Fort Lauderdale

March 8: Fort Lauderdale
I got off early to take the shuttle with Charlotte to the shopping center. First we went to OfficeMax to mail some stuff, then we crossed the street to Publix for some grocery shopping; I got a few things I needed and Charlotte bought snack food (she’s nearly as picky of an eater as I am). After that, we stopped outside a restaurant that had internet (though it wasn’t open) until Charlotte had to get back to work.

When we got back, Charlotte went up to open the library and I went to the bow to use my phone. I got to talk to Dad AND Mom! :) Conversation was cut kind of short since I was worried about getting lunch before work at 1. Lunch is always extremely crowded on embark day and it takes at least 10 minutes to get through any of the lines. Today was different though. No one was there, I think I saw maybe 20 crew and 10 guests getting food/eating. When I got up to Club HAL I found out why. Because of some kind of budget cuts, there are many less people who take care of the ships for customs. Thus, it took longer than usual, and the new guests can’t get on until the old guests leave so it was about 12:45 before anyone was even allowed to get on. I hope this doesn’t keep up. Or maybe not, since I kind of liked how quiet and non-crowded it was at lunch.

And again, because of the long wait to get on the ship, none of the passengers came to Club HAL for the first hour of open house. It gave Jacob the chance to tell me about Chrissy, who was supposed to come on today. She’s currently at the hotel, sick. She’s still going to come, but not until Aruba or Curacao. In the meantime, we’re one youth staff down and have a big difference in the kids/tweens age. There’s quite a few 3-5 year olds, and quite a few 10-12 year olds, only a couple in the middle; that’s going to make it hard on Jacob until Chrissy gets here. I am going to help out as much as I can, but I have 20 teens myself.

In total, three people came to look around during open house: two teens and a 3-year-old. I went to the bow to talk to Mom again while the passenger drill was taking place, and then went up to the top deck to watch as we left and to listen to the band. I met the wife of the band leader since she was up there as well, so I might have made another friend. I still think that it’s difficult on this ship to make friends; I’m definitely friends with the two cadets, and Charlotte, and kind of friends with one or two members from each of the HAL Cats, but I still don’t feel really comfortable around anyone else. If there’s nowhere else to sit, I’m fine asking if I can sit with them (others, not the ones I names), but sitting with them is just that, sitting and eating.

I went down to the room and did a few sudokus instead of napping until dinner- I was tired but apparently not tired enough to sleep. I stayed a long time at dinner with one of the guitar players, then with the cadets before going up to Club HAL to help Jacob out for a bit until it was time for me to head to the Loft. Two showed up right at 9, then another came a minute later. We started to play ERS, but then two more came in, so we had to re-deal the cards; just as we dealt again, someone else came in! We started the game and let her slap-in. We chatted and got to know each other a bit before moving on to another game. Two sisters came in and we started another card game, then went around the circle telling facts about ourselves (name, favorite color, superpower and random fact) to make sure we could remember everyone’s name. By that time, it was after 11 so we ate snack and chatted more about school, differences between Canada and US (half of them were from each; the US half was from warm states!), sports, etc. Next thing I knew, it was time to close up. They all made sure to ask when I’ll be up there tomorrow, so that’s a good sign. This seems like a good group, even though there’s two sets of siblings, they’ve gotten along so far. Hour forward tonight, and Half Moon Cay tomorrow. It’s sure to be crazy because the Nieuw Amsterdam will be in port with us and we have to use our own tenders instead of the big ones from the island.