lisbon and sea day

November 18, 2012: Lisbon day 2
I really like Portugal; Lisbon has definitely been the best one of the best ports of this trip. Cass and I went out kind of early this morning because I had to be back for work at 12. We went to the market in the main town. A bunch of people were there selling locally made things, and by locally-made, I mean the people who made them were selling them or a relative was selling them. We spent my hour there, then I had to leave because it was about a twenty minute walk back to the ship.

All the kids were in Club HAL, so we waited a little bit before I took them to lunch (they were all immersed in their activities when I arrived). Lunch took an hour because they kept getting distracted from eating or thinking of something else they wanted to eat.

The afternoon went by rather quickly, they played video games for a while, then the girls decided to color and get ready for another show. We spent the last half hour or so playing around; the girls would run from the boy and call for me to protect them. I’d let them know when it was safe to come out, then let the boy know when he should come out so we could start the whole process over again.

After I left work, the HAL Cats were in the Lido doing their sailaway set, so I got to sit in on their last song before we all hung out drinking tea until Glenn, Kayley and I left for church service. It was a really good service about turning points, and not ignoring when God is telling you to go a particular direction.

I had dinner, then went back to work. I just read until the siblings came up. We colored and watched Finding Nemo. The movie finished with about 30 minutes left until I closed, so we put on the special features and played with the jenga blocks until their dad came. I had to SuperSan before leaving, so that took about 20 minutes which meant I couldn’t go to the show. I hung out in my room until it was time for late night. I went up and had some tea with Glenn, Blake, Kayley and Sam. Glenn, Blake and I went downstairs afterwards and watched a documentary Blake has on his computer about someone who “walked” through the Bible. He went to various places that are in the Bible, some that are just guesses and talked about how actually seeing the places changes your view of the place, and of the story because it’s so much more real. It was interesting, we’re going to watch the other two parts of it sometime before I leave.

November 19, 2012: Sea day
I worked the morning shift, so I had a leisurely breakfast before going up to Club HAL. The girl and her mom came around 10, but she didn’t want to stay (after all that work getting her sisters stroller upstairs; there’s no elevator at the Club HAL end, so they had to go all the way to the front of the ship, take the elevators up, then walk outside to get to Club HAL). I stayed up there just in case they came back before 11:30. They didn’t, I just spent the time reading.

I went down to the room because I wasn’t quite hungry for lunch yet. About an hour later, when I finally went up to lunch, I was surprised to see that the place where salads normally are, they had set up an assortment of cheeses and cheese-based foods, even a cheese fountain. They even had a ton of Brie! I got some pasta and bread and brie and sat down with Kayley, Sam and Jim. It was too windy for the HAL Cats to play their pool set, but Cass, Robyn, Blake and Glenn ended up playing music themselves (when the ceiling is closed, the sound doesn’t get to escape so it’s really loud with drums and singing. Once they finished Kayley and Sam left and Cass joined Jim and me at our table. She found this soup that I had somehow missed that was really good. I ended up having to go get a bowl, it was watermelon! I’m not entirely sure what was in it, but it was really good. When I was getting a bowl of that, I ran into Glenn and Blake and they sat with us as well.

We were just sitting, talking and eating when suddenly Jim spotted dolphins outside! I screamed and ran to the window (I think some of the passengers that know me now aren’t surprised by reactions like this from me). There was a whole group of them swimming alongside the ship, doing flips and just having a blast! I’m pretty sure Glenn and I were most excited about seeing them. We stood at the window for at least 10 minutes watching them until they started to fall behind. We stayed by the pool just chatting for a long time.

We had Bingo at 4, so I helped sell cards. Apparently I have a twin somewhere because one of the passengers tells me I look exactly like her daughters best friend. I’m glad I’m finally starting to recognize the Bingo players outside of Bingo, it’s hard though because there’s so many people!

Robyn had invited me to eat dinner with the HAL Cats and the cast in the dining room tonight, so I hung out in the room with Cass until it was time to start getting ready for dinner. It was formal night so we all had to look our best (meaning I couldn’t just throw on my dress and head back upstairs like I normally do on formal nights when I work but want to go to the show). I was easily ready before Cass and Kayley and Sam. I helped them get ready and we finally went upstairs to the dining room. Dinner was good, I definitely ate more than I have all cruise. I tried other people’s food too (they offered!). I sat with the kids’ parents, the kids, Cass, Sam and Kayley. We had to divide the group up because there were too many people for one table, so we had our table of 8, a table of 6, and a table of 4. It was weird a bit for me sitting with the kids since I wasn’t working, but I felt like I was working since they kept asking me questions and wanting me to watch them do something.

After dinner, Kayley went to sing with the Neptunes, so Cass, Sam and I followed not long after so we could watch. Some of the cast and the rest of the HAL Cats joined us later. There were a lot of us there and it was a lot of fun, hanging out, listening to music and chatting. Once the Neptunes finished, Glenn and Blake wanted to go to late night; I went with them and we hung out there for a long time before going downstairs.