Once upon a time... or should I say twice upon a time, I moved to the US, the second time indeed to Florida. I was not too keen to be moving back to the US, quite honestly it was very stressful to leave behind (again) my family, friends and beautiful island. It was a deja-vue all too familiar to me... having to meet and make new friends over and over again, it has been my way of life since a very young age (oddly enough now it's the only way I cna see myself!). First landed in Panama City FL... WOW... just beautiful from a nature perspective.... gorgeous beaches, and doplhins, and birds of all shapes, sizes and colors... and NOTHING else! I decided that if Florida had to be my temporary home, then it had to be a little bigger than that. In within a couple of months I moved to Orlando. Although I always knew that it was a teporary fix, it was much bigger, it was much more multi-cultural and I found a job, that little I knew would have brought into my life some of my closest friends ever, the kind you call family! I started to work at British Airways Tours as a call center agent, I argued on the phone with people who wanted to book a room in Paris with the ocean view! or even better they wanted to get a euro-train pass to go from London to France (that's still ok and possible), to Africa and maybe Mexico! What?!?!? That's when I would put them on hold, gently hang up on them and go for a ciggy break with my awesome friends. Then what heppened? I actually got promoted to be a Trainer and I loved it!!! I got to travel a lot and I loved it!!! I got even closer to my Floridian circle of friends and I loved it!!! As all stories though, it had to end... British Airways Tours shut down and relocated to Jacksonville.
I travelled that road so many times, Orlando-Jacksonville, Jacksonville-Orlando, through good times and bad times, blasting the music in my blue little Isuzu Amigo so loud that my ears would be ringing at the end of the ride. Listening to Moby, Outkast, Manu Chao and Madonna over and over and over. It was a little clip of my life, a little videoclip that included some wonderful people that luckily I still have in my life despite the distance. Why am I sharing all this? Because one of us, one of the friends from my treasured circle of trust, still works there and now she told me they are once again shutting down! It's so sad... I left that job in 2002, but I still have nice memories of it. It makes me sad that my friend and all the other people that worked so hard there are going to be left home! And it's all because of globalization, money, capitalism, money... eventually we become too expensive for large companies and they need to relocate where the dirty work is cheaper. Is it fair?
Once upon a time... or should I say twice upon a time, I moved to the US, the second time indeed to Florida. I was not too keen to be moving back to the US, quite honestly it was very stressful to leave behind (again) my family, friends and beautiful island. It was a deja-vue all too familiar to me... having to meet and make new friends over and over again, it has been my way of life since a very young age (oddly enough now it's the only way I cna see myself!). First landed in Panama City FL... WOW... just beautiful from a nature perspective.... gorgeous beaches, and doplhins, and birds of all shapes, sizes and colors... and NOTHING else! I decided that if Florida had to be my temporary home, then it had to be a little bigger than that. In within a couple of months I moved to Orlando. Although I always knew that it was a teporary fix, it was much bigger, it was much more multi-cultural and I found a job, that little I knew would have brought into my life some of my closest friends ever, the kind you call family! I started to work at British Airways Tours as a call center agent, I argued on the phone with people who wanted to book a room in Paris with the ocean view! or even better they wanted to get a euro-train pass to go from London to France (that's still ok and possible), to Africa and maybe Mexico! What?!?!? That's when I would put them on hold, gently hang up on them and go for a ciggy break with my awesome friends. Then what heppened? I actually got promoted to be a Trainer and I loved it!!! I got to travel a lot and I loved it!!! I got even closer to my Floridian circle of friends and I loved it!!! As all stories though, it had to end... British Airways Tours shut down and relocated to Jacksonville.
I travelled that road so many times, Orlando-Jacksonville, Jacksonville-Orlando, through good times and bad times, blasting the music in my blue little Isuzu Amigo so loud that my ears would be ringing at the end of the ride. Listening to Moby, Outkast, Manu Chao and Madonna over and over and over. It was a little clip of my life, a little videoclip that included some wonderful people that luckily I still have in my life despite the distance. Why am I sharing all this? Because one of us, one of the friends from my treasured circle of trust, still works there and now she told me they are once again shutting down! It's so sad... I left that job in 2002, but I still have nice memories of it. It makes me sad that my friend and all the other people that worked so hard there are going to be left home! And it's all because of globalization, money, capitalism, money... eventually we become too expensive for large companies and they need to relocate where the dirty work is cheaper. Is it fair?
