My First Season

My very special guest today and I met in Club Med Bodrum, Turkey in the Summer of 1999 in what was my first season as a Chief of Sports and her first season as a Kayak G.O. From Ankara, Turkey and now living in Montreal, Quebec (and no, she did not follow me here!), please help me welcome the amazing Ece! Before Club Med, Ece (who speaks four languages) was studying French in Bilkent University while pursuing a degree in Translation and Interpretation when she first heard about Club Med from the father of the son that she was tutoring. She applied, had her interview in Istanbul and was sent to Bodrum at just 18 years old (and not 17 ½ years old as was mentioned in the interview). Even though Ece was a “Kayak G.O.” that is not what she thought she was going to be doing. This is one of the most hilarious and confusing 1st season stories you will ever hear and I am so grateful that I was witness to it, so no spoilers, please listen!! After Bodrum, Ece switched to Excursions and worked in the villages of Foca, Kusadsi and Palmiye. After Club Med, Ece put her translation skills to work for various human rights organizations and NGO’s as well as law firms and for-profit corporations. Ece was also hired as a translator in Turkey’s office of the United Nations and currently has her own translation company. If you need high-quality translation and proofreading services in English, French or Turkish, please visit her website (please see link below). **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes. And if you like what you hear, please leave a review at Apple podcasts.

Translation | Freelance Translator | Canada (ecetranslator.com)

And please check out her Instagram and giver her a follow:

Ece Tepedelenli (@ece_tp) | Instagram

My guest today and I have never met, but we do have 56 mutual friends on Facebook. His first season was in Club Med Sandpiper in October of 1991 as a Mini Club Scuba G.O. Originally from Chicago and now living in the Golden State, please help me welcome, Dan Beeman! Dan flew from Chicago to New York for his interview with Club Med and because he had taken a Scuba course in school, he was offered the Mini Club position in Sandpiper. Eventually Dan became a Scuba instructor while still working in Club Med. As you can imagine, he has many funny stories and he shares them with us in this episode. Before Club Med, Dan was an Airborne Paratrooper in the US Army stationed in Germany. He has a Masters of Hospitality degree from UNLV where he studied tourism with a specialization in Sustainable Tourism. Dan is also a pickleball ambassador for Head, USA Pickleball and the International Pickleball Federation Ambassador in California, Mexico and the Caribbean. And because of his love for the sport of pickleball, Dan also wrote an award-winning, buddy comedy screenplay called “Pickleballs!-The Movie”. Please visit his website (see link below) which has links to the two books he wrote and it is here you can see pictures of the famous “Pickle Palace”, a luxury, turnkey bed and breakfast that he owns in Palm Desert, California. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes. 

Pickleball Travel - Superlative Pickleball

My guest today and I have never met but her first season was in Club Med Sandpiper in February of 2007 as a Mini Club G.O. Please help me welcome, from London, Ontario (and not England as I discovered), Jessi Weeks! Jessi was going to Fanshawe College in Ontario and she applied to Club Med on a student contract to satisfy her Co-op requirements for College. Jessi had her Club Med interview in the most Canadian of all places, you guessed it, a Tim Horton’s! Jessi held many positions during her time in Club Med from 2007-2016: Mini Club/Teen Club, Boutique, Landsports, Lifeguard Supervisor, Animation Manager, and Animation/Sports Manager. She even worked in the ski village of Club Med Yabuli, China from November 2014 to March 2015 (and yes, we will talk about that experience). Jessi is an amazing singer, so we cover her musical influences and how she got into singing. Jessi also helps me introduce a new segment to MFS called, “Harmonize with Hannah”. She has too many stories to cover in only 45 minutes, but we did have time to talk about hosting the tour group "Olivia" for 2 weeks in Punta Cana, being terrorized by wild monkeys in Cherating, Malaysia, to having emergency appendicitis surgery in the Dominican Republic without a translator, and to having to play charades to communicate with the Chinese G.M’s in Club Med Yabuli, China. **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM and Listen Notes.

Please check out her Instagram and give her a follow!

https://www.instagram.com/jessi_canadian_traveller/

My very special guest today and I met in Columbus Isle in Winter of 2000, but her first season was in Club Med Paradise Island in October of 1997 as a Reception G.O. From my hometown of Montreal, please help me welcome the amazing and funny Sabrina Fagen! Sabrina heard about Club Med from her parents who were frequent guests, so she decided to apply in 1997. Sabrina worked about 3 ½ years in Club Med and has many stories to tell. One of them involves a tongue piercing gone awry in Ixtapa on her day off and she shares her thoughts on what it was like working at the Club Med in Cuba during the 1999/2000 Winter season. Sabrina and I also share the same feelings whenever we see a FedEx truck in the neighbourhood-meaning that we have a Pavlovian response because we think the truck is bringing us our plane tickets (old school G.O.’s will understand the reference!). We also cover her favourite crazy signs, La Charanga, Gala-Freed from Desire and Mila. During her time in Club Med, Sabrina worked at the Reception, Mini-Club, Landsports/Fitness and Sailing. She also explains her reasons for wanting to transition from the Mini Club to Sailing. And lastly, we get to hear her recollection of the Jay Tighe, Sabrina & Greg "fence story" from Columbus 2000! **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.

My guest today and I kept missing each other at various villages and have never met, despite having a whopping 102 mutual friends. Her first season was in Club Med Punta Cana in November during the 1992/1993 Winter season as a Fitness and Dance G.O. Originally from London, Ontario and now living in beautiful Vancouver, please help me welcome Shelley Markevich Lawrence! Shelley has a very good memory from her first season and lets us take that first season journey with her in this interview. Shelley actually had an ex-boyfriend drive her to her Club Med interview in Montreal, from Ontario, which was conducted by Kevin Batt. From her first season with CDV Howard McCarly, to hosting Atlantis for the week, Shelley has a ton of interesting stories. Shelley worked in Lindeman Island, Australia as I did (her season was with Kenton Smith in 1998), so we speak of the good times we both had there. Discovered during the interview is that both Shelly and I share a love for all things Jennifer Lopez and we end the podcast talking about the acting industry in Vancouver, Canada.

Please check her out on Instagram and give a follow:

https://www.instagram.com/shelleymarkevich/

**My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.

My guest today and I have never worked together before despite having a combined 20 years in Club Med and 45 mutual friends. Her first season was in November of 1990 in Club Med Paradise Island as an au pair Snorkel/Picnic G.O. From Montreal, please help me welcome, Silvy Dufour! Silvy initially went to Paradise Island as a G.M was but was invited to come back as a G.O by the interim manager. Her first season was jam-packed with talent and there were a lot of future CDV’s in Paradise Island that season: Xavier Corne and Saber Fajr (both at Tennis) and Jean-Marc Desy (Golf) and ET (Animation) and Momo was the Chief of Sports. She also worked alongside Jenner and Red at Snorkeling. As you can imagine, Silvy has many great stories to tell. To meeting author Mary Higgins Clark, actor Antonio Sabàto Jr., Judge Judy and former NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg. From teaching three-time Super Bowl champ Emmitt Smith how to snorkel in Eleuthera, to helping build Sharkies bar in Turks, to hanging out with Pavel Bure and Trevor Linden from the NHL, to watching internationally renowned marine photographer Bob Talbot in action in Columbus Isle, Silvy has got them all! You have got to hear her 1992 NYC/Martinique charter story! It has to be heard to be believed, trust me!! **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.

My special guest today was one of those rare G.O’s that I always heard about during my time in Club Med, but sadly never got the chance to work with. He does confirm one of the stories I heard about him if it was true or not. Do you want a hint? Okay, it involves something called a “Stuntman Shot”. We did, however, finally meet at the EXGO reunion 2 in Cancun in 2008. His first season was in Club Med Sonora Bay in March of 1998 as a Waterski G.O. He only goes by one name, because one name is all he needs! Everyone, please help me welcome to MFS, the one and only, Boone! Boone was going to school at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington (where they had a collegiate waterski team no less!!) and it was a professor who told Boone about Club Med. Boone did not want to pass out towels for 3 months to earn credit for a course, so this professor told him about a former student who did an internship at Club Med. The rest they say, is history. We talked about so many different subjects during this interview that I completely lost track of time. So if you want to listen all the way to the end, please do so! We also cover Boone’s stand-up experiences and his comedy influences. Boone had so many great and funny stories to tell that I don’t want to ruin any of them by mentioning them here, but I will say that we both share a love for all things Rocky Horror, Bugs Bunny, and Ryan Leach. Boone does have a very funny Neil Diamond impersonator story you have to hear, as well as a scuba diving story involving Corona beer in Sonora Bay. And lastly, he has a very full-circle moment with the person that interviewed him for Club Med all those years ago, Steve Miller, that I swear will not sound believable. And we do get his version of the story about how he and his wife Suzie met in Sandpiper in 2003 and yes, I mention my “Brouette theory” to Boone! **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. MFS is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.

And please subscribe to his YouTube channel:

Joe Boone Dell - YouTube

And please check out his wife Suzie's sites!

Oak and Park

Instagram

(1) Facebook

Hello everyone, and welcome to a very special episode of MFS. It’s not often you get to interview a student at the university where you work, which is Concordia University in the Gina Cody School of Engineering & Computer Science in Montreal, Quebec, and who just happened to win a bronze medal at the XXIV Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China! The closing ceremony was held this past Sunday, Feb 20th, and this very special Aerospace engineering student-athlete has agreed to come on and tell us what it was like attending her first, of what will be many Winter Olympics appearances, I am sure. Please help me welcome back to My First Season, a bronze medal winner in Mixed Team Aerials, the amazing Marion Thénault!!  Marion is a recent recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal, awarded to people who have made a significant contribution to their community, province or territory, or have made outstanding achievements abroad. **My First Season podcast has always been ad-free and free to listen to and is available to download on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Samsung Podcasts, Podbean App, Podchaser, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora, and Listen Notes. And if you like what you hear, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. 

Please check her out on Instagram and give her a follow:

https://www.instagram.com/marionthenault/

And if you would like to listen to Marion's first interview on MFS from December 2021, please see the link below:

https://www.myfirstseason.com/e/marion-thenault-2021-almaty-world-cup-1st-place-winner-aerial-skiing/

My guest today recorded her episode of MFS on December 10 2021 and she had just stopped working for Club Med at the end of November 2021, making her the most recent EXGO I have interviewed thus far. Her first season was in Club Med Sandpiper in November of 2018 as a Meetings & Event Co-ordinator. Please help me welcome to MFS, Sydney Gaudreau! Both of Sydney’s parents were G.O’s in Club Med and she spent her whole life going to Club Med on vacation, from Mini-Club to Teen Club. It was at her parent’s company in Oakland, California, Trapeze Arts, Inc. (since 1994), where Sydney took a liking to event planning. Trapeze Arts has shared the art of Flying Trapeze with many corporate groups from Google, Pixar, Wells Fargo, and American Express, to name just a few, so there was a lot of event planning involved when these companies came to Trapeze Arts. Sydney also has a Liberal Studies degree from Oregon State University with an emphasis in Event Coordination and Production, so she was well-prepared to start her new job at Club Med. Sydney has so many interesting stories to share, including describing what it was like working at Club Med Turks & Caicos in November 2020 during Covid and the many protocols that had to be followed when you worked there. I hope you enjoy this episode with an amazing, funny, beautiful and charming person.

Please check her out on Instagram and give her a follow:

https://www.instagram.com/sydneyyalexxa/

To check out Trapeze Arts, Inc. please see the link below:

https://www.trapezearts.com/

**My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.

My guest today was a Scuba G.O. in his first season in Club Med Columbus Isle in June of 1997. Please help me welcome, from Calgary, Alberta, Jay Tighe! Jay started to scuba dive at a young age in Indonesia of all places and got certified in Thailand. Fast forward a few years later and Jay was working as a Scuba instructor in Harbour Island, Bahamas where he would meet the odd G.O and they would tell him about working at Club Med. He snuck over to Club Med Eleuthera one day to check it out and found it was for him. Jay worked roughly 10 years in Club Med and has quite the stories to back it up. From Jennifer Lopez getting a private boat on her honeymoon in Columbus in ’97, to six-time NHL Stanley Cup champion Mark Messier buying about $1,500.00 in bar books to treat the G.O.’s on Canada Day, to catching an end zone touchdown from New Orleans Saints & Atlanta Falcons NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert during a game of beach football, to playing hockey with another NHL six-time Stanley Cup champion, Glenn Anderson in Turks, he’s got ‘em all! He even saw the current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, on the dive boat in Columbus in 2005 on his honeymoon. One of Jay’s other stories from Columbus 1999/2000 (a hilarious story I had completely forgotten about) involves Jay, myself, a beautiful girl from Montreal named Sabrina (that we both liked) and a late-night, fence-scaling mission gone awry (for Jay) coming back from the Riding Rock. You will just have to listen to this entire entertaining episode to find out what happened. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

**My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to.

My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.