sorry for delay and Rome in a day

September 1, 2013: Marseille
I apologize for the lack of blogs this past cruise, it was a very difficult cruise for many reason, and I was really busy and really tired most of the time. Definitely not the best week to work, especially since I was with the little ones.

I did take a crew tour to Rome last cruise though (one of the few good memories from last cruise)! It was fun, a nice change from the week. There were I think around 30 of us. Emily went, as did quite a few of the HAL Cats. We met the bus at 9, much to our happiness; most of the Rome tours start before 7am. The hour and a half long bus ride got me talking to Chris (HAL Cats drummer), and Kaven and Lianna (sax and vocalist couple, I met them first on the Veendam and am slowly getting to know them better here).

When we actually entered Rome, I started recognizing things and relating them to the map I have in my head from when I was there with Cindy for a week over 2 years ago. It was kind of weird being back, seeing how much I’ve changed since then, all the stuff that has happened in my life, all the people I’ve now met. Anyway, we went by the Circus Maximus and I knew we were by the Coloseum before our guide told us. We had about 30 minutes to hang out and take pictures there before we had to move on, so Emily, Jay (HAL Cats singer), Chris, and I set off together and took pictures. Jay and Emily had never been to Rome before, so they were really excited, and we all took lots of pictures, together and apart, of course always trying to get that angle that didn’t include all the other tourists. We laughed, and chatted, took jumping pictures, and other funny ones before we realized it was time to get back to the bus.

We took the bus to the Trevi, where we had an hour to hang out, take pictures and eat lunch. There were so many people there, it was difficult to get close and take pictures. Once we finally got pictures, Emily and got some food and sat by the fountain to eat. Then we walked as a group to Piazza Navona where we had about 10 minutes to wander around and take a few pictures before meeting the bus so it could take us to the Vatican. We kept having to wait on people, so we only had about 20 minutes outside the Vatican, not a whole lot of time to do anything. The line was really long to, so no one had any chance of getting to go in.
Everyone was really tired so the ride back was quiet as everyone either slept or looked through their pictures.


Meghna, Leah, Betty and Miranda all left in Barcelona (well, Miranda stopped working, she’s on as a passenger now). That was kind of sad. Meghna and I both had to pack at the same time because I changed rooms. I’m now on Main Deck, aft, near the cadets and cruise director. It’s a much bigger room, with lots of space, but a small shower. Overkill for me, I don’t need this much space, it’d be a lot better and less space-wasting for two people to be in this cabin. I’ll be moving again at the end of this cruise, moving in with Emily (I would’ve moved in with her this cruise, but her roommate got an extension). It’s definitely a different atmosphere on the ship now that we’re down to 18 kids and only two youth staff, I’d nearly forgotten that it’s often this way for my contracts.

Today, I went out with Emily, Julia, and the beverage manager (who hangs out with Julia a lot). Emily and I helped Julia shop for some uniform pieces, then we decided to go by the market before heading back to the ship (there’s always markets on Sundays in France, it was right next to the marina where the shuttle dropped us off and picked us up). The rest of the afternoon I spent napping, and of course typing.