hundreds of miles from land

October 26, 2012: Sea Day 4
We’re halfway across the Atlantic now! Halfway done with our long sea days. I slept in a bit this morning because I’d stayed up late watching Under the Tuscan Sun on TV, so by the time I got up and ready, I had to wait until lunch before getting food. Luckily, I have a supply of fruit loops and apples to eat on days like this. I went up for lunch and ended up sitting with Laurie and Jim until they left to go do stuff, then Edison and a few people from the shops joined me. I’m getting so tired of sandwiches now, I’ve had one every day this week for lunch, because the grill hasn’t been open (I’ve been kind of craving a chicken burger).

I had work at 1, the room was extremely humid so I had to open a door (it was much cooler outside than in that room). Housekeeping had also plugged in a fan in the middle of the room to help with the condensation on the floor (last night we kept slipping on the slightly wet floor). It was loud but didn’t really do much for the heat and humidity. The girl came in first, of course. We colored for about an hour and a half before I took her downstairs to get some water, and just to get out of the room. We met the other kids down in the Lido and they got signed in. Once the girl finished her water, I took them all outside to play games on the Sports Deck. It felt really good outside, cool for my taste but at least it wasn’t the stagnant, humid heat in Club HAL. We went back in and I opened the door to outside to get some of the breeze in and the kids played video games and colored.

I’d nearly forgotten about Bingo when DJ B called asking if I was coming. The kids had just left and I was on my way out, so I ran down there to help him sell the cards. The people who play know me very well by now and had been worried about me, why I wasn’t there early like usual.

I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Cass, then went to dinner. Dinner was surprisingly decent. They had brie! I sat with the band and some of the cast members. Kayley joined us as dinner was ending. We went down to our rooms so she could get a book to return to the library and so I could change out of my uniform. We returned her book then went to the Mix to listen to the remainder of Brandi’s set for the night. J was there (cast member) so we hung out with him and Brandi when her set finished. They have these tables in the Mix that are interactive. You can draw and play games on them! We played with this thing called “Ribbons.” You draw something and it’ll take it and redraw it all over the table. While we were doing this, the cruise director came by and we all talked for a while. He’s really nice, very enthusiastic and wants to get to know everyone and make sure all our jobs are going okay and everything else.

The four of us (J, Brandi, Kayley and me) went to the show together. The singer did a show entitled “Tribute to the Divas.” She did a good job with it, no wonder Cass told me that she had a big voice. After the show, I came back to the room and watched the news (all the satellites are out except for Fox news – no internet either). It’s funny that a few weeks ago, it seemed like Fox News was very supportive of Obama, but now they’re saying he’s been lying about what happened in Libya on September 11 this year. It’ll be interesting to see what happens after the election. Wow, that’s not far away now. It is strange how out-of-touch we are sometimes on this ship with the rest of the world, despite travelling all over the world

October 27, 2012: Sea Day 5
I had to work this morning. I put up the sign as usual and ate breakfast before heading up to stay in Club HAL. I studied Italian all morning because the kids didn’t show up at all. It was good though, I was productive.

I went back to the room to sleep a bit more (I had a hard time going to sleep last night and waking up this morning) until lunch. I went up to lunch at one to hang out with the HAL Cats between their sets. Turns out that they didn’t have a set at all because it was kind of rainy. But, they were still up there sitting around and chatting so I joined in. I stayed up there through the time change (another hour forward, now we’re three hours ahead… two more to go!) then went down to help with Bingo.

Cass and I talked all afternoon about various things: music, how we got on ships, different types of jobs, etc. I had dinner and went up to Club HAL. Not much interesting happened there, the girl was up there the entire time and they all just played games with each other. They left right at ten so I had to run down and change really quick to get to the show: ballroom dance couple!

After that, Kayley and I started to watch the second Harry Potter, but I got too tired so we didn’t finish it.

October 28, 2012: Sea Day 6
It’s strange to think that for the last six days, I’ve looked outside and seen nothing but water and sky, and I know that there’s not any land for hundreds of miles. That just hit me today, that we’re in the middle of the ocean with no land close by.
Anyway, I had a lazy morning since I didn’t work until 1. I went up to lunch (pasta for the first time in a while) and sat with the acupuncturist and Laurie the party planner. We had some interesting conversation about aviation school, the news, etc. Of course there was the few minutes of silence in between conversations because we’ve all been on the ship with nothing too too exciting happening for six days now, so some normal conversation topics have been exhausted (did you get off at the last port, what did you do, what happened while you were off?).

I was only upstairs for a few minutes with the girl came up, she was there for about two hours before the other kids came. She spent most of the time wondering why her friend wasn’t there yet and trying to get me to tell her what to draw. Since I’ve given her lots of suggestions on this the last few days, I suggested she think of something to draw on her own. After sitting for a few minutes and complaining that she couldn’t think of anything, she started to copy the butterfly I was drawing. So much for being creative on your own. Oh well. Finally the other kids came and the girls played house together while the boy got me to help him with Lego Star Wars. I spent the rest of the afternoon running back and forth between playing the game and putting glue on foam animals so the girls could make photo frames (they’d decided not to play house when they realized I wouldn’t be in there for them to ‘cook’ for me.)

I ran off to Bingo as soon as the kids left at 4. Luckily the DJ had already started selling cards- he knows I work in the afternoons so is fine with me being late- so I just helped with the last few people and then did all the math. Slowly but surely the prizes (determined by how many people buy cards and how much the cards they by are) are getting larger.

After Bingo, I came back to the room to rest for the first time since lunch. Cass and I talked for a bit, then I went to Kayley’s room so we could finish watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We finished it in perfect time to go to dinner. We sat with the rest of the band and just hung out until nearly their call time for the show tonight. I went back to the room until the show. It was a farewell variety show tonight. A few of the guest entertainers are leaving at the next port so the cruise director let them do one last show split between the three of them. Livewire was great, as usual; I wasn’t too impressed with the comedian/magician though and of course the lady from last night was good. I’m going to be most sad to see Livewire leave though, they’re very nice people and I really liked their shows (the Celtic music).

October 29, 2012: Sea Day 7
I had to work early this morning. I put up the sign and went down for breakfast, not really expecting the girl to show up considering she hasn’t for the past few days. I was halfway through breakfast, not really expecting the girl to show up considering she hasn’t for the past few days. I was halfway through breakfast when she and her dad came by, eating breakfast themselves. A few minutes after I got up to Club HAL, they followed. She had no idea what she wanted to do, and she shot down everything I suggested so we just sat there in silence for a few minutes until she decided to draw. But then she couldn’t decide what to draw and kept asking me what she should draw; I just responded “whatever you want to draw, anything you can think of” and she’d ask me again, and again, and again. She’s not entirely the easiest kid to work with. Most kids like to play board games or video games or watch a movie, or go outside, but not her. I’m starting to run out of activities to suggest. I kind of wish I knew what activities are normally on the kids schedule; I’d only worked with the tweens and teens, and those activities aren’t really easy enough for the younger ones so I don’t have much to go on.