three sea days

October 13, 2012: Halifax day 2
A lot of us hung out and stayed up kind of late since it was an overnight. I ended up waking up really late, quickly getting ready, eating lunch, then getting off the ship. I immediately walked to the farmers market and found it even bigger and much more crowded than I’d ever seen. Areas that had been blocked off were full of stands and there were students everywhere.

I didn’t have a lot of time to look around because all aboard was in three hours, so I walked around a little and talked to Mom on skype (my first internet in nearly a week!). Funny thing happened when I was using my phone for internet. I was sitting at a table on the second story of the building, the railings were glass, with space at the bottom above the floor. My phone somehow jumped out of my hands, rolled through the awning above a food stand, and landed on the first floor at someone’s feet. I was leaning over the edge by the time it hit the ground; it happened in slow motion and I didn’t have the time to catch it before it slid down the awning. I had to run downstairs to the man who’d picked it up and held onto it for me. Crazy thing is, my phone was still on, and Mom was wondering why I hadn’t responded to her messages yet!

I walked around the farmers market a bit longer, then down the boardwalk one last time, in search of a dropbox for some postcards. I found one eventually, right across the street from the terminal. I spent a while looking around all the shops in the terminal before getting back on the ship.

Kayley and I spent the afternoon hanging out, since we’ve been missing each other the last few days. We went to dinner a little late because she wasn’t particularly hungry yet. The kids didn’t come up to Club HAL, so Brian and I just watched Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. It gave us the hours since we were up there and I hadn’t seen the movie yet. With about 15 minutes left of the movie (after 9), they came. If we’d started the movie 15 minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have been in the room by the time they got there. They stayed until 10, then Brian and I went to get changed and see the show. This cast did a pretty good job since it was their first time performing Goode Company.

October 14, 2012: Bar Harbor
I had to help with tendering again this morning. Despite the fact that there was a steady flow of people and the percentage required for open tender was reached by 10am, open tender didn’t start until 11, which meant that I had to be helping with tickets from 8 to 11. I spent a little bit of time in the room and called the family to see if the kids were coming up this afternoon (if they weren’t, I could get off the ship); they wanted to come. So, I went up to Club HAL early to talk to Mom for a bit and check email before they arrived. We watched a movie, went to lunch, watched another movie, played connect-4, colored and watched part of another movie.

The kids were in Club HAL all afternoon. After they left, I stayed in Club HAL to get the last bit of use out of my phone until we reach Florida. I came down to the room for a while to read my Bible for a while (I usually do it before I go to sleep, but didn’t last night), then went to dinner.

The kids came to Club HAL only slightly late, again we watched movies, played Twister and colored. They’re very indecisive kids; it’s my new rule that if we take a game out, we have to play it for at least 10 minutes before we clean it up and move on to something else.

I went to the show, Celtic music. A married couple who played guitar and violin got the HAL Cats to help and they had a very good show! I really hope that they stay on the ship, or at least come back to perform again before I leave. I missed the first part of it because I had to change after the kids left at 10.

October 15: Sea Day 1
I went to bed early last night, I was just too tired to stay up and socialize. I had to help out with Bingo at 9:45. Not much really happened that morning, or that afternoon since the kids didn’t come. We left at 3 since it didn’t look like they were coming and I went down to the Lido to eat a cookie and waste some time before Bingo at 3:45. I really like sitting near a window and watching as the horizon moves.

The rest of the afternoon wasn’t that eventful either, I read a book in my room until dinner, then work. We finished Transformers and I read until we determined that it was late enough we could leave. Altogether it was a very boring first sea day. It doesn’t bode well for the next few.

October 16: Sea Day 2
I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to the channel that shows where we are in the world. Turns out that we were next to Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills! It made me happy that I was kind of near home (as near as I’ll be until December).

I went to breakfast and ate with the piano bar entertainer Buddy. I was about halfway done when they made an announcement that there was a fire drill. On my schedule, it was supposed to be tomorrow. I had to leave my half-eaten breakfast and run downstairs for my life jacket before going to the front office. They never said we had to post signs, so we just sat there and talked, I ended up talking to Rachel the librarian the whole time. We weren’t dismissed for at least 45 minutes, so it was nearly lunchtime by the time we got out.

After organizing a few things in my room and reading for a little bit, I went up and ate lunch with the cast before work. The first few hours of work I just went through the CDs and tried to identify the songs and write them down so we can generally know what’s on each of them. Then, I helped make some decorations for “tropical night” in the crow’s nest. Yet again, the kids didn’t show up which meant I had to leave early to help out with Bingo.

I had dinner in Canaletto (the Italian restaurant reservation-only section of the Lido) with Rachel (the librarian), Laurie (the party planner), and Jo (the lifestylist) for Rachel’s birthday. You’ll be proud of me mom, I tried all the “appetizers” they had (selection of stuff on a plate, before the salad/soup). It was mostly vegetables: zucchini, tomatoes, asparagus, olives, cheese, peppers, mushrooms, a few slices of different meats, and calamari. I didn’t really like any of it, but at least I tried. I skipped the salad part and had an extra piece of bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar instead. For the meal, I had chicken cacciatore. It was good, but not great; I’ve had much better chicken at home, of course this was served with carrots and some mashed-potato-like dish. It had the texture of grits, I wasn’t happy it got on the chicken. They brought Rachel a cake and we all sang happy birthday to her and ate the cake with gelato. It was a nice dinner; a much-appreciated change from the normal ‘staff dinner’ side of the Lido.

The rest of the girls had to go do some work, so I went to the room and read for a bit before changing for “tropical night.” It wasn’t really a big thing, about 10 guests were up there, and 2 did some dancing, but the rest just sat there. All the “explorations team” (apparently youth staff is part of it, who knew? It consists of the travel guide, techspert, librarian, life stylist and party planner.) were supposed to mingle, but when some of the guests refuse to talk to you, and there’s about as many of you as there are guests, we didn’t have a lot of chance.

I went to the show, then the dessert extravaganza with Kayley and a few cast members. Edison joined us at the dessert extravaganza after he finished work. Apparently it was clumsy night for everyone. I dropped a strawberry on the floor, Joshua (from the cast) had all the cheese fall off his ensamada onto the floor, Edison dropped some stuff as well. After we all finished eating, we went straight down to the OB. I didn’t stay for long because there weren’t that many people there and I was feeling tired already.

October 17, 2012: Sea Day 3.
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