Fashion Woes

During my research prior to moving to Aruba, one of the things I remember reading was the fact that island living will play havoc on your wardrobe.  Another blog I follow wrote about how the sun and the salt air is so rough on your clothes, so say goodbye to ever having an expensive wardrobe again as it’s not even worth it.  I remember reading it but not really letting it sink in a whole lot, but now it sure has become truth!

First, let’s talk about shoes.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love my flip flops, A LOT!  And, yes, I came to Aruba with SEVERAL pair of flip flops but over the last year, that number has dramatically decreased due to the fact that they break on a regular basis.  So very sad, I know.  The first incident I had was actually not too long after we got here and we were going to a semi-important meeting at the Department of Economic Affairs.  Dressed in a very comfy yet cutest sundress (remember we hadn’t been here too long) and a matching pair of flip flops, we were walking through the parking lot for the meeting and BOOM – flip flop disconnect!  Now you can’t exactly reschedule these meetings, so I just walked in there with one shoe, carried the other, and tried to look somewhat dignified.  Fortunately, it didn’t affect the results of the meeting as we do have a current Business License – whew!

Since I didn’t want to have a repeat of this occurrence in the future, I decided to never leave home without a spare pair of shoes in the trunk, so there is always a “backup” just in case.  Reality is, I think I have lost at least three more pair of flip flops since the first, and it just continues to go downhill.  Here is the latest tragedy of what were my “laundry” flip flops for so many months…RIP….

In order to remedy such occurrences in the future, I have decided I need to just accept the fact that my flip flops will not last long here.  So what have I done?  I have degraded myself to the wearing of these, purchased at my local Chinese grocery store for a mere 7 AFL (about $4)…

Here’s the deal – they are actually super comfy, they work great in the sand, could double as water shoes, laundry shoes, who knows what else?  Now will I be wearing these to the grocery store and out to dinner?  Probably not.  Or should I say at least not yet!  But as cheap and plentiful as they are, I am actually considering returning to the same store and buying them in the other available colors…please don’t judge until you’ve walked in my shoes – literally – ha ha!

So the pain is real, people.  Having nice clothes is hard here.  Wearing them in the sun all the time is bad enough, but we actually dry our clothes in the sun as well.  See previous blog posts about the joy I receive from hanging laundry, and still do.  However, the sun here is INTENSE to say the least and we have had holes show up in clothes that we previously had for a long time, but things here just don’t last.

The cruelest part of the situation is that we live on an island where you are in the presence of people on vacation.  All.The.Time.  What do people on vacation do?  They bring their cutest clothes that they just bought for their trip and tore the tags off when they opened their suitcase.  Oh, and the people on the cruise ships with their matchy match bathing suit/coverup/headband combo.  Then we walk down the street and see their adorableness and think, “I used to be that person”, but now we are in a whole other place.  Yep – it’s tough.  But somebody has to do it.

A funny story that recently happened was we were getting ready to go somewhere and Maddie looks at me and says, “You’ve changed.”  Huh?  She says, “You used to refuse to leave the house unless your earrings matched your shirt and now you just walk around like, whatever!”  Ha ha – yep, that’s what island living will do to you!

Going back to the U.S. to buy all the clearance clothes we can get our hands on is something that is a necessity.  You see, we have no Target, Kohl’s, or Old Navy and yes, we can order online but it takes an eternity for the things to get here and costs an arm and a leg to get them out of customs and by the time you actually received them, they are already last year’s trend or you maybe aren’t even that size any longer.  There are stores here, there really are, but there hasn’t been a budget for local clothes shopping for me in the last year and maybe that’s another reason I’m bitter about the whole area of fashion these days.  Sorry.   The only solution (at least for now) is to just wear the stretched out, faded, little-holes-under-the-arms, doing-the-best-you-can, and try-my-darndest-to-be-fashionable outfits you came with.  But at least the tan is good!

 

Customer Service – A Lost Art?

The first week of our second year in Aruba turned out to be quite a challenging one for us.  As usual, we have about 40 steps that need to be completed before moving on with our business and those steps depend greatly on others providing answers to us for one reason or another.

Living in Aruba for more than a year now, we have come to expect a certain level of customer service which is not exactly what we were used to in the U.S.  Everyone here is on “island time”.  It’s a real thing.  We are over any high expectations of getting things done in a timely fashion, so that’s fine.  It is what it is.  However, in dealing with companies in the U.S., there are higher expectations.  Sounds unfair, I know, but it’s just how it is, or should I say, how it should be.  Let me explain just a few examples of why, by the end of the week, the only thing left to do was head to the beach and rely on the blue waters and soft sand to make everything better again…

Part of our “customer service” to our passengers on Full Throttle Tours is going to be to give them a sports bottle with our logo to be used during the tour and then to keep as a souvenir.  In researching where to purchase the bottles, we decided to go with Discount Mugs located in Florida.  Prior to actually ordering, their customer service reps were very helpful in designing the mugs and even placing the order.  Then things went downhill.  WAY downhill.  Since we are dealing with a Florida company and need to get product to Aruba, we also have to work with a cargo company to ship the items to us and on top of that, a customs broker here in Aruba.  There are a lot of steps to actually getting the items to us, but the main one is having the product delivered to the cargo company in a timely fashion so it can be scheduled for the next ship to Aruba.  Discount Mugs, however, does not actually update their website to show you that your items have been shipped, thus causing a problem when working with your cargo company and your customs broker.  Finally, after many phone calls to customer service, we were promised that our water bottles were shipped and everything was scheduled.  We thought all was fine.  Three days after the initial shipment left the U.S., we receive a phone call from our cargo company telling us they just received more items from Discount Mugs.  What?!?  So here we go, paying another shipment and all the fees that go with it to receive what we thought was already complete.  Discount Mugs has no answer for us, but they know we are NOT happy!  Items arrive in Aruba in TWO shipments, we open the boxes and find we received SOMEONE ELSE’s ORDER!!!!!  We paid an additional $577.32 to have water bottles that belonged to Mt. Airy Raiders (anyone know them – they are in Iowa?).  You have no idea how extremely upsetting this was and I had no idea I could be that mad at a company.  The phone call to their customer service was not pleasant to say the least.  And this is WAY out of character for me to be wanting to scream at these people for being that dumb!  We also contacted the Mt. Airy Raiders and received an adorable message from their Athletic Director saying we should have a contest to see if anyone posts a picture with the bottle, they can receive a free ticket to one of their football games.  Classic.  The ending of this story is after MANY phone calls and MANY e-mails, we are finally going to receive a refund of the entire $577.32 we paid for those water bottles that are not ours.  Needless to say, anyone know of a RELIABLE place to purchase plastic sports bottles?!?

 

Scenario #2 of 40 – On June 20, 2017, we placed an order with Zazzle for dri-fit shirts with our logo that our staff will wear while out on our boat.  At that time, it gave an arrival date of June 26 which was perfect because our friends were set to leave on July 2 for their visit and could bring the shirts with them.  So our friends arrive and bring several other items that we had ordered (THANK YOU!), but no shirts.  I go online to look and it says, “Making”, like, they aren’t even shipped yet.  A few phone calls and e-mails later and no answer about when I might receive the shirts.  So now, again, we are having to work with our cargo shipper in Florida and our customs broker in Aruba (costing a small fortune), and I am still not given a ship date.  So finally, after many more e-mails and a month after the order was placed, I am told the shirts are out of stock and they have no idea when they will have them in inventory again.  Really?  Could you not have told me this three weeks ago?!?  To top it off, when I originally placed the order on June 20, they immediately charged my credit card for the whole order and when I asked for a full refund because I was cancelling the order, they told me I never paid for them.  Well, my credit card statement sure says I did!  Even after offering to send a copy of the credit card statement, they were arguing that I paid anything.  So I let them know I filed a dispute with my credit card company and the answer I received was, “You should go ahead and do whatever you can to make yourself more comfortable.”  WHAT?!?!?  Again, customer service?!?  Then they have the balls (excuse me) to send me a 10% off coupon for a future order.  Ha!  The amount is already back on my card and I will NEVER order from them again.  And just so you know, we found out our local t-shirt guy now prints on dri-fit shirts and they cost the same stinking amount as the ones from Zazzle and he makes them in two days!  Hooray for InkPress Aruba!!!

Are you ready for more?  Now let’s turn to Aruba customer service.  Remember, expectations are low, just based on experience and knowing what we know about island time.  So one of the main things we need to get our tours started is to modify our boat to add more seats.  Many, many weeks ago, Jay met one gentleman at the marina to have him see the boat and give him a quote.  Guy came out, took measurements, and we NEVER HEARD FROM HIM AGAIN!  Jay has tried calling, sending WhatsApp messages, everything he can think of.  We aren’t sure what is going on with that, but very strange.  I’m convinced he died.  Or went to jail.  Not joking.  So company number two comes in to do the same thing and we did receive a quote for them – 43000 AFL!  What?  That is nearly $25,000 USD.  Are you kidding?  We can send the boat back to Miami and have the manufacturer install the seats and ship it back to us for less than that amount!  Needless to say, we did not accept their offer and are back to the drawing board.  The story is, they simply didn’t want to do the job so they gave us some crazy quote.  This one is a challenge, but we will not be defeated!

The stories go on and on and on and I don’t want to bore you to tears and there are no pictures to support this blog post, so I will stop now.  We know this is all part of island life, but wow, does it make it difficult to function sometimes.  One of the things that Full Throttle Tours will pride themselves on is excellent customer service.  You have a question?  We will give you an answer and hopefully faster than you expected.  You experienced an issue?  We will do everything in our power to resolve whatever it was that didn’t make you completely happy.  Perhaps others can learn from us both here in Aruba and back in the U.S.  Whatever happened to good old fashioned customer service?  I wish I knew!

 

One Year Arubaversary

Happy Arubaversary to us!  One year ago today, our family boarded a plane in Phoenix, Arizona to make the move to Aruba.  Wow – time really does fly!  This past year has been a whirlwind of ups, downs, twists, and turns and we wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Has it been easy?  No.  Has it been worth it?  Yes.  Have I said that before?  Probably.

After all the research and anticipation of making the move, just when you think you have made all of the necessary preparations, something changes, goes a different way, or just plain doesn’t happen.  So what have we learned this past year?   A LOT!  Here are a few of the surprises we have encountered (both positive things and not so great things):

• I did NOT expect to make actual friends from doing this blog.  Like, real-life people who have become true friends that I have met, spent time with, and now legitimately care about.  You know who you are.  This has been one of my favorite things that has happened over the past year.  As we pack up and move our lives to a new country, one of the hardest things is leaving friends behind.  But getting to meet new people and share our experiences has been an absolute blessing that I honestly had no idea was going to happen.  It all starts with someone sending a simple response to this silly blog.  I’m so happy that you did!!!!
• It is REALLY HARD to get things done in Aruba.  This has two meanings.  It’s really hard because all you want to do is go to the beach and it’s really hard to focus when that blue water sucks you in and away from your responsibilities!  It’s also really hard because “island time” is a real thing.  It takes at least 10 minutes to pay one bill online, and at least an hour to do it in person.  We have spent SO MUCH TIME waiting on things – paperwork, permits, bank accounts.  You have NO IDEA  until you actually live it.  Our patience has been taken to a whole new level.  But again, just head to the blue water, you forget what you’re even waiting on, and all is good again!
• The scenery really does not get old.  I have read about people who say “I couldn’t live there because it’s so small and I would feel island locked and it’s the same beach different day”  blah, blah, blah.  There are still roads we need to explore, there are still places we haven’t visited, and we go out and about A LOT!  Let me tell you, the day that the view of the sea and the feel of the softest sand on my feet doesn’t take my breath away is when I will need to move again.  But right now, I am still in awe.  I think my family may be sick of hearing me say it, but that water – I just can’t even believe it’s real.  And we live here.  I have a feeling it will be a LONG TIME before I take it for granted.
  

  

  
• There are seasons here.  Some places have fall, winter, spring, summer.  We knew there was “high season” and “low season” referring to tourists.  But we feel like there are seasons of weather as well.  We just recently started running the air conditioning in the main part of the house again after having just windows open for about 5 months.  Right now, the weather is very dry, about the same temperature every day, always humid, always windy.  About September/October, the winds tend to go away and it feels much hotter and much more humid.  Then about November/December, it starts to rain more.  Keep in mind, when it rains, it’s a very short period of time and then the sun pops back up and it’s business as usual.  January/February the weather returns to glorious – not much rain.  I mean, it’s always glorious, but it does change somewhat.  So those are our seasons.  I don’t believe we have dipped below 80 degrees the entire year we have been here and we are getting more accustomed to the humidity as well.
• Our family has spent A LOT of time together this past year and we still all like each other!  The most common question people ask me is “What about your girls?  Are they okay with living there?”  My answer is always “Most definitely, yes.”  Now, they may really feel differently and have a very good way of hiding it, but as far as I can tell, they are pretty darn happy here.  Is it hard not having a “normal” American life?  Of course there are things they are missing, but the experiences they are having is something that I hope they will treasure forever and trading this for having a mall to go to seems quite fair.  Wait, we do have a mall here!  There aren’t a whole lot of teens who can say that their family made them move to a beautiful island and do online school and go to the beach all the time and watch the struggles of starting a business in a foreign country.  True life lessons, for sure!
  

  

  

  

So we survived our first year!  We have learned so much, accomplished so much, and still have a long way to go!  We are in the final stages of getting Full Throttle Tours Aruba off the ground, which is what we came here to do.  There have been a lot of laughs, a lot of tears, a lot of hurdles to jump and hoops to go through, but we have never once regretted the decision to make Aruba our home.