{"id":2707,"date":"2009-08-03T20:08:29","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T20:08:29","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-11-07T18:11:34","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T18:11:34","slug":"Vacation-with-the-Ex-or--There-s-no-such-thing-as-a-free-trip-to-Jamaica-","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=2707","title":{"rendered":"Vacation with the Ex, or &#8220;There&#8217;s no such thing as a free trip to Jamaica&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not one for budget travel, but I hate spending my own money. So when I want to go on a nice vacation, I let a boyfriend pay for everything instead. (I know it&#8217;s not very feminist of me, but it&#8217;s smart to save money, and I&#8217;d rather be politically incorrect than poor.)<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<i class=\"intro\">I&#8217;m not one for budget travel, but I hate spending my own money. So when I want to go on a nice vacation, I let a boyfriend pay for everything instead. (I know it&#8217;s not very feminist of me, but it&#8217;s smart to save money, and I&#8217;d rather be politically incorrect than poor.)<\/i><br \/>\n<br \/>\nMost recently, my ex-boyfriend Michael took me to Jamaica. I was supposed to be his date to a wedding in Montego Bay, assuming we would still be together three weeks after he bought the plane tickets. Me, I would have cut my losses and went alone, but he still wanted me to go for some reason.<\/p>\n<p>\nMaybe he thought we would get back together. Or maybe he thought that we never really broke up. It was hard to tell with us because we were always fighting. I guess he hoped that things would be different if we had a change of scenery. And what could we possibly have to fight about in paradise?<\/p>\n<p><h3>Day One<\/h3>\n<p>\nThe first thing I noticed was the Plantation-inspired architecture and d\u00c3\u00a9cor throughout the 400-acre Half Moon Resort. They even have a restaurant called &#8220;The Sugar Mill.&#8221; As an Asian woman, I don&#8217;t have white guilt per se, but I still felt weird about it.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;We only got here five minutes ago, and you&#8217;re already complaining,&#8221; Michael groaned. &#8220;You&#8217;re going to be a lot of fun, Debbie Downer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nHaving missed peak tanning hours, we tried to do the romantic sunset stroll thing after we unpacked.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"pullquote\">\n<div class=\"pullquoteTop\">\n<blockquote><p>\nWe went to bed early that night. And we went to sleep early, too, if you know what I mean.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"pullquoteAttribute\">Jessica Cutler<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n&#8220;Ow!&#8221; I cried, stepping on something sharp. &#8220;Fucking shit!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe beach was covered with rocks and pointy shell fragments. And the water was sort of dead-looking. (The bay quells the waves.)<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;This isn&#8217;t as nice as St. John,&#8221; I thought out loud.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;You&#8217;re complaining about this too?&#8221; Michael asked. &#8220;I can&#8217;t believe this!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I&#8217;m not complaining! Jesus fucking Christ, I&#8217;m just making an observation!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nWe went to bed early that night. And we went to sleep early, too, if you know what I mean. &#8220;Walks on the beach&#8221; are one of my turn-ons, but arguments about dumb shit are not.<\/p>\n<p><h3>Day Two<\/h3>\n<p>\nMichael wanted to swim with the dolphins, but I don&#8217;t like fish.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;They&#8217;re not fish,&#8221; he reminded me, &#8220;They&#8217;re mammals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Right. Fine. But I&#8217;m not spending money on dolphins. How much does it cost again?&#8221; I asked, flipping through the resort brochure. It was $199 for a group swim, $400 for a private swim. &#8220;Wow, it&#8217;s like getting a lap dance in the Champagne Room.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nDolphin hookers are not my thing, so I stayed in the cottage, ordered room service (jerk chicken with a side of scotch buttons) and watched a Star Wars marathon on Cinemax.<\/p>\n<p>\nI came all the way to Jamaica to watch Star Wars and eat chicken in bed alone. I could have done this back at home, I thought to myself. Nevertheless, I couldn&#8217;t help feeling very pleased with how decadent I was being. In fact, it was the highlight of my trip.<\/p>\n<p><h3>Day Three<\/h3>\n<p>\nI awoke early the next morning and went for a run around the resort grounds. I ran by the championship golf course, equestrian center, and tennis courts, imagining the activity-filled weekend that I was missing. And the spa was still under construction, much to my disappointment, as it would have been the perfect place to hide from my ex.<\/p>\n<p>\nWhen I returned to the room, Michael seemed annoyed that I went running without him. He then accused me of &#8220;using&#8221; him for a free trip Jamaica, since I didn&#8217;t seem interested in spending any time together. I couldn&#8217;t argue with him in good conscience, so I cried in the shower for ten minutes, then I went to the beach alone and started charging pina coladas to his room.<\/p>\n<p><h3>Day Four<\/h3>\n<p>\nAfter a few hundred dollars worth of frozen mixed drinks, Michael and I reconciled in time for the wedding. He even held my hand during the ceremony. And the reception was like something from the pages of InStyle Weddings: cocktail hour at sunset, pink martinis with rose petals in them, a big white tent on the croquet lawn. It almost made me want to get married. Then the drinks wore off at some point during the speeches and I resumed<br \/>\nwondering what on Earth I was doing at a wedding with my ex.<\/p>\n<p>\nThat night, as I was lying in bed next to Michael, I thought about the beautiful wedding and all those people who I would never see again (including him). It made me a little sad, but as break-ups go, it could have ended much worse than this.<\/p>\n<p>\nCheck out Jessica&#8217;s blog at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jessicacutleronline.com\">www.jessicacutleronline.com<\/a> and MyAsiance page <a href=\"http:\/\/my.asiancemagazine.com\/jessicacutler\">my.asiancemagazine.com\/jessicacutler<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not one for budget travel, but I hate spending my own money. So when I want to go on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Roxiest","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a649f11514329cb22df866966808560c51d3f04ec29220e0908f8ade6c0c4816?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"4","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"I&#8217;m not one for budget travel, but I hate spending my own money. So when I want to go on","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["News"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":199,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":5,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Roxiest","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=118"},"magazine_blocks_comment":4,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a649f11514329cb22df866966808560c51d3f04ec29220e0908f8ade6c0c4816?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"<a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link category-link-1\">News<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}