Aruba!

February 18, 2013: Aruba
It was a sea morning. I had a quick bowl of cereal in the Lido for breakfast then went up to Club HAL. I didn’t rush because I knew I’d have at least 15 minutes until anyone came. It was only crew kids again this morning. The boys played on the xbox most of the morning and I helped entertain the little girl with her mom, going back occasionally to help out with Lego Harry Potter when they needed me. It was an easy morning; I kind of love the mornings this cruise!

One of the parents was a little late picking up their boys, so I got to clean up slowly and head straight down to lunch. I sat with Charlotte and a few other random crew members (front office, HAL Cats drummer, some of the cast came later). We finally docked and then we all separated. I met Charlotte back in the room and read for a while, to finish JK Rowling’s book, before getting off. After I finished, I got down from the bed and got started talking to Charlotte. We talked about all sorts of stuff: books, school systems, dealing with kids, student teaching, some of the crazy comments we’ve seen/heard from guests, etc. Before I knew it, two hours had gone by and I still hadn’t left!

I got off the ship and walked around, just walking, looking to see what shops were around and mainly looking for a place to get internet (since I was lugging my heavy laptop around with me). I ended up making a giant loop and found an ice cream place close to the terminal that had wifi. I posted the last few blogs, and caught up on emails (which included confirming my next two contracts. So I’m definitely going to be on the Veendam and Nieuw Amsterdam now!). It was around 5 by the time I finished with that stuff so I decided to head back to the ship to relax some before going up to dinner and work. Charlotte and I both had pasta for dinner (we’re a lot alike, it’s a bit scary. We read most of the time in the room, and eat pretty much the same foods. We were alone for a while, anyone who didn’t have to work was probably eating off the ship. A HAL Cats guitarist joined us for a bit before we all had to get to work.

Again, the first 15-20 minutes of Club HAL, I was alone. Then, the doc’s kids joined me and the little girl and her mom came. She started talking about Tangled so I put the movie in for her and the cousins came in later and joined us in watching it while the boys played xbox. Then it all changed. The family came in. So, I tried to keep them somewhat quiet so the two youngest girls could watch the movie while they played Apples to Apples. I think the mom of the littlest girl got a bit overwhelmed and they left to go get coats (the AC seems to be on high) and get ready for bed. An argument broke out amongst the two girls of the family and I tried to solve it while still paying attention to the cousins who were being extremely patient. The two fighting girls ended up using their walkie-talkie to call their parents to tell on each other and one of the mom’s came up and had a talk with them. At least that gave the boy relative, the cousins and the doc’s kids time to play a game together in peace for a few minutes!

The doctor’s wife came to pick the boys up and the little girl and her mom came back, the little girl all dressed in her pjs. The family convinced everyone to play sardines/hide-and-seek so we did that until the cousins left. Then suddenly they were tired of that and wanted to play with the balloon. So the little girl and her mom joined us and the kids took turns throwing the balloon to the little girl. At 10, the two of them left to get her into bed since it was late for a 3-year-old and the family got Jacob to leave the Loft and play with them (without my permission, they kept running to the Loft and I kept having to tell them to leave him alone for now, he’ll come when there aren’t any teens there and he’s ready). It was a chaotic trip to get ice cream. One of the girls spilled hers, the other complained that they didn’t have chocolate ice cream, so got a bowl of vanilla and ended up not eating it, their mom came up after there was an incident with the walkie-talkie and let them run wild around the Lido as she talked to me. What am I supposed to do in a situation like that? I’m still trying to figure out how much control I should take of the kids when their parents are there talking to me. Anyway, after some more balloon-volleying and hide-and-seek, Jacob took over for the night.

We’re actually switching groups for the next two days. One of the teens has put in a complaint about the Loft, so the EM wants to see what happens if we change it up. Should be fun, I don’t work ‘til 8:30 tomorrow!