Grand Turk

January 8, 2013: Grand Turk
I must look really dreadful today because people have been asking me all day what’s wrong and how I’m feeling. I had port day duty this morning so had to be in Club HAL at 8. I ran by the Lido first and grabbed a yogurt and milk to have up there since I wasn’t going to get a real breakfast. I ended up falling asleep a few times on the couch and before I knew it, it was 10:30 and they were making announcements for raft drills. Mine wasn’t one of them, only because a few days ago they gave me a new life jacket card changing my raft number and emergency function. I’m on the Club HAL evacuation Team for fire drills and I’m the Club HAL Evacuation Team Leader for general emergencies. Basically, they just put a title to what I’d be doing anyway for fire drills and made me a ‘leader’ for our normal duties in general emergencies. Anyway, that woke me up for good, so I got out some of the puzzles in Club HAL and worked on those until Triston showed up. He’d already had lunch, so I had lunch alone and went down to the room to change and head off-ship. Even though I was feeling kind of bad, I had to get off the ship for some amount of time! I should’ve realized that it was a beach port and worn my swimsuit, but I ended up walking along the water with my jeans rolled up to my knees. I wasn’t hot though so it was fine. Next time I know: Grand Turk=excursions, pool/beach and shopping; there’s no ‘town’ to walk around in.

I got back on the ship early because I started feeling worse again, so I took a nap, intending to go to the infirmary when it opened, but despite setting an alarm, I missed my hour window to go and woke up in time to go to dinner.

Quite a few people at dinner asked me what was wrong. Apparently I look like I feel. Linda even suggested I call the infirmary’s after-hours emergency number, Triston told me to talk to Anna and get to bed early tonight, and Seth the DJ told me to walk around outside for a bit to get some fresh air before going to sleep. I’m glad they care but I wish it wasn’t as obvious that I’m sickly.

I went up to Club HAL and one of the boys arrived right at 7, we hung out for a little bit, then started coloring one of the pirate pictures (it takes him a really long time to color because he’ll put down the marker and talk for a while every few minutes). The other boy came and I decided to let them decorate their pirate hats for the treasure hunt, which Anna told me she’d help with since it’s better with two counselors and I hadn’t don’t it before. So, the four of us set off following the clues leading us all around the ship, being sneaky pirates, saluting officers, climbing the mast, etc. Finally, we ended up back in Club HAL where we found the treasure chest. They each got to pick something out of the chest: magnets, erasers, bottle cozies, rings, and keychains. After that, Anna said I should go get some rest, she’d take over both groups in the morning so I could sleep more and go to the infirmary. So, I don’t have to be at work until tomorrow night now. Weird. The ship is rocking more than it has since I’ve been here and one of my ears hurts (that started last night) so my equilibrium is off; it’s going to be interesting trying to sleep.