Jen Simonds

My guest today and I worked together in Club Med Columbus Isle during the 1997/1998 season. Her first season was in Club Med Cancun in April of 1997 as a Sailing and Windsurfing G.O. A family trip to Club Med St. Lucia when she was 16 years old lit the spark and she wanted to be a G.O. from that moment on. She has a degree in Journalism, dance and Secondary Education and she hails from the Lone Star State. Please help me welcome the amazing and funny, Jennifer "Jen" Simonds!! Jen may have started out as a Sailing G.O., but she quickly became a Choreographer in November of 1998 at Club Med Ixtapa. The genesis of why Jen wanted to become a Choreographer actually had to do with laundry and not her extensive dance background. Wait, what? Yes, laundry! (you’ll just have to listen and find out why!). Jen also worked in the villages of Sandpiper, Eleuthera, Turks and Caicos, Crested Butte, Paradise Island, Sahoro, Phuket and Lindeman Island. You want stories? Jen has you covered! From breaking bones in her foot not once but TWICE during her first season (how did she not get sent home the first time? Listen and find out!), to a champagne pyramid gone awry in Ixtapa, to making the transition from Sailing to Choreographer, to seeing snow for the very first time in Crested Butte, to meeting Brad Paisley and working out with former President Jimmy Carter (what?!), to some mild culture shock in Sahoro, Japan, to not licking cane toads in Lindeman Island, Australia, to working at Turks and Caicos a whopping five times, to putting on a “Godzilla-themed” show in Paradise Island as part of her choreographer stage (please people, send me photos of this Godzilla show if you have them!), we cover it all in this episode! We also talk about her current job being a middle school dance teacher and maybe or maybe not teaching her students some Crazy Signs as a warm-up (Toma Que Toma and Chocolaté anyone?)! Jen lists the three things she misses most about Club Med and if she would have done anything differently. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I loved talking to her again! **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and ad-free and is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Samsung 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.

Please check her out on Instagram:

Jennifer Simonds (@jenn.diamondz) • Instagram photos and videos

And please check out her YouTube Channel:

Jenn.choreographer - YouTube