What to do after getting a divorce?

A woman decides to take a Club Med vacation to recharge

I am a 38-year old woman currently residing in San Francisco. I work as a coordinator for a large computer hardware company organizing events for my company’s Asian customers. At 38, I’m not the beauty I once was, but I still capture the eyes of men and maintain a healthy appearance benefited by my passion for ballroom dancing.  At 5’9”, I’m tall for any woman.  I still have my muscular supple physique from years of ballet training and my weight is still not over the 125 lbs of my youth.

The beginnings of my story are embarrassingly commonplace. I had just experienced a sad divorce and wanted to get a way from my small world. I chose Club Med in Tahiti. Friends had told me this would be the perfect location to forget my sad circumstances. I would be forced by the resort’s cosmopolitan atmosphere and activity directors to meet and interact with others. I had hoped with its freer lifestyle I could explore some of the urges I had as a teenager but thoroughly suppressed due to my strict upbringing and ordinary marriage.

The first couple of days I just relaxed at the pool, played tennis, and swam in the bay.  At night I would go to the bar for the dancing I loved so much. The atmosphere at the Club Med bar was one of complete abandonment. All of the women were wearing sexy clothes; bikini tops with sarong skirts, short mini skirts and bra tops, or flimsy see through blouses over their tanned skins. Europeans predominated the mix with some Asians, mostly Japanese and people from Latin America. It was a wonderfully uninhibited crowd of congenial people ready for a good time.

Because of my dance experience, I never lacked for a dance partner.  I met a very smooth man from Italy (aren’t they all?), Eduardo, who loved to hold me tighter than I wished when they played the foxtrot. I also loved the Latin dancing with a Cuban American businessman, Jose, from Miami. He led me expertly and I was starting to think perhaps he might be the one I chose for my intended decadence. It was wonderful getting so much attention.

The atmosphere at the pool and the beach was just as uninhibited as that of the bar and dance floor. It had a typically European air about it. The women casually sunned themselves on their backs or stomachs, spreading sun tan lotion on one another as if they did this every day.  So many of the girls were beautiful and graceful and the scene at the pool looked liked a tableau from the palate of a famous artist.

Continued:  How to have a good time at Club Med