bye to the Oosterdam!

July 28, 2012
Ketchikan day was really busy. I went ashore with Jessica and Shannon met up with us while we were trying to get internet. Jessica was hungry because she didn’t get breakfast so we ended up at a café where I had a snack, Jessica had lunch and Shannon had breakfast. We went back to the ship and worked (I kept thinking it was the night session). After work, Shannon and I went to see about getting manicures; they had an opening in an hour so we went to listen to the jazz band until then. It was my first manicure and it was pretty awesome. Hot stone hand massage and oil and stuff all over my forearms and hands, then came the actual nail work. That was interesting, they’re a lot neater at painting nails than I am! Haha.

Jessica went to dinner early because she couldn’t find me around that time. A lot of our tweens came in for free time on the wii/xbox, but left before we started the actual activity for the night. We had the dance party and a few more showed up for that, which was lots of fun because they all actually wanted to dance instead of sitting on the sidelines.

It was hour forward night so it was an early morning for all of youth staff, luckily only two kids were there near on-time this morning and they were willing just to play Uno for an hour. Lunch went by really quickly and we were back at work before I knew it. Quick afternoon session concluded in the 20 minute talent show. And now I’m packing to come home!



Sunday July 29, 2012
Long days seem to be a common occurrence for me travelling east. When I went to France, it was the longest night ever ending in Germany. At least this one I’m ending it at home, only over 24 hours after I left the ship.

I’m sitting at the airport right now, it’s about 9:30. I’ve been up since 5:30 for disembarkation ‘customs.’ Basically the exact same thing I did three weeks ago just I had another form for them to look at (confirmation that I was taking three bags with me). After that, I went with Shannon to breakfast, my last meal on the Oosterdam! Then I got ready and finished packing while Shannon called her friend to see when she could come pick us up to spend the day in Seattle. I disembarked at 9:15, I had to give up my crew ID (it said expires on July 29, and the Oosterdam, why was it necessary to not let me keep it as a souvenir?) It’s unbelievable how much plastic Holland America must waste. Every person on board has at least one card/key with their name on it. Passangers alone, that’s about 8,000 cards during my 4 weeks there, not including any crew (we do keep ours longer at least, and but we do have two: an ID and a key)!

Shannon and I waited for her friend Emily and she drove us to a café where we had a second breakfast before walking around two of the many markets downtown on Sundays. Two hours later, we decided to get lunch so stopped at a restaurant that looked relatively cheap (food around here is way too expensive in general; I saw one cheap place and it was fast food… McDonalds … in Victoria). We went to Gap and Old Navy so that Shannon could find a navy sweater to wear as part of her uniform. Then, Shannon and Emily dropped me off at the link-rail station so I could get to the airport and my day room. I took the rail to the airport, then the hotel shuttle to the hotel where I stayed for a while. No internet in the rooms; it was only free in the lobby and at the pool; I did take my kindle and sit by the pool for a while checking Facebook since I could. I talked to mom for a while then watched a bit of the News/Olympics on the TV before I got bored. It was about 8, so I decided to head back to the airport.

The security line was long, but I finally made it through around 8:45 and had to search to find out where my terminal was. It’s not even part of the main building; wee had to take a metro to get to all the S gates. Now, I’m just sitting in the terminal, eating fries and waiting. There is free internet, but my computer does not want to connect for some reason. I might just end up going and reading on my kindle until time to go. Finally, less than 12 hours until I’m home! :)