Ketchikan and Victoria

July 20, 2012
Ashley, Jessica and I walked around Ketchikan after leaving the coffee house, we took a couple group photos and basically window shopped until it started to rain and we decided that it wasn’t worth it to stay out in the rain especially because it was getting colder. Jessica and I watched a movie she had on her ipad until lunchtime. Lunch was very crowded, the only open tables we could find were two person tables, so Ashley wasn’t able to join Jessica and me to eat. I don’t know why, but I kept thinking it was dinner rather than lunch. I told my teens that I’d see them at 8 rather than 2 and I started to plan a bit in my head for their prom. It was very strange that mix up of time because every time I reminded myself that it was only lunch, I immediately forgot.
I read in the library until 2 (yes I did eventually get that the time was 2 not 8) and at 2 I went to see how my teens were doing. There were so many there when I arrived! 20! That’s out of 30 regulars and about 5 that come and go randomly. I was really amazed at how many there were. We didn’t really do much all afternoon, just put on music and talked. I almost went to sleep at one point because the ship was rocking a lot and it was rather quiet because all my teens had gotten up really early because their parents wanted to have a lot of time in Ketchikan. Some of the guys ended up renting a movie and I let them watch it until I left. The Ring… I played on my kindle rather than watch; scary movies and I do not mix well at all.
After a rather unsatisfying dinner of ‘4-cheese’ pizza (there was about half the amount of cheese on this pizza than on the regular pizzas), I went with Jessica to look at the photo gallery downstairs because we’d had a picture taken this morning as we left the ship. They hadn’t finished printing today’s yet, but I did find one of my teens and I outside on Tracy Arm day! I need to see if I can get it; Ashley said that sometimes they give the crew theirs for free, but I’m fine paying a little bit for it, I’m pretty sure we at least get a discount.
I get back up the Loft to find my teens watching another movie: The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I really don’t like scary movies! Luckily, I had a crew to help me decorate for prom, so we did that instead of listen/watch. I probably should’ve gotten there more than 15 minutes early because we had a lot of decorating to do! It looked pretty good considering we only had a few stars, a small banner, streamers and some curling ribbon. I cleared the dance floor, got them to put some music on and we danced! At first there wasn’t a whole lot of music that’s easy to dance to, but they eventually got the hang of it. One of the boys even took charge at one point and put on a slow song and told the guys they had to dance with a girl at least for a few minutes (the girls were rather outnumbered strangely). I hope they had fun, it seemed like they did and that was the whole point of throwing the prom.
At 10, we went to the show. It was Broadway night so the crew danced to a lot of random Broadway songs or re-written Broadway songs. I definitely prefer the normal way of singing Over the Rainbow to the one last night. My teens were very much into the faster paced songs and the few they knew, so I’d say the last show was a success!
When we got back from the show, I counted votes and announced the winners of all the categories: Funniest, Best Dressed, Best Dance Moves, Best Smile, Most Likely to Succeed, Most Athletic and of course the King and Queen. After that, we just sat and talked until I had to close. Some left early because their parents gave them curfews, but after midnight, I still had 12. Slowly they trickled out until I had to kick 6 out at 1. I don’t know why they didn’t just leave before that, they were so tired and I was tired, but they didn’t want to go yet.
July 21, 2012
I slept in this morning, nearly missing breakfast; I did run by the Lido and get a box of fruit loops and a chocolate milk though. When I got up to the Loft, no one was there, so I slowly ate my breakfast. A few slowly trickled in and we went down the Lido for a real breakfast (the schedule did say we were supposed to have a pancake breakfast together!). A few more people showed up at breakfast, then again when we returned to the Loft. They suggested we watch another movie, so someone checked one out at the front desk. I had to leave before it was over, sad because it was one I actually didn’t hate. I went to lunch with Jessica and checked for internet connection (again) in my room before heading back. They had already started another movie; I ended up reading through this one. Something about starting movies makes them want to keep watching them, because they wanted to watch another one! They brought one up and showed me the rating that the front desk said it has-G-and we started to watch it. We didn’t get far before the actual rating was shown: R. They’re not allowed to watch R rated movies in the Loft, so I had to stop the movie and make them take it downstairs again. I’m pretty sure they knew it was R, and were hoping to fool me with the front desk pamphlet rating. I might need to talk to the front desk and tell them to check the rest of the ratings, because that one could not be more wrong.
After another (this time age-appropriate) movie, Jessica came and we went down to the ocean bar for a bit so we could listen to the band play for a while. She had to go to work, so I went to dinner. There were no crew members to sit with, so I started to sit alone, but then a group of my teens saw me and asked me to sit with them. While I was eating, one of the girls’ grandmothers came up and started talking to her, asking who was in charge of the teens. When she pointed at me, my first thought was that I might have done something wrong because she had too neutral of a face for me to tell what was going on. She ended up giving me $40. Youth Staff’s first tip since I came on board. We have to split it between the five of us, but hey one of MY teens’ guardians thought I did a good enough job to give me some extra money!
I stayed with my teens for an hour until we headed to the Loft again. People came and went for the first hour because we were arriving to Victoria late (8:45 instead of 7 or 7:30), excursions had been cancelled so a lot of my teens were thinking about just not getting off the ship. We watched another movie, this time one that one of my teens brought with them because the front office wasn’t checking any more out that night. I chose because none of the teens there seemed to care enough to make a decision. So, for about 1.5 hours, me and several of the boys (everyone else ended up going to Victoria for a bit) watched Failure to Launch, a chick flick. That was actually entertaining because they watched the whole thing, not talking. Near the end, around 10, the others started coming back from Victoria and packing. The ones who had gone to Victoria were tired, they’d basically just walked around taking pictures because the excursions had been cancelled by our late arrival, they were ready to come hang out with everyone else. We spent a while exchanging emails/phone numbers before putting on another movie, which many of them talked their way through. We did end the movie early though because most of them were either tired or going to the Crows Nest to hang out and get sodas. I ended up getting to close at about 12:30 instead of a bit after 1 like I’d thought.
Oh, I’m not sure I mentioned something. We do get some news while on the ship, I watch the new channel occasionally on the TV, and of course there’s facebook when I have internet. So, I heard about the shooting at the movie theatre in Colorado. The crazy thing is that about a third of my teens are from Colorado, the area surrounding Denver. Two brothers actually go to that movie theatre all the time. They might have actually been there had they not been on this cruise. Pray for them please? They very likely might know some of the people who were there at the time.
Ashley’s leaving tomorrow, I’ll get to see her one more time as she comes to get Jessica so they can go to immigration together. I think Erica, Jessica and I are going into Seattle for part of the morning/afternoon to see about getting clothes that might actually fit for our uniforms. We’ll see what happens, usually no one wants to get up early on days they don’t have to.
I’m in charge of tweens next week, training Shannon, who’s just coming on in the morning. Strange to think that my first week, I was being trained by Ashley in the tween room, and now four weeks later, my last week, I’m the one training someone new. And now, Erica and I are the staff that have been on the longest on this ship. It’s such a different world on ships; things happen so quickly. Youth Staff usually doesn’t change quite this often from what I’ve heard, hopefully since my next contract is longer, and not during summer, the staff with be more stable.