Just another day in Aruba

So, I have a lot of people ask me how I like traveling alone.  It's kind of a weird thing to do.... true... and I've already kinda talked to the downsides of it, but there is an upside too!  When I go to a museum... I stay as long as I want or as short as I'd like.  When I am amongst a group of people I can keep to myself and contemplate the universe or I can reach out and make friends.  Its funny how you can do something so many times and still get nervous each time you do it.  This is my case with making new friends.  I don't know why I get nervous... I really have never had a bad experience with it... stuff usually goes really smooth... but I have to make a concious effort and just do it.

Yesterday I went diving again to two places I have been before.  The Antilla (the sunken ship) and arashi beach (where I saw turtles)  So this trip I saw 6 turtles 2 Sting rays and 3 eels!  One of the eels heads was bigger than mine!  The huge eel wouldn't come out of it's hole, I would have loved to see how big it actually was.  There were tons of people on our boat, more than I have ever gone out with before.  We split into two groups, one group was this diving school from Holland and my froup was a mix of other people.  A couple from Chicago, a couple from Belgium and Germany, me, another local, and mark.  I didn't expect to make so many friends but I really had a great time getting to know the people in my group.  After the two dives I started getting to know the other group from Holland.  I told them about my story... and they were teaching me things in Dutch.  It's funny that the first words people are usually most anxious to teach are bad words... haha.... anyway afterwards they invited me to stay on the beach with them for a barbq. 

Theres a funny stereotype that the Dutch people are cheapskates and greedy.  Ever heard of going Dutch on a date?  That's where you go out to eat with a boy or girl or friend and you pay for your own meal, even on dates!  So this guy Fred from Holland told me he calls that "going American" :)  I heard a saying: If you meet an intelligent, attractive and friendly woman who likes going dutch then you should hang on to her for dear life.... thought that was pretty funny.  Actually I havn't encountered myself in any situation where I can find this stereotype of the dutch to be true.  The first week when I was out with friends they were insisting on buying me things, then this bbq, I only had a credit card at a restaurant to the waiter paid my tab and told me to bring him the cash later....  Anyway, I have found the Dutch to be nothing but generous..... so consider that myth busted! :D

I washed the dog today.... I couldn't find any dog shampoo... so I used dish soap.... speaking of washing with dish soap, I couldn't find any regular soap when I first moved in here and I kept forgetting to buy soap at the store.... so I showered with dish soap for like 3 days.... works fine... just takes a little longer to rinse :)  Anyway... what's funny about the dog is that there are lots of ticks here.... and dogs in aruba are really suseptable to "brown tick fever" .  I am told that frontline and other tick shampoos don't work so I was given instruction to fill a bucket with water and then to put a syringe full of poison into it and then to wash the dog with it.  Seriously the bottle just says "Poison" well it says "Veneno" which is poison in Portugese.  Beneno in spanish.  Anyways I washed the dog, poured it in his ears like the owner told me to... and now he's sad that he has to stay outside till he's dry.  :D 

Anyway... pretty uneventful day.... just saturday chore day.... washed the dog, cleaned the house, and watched college football :D  I made another blog ... its like my book club... http://whatisoakreading.blogspot.com/   I have a lot of extra time to read so I am going to write about the things I read and stuff.  My hopes is that it will keep me interested in reading, inspire others to read, and also have people suggest great books for me to read.  I am starting with "The Alchemist" which I have already read but I want to read it again.  That's all for now, thanks for reading!