Dec 12

Dec 12, 2013
San Juan: It was a normal sea day morning, I worked 10-12, a few of the teens showed up, but they didn’t stay for too long. After lunch when we finally arrived, Alex (from the HAL Cats) and I got off the ship to wander. And wander we did, we made a big loop around part of the town before we decided to stop and get something to eat. After we ate, we decided to go to the mall that we’d heard a lot of other crew members talk about, so we went there and got wifi until we met up with a few others and we all came back, some of them to go to a bar, others of us to take a nap or rest before work. There’s a movie theatre in that mall, so some of us have discussed going next time to see the Hobbit!

Work wasn’t too much to talk about. Two of the 13/14year old boys came in, they became friends this morning, and we chatted for a bit, they have a lot in common with each other, I’m glad they both came at the same time this morning so they could meet! Then they played Wipeout until their families came to pick them up (so far, 3 out of the 5 teens that have come, their parents drop them off and pick them up, I find that odd). So, by 9:45, I was alone, none of the other teens came the rest of the night, so I put on Doctor Who and watched that until time I could leave.

St. Thomas: Today was nice. It didn’t really seem like it would be at first this morning though. I woke up early and got ready before going to breakfast, hanging out in Club HAL with Emily, and watching people getting off the ship from the outside part of Deck 10. All that to kill a few hours before I had a raft drill. Because I had a raft drill, I couldn’t get off until after, so I waited. Finally we had the drill, then Natalie and I went up for lunch, ate a bit and I made plans to go to the beach with Johan and a few others (finally plans for the day, I was thinking that I would just have to wander around town by myself!). Natalie had another excursion so couldn’t come with us. We took a 10 minute taxi ride to the beach (even after riding around a bit, I have no idea where we’re docked, I know I’ve been here before, last year on the Maasdam-we tendered that time-but none of the things I saw today rang any bells as familiar to last year). It was a short ride, but it’s nearly unwalkable because there’s no sidewalks, and rather curvy roads. Anyway, we arrived and settled in on the beach with Cassandra and Matt who’d been there a while already. The water was nice, not nearly as clear as I’ve seen it in other Caribbean ports though. We actually spent a lot of time in the water (glad that people swam more this time, in Grand Cayman everyone kind of stayed close to the shore, or tanning on shore, so it wasn’t as fun to swim around out on your own. Johan, Matt and I were in the water most of the afternoon actually, they kept trying to see if they could launch me in the air and get me to do a backflip, I “flew” a few times, but have yet to master that aerial backflip. I could either use the momentum to go UPwards, or to go BACKwards, but never really was able to combine the two. Apparently we have to try again another beach day, practice. They seemed to have a lot of fun with my light weight, they kept thinking of ‘tricks’ they could do picking me up. It was fun for me too, ignoring of course the many many gallons of saltwater I may have swallowed in the process. The afternoon slowly came to a close and it was getting to be time to start heading back to the ship, so I laid out to dry off while the boys decided to show off their handstand and cartwheel abilities on the sand. Actually, they’re quite good, better than any cartwheel I could do!

Back on the ship, I had a relaxing two hours; a quick shower and drying of my hair before going on to spend the remaining time with other, more ‘pretty’ things. I decided to curl my hair (for no reason other than to see how this curling iron works since we’re doing a Club HAL dinner in Pinnacle tomorrow), I put on some make-up then put on a movie to watch as I did my nails. Natalie came back and we chatted before heading up to dinner.

Oh, and I’m finally over this sore throat thing that’s been horrible over the past few days! Still going to take the next day or two’s antibiotics to be sure, but I’ve been feeling so much better the past two days! I have yet to look up exactly what the crew doctor gave me, but I’m very glad it seems to be working (still wish though she would’ve given me some clue as to what was wrong with me).