be giving away a cake on November 19!! The requirement to participate is to like & share the page and give a reason why you should win it. Check my page Sweets for further details.
Whenever people read 'reasons', the first thing that comes to mind :' is it my birthday or someone else's birthday?'. But the whole idea of this requirement is to let people think about why they should have cake.
There are a lot of reasons to eat cake and whenever it's free, all the better.
Like mini temptations has its top 10 here, I will also create my own top 10 reasons why you should have cake:
1. Everybody can use something sweet in their life.(that's why my page is called Sweets!!)
2. It makes a perfect combination with your cup of hot beverage.
3. It's like the cherry on top of a balanced diet
5. It's someone's birthday (didn't your neighbor's dog became 2?), graduation, achievement, retirement....just fill in the blanks.
6. The most standard flavors are vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. But actually, there are hundreds of cake flavors and textures to choose from. Check here for the countries with their cakes. ( the most interesting one: Better than s3x cake. I definitely should check the recipe of that one!)
7. They come in various sizes and forms: cake pops, cupcakes, bundt, round, square, sculpted. Even life-size cakes exist.
8. It's good to give in to temptations sometimes, especially the sweet ones. Repressed emotions (towards sweet) might result in a disastrous outcome ( pig out party!!)
9. It gives your meal a happy ending. :)
10. It always brings a smile to whoever receives it.
 |
| https://zanegrava.wordpress.com/2011/03/ |
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Food for thought: Inferno
Spoiler Alert!! Unless you have already read this book or you don't mind spoilers, otherwise please be warned that the end of Dan Brown's book 'Inferno' will be discussed in this post.
I've finished this book for a while, but the recent events have made me think about it again.
I like Dan Brown's book, because the author likes to use certain facts in his books. Mostly I read his books in front of a computer, so that I can Google anything that I'd might want to make sure it is actually true. After reading his books, it always keeps my thoughts busy for several days; wondering if what's written actually might be true or that what we've been told all these years is the supposed truth. His best work for me is still his previous one: The Lost Symbol! I finished it within 3 days (if not earlier) and it kept me thinking for days and discussing the ideas with people around me.
I was so excited when I heard of this new book and still, it took me several times to start and at the end actually kept reading. To be honest, I had hoped it'd topped The Lost Symbol, but unfortunately it was good, but not that good.
But back to why it suddenly kept my mind busy again. Lately, the world has been in a whirlwind of illnesses. In Suriname, mostly troubled by Chikungunya and globally, everyone's shocked with the recent developments of Ebola.
This book's about how the main character, Robert Langdon, is part of the crew to prevent a global threat from an intellectual organization. This organization's biggest fear is overpopulation in the world and which they are trying to prevent. This book made it appear that virusses and illnesses are brought into the world to prevent overpopulation from happening. In the end, the airborne virus spread in the book was one to make random people infertile, but what if in the real world, some maniac had actually created the Ebola-virus to eliminate part of the world population? In their minds, they are doing the world a favor.
I gotta admit, seeing the amount of people growing in the world, there is a possibility that at a certain point the world might be overpopulated. In history, time and time again, there had been reasons to believe that the world might end (according to many, Y2K would've been the end and we're 14 year further), but every time a solution came up for whatever it threatened it. Or who knows, maybe the world was reset without us knowing that a button was pushed at a certain point in our lives.
Who knows me is aware that I'm not religious, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. However hope is often delayed disappointment, but sometimes it's all there is to cling on. And when it comes to illnesses, a cure will be found it's just whether you'll live long enough to know about it.
I've finished this book for a while, but the recent events have made me think about it again.
I like Dan Brown's book, because the author likes to use certain facts in his books. Mostly I read his books in front of a computer, so that I can Google anything that I'd might want to make sure it is actually true. After reading his books, it always keeps my thoughts busy for several days; wondering if what's written actually might be true or that what we've been told all these years is the supposed truth. His best work for me is still his previous one: The Lost Symbol! I finished it within 3 days (if not earlier) and it kept me thinking for days and discussing the ideas with people around me.
I was so excited when I heard of this new book and still, it took me several times to start and at the end actually kept reading. To be honest, I had hoped it'd topped The Lost Symbol, but unfortunately it was good, but not that good.
But back to why it suddenly kept my mind busy again. Lately, the world has been in a whirlwind of illnesses. In Suriname, mostly troubled by Chikungunya and globally, everyone's shocked with the recent developments of Ebola.
This book's about how the main character, Robert Langdon, is part of the crew to prevent a global threat from an intellectual organization. This organization's biggest fear is overpopulation in the world and which they are trying to prevent. This book made it appear that virusses and illnesses are brought into the world to prevent overpopulation from happening. In the end, the airborne virus spread in the book was one to make random people infertile, but what if in the real world, some maniac had actually created the Ebola-virus to eliminate part of the world population? In their minds, they are doing the world a favor.
 |
| The movie: The end of the world |
Who knows me is aware that I'm not religious, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. However hope is often delayed disappointment, but sometimes it's all there is to cling on. And when it comes to illnesses, a cure will be found it's just whether you'll live long enough to know about it.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Rotary agenda: keeping your appointments booked deliciously
Starting at elementary school, I was told about the importance of an agenda, but the excitement didn't last till the first week of school. For me, the fun part of having an agenda was making it nice with all kinds of clippings from my idols and cute stuff. The next thing that made it interesting was that I could pass it to all my fellow classmates to check it out and put in their contact information and eventually some comments. And that I could put appointments, test dates and my test marks in it, was a nice add-on, but surely not the main focus of an elementary student.
Now, being in the work field for more than a decade (and a tad older and forgettable), I see the importance of having an agenda. My mind just doesn't seem to hold on to that much information anymore. But I have to admit, I don't usually use an agenda, because I don't like how it's so plain and boring. It's just a hard cover with pages of paper to write on. And I don't see myself doing the clipping thing anymore.
So, when my friend Marieke Visser send me a Rotary agenda, I was kinda skeptic. I mean, I'm flattered that she's so nice to have thought of me and I'm really thankful for that, but I was not sure I'm gonna use it (thoughts about boring and plain). So when I finally got it in my hands, I was really impressed. She knows I love food, so with a theme as 'What's Cooking?', you kinda already caught my attention. And I'm not saying this because I got it as a gift. I really liked it because of these reasons:
1. It has different features:
- an agenda to book all your appointments (duh....)
- a calendar
- and since the calendar is made in a stand-up way, you can lay it on your office to scroll the pages or use it as a table calendar or really bring it with you as a normal agenda.
2. Promote Suriname
This agenda contains a lot of information about Suriname: the food, the raw ingredients, the food events. This would be a perfect gift for tourists or foreign business partners. It's professional, the quality of the product is good, you're supporting a good cause and you're promoting the pride of being a Surinamese. And if you might be in a conversation with someone, who doesn't know Suriname, you can always show the pictures in the agenda itself, so make sure you get yourself one.
3. Good cause
Every year the Rotary initiates this agenda project and all generated income will be used for a good cause. To keep it interesting, a different theme will be chosen every year.
If you're interested (which you must be), you can buy it at:
- Readytex, Maagdenstraat 44-48
- Icana, lobby Hotel Torarica, Mr. L.J. Rietbergplein 1
- Randoe Woninginrichting, Dr. Sophie Redmondstraat 250.
Each agenda will be sold for SRD 62,50 (about $18,-) and the income will be used for several Rotary projects as indicated in their press release.
And this agenda came really at the right time, since I'm going to take my cake hobby to the next step soon and now I have somewhere to book all the cake orders!!
**My apologies since my pictures really doesn't give the agenda justice, but I hope you understand that it's made with a simple Blackberry and by a non-photographer**
Now, being in the work field for more than a decade (and a tad older and forgettable), I see the importance of having an agenda. My mind just doesn't seem to hold on to that much information anymore. But I have to admit, I don't usually use an agenda, because I don't like how it's so plain and boring. It's just a hard cover with pages of paper to write on. And I don't see myself doing the clipping thing anymore.
So, when my friend Marieke Visser send me a Rotary agenda, I was kinda skeptic. I mean, I'm flattered that she's so nice to have thought of me and I'm really thankful for that, but I was not sure I'm gonna use it (thoughts about boring and plain). So when I finally got it in my hands, I was really impressed. She knows I love food, so with a theme as 'What's Cooking?', you kinda already caught my attention. And I'm not saying this because I got it as a gift. I really liked it because of these reasons:
1. It has different features:
- an agenda to book all your appointments (duh....)
- a calendar
- and since the calendar is made in a stand-up way, you can lay it on your office to scroll the pages or use it as a table calendar or really bring it with you as a normal agenda.
2. Promote Suriname
This agenda contains a lot of information about Suriname: the food, the raw ingredients, the food events. This would be a perfect gift for tourists or foreign business partners. It's professional, the quality of the product is good, you're supporting a good cause and you're promoting the pride of being a Surinamese. And if you might be in a conversation with someone, who doesn't know Suriname, you can always show the pictures in the agenda itself, so make sure you get yourself one.
3. Good cause
Every year the Rotary initiates this agenda project and all generated income will be used for a good cause. To keep it interesting, a different theme will be chosen every year.
If you're interested (which you must be), you can buy it at:
- Readytex, Maagdenstraat 44-48
- Icana, lobby Hotel Torarica, Mr. L.J. Rietbergplein 1
- Randoe Woninginrichting, Dr. Sophie Redmondstraat 250.
If you need additional information about this agenda or anything else related to it, you can contact:
Each agenda will be sold for SRD 62,50 (about $18,-) and the income will be used for several Rotary projects as indicated in their press release.
And this agenda came really at the right time, since I'm going to take my cake hobby to the next step soon and now I have somewhere to book all the cake orders!!
**My apologies since my pictures really doesn't give the agenda justice, but I hope you understand that it's made with a simple Blackberry and by a non-photographer**
Friday, August 29, 2014
It's my life!!!
I quess every new year's day I try to pick up my blogs. Hoping to keep my new year's resolution longer than one day, but every year I notice that it lasted only one day. Some blogs even never got published . But the best thing out of it, is that I can read back what my thoughts were and realize how I've matured as a person. This is something I wrote several years back:
-----
There are phases in life, where you will come to a point that decisions need to be made, paths be chosen and no pressure....course of your life need to be set. However everybody gets a certain preview of how life will be or could be, but nobody gets a How-to on any of this. Unless you have someone that has paved your path and your throne is waiting for you at a certain point in your life, you'll have to face these important points in your life.
However some parents might want to try to prepare you for it, but there's just no way they can see in the future what obstacles you might face. They do what they believe is right; save money for a great education, try to inspire you towards a bright future, some even believe pointing you towards their ideal job is what's best for you. But maybe it's just me, but don't we all come to a point where we have a feeling we're wasting our time? I've experienced it twice in my life. Once was when I graduated from pre-college and had to decide what to study. Soon enough I had to admit that the chosen major was nothing for me at all. Now I graduated from college, I face the same struggle again.
I thought getting older and wiser would take that away, but somehow it just seemed worse.
-----
After graduating valedictorian of my year, I felt lost. Lost because I didn't know what my next goal is or should be. I've always worked out of survival. Even now...I'm not sure I love my job, but I feel challenged and that's good enough for now.
I dont know why, but I have a feeling 2020 is going to be a game changer for me. I hate to have expectations, because I hate it more to get disappointed, but this feels like something big is coming my way and without reason I'm feeling excited. And for those who are still lost, sometimes it's ok to let yourself go and just let the flow take you where you're supposed to be.
Friday, July 18, 2014
What if....
Recently things are not going that great in my life. Not that it's that bad, but things are happening and that's just part of life. But that doesn't take away the fact that these situations make me think about a lot of things. And what I know about feeling blue is that you need to do something about it.
I have different methods when I'm feeling blue. It could be that I pamper myself with a spa day or foodie day(which however has results that make me less happy), have an intensive workout or I try to motivate myself. This time I tried the latter.
Like what I said earlier in one of my posts and based on the lessons of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming): " If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got". And according to these studies, even sadness and blues has a starting point. If you'd like to go back to a time when you were happier, think about what you did different. What changed?
Recently I've been reading 'How to think like Leonardo da Vinci- Summary'. It's a summary about the principles on which the great genius based his ideas. Those are:
1. Curiosity - the quest for continuous learning
2. Demonstration - Test knowledge through practical experience
3. Sensation- Constantly sharpen the senses
4. Sfumato - be comfortable with ambiguity
5. Art/Science- balance science and art, logic and imagination
6. Corporality develop Poise - the balance of body and mind
7. Connection- maintain a big picture perspective
I have to admit I'm not such a quick reader or at least, I'd like to let all the words sink in, so I'm still at just principle #2, but it's so enlightening that I feel I had to share with you guys.
The first principle is curiosity and I felt so touched by it, since I'm the same way. I'm constantly looking for things I don't know and especially with the existence of Google, which is making searching information that much easier.
People does say 'Curiosity killed the cat', but on the other hand ' satisfaction brought it back'. With curiosity I don't mean nosing in other people's business, but the longing for knowledge. Like seeing a balloon deflate for the first time and wonder what happened. Or how certain liquids mixed together create a different color.
But in this summary, I've learned a new meaning to the question: 'What if...'. And I believe somehow I've always used principle #2: demonstration. I couldn't wait to test it out, so I asked my colleagues some simple questions like:
- 'What if you could have all the money in the world, what would you do?'
- 'What if you could do anything you want, what is it that you'd most likely do?'
These questions seem very easy, but the results were shocking!! Most people actually don't know what they'd do if they got the freedom to do anything and if they'd have all the money in the world, they wouldn't know what to do and where to start.
To make it more interesting, I'd like to share a test with you:
1. Choose a subject/topic. It can be a pencil, a word like love or anything that comes in mind at that moment.
2. In 10 minutes ( can be longer or shorter), write down every thing that comes to mind about this subject/topic. Even things that doesn't seem to link with the word; it does for you.
3. Screen what you've written. What belief or perception do you see behind all that you've written.
4. After you know what your belief or perception is, understand why you have this kind of belief or perception.
I did this exercise with my colleague and her belief is that she had to find meaning in life. And let me first say this " No belief is wrong". It is based on your experiences and your environment. My mom always told us that if you don't work, you don't eat. So I grew up holding on to that idea.
And what I did after this exercise was using the 'what if ' - questions; What if you don't need to work to get rich?', 'What if you could get paid for doing something that you love to do'. For most ladies, these might be the questions:
'What if I could eat whatever I want and whenever I want and not gain any weight?'
'What if I could have a perfect skin without using any products'
'What if I could have any guy I want, who would it be?
'What if....'
Some might see it as daydreaming and ' too good to be true', but WHAT IF...these are the things that keep you from achieving just that?
What if......
I have different methods when I'm feeling blue. It could be that I pamper myself with a spa day or foodie day(which however has results that make me less happy), have an intensive workout or I try to motivate myself. This time I tried the latter.
Like what I said earlier in one of my posts and based on the lessons of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming): " If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got". And according to these studies, even sadness and blues has a starting point. If you'd like to go back to a time when you were happier, think about what you did different. What changed?
Recently I've been reading 'How to think like Leonardo da Vinci- Summary'. It's a summary about the principles on which the great genius based his ideas. Those are:
1. Curiosity - the quest for continuous learning
2. Demonstration - Test knowledge through practical experience
3. Sensation- Constantly sharpen the senses
4. Sfumato - be comfortable with ambiguity
5. Art/Science- balance science and art, logic and imagination
6. Corporality develop Poise - the balance of body and mind
7. Connection- maintain a big picture perspective
I have to admit I'm not such a quick reader or at least, I'd like to let all the words sink in, so I'm still at just principle #2, but it's so enlightening that I feel I had to share with you guys.
The first principle is curiosity and I felt so touched by it, since I'm the same way. I'm constantly looking for things I don't know and especially with the existence of Google, which is making searching information that much easier.
People does say 'Curiosity killed the cat', but on the other hand ' satisfaction brought it back'. With curiosity I don't mean nosing in other people's business, but the longing for knowledge. Like seeing a balloon deflate for the first time and wonder what happened. Or how certain liquids mixed together create a different color.
But in this summary, I've learned a new meaning to the question: 'What if...'. And I believe somehow I've always used principle #2: demonstration. I couldn't wait to test it out, so I asked my colleagues some simple questions like:
- 'What if you could have all the money in the world, what would you do?'
- 'What if you could do anything you want, what is it that you'd most likely do?'
These questions seem very easy, but the results were shocking!! Most people actually don't know what they'd do if they got the freedom to do anything and if they'd have all the money in the world, they wouldn't know what to do and where to start.
To make it more interesting, I'd like to share a test with you:
1. Choose a subject/topic. It can be a pencil, a word like love or anything that comes in mind at that moment.
2. In 10 minutes ( can be longer or shorter), write down every thing that comes to mind about this subject/topic. Even things that doesn't seem to link with the word; it does for you.
3. Screen what you've written. What belief or perception do you see behind all that you've written.
4. After you know what your belief or perception is, understand why you have this kind of belief or perception.
I did this exercise with my colleague and her belief is that she had to find meaning in life. And let me first say this " No belief is wrong". It is based on your experiences and your environment. My mom always told us that if you don't work, you don't eat. So I grew up holding on to that idea.
And what I did after this exercise was using the 'what if ' - questions; What if you don't need to work to get rich?', 'What if you could get paid for doing something that you love to do'. For most ladies, these might be the questions:
'What if I could eat whatever I want and whenever I want and not gain any weight?'
'What if I could have a perfect skin without using any products'
'What if I could have any guy I want, who would it be?
'What if....'
Some might see it as daydreaming and ' too good to be true', but WHAT IF...these are the things that keep you from achieving just that?
What if......
Monday, June 23, 2014
You stole my heart,...Aruba!
Last year, after my internship in Aruba, everybody was asking me for
advice on what to do in Aruba and I believed I promised several people a
blog would follow. But days...months...passed, until I even come back
after a 2nd visit and I believe I should really stop procrastinating
about it and just do what I promised.
Aruba is a country that has a special place in my heart, not only the beach and the sea, but the friendly people and especially my friends. I couldn't visit most of them this year, but I'm sure our paths will cross somewhere in the future.
Aruba
is known for most as the 'Happy Island' and I did indeed experienced
that, every day of my internship and vacation. It is not the big things, but the small details
or things that makes so much difference like greeting. Every where you go,
you will be greeted. It's so natural for them to be friendly that it
makes me wonder why people are so hard on greeting and smiling. Even if I
walked by someone, who was just so happen in their yard, they'll wave
and say 'Bon dia', which means 'Good Morning'.
Last year, I arranged my internship and took a daring step to travel to a Country I've never been and stayed there for 6 months. The best thing that happened to me is that I get introduced to Joenne Nicastia through a very good friend. Joenne is a lady, who takes measures into her own hands and was always willing to give advice. I wanted to rent an apartment before I would actually arrive in Aruba, but she advised me not to do so, since a picture can be deceiving and other worries need to be taken into account. However Aruba is small, but not everywhere is convenient to get hold of a bus and renting a car was not within my reach yet.
I arrived on a national holiday, so since the moment I arrived she took me everywhere to see apartments. Some were really ridiculously priced- a small studio with everything packed in it could easily cost 1000 florin (nearly $600,-) per month. Finally, I found a nice apartment( a real apartment, where you have a small living room, open kitchen, full bathroom and a bedroom), where every area is divided nicely and gave me a feeling that after a hard day of work, I can really relax.
Not only did she assist me in the apartment search, but she was so thoughtful to think of the bus card and also to bring me to work on my first few days. I can't imagine anything more I can ask from her.
At work, I was welcomed warmheartedly and got the opportunity to work and learn the great standards of the brand hotel. (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention its name) One of the brand requirements is that all staff need to smile whenever a guest approaches, but it was so nice working there that the smile came naturally.
However in the beginning, I did take the bus after work, but after getting acquainted with the associates, most of them were willing to give me a ride after work.
The friendliness is so contagious that I got infected with the friendly-virus. Greeting, saying 'masha danki' and I even gave a ride to a total stranger, who couldn't find the shop she needed to be.
For everyone, who made my internship and stay so memorable, I'd like to say "Thank you!! Masha Danki!! You are one of the reasons Aruba will always have a place in my heart.
What I miss most of this beautiful island:
1. my friends - they introduced me to happy hour, fun in dressing up (for all kinds of events) and the warmth and love of Aruba
2. the free sunsets - The best place to watch the sun go under is at Malmok. You can just park your car there and make yourself comfortable while you watch the sun set.
3. the food options -> there is a variety of food available. You can grab an affordable big portioned meal at Fermin, a cheap Chinese lunch/dinner at Wing Hung or even a great fine dining experience at Ruth's Chris. If you're the sport watching type, there are several options ranging from the local bars to Champions. After hours, there are also some carts at certain areas, where you can get great food for an affordable price. One of them is Mexican. All options depending on the experience you'd like. For more about the food options in Aruba, check my other blog: http://atastybit.blogspot.com/
4. the accessibility - with a car, you can go everywhere yourself. It takes about half an hour to go from high rise area to San Nicolas. That is without traffic. There are a set of roads to go to all areas of Aruba and if you have GPS or Google Maps, you can get everywhere by car.
5. the safety - However Suriname is considered quite safe, Aruba is safer. Of course you should not provoke it, but all in all, I felt like I don't have to be scared to walk around. Just an example of how safe people felt they were: I saw people jogging at the boulevard at 2am.
There are lots more that I miss, but it will make the list too long for a blog. Have you already been there? What do you miss the most?
Aruba is a country that has a special place in my heart, not only the beach and the sea, but the friendly people and especially my friends. I couldn't visit most of them this year, but I'm sure our paths will cross somewhere in the future.
Last year, I arranged my internship and took a daring step to travel to a Country I've never been and stayed there for 6 months. The best thing that happened to me is that I get introduced to Joenne Nicastia through a very good friend. Joenne is a lady, who takes measures into her own hands and was always willing to give advice. I wanted to rent an apartment before I would actually arrive in Aruba, but she advised me not to do so, since a picture can be deceiving and other worries need to be taken into account. However Aruba is small, but not everywhere is convenient to get hold of a bus and renting a car was not within my reach yet.
I arrived on a national holiday, so since the moment I arrived she took me everywhere to see apartments. Some were really ridiculously priced- a small studio with everything packed in it could easily cost 1000 florin (nearly $600,-) per month. Finally, I found a nice apartment( a real apartment, where you have a small living room, open kitchen, full bathroom and a bedroom), where every area is divided nicely and gave me a feeling that after a hard day of work, I can really relax.
Not only did she assist me in the apartment search, but she was so thoughtful to think of the bus card and also to bring me to work on my first few days. I can't imagine anything more I can ask from her.
At work, I was welcomed warmheartedly and got the opportunity to work and learn the great standards of the brand hotel. (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention its name) One of the brand requirements is that all staff need to smile whenever a guest approaches, but it was so nice working there that the smile came naturally.
However in the beginning, I did take the bus after work, but after getting acquainted with the associates, most of them were willing to give me a ride after work.
The friendliness is so contagious that I got infected with the friendly-virus. Greeting, saying 'masha danki' and I even gave a ride to a total stranger, who couldn't find the shop she needed to be.
For everyone, who made my internship and stay so memorable, I'd like to say "Thank you!! Masha Danki!! You are one of the reasons Aruba will always have a place in my heart.
What I miss most of this beautiful island:
1. my friends - they introduced me to happy hour, fun in dressing up (for all kinds of events) and the warmth and love of Aruba
2. the free sunsets - The best place to watch the sun go under is at Malmok. You can just park your car there and make yourself comfortable while you watch the sun set.
3. the food options -> there is a variety of food available. You can grab an affordable big portioned meal at Fermin, a cheap Chinese lunch/dinner at Wing Hung or even a great fine dining experience at Ruth's Chris. If you're the sport watching type, there are several options ranging from the local bars to Champions. After hours, there are also some carts at certain areas, where you can get great food for an affordable price. One of them is Mexican. All options depending on the experience you'd like. For more about the food options in Aruba, check my other blog: http://atastybit.blogspot.com/
4. the accessibility - with a car, you can go everywhere yourself. It takes about half an hour to go from high rise area to San Nicolas. That is without traffic. There are a set of roads to go to all areas of Aruba and if you have GPS or Google Maps, you can get everywhere by car.
5. the safety - However Suriname is considered quite safe, Aruba is safer. Of course you should not provoke it, but all in all, I felt like I don't have to be scared to walk around. Just an example of how safe people felt they were: I saw people jogging at the boulevard at 2am.
There are lots more that I miss, but it will make the list too long for a blog. Have you already been there? What do you miss the most?
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