I'm Back!

I'm back!!! Did you miss me? (Yeah, yeah, I know most of you didn't even realize I had gone anywhere). Well, I was on vacation in Belize for a week - a much needed vacation given how crazy things have been with work. I'll give you the highlights now, although I promise to post a more detailed day by day account because we did a lot. I went with my friend Danielle, who I've been good friends with since high school. We lived in the same dorm freshman year and she was one of the four members of "Hale Posse" (my high school crew...yes, we were fabulous and you couldn't tell us any different, lol). Anyway, D just recently completed her phD at NYU (in ethnomusicology - quite amazing and I'm very proud of her) and this trip was planned way back in October of last year in response to some insane flight deals on American. I believe they were offering flights as low as $39 or $59 each way from newark to belize and D and I had recently decided to become travel buddies so we took advantage.
We flew out Saturday morning at 6am from newark. I had a minor scare at 4am while I was half sleep in the cab. I looked up and saw a sign for laguardia airport. When I asked the driver where he was taking me he said "JFK"...um, no buddy, I requested a cab for Newark. So he had to turn around and take me to Jersey. Then when we got to newark he had nerve to tell me "$25 for tolls". Ha! On what planet does a ride from the bronx to newark result in $25 in tolls? Even the GW + the turnpike + the RFK roundtrip doesn't amount to that. I looked at him like he had 10 heads and paid him the original amount quoted to me and let that be that.
I met up with D at the airport and we flew to Belize City with a really brief layover in Miami. In BC, we had prearranged for a shuttle to pick us up and take us to San Ignacio, about a 2 hour drive. On that first day, we settled into our hotel which was beautiful. We stayed at the San Ignacio Resort Hotel which is located on a hill, in walking distance to "downtown" San Ignacio. I use downtown loosely b/c it was the equivalent of about two blocks long and two blocks wide. On sunday, we walked downtown but most of the businesses were closed. D really wanted to see the Mayan ruins so we hiked up the hill past our resort to Cahal Pech - a small set of ruins about a 15 minute (uphill) walk (hike) from the hotel. On monday, we were up at the crack of dawn for a day trip to Guatemala to see Tikal - the largest set of ruins in the area. The trip there was 2 hrs driving and the road was extremely bumpy (NYC roads don't have anything on Guatemala). The visit itself was cool - a bit of history and culture although my idea of vacation usually involves a beach and a pina colada. We had a tour guide for the trip, and we climbed the buildings and temples (well I climbed most of them until I started getting exhausted - those things are high! I did climb the highest one though - I have some great pictures which I'll post later). On tuesday we were exhausted from Tikal. We had planned to visit Xunantunich - another set of ruins not too far from San Ignacio - as well as go on the Iguana tour at our hotel which had been highly recommended but neither of those ever happened. Instead we hung out downtown.
Wednesday began part 2 of our vacation. We took a shuttle from San Ignacio back to Belize City and caught the water taxi to San Pedro in the Ambergris Caye district. That's where the beaches are so you know I was happy. The water taxi was about an hour to Key Caulker (another coast town) abd another 30 minutes to San Pedro. We stayed at the Villas at Banyan Bay resort in San Pedro, which I would definitely stay at again if returning to the area (if I could afford it - we got them to give us a deal but their reg season prices are pretty high. After visiting though I could see why - there are people who live there year round because its so nice). Our room at Banyan Bay was essentially a 2br, 2bath villa. We had a kitchen, a spacious living room, a front porch with sitting area and a back deck. The master bedroom (D's room) had a jacuzzi bath, and a separate shower. On the resort grounds there was a restaurant called Rico's where we ate breakfast each day and lunch and dinner a few times. We were told it was overpriced but if you translated to American prices, it was pretty on par with a nice restaurant in the states. The resort was also right on the beach, and after walking along the beach in both directions I'm convinced Banyan Bay has the best beach space in San Pedro. Wednesday we mainly lounged at the resort and walked about 20 minutes to the "best supermarket in San Pedro" (according to the hotel van driver that picked us up from the water taxi). At night we went to "Wet Willy's" (not to be confused with Miami's Wet Willies infamous for their strong alcoholic drinks). This "Wet Willy's" was a night spot that we had heard about from the moment we stepped foot in san pedro. Let's just say, we went and I felt like I was chaperoning a high school dance - one where all the kids were gyrating on top of each other. It was a hot mess. We stayed a little over an hour and bounced. Thursday was beach day. We lounged on the beach all day long then headed into town at night to check out Wild Mangoes and Mojitos, both of which had been recommended to us by a young couple that was on the Tikal tour with us who had spent the first part of their trip in San Pedro. The food at Wild Mangoes was ok but the drinks were very mediocre in my opinion. Mojitos was better. On Friday we spent most of the day in town eating, drinking, and shopping for souvenirs. We went to a restaurant called Fidos which had excellent food and pretty good drinks too. They had been recommended in D's Fodors guide book (I, of course didn't have the foresight to get one of those - although I didn't get one for Milan either and I survived just fine). Saturday we had to return to the states (boo!!!). We were on the 7am water taxi back to Belize City and we were picked up by Caroline (a relative of D's mother's coworker...yeah I know, very random). We had been in communication with Caroline even before we got to Belize and she had been giving us recommendations during our travel. We were supposed to meet her at the water taxi on our way to san pedro but she was late leaving work so we finally got to meet her on the way back. Caroline was a sweetheart. She's probably in her mid 40s, but seems so much younger. She gave us a quick tour of Belize City in her SUV, and took us by her job (she works at the Central Bank of Belize) and her mom's house. She stopped to buy us a bunch of mangoes she insisted we had to try before we left Belize, and even tried to buy us some fresh cashews but no one was at the cashew stand (I was a little disappointed - I love cashews!). After all that, she drove us to the airport, saving us about $50US (ridiculous considering the airport is not far at all from Belize City). I think I will send her a thank you gift b/c she really didn't have to do all that. Well that was our trip in a (very big) nutshell.
On the flights back to NY, I was having trouble with my ears popping due to the pressure changes on the plane. By the time I got to NYC, I could barely hear out of my left ear. It cleared up Sunday morning but got worse on the flight back to minneapolis sunday. When I woke up monday morning for work, I still couldn't hear. I went to the clinic at work only to find out that I have an "inner ear infection". I'll save you the gross details but the inside of my ear did not look good, according to the doctor. I'm on antibiotics for 8 more days :-( to help clear it up. The good news is I can hear today! Its gradually getting better.
As far as work goes, I will certainly think twice before taking another week long vacation. I returned monday morning only to find out that there was a massive reorganization that resulted in my buyership being dissolved into other buyerships. Me and the two other buyers in my current group are each going to be working in different groups in a few weeks and I will be reporting to a new boss. Its sad b/c I like my boss (even though we have clashed in the past and she can be difficult to work with at times, she's also extremely smart and I've learned a lot from her). And I really love my team so now I have to get to know a whole new team. The good news is my new boss is a sweetheart of a person, although I'm not sure what its like to work with her. She came to my cross functional team meeting yesterday so I got a small glimpse of her working style (not bad, very opinionated but I don't know one person in her role who isn't). Other major changes that occurred while I was away: my analyst got promoted (very deserving, and I get to keep him!), and I gained a second captainship for my division (I am now the clearance captain for my division - I'm responsible for communicating to the division any changes to how we manage clearance sales). I think I was appointed to the captainship b/c due to some recent challenges I've had in my business, I have a vested interest in making sure clearance issues are communicated properly. So, work has been busy business as usual since I returned. We have casual dress code all week (last week also but I wasn't around to take adcantage of it) although I dressed up today b/c I had a vendor meeting. Ok, enough rambling for one entry. I'll post more on Belize (along with pictures) soon!