New Beginnings

What a crazy past few days! I guess moving overseas is just not easy. We finally got the title transferred to my stepdad's name on Wednesday, but that was a freaking mission! On the same day, the people from PakMail picked up the crate with all the wedding gifts and some more of my stuff, it is supposed to arrive in London in 4-6 weeks.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I flew from Miami to London for good. I thought that since I had been living in Italy for the past two and half years and in DC for two years before that, that It would be easy to just leave again, but I was wrong. After kissing my family goodbye at the airport, I just bawled walking to the security line. Once on the plane, I started bawling again, which got Matt crying. I felt sad. I guess the reason I felt this way this time was because when I lived in Italy I know it was only temporary and that I'd be back in the US in just over two years, but it is more definite this time. I am here to stay and there is no telling when I'll live close to my family again, if ever.

I know that we all must make sacrifices in life, but that doesn't make the process any easier. This is the second time I move to a different country indefinitely, I was 14 the first time and I was simply following my parents. This time I am following my husband, and while I obviously love this man very much ( I moved half way across the world for him), I can't help but wonder if I made the right choice. After all, being realistic and all, a blood bond is very difficult to break but marriages do often fail. I don't want mine to fail and I am not going into this thinking that it will but.....what if it does? What do I do then? Yes, I am scared.

DMV

Yesterday we went to Orlando to pick up my car. That went pretty smoothly. This morning we went to transfer the title of the car to my parents who are buying it from me. I had my military title and certificate which is what they gave me when I registered the car in Italy and they took my Maryland title. We went to the DMV and waited in line for half an hour. Once we were at the window, I explained to the lady what we wanted to do. She took my paperwork and started asking questions. Aftet about 10 minutes and a talk with the supervisor, I was told I needed to go down to West Palm Beach to the district office for a VIN check and to see if they accepted my military title as proof of ownership. This is so freaking annoying, specially since we are sort of in a hurry cause I am leaving for the UK in 2 days. I just hate all this red tape.

NYC

We went to New York City on Wednesday. We had an appointment on Thursday at the British Consulate for my visa application. It all went smoothly and I now have a very pretty sticker on my passport saying I am allowed to live, work, etc in the UK for two years starting next Friday. It was easier than I thought it would be, which is great cause I hate immigration procedures, no matter the country. That's all that's going on really.

Withdrawals Of A Different Kind

Right after the wedding, and during the days after, I was SO glad it was over. Planning a wedding is so much work that I was glad to see the fruits of my work. The wedding day itself was great but so tiring. I was up early and went to bed late, my feet hurt from walking in my shoes, etc. I was exhausted by the end of the day. It went by very fast and at the moment I was glad because I was so tried and I just wanted to rest and not have to think about the wedding for the first time in months.

As the days went by, I found myself daydreaming about my wedding, about the way I looked, how happy we were, the dress, etc. I love that dress! I wish I could wear it again. Then the withdrawals began. I never thought I'd have wedding withdrawals because I was relieved that after all those months of hard work the day had finally come and gone. Right now I am processing wedding pictures and I wishing more than ever that I could forever live that day, over and over again. Am I crazy? Absolutely, but all the hard work is worth it and it truly was the happiest day of my life.

Easy What???

Last Friday we went on our second honeymoon cruise, this time a no frills one. EasyCruise is indeed no frills. We walked into the room and, at the widest point, Matt could outstretch his arms and just be 2 inches short of being able to reach both sides. There was nothing in the room except for two mattresses on the floor. The bathroom, which was a wet room, took up most of the space at the front of the room which left us with barely any room for our luggage. Thankfully, we were smart enough to just have one big bag between the two of us. Carrying it up the gangway wasn't fun either, for Matt anyway.

We didn't get to the ship until late afternoon so we just had a late lunch/early dinner on the ship, which was expensive and the service terribly slow, then showered and went out for a bit to see what little we could of St Lucia. We could here music coming from one of the waterside places so, after much begging, Matt agreed to go to this place if we could find it. After one futile search, we finally found it and went in. From the very second we walked through the door I could tell something was a bit off. We walked into the main bit and then it all became clear. We were there only white people there. Even more so, we were the only tourists there. We are by no means racist, but for obvious reasons, we felt rather uncomfortable. They were mostly teenage boys and a handful of girls. They were drinking and smoking god knows what. So, after asking for a Diet Pepsi and having been told they didn't have any, we made like shepherds and got the flock outta there. It was very obvious that it wasn't a party for tourists and we stuck out like a sore thumb.

That night we discovered the worst thing about the ship; the mattresses are incredibly hard. We hardly got any sleep the first night and every morning we'd wake up with back pain and I just tossed and turned all night. We hated the beds, with a passion. You could probably balance needle on it, that's how hard they were. The pillows were bad too, just one long, thin pillow that was too bulky and small when folded in two. I have backpacked before and stayed at less than comfy beds but nothing like this, never. Then there was the bathroom issue. It was a wet room so the water from the shower got into the toilet and sink area and it didn't drain properly AND the drain was on the opposite of where the water gravitated to so it formed puddles, which lead to stagnant water. Disgusting. However the bathroom issue was solved with a cabin cleaning (which wasn't part of the cruise cost and we had to pay extra for).

The next few days we spend in Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Martinique and Grenada. We rented cars and saw the sights, except in Bequia in the Grenadines because it was too small and in Grenada because every single company was out of cars thank to Easter weekend. Overall, it was a good trip and I would do EasyCruise again on a different itinerary..... if they changed the mattresses.

Lighter

Not much going on today except that I dyed my hair. It was only the second time in my life (first as an adult) and it was quite funny. I pulled the tubes out of the box and proceeded to put the cream in one tube inside the applicator bottle where the rest of the mix was. My mom started applying the dye when I realized I may not have mixed it right. Turns out I had put the conditioner in the bottle and not the actual hair dye. LOL Thankfully it turned out OK and now I have light brown hair. Now off to pack for the second cruise tomorrow!

It's Mrs H. To You

Before you are even born, your parents fight over the name they are going to give you. One wants Gretchen, the other some ungodly name which escapes me at the moment. They argue and they argue and then, the day of your birth, your mother's sister and your father's brother, who happen to be dating each other, decide THEY are going to name you and you end up with a name like Juneisy. As if that wasn't a hard enough name, your last name happens to be Quintana and apparently they didn't think of the mouthful your whole name will be.

Yup, that's me. I was not fortunate, or maybe unfortunate, enough to have a name like Maria or Juana. I spent all my life, since I can remember, spelling my name every single time I had to tell it to somebody. Anyone understands Jane Smith, but Juneisy Quintana is an entire different matter. It didn't bother me much as a kid, or I can't remember if it did, but as I got older I got tired of spelling it, of correcting people and if hearing my name butchered left and right. I love the name, don't get me wrong, but I know it's not very user friendly. I used to dream about the day I'd change my name to something shorter and simpler, and that day seemed so far away.

Well, I guess everything in its own time. Today was the day I got to change my name, BUT, as I had always dreamed, I didn't make it any easier to say, au contraire! I ended simply adding my new last name behind Quintana, which I kept as my middle name. I guess I just grew to love my name so I just couldn't part with it. I may have a long name, but it is MY name and it has been a part of me since the day I was born and what better way to keep true to myself than simply keeping it as my middle name? So it's Juneisy Quintana H. and that marks a new period of my life.

Less Than Perfect

Yesterday, the ship took us to Holland America's private island in the Bahamas, Half Moon Cay. According to the shore excursions guy, this is the island where Christopher Columbus first set foot, but I wonder how many other islands claim that. The water was the most beautiful turquoise I have ever seen. It was a gorgeous morning and we had booked a jet ski "tour". After being ferried ashore, we were left in the dark as to what we were supposed to do so Matt assumed we were supposed to show at the place by ourselves so we followed the map. After a few minutes of walking we stopped seeing people around so I started to ponder that maybe we weren't supposed to go out there on our own and that we should have asked at the info desk what the hell we were supposed to do. I told Matt but apparently he misunderstood me and said that we were doing the right thing, his testosterone was just too much to admit that he was wrong and I was right. We argued and kept on walking. When we finally got to the place after about 10 minutes and about half an hour after we were supposed to, the woman at the hut told us we had to go all the way back to where we started from and check in at the information desk where they would put us on a truck back to the jet ski hut. I was so pissed and mad at Matt it's not even funny. He finally admitted I was right and started walking back to the info desk.

By this time I really thought we had completely missed the tour and that since everything else was booked they wouldn't put us on a later tour. I expressed how freaking pissed I was and the fact that we had missed the tour and he said "So, what do you want me to do, rip the tickets up and throw them away??" Uh? Luckily, we got back to the info desk and they checked us in and put us on a truck back to the jet skis. The ride was fun but longer than it absolutely had to be. It got pretty rough at times and I almost was thrown off the thing more than once. They had said it would be about 30 minutes long but it was in fact longer, we were out there from around 10:00 AM till about 10:50 AM.

This brought on a whole new issue. At first, we had booked a beach cabana for this day because we wanted a place with shade, drinks, etc but at $200 for the day, we decided it was just too expensive. We cancelled the cabana and booked a clamshell shade instead, that was $9. Yesterday, we were supposed to claim the clamshell by 11:00 am or they would give them out to people on a first come first served basis. So, with the jet ski thing lasting till 10:50 am and having to wait for the truck to take us back, we didn't make it to the clamshell claiming place till 11:05 am. We thought we'd still make it but no luck. Turns out the they had run out way before 11:00 am. How can this be?? We had prebooked it! Well, they had two ships in port and they had over-booked the stupid clamshells. Once again, I was freaking pissed. Nothing was going right and I just wanted to say "F%&@ it!" and go back to the ship. However, Matt said no and we found a shady spot under a tree for him to lay down. I stripped down to my swimsuit and headed for the water....EEK!!!! It was freezing! But I really had to pee so I braved it and went in hip deep. After lunch and a couple more hours of roasting in the sun, we went back to the ship exhausted.

The cruise was fun, for the most part, it had good and not so good moments but it was real. It wasn't a fairytale honeymoon where people have sex all day long and gaze into each other's eyes when they are not having sex, but it was real, it was us, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Unfortunately, all things must come to an end and we disembarked today. My parent's picked us up and gave us one of their cars. My thighs are sore from the jet ski and I can hardly walk. And the one negative side effect of a cruise, I stepped on the scale and I have gained almost 10 pounds since the wedding 13 days ago. Weight Watchers, here I come!!!!