crazy few days!

March 3, 2013: Cartegena
It was pretty much a normal sea day for me. I worked the port day shift since Jacob had to attend a security/safety meeting, then had the usual afternoon/evening sessions with the teens. Only two girls were there in the morning so we played games on wii sports resort. The boy ‘teen’ came in and played as well since he didn’t get off the ship and was bored. We ended up taking that disk to the Loft in the afternoon and playing that with the other teens all afternoon. At least it’s a different type of video game. I found out I’m decent at archery and good at Frisbee with the wii! :)
I stayed in the Loft late since I really didn’t want to go back to my room quite yet, and the teens weren’t ready to stop yet. So, I had about 10 minutes in the room talking to Charlotte before dinner. Dinner was a bit disappointed. I finally caved and had fries for the first time on the Zuiderdam because I’d had pizza with the teens earlier and the pasta sauce had been overcooked.

Most of the night session, we just played FIFA (soccer on xbox). The other teen showed up again (she’s been coming more today and yesterday) and we convinced her to at least try to play it with us. After FIFA and an ice cream break, we took out the Battle of the Sexes questions and amused ourselves with asking/answering those the rest of the night.

March 4, 2013: Panama Canal
All of the teens were going on excursions today, so Jacob asked if I would mind taking the afternoon shift in Club HAL, and just sleeping in in the morning. It wasn’t a bad afternoon, we just played on the wii and Xboxes. I got off the ship and did a little shopping on my own before getting back on the ship and attempting to upload pictures (Charlotte told me afterwards that she should’ve told me before that internet on Panama day is really really slow). The teens and I just talked and showed each other pictures the whole night, so it was a really easy day.

March 5, 2013: Costa Rica
There was a drill this morning, a fire drill and a raft drill for certain number rafts (not mine, Charlotte had to go though). I had a good breakfast then went to the front office for the fire drill. I met Charlotte in the room and we agreed to get off together after her drill. I got our shore passes (Costa Rica makes crew have to have shore passes-like a visa I guess) while she was at the drill then we went out wandering. Right off the ship is a market, so we wandered through there and each bought a few things. I now have a really cool blue bracelet with a butterfly carved into a diamond-shaped piece of coconut shell! It’s pretty cool!

We had lunch back on the ship after spending an hour or so looking around the market. The teen boy came and joined us when we were almost done eating, and I agreed to open the Loft for the afternoon. When I went back upstairs all three of them were there talking. We ended up staying there playing games all afternoon! Then, I opened early again after dinner. They’re a really great group, sometimes they tire me out, but I still enjoy hanging out with them.

March 6, 2013: Sea Day
It was pretty much movie day in the Loft. We watched a few of the movies I had in the Loft, then they went to the front office and got some more movies to watch! That’s all we did all day. I didn’t go to the room at all from when I left for breakfast at 9 until after midnight! It was a relaxing, but full day it seems. Nothing else really interesting happened.

March 7, 2013: Sea Day
What a day! I went up to Club HAL a bit early, which was lucky since Jacob had forgotten to ask me to come by so he could go to “Love in Any Language” (the “crew’s final farewell” show-type thing). Two of the teens showed up and everyone ended up just sitting and watching Despicable Me, which Jacob had started before he left. The little kids had fun kind of attacking the teen boy when he wouldn’t give them back the ball of model magic they’d thrown at him; watching and helping with that entertained those of us that weren’t completely focused on the movie. The teens and I left when Jacob came back and just hung out for the last hour until lunchtime. Then, they told me not to come back until 2 (odd since they’re usually ready for me to come back as soon as possible). At lunch they came by with a “present” for me - a glass of ice, they figured out that I don’t like ice so decided to give me some. After they gave me that, they not-so-discretely told Charlotte to not let me go back to the Loft until after 2. I was a little bit worried at that point at what they were planning. Though, I did end up helping Charlotte shelve all the books people had begun to turn in since it’s the last day of the cruise. One of the teens came by to tell me to meet them by the front office at 2:15.

Around 2, I went by Club HAL to see if Jacob needed anything. They were in the Loft doing something, which made me even more suspicious. I met the teens at the front office, and we went right back up to the Loft. They ran in and told me to walk really slowly up the stairs, so I did. Apparently too slow though, haha. I come in to find the lights off and ‘decorations’ all around the room, and all the Club HAL kids and teens jumped out and yelled “surprise.” I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. There was toilet paper strung across the room from the ceiling and all over the floor, and pieces of paper with words taped to the wall. The Club HAL kids left and the teens then told me what everything was about. There was random stuff that they’d written to do with me (random things: orange&blue, the word y’all, ice, etc) on the wall. We cleaned it all up and hung out for a while before starting a movie, which really kept us occupied until dinner.