July 28, 2012
Ketchikan day was really busy. I went ashore with Jessica and Shannon met up with us while we were trying to get internet. Jessica was hungry because she didn’t get breakfast so we ended up at a café where I had a snack, Jessica had lunch and Shannon had breakfast. We went back to the ship and worked (I kept thinking it was the night session). After work, Shannon and I went to see about getting manicures; they had an opening in an hour so we went to listen to the jazz band until then. It was my first manicure and it was pretty awesome. Hot stone hand massage and oil and stuff all over my forearms and hands, then came the actual nail work. That was interesting, they’re a lot neater at painting nails than I am! Haha.
Jessica went to dinner early because she couldn’t find me around that time. A lot of our tweens came in for free time on the wii/xbox, but left before we started the actual activity for the night. We had the dance party and a few more showed up for that, which was lots of fun because they all actually wanted to dance instead of sitting on the sidelines.
It was hour forward night so it was an early morning for all of youth staff, luckily only two kids were there near on-time this morning and they were willing just to play Uno for an hour. Lunch went by really quickly and we were back at work before I knew it. Quick afternoon session concluded in the 20 minute talent show. And now I’m packing to come home!
Sunday July 29, 2012
Long days seem to be a common occurrence for me travelling east. When I went to France, it was the longest night ever ending in Germany. At least this one I’m ending it at home, only over 24 hours after I left the ship.
I’m sitting at the airport right now, it’s about 9:30. I’ve been up since 5:30 for disembarkation ‘customs.’ Basically the exact same thing I did three weeks ago just I had another form for them to look at (confirmation that I was taking three bags with me). After that, I went with Shannon to breakfast, my last meal on the Oosterdam! Then I got ready and finished packing while Shannon called her friend to see when she could come pick us up to spend the day in Seattle. I disembarked at 9:15, I had to give up my crew ID (it said expires on July 29, and the Oosterdam, why was it necessary to not let me keep it as a souvenir?) It’s unbelievable how much plastic Holland America must waste. Every person on board has at least one card/key with their name on it. Passangers alone, that’s about 8,000 cards during my 4 weeks there, not including any crew (we do keep ours longer at least, and but we do have two: an ID and a key)!
Shannon and I waited for her friend Emily and she drove us to a café where we had a second breakfast before walking around two of the many markets downtown on Sundays. Two hours later, we decided to get lunch so stopped at a restaurant that looked relatively cheap (food around here is way too expensive in general; I saw one cheap place and it was fast food… McDonalds … in Victoria). We went to Gap and Old Navy so that Shannon could find a navy sweater to wear as part of her uniform. Then, Shannon and Emily dropped me off at the link-rail station so I could get to the airport and my day room. I took the rail to the airport, then the hotel shuttle to the hotel where I stayed for a while. No internet in the rooms; it was only free in the lobby and at the pool; I did take my kindle and sit by the pool for a while checking Facebook since I could. I talked to mom for a while then watched a bit of the News/Olympics on the TV before I got bored. It was about 8, so I decided to head back to the airport.
The security line was long, but I finally made it through around 8:45 and had to search to find out where my terminal was. It’s not even part of the main building; wee had to take a metro to get to all the S gates. Now, I’m just sitting in the terminal, eating fries and waiting. There is free internet, but my computer does not want to connect for some reason. I might just end up going and reading on my kindle until time to go. Finally, less than 12 hours until I’m home! :)
Monday, July 30, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Last Sitka
July 26, 2012
Morning: It wasn’t such an early night after all. I went to the show with Megan and Julie (the comedian). They’ve been having quite a few tech problems lately: Monday was supposed to be Ballroom Blitz but something in one of the screens broke and they did a special singers-only show, last night the show was supposed to be Garage Band, but they had to do Ballroom Blitz because something went wrong in the set for Garage Band. This happened at around 6 and the show starts at 8! Lot of work for the dancers and the tech team to change at the last minute like that. After the show, there was music in the Queens Lounge, so Iris suggested I get Brian and hang out with him since he hasn’t been able to do much working with teens until late (they made a deal, she got to go to the show and he got off early). Brian and I went to the Queens Lounge to listen to the band and we chatted for a while until we decided to go hang out with other crew members. Jenn was there and we ended up talking about all sorts of stuff over wine. We talked about Jane Austen, Harry Potter, children’s books Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Apparently I am pretty well cut out for the job of librarian, and working with shore excursions! Haha, lots of options maybe if I want to keep working on ships but don’t want to do Youth Staff.
Going to Sitka today, I might not spend too much time there though because I probably should start packing a bit (I have to have my suitcases prepared for disembarkation Saturday night).
Evening: I had a great time in Sitka! I met up with Jenn, Megan and the life stylist Louise on the tender. We all went to the Highlander for a little more than an hour and got internet. I was going to stay, but they convinced me to go to lunch with them at a sushi place, I got teriyaki chicken. Yum! After that I had a good long conversation with mom before going to the post office to mail some stuff home so I might have some room in my suitcase coming back this Sunday!
There wasn’t much else to do and it was about crew curfew so I got back on the ship and napped for an hour before going to the library to study Italian. The library definitely isn’t what you’d think a library should be. It gets really loud because there’s a café and a bar next to it. I did get a lot of studying though. I like having an Italian dictionary on my kindle now, it makes my life easier because the Italian book I have doesn’t really go over vocabulary at all.
It was board game night in Club HAL. One of the tweens challenged me in Monopoly at dinner so I played Monopoly for two hours. Turns out that I’m pretty good at strategizing in this game. I got a good deal by giving someone else a monopoly on an expensive area; I didn’t have to pay rent to them and I got $500 out of it. I don’t think I’d played Monopoly since I was about 10.
Shannon and I got off work a little late because we wanted to play until the very last minute and then had to clean up afterwards. It was 10:10 when we got to the rooms and we still had to change for formal night, so we decided not to go to the show and leisurely get ready for the dessert extravaganza. We had so much fun there, I had lots of strawberries and bananas dipped in chocolate from a fountain. Mom, we need to go to the Melting Pot while I’m home. :)
Ketchikan tomorrow, then a day at sea and then it’s Victoria; hopefully we will arrive on time this week!
Morning: It wasn’t such an early night after all. I went to the show with Megan and Julie (the comedian). They’ve been having quite a few tech problems lately: Monday was supposed to be Ballroom Blitz but something in one of the screens broke and they did a special singers-only show, last night the show was supposed to be Garage Band, but they had to do Ballroom Blitz because something went wrong in the set for Garage Band. This happened at around 6 and the show starts at 8! Lot of work for the dancers and the tech team to change at the last minute like that. After the show, there was music in the Queens Lounge, so Iris suggested I get Brian and hang out with him since he hasn’t been able to do much working with teens until late (they made a deal, she got to go to the show and he got off early). Brian and I went to the Queens Lounge to listen to the band and we chatted for a while until we decided to go hang out with other crew members. Jenn was there and we ended up talking about all sorts of stuff over wine. We talked about Jane Austen, Harry Potter, children’s books Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Apparently I am pretty well cut out for the job of librarian, and working with shore excursions! Haha, lots of options maybe if I want to keep working on ships but don’t want to do Youth Staff.
Going to Sitka today, I might not spend too much time there though because I probably should start packing a bit (I have to have my suitcases prepared for disembarkation Saturday night).
Evening: I had a great time in Sitka! I met up with Jenn, Megan and the life stylist Louise on the tender. We all went to the Highlander for a little more than an hour and got internet. I was going to stay, but they convinced me to go to lunch with them at a sushi place, I got teriyaki chicken. Yum! After that I had a good long conversation with mom before going to the post office to mail some stuff home so I might have some room in my suitcase coming back this Sunday!
There wasn’t much else to do and it was about crew curfew so I got back on the ship and napped for an hour before going to the library to study Italian. The library definitely isn’t what you’d think a library should be. It gets really loud because there’s a café and a bar next to it. I did get a lot of studying though. I like having an Italian dictionary on my kindle now, it makes my life easier because the Italian book I have doesn’t really go over vocabulary at all.
It was board game night in Club HAL. One of the tweens challenged me in Monopoly at dinner so I played Monopoly for two hours. Turns out that I’m pretty good at strategizing in this game. I got a good deal by giving someone else a monopoly on an expensive area; I didn’t have to pay rent to them and I got $500 out of it. I don’t think I’d played Monopoly since I was about 10.
Shannon and I got off work a little late because we wanted to play until the very last minute and then had to clean up afterwards. It was 10:10 when we got to the rooms and we still had to change for formal night, so we decided not to go to the show and leisurely get ready for the dessert extravaganza. We had so much fun there, I had lots of strawberries and bananas dipped in chocolate from a fountain. Mom, we need to go to the Melting Pot while I’m home. :)
Ketchikan tomorrow, then a day at sea and then it’s Victoria; hopefully we will arrive on time this week!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
last day in Juneau
July 25, 2012
My last Juneau day and I had to work in the morning. I was supposed to have off because Megan asked me last week which day I wanted fully off, but because we had a few new people needing to do the new-crew lifeboat drill and the others had their lifeboat drills, she put me on Juneau morning. I don’t really mind too terribly much, at least I got to do some stuff. The kids this morning were wild, there were four of them, all related and they all wanted to do something different and got mad at each other when they did something rather innocent. I finally got them relatively settled watching Despicable Me (executive decision on my part, I wanted to see it again, haha). After a while though, they got restless and when I told them it’s watch a movie with us or color at the table they began to run into the other room and mess with the toys over there. I was kind of frustrated by that point sadly. Although Brian did come not long after that and helped out until we took them down to lunch. I had fries and sat with them until they all started eating, then met up with Tom- an officer who Jessica’s been talking to a lot- and went to the Viking to meet up with others.
Tom and I met Jessica at the Viking and got on the internet for a while before heading out for lunch. We got crepes (YAY!) and sat outside Alaskan Crepe Escape to eat them. I just realized that I should have taken a picture next to that place. After I finished eating, I quickly ran back to the ship to drop off my laptop and grab sunglasses so we could head to the top of Mount Robert on the tram. That was very exciting, we had fun taking pictures of each other on the ride up. When we got to the top, we took pictures on the overlook and of the eagle being taken care of by the raptor center; it’s too injured to be left out on her own and she’s a good educational tool for tourists. Then, we went hiking for a bit, we took the half mile loop around, stopping at all the overlooks and interesting things to take pictures. I touched Alaskan summer snow; crazy! Jessica was tired so convinced me and Tom to go back to the tram even though we were up for walking around some more.
We went back to the Viking for a while to hang out with people; Jessica and I headed back early though because there were too many people there for us to get on the internet. She took a nap and I looked through my pictures until dinnertime.
This evening the kids had a just dance party in the Northern Lights then it was movie night. Megan gave me both movie nights off this week because it’s my last week. I’m meeting her at the Sports Bar in a few minutes so we can go see the show together at 10. One interesting thing about ship life is the difference in YPC’s (my supervisors). Karyn told us we had to be in uniform if we were in public areas on the ship; Megan is perfectly fine letting us be in business casual clothes with name tag. Not that I really mind my uniform quite as much as I did now that I have a shirt that fits properly!
It’ll be an early night. Sitka in the morning. I’m going to mail some stuff home then and hopefully talk to Mom for a while. Shannon got the Sea Otter excursion! I’m so excited for her; I hope she has as much fun as I did and that the weather is good for her (not like the rainy weather I had).
My last Juneau day and I had to work in the morning. I was supposed to have off because Megan asked me last week which day I wanted fully off, but because we had a few new people needing to do the new-crew lifeboat drill and the others had their lifeboat drills, she put me on Juneau morning. I don’t really mind too terribly much, at least I got to do some stuff. The kids this morning were wild, there were four of them, all related and they all wanted to do something different and got mad at each other when they did something rather innocent. I finally got them relatively settled watching Despicable Me (executive decision on my part, I wanted to see it again, haha). After a while though, they got restless and when I told them it’s watch a movie with us or color at the table they began to run into the other room and mess with the toys over there. I was kind of frustrated by that point sadly. Although Brian did come not long after that and helped out until we took them down to lunch. I had fries and sat with them until they all started eating, then met up with Tom- an officer who Jessica’s been talking to a lot- and went to the Viking to meet up with others.
Tom and I met Jessica at the Viking and got on the internet for a while before heading out for lunch. We got crepes (YAY!) and sat outside Alaskan Crepe Escape to eat them. I just realized that I should have taken a picture next to that place. After I finished eating, I quickly ran back to the ship to drop off my laptop and grab sunglasses so we could head to the top of Mount Robert on the tram. That was very exciting, we had fun taking pictures of each other on the ride up. When we got to the top, we took pictures on the overlook and of the eagle being taken care of by the raptor center; it’s too injured to be left out on her own and she’s a good educational tool for tourists. Then, we went hiking for a bit, we took the half mile loop around, stopping at all the overlooks and interesting things to take pictures. I touched Alaskan summer snow; crazy! Jessica was tired so convinced me and Tom to go back to the tram even though we were up for walking around some more.
We went back to the Viking for a while to hang out with people; Jessica and I headed back early though because there were too many people there for us to get on the internet. She took a nap and I looked through my pictures until dinnertime.
This evening the kids had a just dance party in the Northern Lights then it was movie night. Megan gave me both movie nights off this week because it’s my last week. I’m meeting her at the Sports Bar in a few minutes so we can go see the show together at 10. One interesting thing about ship life is the difference in YPC’s (my supervisors). Karyn told us we had to be in uniform if we were in public areas on the ship; Megan is perfectly fine letting us be in business casual clothes with name tag. Not that I really mind my uniform quite as much as I did now that I have a shirt that fits properly!
It’ll be an early night. Sitka in the morning. I’m going to mail some stuff home then and hopefully talk to Mom for a while. Shannon got the Sea Otter excursion! I’m so excited for her; I hope she has as much fun as I did and that the weather is good for her (not like the rainy weather I had).
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
first half of my last week
July 22, 2012
Jessica had an early morning with her immigration meeting so we got off the ship late, around noon. We found a taxi and rode to the mall to buy some decent uniform pieces. I now have a shirt that actually fits and a navy sweater to go over it so I don’t have to be florescent orange anymore! The shirts we bought are more orange than the real ones, but it doesn’t really matter, especially since they’re still orange and mostly covered up by the navy. We had lunch at Subway too, so two very good things already today!
We met Shannon, Iris and Brian this afternoon. Shannon seems quiet, I can tell we’re probably going to get along really well. Iris has done this before; she’s taking over as YPC in 2 weeks when Megan leaves, and she’s a friend of Ashley’s so we should get along well. I haven’t really spoken to Brian much so we’ll see, I think this is his first contract and he’s older than us. When Megan introduced me to Iris and Brian, she kind of bragged about how well I did with the teens last week. Oh, speaking of my teens, the $40 tip I got, Megan said I could keep it for myself since I was alone in working with the teens all week. Awesome!
Jessica went to the Bow to talk on the phone for a bit, then decided to visit Steven and the band as they played by the Lido pool. We ended up getting a plate of fries because we’re starting to get hungry again. Maybe this is like camp; I’ll come home and constantly be hungry. Now we’re back in the room for an hour hanging out before dinner. It’ll be an interesting evening because I’m not sure I really remember what activities the tweens do on the first night!
July 23, 2012
Last night was pretty crazy. I’m not even sure how many kids we had, they kept changing out and I had little time to get to know their names. We did the normal stuff: All About you posters, contract of fun, silent speedball, and a question game. I think the All about you posters took up the most time because some of them got really into decorating, while some of them were not interested at all. Shannon helped out and I tried to teach her the ways of the tween room.
We actually had breakfast as a youth staff this morning! First time everyone has sat together since I’ve been here. I feel like this group gets along well; we can hang out with each other outside of work, which is nice especially since it’s my last week. Shannon had to do new-crew stuff this morning so I was in charge of the tweens all by myself (with some assistance from Megan when she came by) for the first two hours. I think it was okay. They really wanted to play on the wii and not do activities, so I ended up having to make them do stuff; after a while they started to see that the activities we were doing were fun. Some of them didn’t want to leave for lunch once they finally got into what we were doing.
I had lunch with the youth staff (whoa, two meals in one day!) and Jenn. Lunch was rather disappointing to me, there weren’t any good entrees, and when I went to get pasta, they didn’t have alfredo sauce. So, I ended up getting pizza; pizza had hot dogs on it for some reason. I did end up getting strawberries (they gave me a lot thankfully) and cutting them up to put them in ice cream. That was a brilliant idea!
I hung out in the room with Jessica for a while before heading back to the tween room. They love our free time, especially playing on the x boxes. Some of the kids were a bit frustrating today; they didn’t want to listen at all, and signed in only to immediately ask to go back inside because we were outside playing basketball. But, they all ended up figuring out that they had to stay with the group. They absolutely love playing Silent Speedball, though they don’t really get the “silent” part of it. At least they’re looking forward to Spy Night tonight!
It’s formal night and hour back night!
July 24, 2012
Last night was definitely interesting. I have no idea how much the tweens enjoyed the activities. They just talk and goof off the whole time instead of really listening to my instructions or considering the fact that they might have fun. Well, they got into the scavenger hunt part, but not really anything else. It’s hard because I have quite a few who only just turned 8 and then a few who turn13 in a few weeks, so it’s kind of a wider age gap than we’ve had in the past. My kids really aren’t that good at being secretive either; spy night should mean that you be sneaky and don’t let others know what you’re doing, but shouting out answers and the key to certain activities was a common occurrence. I didn’t feel like they cared at all about letting others figure out things on their own. We tried to play “johnny whoop,” a game where you join the johnny club by doing exactly what I did, usually the focus is on something specific, but what I do at the very end is overlooked; some already knew the answers and immediately started doing the last thing over and over, giving away the secret to others and talking over me.
I did make it through the night though, by the end they finally started to listen to me just a bit; granted, the game I showed them dealt with listening to figure out whether to answer yes or no to questions. No one already knew that game so I at least kept them interested for a while.
After closing, Shannon and I changed and went to the show. It was a different show this week, Broadway songs instead of the normal singing and dancing.
Afternoon:
This morning went alright, we had a few new kids register so it was a slightly different group. Some of the louder ones were not there so we actually managed to get through each of our activities on time! Nothing too exciting happened, which is a good thing when working with kids because exciting likely means something bad happened. Although, a mother was kind of upset when she picked up her son because something happened that we didn’t know about and her son didn’t tell us. She was more frustrated with him not telling us though. This afternoon we had a talk with all of the kids and made sure they understand the rules of bullying and video game privileges.
The tweens did bring jackets this morning so were happy to be outside playing tag. Gaga ball inside was, once again, a huge hit. The tweens love hitting that giant tennis ball around for some reason, it’s a crazy game but at least they’re happily occupied. Most of them came with us to the Cooking Class (cheese pretzels again), so that was pretty cool.
This afternoon, Shannon and I went looking for music and sat with some soda for a while until we started to realize that we were close to the glacier. So, I ran upstairs and grabbed my DSLR so I could get some really good pictures of it! I took about 150 in the time we were around the glacier. We saw lots of seals on the ice, which were the main subjects of my photos. We stayed out until we were too far away from the glacier, and it happened to be about dinnertime.
Brave the Night was okay, it wasn’t nearly as successful as I’d hoped it would be. The kids did listen to what I said most of the time, especially after out talk this afternoon. However, the activities took a lot longer than I remember them taking during my first two weeks. We barely made it through the ones I remembered. Our numbers kept going down as well because a lot of families have an early excursion. Jessica and I started laundry and it’s taking forever to finish. I hope it’s done soon because I have to work at 8 tomorrow. Juneau finally, that means I can post all I’ve typed lately.
Oh, and 5 days until I’m back home where there’s normal internet! I really wish it would just connect in my room, it’d make my life so much easier and I’d be able to stay in contact without sacrificing excursion time.
Jessica had an early morning with her immigration meeting so we got off the ship late, around noon. We found a taxi and rode to the mall to buy some decent uniform pieces. I now have a shirt that actually fits and a navy sweater to go over it so I don’t have to be florescent orange anymore! The shirts we bought are more orange than the real ones, but it doesn’t really matter, especially since they’re still orange and mostly covered up by the navy. We had lunch at Subway too, so two very good things already today!
We met Shannon, Iris and Brian this afternoon. Shannon seems quiet, I can tell we’re probably going to get along really well. Iris has done this before; she’s taking over as YPC in 2 weeks when Megan leaves, and she’s a friend of Ashley’s so we should get along well. I haven’t really spoken to Brian much so we’ll see, I think this is his first contract and he’s older than us. When Megan introduced me to Iris and Brian, she kind of bragged about how well I did with the teens last week. Oh, speaking of my teens, the $40 tip I got, Megan said I could keep it for myself since I was alone in working with the teens all week. Awesome!
Jessica went to the Bow to talk on the phone for a bit, then decided to visit Steven and the band as they played by the Lido pool. We ended up getting a plate of fries because we’re starting to get hungry again. Maybe this is like camp; I’ll come home and constantly be hungry. Now we’re back in the room for an hour hanging out before dinner. It’ll be an interesting evening because I’m not sure I really remember what activities the tweens do on the first night!
July 23, 2012
Last night was pretty crazy. I’m not even sure how many kids we had, they kept changing out and I had little time to get to know their names. We did the normal stuff: All About you posters, contract of fun, silent speedball, and a question game. I think the All about you posters took up the most time because some of them got really into decorating, while some of them were not interested at all. Shannon helped out and I tried to teach her the ways of the tween room.
We actually had breakfast as a youth staff this morning! First time everyone has sat together since I’ve been here. I feel like this group gets along well; we can hang out with each other outside of work, which is nice especially since it’s my last week. Shannon had to do new-crew stuff this morning so I was in charge of the tweens all by myself (with some assistance from Megan when she came by) for the first two hours. I think it was okay. They really wanted to play on the wii and not do activities, so I ended up having to make them do stuff; after a while they started to see that the activities we were doing were fun. Some of them didn’t want to leave for lunch once they finally got into what we were doing.
I had lunch with the youth staff (whoa, two meals in one day!) and Jenn. Lunch was rather disappointing to me, there weren’t any good entrees, and when I went to get pasta, they didn’t have alfredo sauce. So, I ended up getting pizza; pizza had hot dogs on it for some reason. I did end up getting strawberries (they gave me a lot thankfully) and cutting them up to put them in ice cream. That was a brilliant idea!
I hung out in the room with Jessica for a while before heading back to the tween room. They love our free time, especially playing on the x boxes. Some of the kids were a bit frustrating today; they didn’t want to listen at all, and signed in only to immediately ask to go back inside because we were outside playing basketball. But, they all ended up figuring out that they had to stay with the group. They absolutely love playing Silent Speedball, though they don’t really get the “silent” part of it. At least they’re looking forward to Spy Night tonight!
It’s formal night and hour back night!
July 24, 2012
Last night was definitely interesting. I have no idea how much the tweens enjoyed the activities. They just talk and goof off the whole time instead of really listening to my instructions or considering the fact that they might have fun. Well, they got into the scavenger hunt part, but not really anything else. It’s hard because I have quite a few who only just turned 8 and then a few who turn13 in a few weeks, so it’s kind of a wider age gap than we’ve had in the past. My kids really aren’t that good at being secretive either; spy night should mean that you be sneaky and don’t let others know what you’re doing, but shouting out answers and the key to certain activities was a common occurrence. I didn’t feel like they cared at all about letting others figure out things on their own. We tried to play “johnny whoop,” a game where you join the johnny club by doing exactly what I did, usually the focus is on something specific, but what I do at the very end is overlooked; some already knew the answers and immediately started doing the last thing over and over, giving away the secret to others and talking over me.
I did make it through the night though, by the end they finally started to listen to me just a bit; granted, the game I showed them dealt with listening to figure out whether to answer yes or no to questions. No one already knew that game so I at least kept them interested for a while.
After closing, Shannon and I changed and went to the show. It was a different show this week, Broadway songs instead of the normal singing and dancing.
Afternoon:
This morning went alright, we had a few new kids register so it was a slightly different group. Some of the louder ones were not there so we actually managed to get through each of our activities on time! Nothing too exciting happened, which is a good thing when working with kids because exciting likely means something bad happened. Although, a mother was kind of upset when she picked up her son because something happened that we didn’t know about and her son didn’t tell us. She was more frustrated with him not telling us though. This afternoon we had a talk with all of the kids and made sure they understand the rules of bullying and video game privileges.
The tweens did bring jackets this morning so were happy to be outside playing tag. Gaga ball inside was, once again, a huge hit. The tweens love hitting that giant tennis ball around for some reason, it’s a crazy game but at least they’re happily occupied. Most of them came with us to the Cooking Class (cheese pretzels again), so that was pretty cool.
This afternoon, Shannon and I went looking for music and sat with some soda for a while until we started to realize that we were close to the glacier. So, I ran upstairs and grabbed my DSLR so I could get some really good pictures of it! I took about 150 in the time we were around the glacier. We saw lots of seals on the ice, which were the main subjects of my photos. We stayed out until we were too far away from the glacier, and it happened to be about dinnertime.
Brave the Night was okay, it wasn’t nearly as successful as I’d hoped it would be. The kids did listen to what I said most of the time, especially after out talk this afternoon. However, the activities took a lot longer than I remember them taking during my first two weeks. We barely made it through the ones I remembered. Our numbers kept going down as well because a lot of families have an early excursion. Jessica and I started laundry and it’s taking forever to finish. I hope it’s done soon because I have to work at 8 tomorrow. Juneau finally, that means I can post all I’ve typed lately.
Oh, and 5 days until I’m back home where there’s normal internet! I really wish it would just connect in my room, it’d make my life so much easier and I’d be able to stay in contact without sacrificing excursion time.
Ketchikan and Victoria
July 20, 2012
Ashley, Jessica and I walked around Ketchikan after leaving the coffee house, we took a couple group photos and basically window shopped until it started to rain and we decided that it wasn’t worth it to stay out in the rain especially because it was getting colder. Jessica and I watched a movie she had on her ipad until lunchtime. Lunch was very crowded, the only open tables we could find were two person tables, so Ashley wasn’t able to join Jessica and me to eat. I don’t know why, but I kept thinking it was dinner rather than lunch. I told my teens that I’d see them at 8 rather than 2 and I started to plan a bit in my head for their prom. It was very strange that mix up of time because every time I reminded myself that it was only lunch, I immediately forgot.
I read in the library until 2 (yes I did eventually get that the time was 2 not 8) and at 2 I went to see how my teens were doing. There were so many there when I arrived! 20! That’s out of 30 regulars and about 5 that come and go randomly. I was really amazed at how many there were. We didn’t really do much all afternoon, just put on music and talked. I almost went to sleep at one point because the ship was rocking a lot and it was rather quiet because all my teens had gotten up really early because their parents wanted to have a lot of time in Ketchikan. Some of the guys ended up renting a movie and I let them watch it until I left. The Ring… I played on my kindle rather than watch; scary movies and I do not mix well at all.
After a rather unsatisfying dinner of ‘4-cheese’ pizza (there was about half the amount of cheese on this pizza than on the regular pizzas), I went with Jessica to look at the photo gallery downstairs because we’d had a picture taken this morning as we left the ship. They hadn’t finished printing today’s yet, but I did find one of my teens and I outside on Tracy Arm day! I need to see if I can get it; Ashley said that sometimes they give the crew theirs for free, but I’m fine paying a little bit for it, I’m pretty sure we at least get a discount.
I get back up the Loft to find my teens watching another movie: The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I really don’t like scary movies! Luckily, I had a crew to help me decorate for prom, so we did that instead of listen/watch. I probably should’ve gotten there more than 15 minutes early because we had a lot of decorating to do! It looked pretty good considering we only had a few stars, a small banner, streamers and some curling ribbon. I cleared the dance floor, got them to put some music on and we danced! At first there wasn’t a whole lot of music that’s easy to dance to, but they eventually got the hang of it. One of the boys even took charge at one point and put on a slow song and told the guys they had to dance with a girl at least for a few minutes (the girls were rather outnumbered strangely). I hope they had fun, it seemed like they did and that was the whole point of throwing the prom.
At 10, we went to the show. It was Broadway night so the crew danced to a lot of random Broadway songs or re-written Broadway songs. I definitely prefer the normal way of singing Over the Rainbow to the one last night. My teens were very much into the faster paced songs and the few they knew, so I’d say the last show was a success!
When we got back from the show, I counted votes and announced the winners of all the categories: Funniest, Best Dressed, Best Dance Moves, Best Smile, Most Likely to Succeed, Most Athletic and of course the King and Queen. After that, we just sat and talked until I had to close. Some left early because their parents gave them curfews, but after midnight, I still had 12. Slowly they trickled out until I had to kick 6 out at 1. I don’t know why they didn’t just leave before that, they were so tired and I was tired, but they didn’t want to go yet.
July 21, 2012
I slept in this morning, nearly missing breakfast; I did run by the Lido and get a box of fruit loops and a chocolate milk though. When I got up to the Loft, no one was there, so I slowly ate my breakfast. A few slowly trickled in and we went down the Lido for a real breakfast (the schedule did say we were supposed to have a pancake breakfast together!). A few more people showed up at breakfast, then again when we returned to the Loft. They suggested we watch another movie, so someone checked one out at the front desk. I had to leave before it was over, sad because it was one I actually didn’t hate. I went to lunch with Jessica and checked for internet connection (again) in my room before heading back. They had already started another movie; I ended up reading through this one. Something about starting movies makes them want to keep watching them, because they wanted to watch another one! They brought one up and showed me the rating that the front desk said it has-G-and we started to watch it. We didn’t get far before the actual rating was shown: R. They’re not allowed to watch R rated movies in the Loft, so I had to stop the movie and make them take it downstairs again. I’m pretty sure they knew it was R, and were hoping to fool me with the front desk pamphlet rating. I might need to talk to the front desk and tell them to check the rest of the ratings, because that one could not be more wrong.
After another (this time age-appropriate) movie, Jessica came and we went down to the ocean bar for a bit so we could listen to the band play for a while. She had to go to work, so I went to dinner. There were no crew members to sit with, so I started to sit alone, but then a group of my teens saw me and asked me to sit with them. While I was eating, one of the girls’ grandmothers came up and started talking to her, asking who was in charge of the teens. When she pointed at me, my first thought was that I might have done something wrong because she had too neutral of a face for me to tell what was going on. She ended up giving me $40. Youth Staff’s first tip since I came on board. We have to split it between the five of us, but hey one of MY teens’ guardians thought I did a good enough job to give me some extra money!
I stayed with my teens for an hour until we headed to the Loft again. People came and went for the first hour because we were arriving to Victoria late (8:45 instead of 7 or 7:30), excursions had been cancelled so a lot of my teens were thinking about just not getting off the ship. We watched another movie, this time one that one of my teens brought with them because the front office wasn’t checking any more out that night. I chose because none of the teens there seemed to care enough to make a decision. So, for about 1.5 hours, me and several of the boys (everyone else ended up going to Victoria for a bit) watched Failure to Launch, a chick flick. That was actually entertaining because they watched the whole thing, not talking. Near the end, around 10, the others started coming back from Victoria and packing. The ones who had gone to Victoria were tired, they’d basically just walked around taking pictures because the excursions had been cancelled by our late arrival, they were ready to come hang out with everyone else. We spent a while exchanging emails/phone numbers before putting on another movie, which many of them talked their way through. We did end the movie early though because most of them were either tired or going to the Crows Nest to hang out and get sodas. I ended up getting to close at about 12:30 instead of a bit after 1 like I’d thought.
Oh, I’m not sure I mentioned something. We do get some news while on the ship, I watch the new channel occasionally on the TV, and of course there’s facebook when I have internet. So, I heard about the shooting at the movie theatre in Colorado. The crazy thing is that about a third of my teens are from Colorado, the area surrounding Denver. Two brothers actually go to that movie theatre all the time. They might have actually been there had they not been on this cruise. Pray for them please? They very likely might know some of the people who were there at the time.
Ashley’s leaving tomorrow, I’ll get to see her one more time as she comes to get Jessica so they can go to immigration together. I think Erica, Jessica and I are going into Seattle for part of the morning/afternoon to see about getting clothes that might actually fit for our uniforms. We’ll see what happens, usually no one wants to get up early on days they don’t have to.
I’m in charge of tweens next week, training Shannon, who’s just coming on in the morning. Strange to think that my first week, I was being trained by Ashley in the tween room, and now four weeks later, my last week, I’m the one training someone new. And now, Erica and I are the staff that have been on the longest on this ship. It’s such a different world on ships; things happen so quickly. Youth Staff usually doesn’t change quite this often from what I’ve heard, hopefully since my next contract is longer, and not during summer, the staff with be more stable.
Ashley, Jessica and I walked around Ketchikan after leaving the coffee house, we took a couple group photos and basically window shopped until it started to rain and we decided that it wasn’t worth it to stay out in the rain especially because it was getting colder. Jessica and I watched a movie she had on her ipad until lunchtime. Lunch was very crowded, the only open tables we could find were two person tables, so Ashley wasn’t able to join Jessica and me to eat. I don’t know why, but I kept thinking it was dinner rather than lunch. I told my teens that I’d see them at 8 rather than 2 and I started to plan a bit in my head for their prom. It was very strange that mix up of time because every time I reminded myself that it was only lunch, I immediately forgot.
I read in the library until 2 (yes I did eventually get that the time was 2 not 8) and at 2 I went to see how my teens were doing. There were so many there when I arrived! 20! That’s out of 30 regulars and about 5 that come and go randomly. I was really amazed at how many there were. We didn’t really do much all afternoon, just put on music and talked. I almost went to sleep at one point because the ship was rocking a lot and it was rather quiet because all my teens had gotten up really early because their parents wanted to have a lot of time in Ketchikan. Some of the guys ended up renting a movie and I let them watch it until I left. The Ring… I played on my kindle rather than watch; scary movies and I do not mix well at all.
After a rather unsatisfying dinner of ‘4-cheese’ pizza (there was about half the amount of cheese on this pizza than on the regular pizzas), I went with Jessica to look at the photo gallery downstairs because we’d had a picture taken this morning as we left the ship. They hadn’t finished printing today’s yet, but I did find one of my teens and I outside on Tracy Arm day! I need to see if I can get it; Ashley said that sometimes they give the crew theirs for free, but I’m fine paying a little bit for it, I’m pretty sure we at least get a discount.
I get back up the Loft to find my teens watching another movie: The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I really don’t like scary movies! Luckily, I had a crew to help me decorate for prom, so we did that instead of listen/watch. I probably should’ve gotten there more than 15 minutes early because we had a lot of decorating to do! It looked pretty good considering we only had a few stars, a small banner, streamers and some curling ribbon. I cleared the dance floor, got them to put some music on and we danced! At first there wasn’t a whole lot of music that’s easy to dance to, but they eventually got the hang of it. One of the boys even took charge at one point and put on a slow song and told the guys they had to dance with a girl at least for a few minutes (the girls were rather outnumbered strangely). I hope they had fun, it seemed like they did and that was the whole point of throwing the prom.
At 10, we went to the show. It was Broadway night so the crew danced to a lot of random Broadway songs or re-written Broadway songs. I definitely prefer the normal way of singing Over the Rainbow to the one last night. My teens were very much into the faster paced songs and the few they knew, so I’d say the last show was a success!
When we got back from the show, I counted votes and announced the winners of all the categories: Funniest, Best Dressed, Best Dance Moves, Best Smile, Most Likely to Succeed, Most Athletic and of course the King and Queen. After that, we just sat and talked until I had to close. Some left early because their parents gave them curfews, but after midnight, I still had 12. Slowly they trickled out until I had to kick 6 out at 1. I don’t know why they didn’t just leave before that, they were so tired and I was tired, but they didn’t want to go yet.
July 21, 2012
I slept in this morning, nearly missing breakfast; I did run by the Lido and get a box of fruit loops and a chocolate milk though. When I got up to the Loft, no one was there, so I slowly ate my breakfast. A few slowly trickled in and we went down the Lido for a real breakfast (the schedule did say we were supposed to have a pancake breakfast together!). A few more people showed up at breakfast, then again when we returned to the Loft. They suggested we watch another movie, so someone checked one out at the front desk. I had to leave before it was over, sad because it was one I actually didn’t hate. I went to lunch with Jessica and checked for internet connection (again) in my room before heading back. They had already started another movie; I ended up reading through this one. Something about starting movies makes them want to keep watching them, because they wanted to watch another one! They brought one up and showed me the rating that the front desk said it has-G-and we started to watch it. We didn’t get far before the actual rating was shown: R. They’re not allowed to watch R rated movies in the Loft, so I had to stop the movie and make them take it downstairs again. I’m pretty sure they knew it was R, and were hoping to fool me with the front desk pamphlet rating. I might need to talk to the front desk and tell them to check the rest of the ratings, because that one could not be more wrong.
After another (this time age-appropriate) movie, Jessica came and we went down to the ocean bar for a bit so we could listen to the band play for a while. She had to go to work, so I went to dinner. There were no crew members to sit with, so I started to sit alone, but then a group of my teens saw me and asked me to sit with them. While I was eating, one of the girls’ grandmothers came up and started talking to her, asking who was in charge of the teens. When she pointed at me, my first thought was that I might have done something wrong because she had too neutral of a face for me to tell what was going on. She ended up giving me $40. Youth Staff’s first tip since I came on board. We have to split it between the five of us, but hey one of MY teens’ guardians thought I did a good enough job to give me some extra money!
I stayed with my teens for an hour until we headed to the Loft again. People came and went for the first hour because we were arriving to Victoria late (8:45 instead of 7 or 7:30), excursions had been cancelled so a lot of my teens were thinking about just not getting off the ship. We watched another movie, this time one that one of my teens brought with them because the front office wasn’t checking any more out that night. I chose because none of the teens there seemed to care enough to make a decision. So, for about 1.5 hours, me and several of the boys (everyone else ended up going to Victoria for a bit) watched Failure to Launch, a chick flick. That was actually entertaining because they watched the whole thing, not talking. Near the end, around 10, the others started coming back from Victoria and packing. The ones who had gone to Victoria were tired, they’d basically just walked around taking pictures because the excursions had been cancelled by our late arrival, they were ready to come hang out with everyone else. We spent a while exchanging emails/phone numbers before putting on another movie, which many of them talked their way through. We did end the movie early though because most of them were either tired or going to the Crows Nest to hang out and get sodas. I ended up getting to close at about 12:30 instead of a bit after 1 like I’d thought.
Oh, I’m not sure I mentioned something. We do get some news while on the ship, I watch the new channel occasionally on the TV, and of course there’s facebook when I have internet. So, I heard about the shooting at the movie theatre in Colorado. The crazy thing is that about a third of my teens are from Colorado, the area surrounding Denver. Two brothers actually go to that movie theatre all the time. They might have actually been there had they not been on this cruise. Pray for them please? They very likely might know some of the people who were there at the time.
Ashley’s leaving tomorrow, I’ll get to see her one more time as she comes to get Jessica so they can go to immigration together. I think Erica, Jessica and I are going into Seattle for part of the morning/afternoon to see about getting clothes that might actually fit for our uniforms. We’ll see what happens, usually no one wants to get up early on days they don’t have to.
I’m in charge of tweens next week, training Shannon, who’s just coming on in the morning. Strange to think that my first week, I was being trained by Ashley in the tween room, and now four weeks later, my last week, I’m the one training someone new. And now, Erica and I are the staff that have been on the longest on this ship. It’s such a different world on ships; things happen so quickly. Youth Staff usually doesn’t change quite this often from what I’ve heard, hopefully since my next contract is longer, and not during summer, the staff with be more stable.
Friday, July 20, 2012
port days
July 18, 2012
I got off in Juneau today and actually did a bit of stuff. First I got on the internet because I wanted to talk to people. I was headed back towards the ship to change and get lunch before heading back out without my laptop when I was stopped by a sighting of an Eiffel Tower on a shop along the row of outdoor food places. I got closer and saw that it was a creperie!! YES! It was very exciting! A girl in line and I began talking somehow; she lives in Juneau and works with the tours and she just discovered the creperie last week! We had good conversation, she spent three weeks in Europe with her school last fall so we had a LOT to talk about while I waited in line and she waited for them to finish her order. I might meet her again next week there because she really likes going there now that she’s found it. I got a strawberry nutella crepe and ate it on a bench next to the road; I may have inspired several people passing to go get one too because I heard a few comments like “oh cool, we can get crepes!”
After going back on the ship to switch out my laptop for my camera, I began to wander around town to find the fire station. I couldn’t find it even after wandering around for about an hour. Caitlin (the girl I met in line for crepes) gave me some directions, but I just couldn’t find it for some reason; I’ll try again next week though, once I get some more exact directions. I went shopping for a while and got Mom a present :) then I just walked around browsing the various shops before going back to the ship. Jessica and I hung out for a while before dinner and then going to get her name badge finally made. We checked for our shore excursions and I got one! I get to go on the “Sea Otter Quest” tomorrow. Taking a boat and seeing wildlife: otters, seals, etc. The boat is heated and has restrooms; I’ll be doing that at 7:30 in the morning and it’ll last about 2.5 hours, so I won’t have much time in Sitka, but I’m okay with that if I get to see some otters!
July 19, 2012
Early morning. I had to be in the Vista Lounge at 7:30 to be directed to my excursion. I didn’t get breakfast, but Cheyane (she’s one of the ones in charge of excursions) was talking to me while I waited and told me that they’d have snacks onboard. We got directly onto the tour boat from the ship.
Sadly, it was raining, but it was still a great trip! I had a really good thing of hot chocolate and a muffin for breakfast on board; the people who ran the tour were really nice, they made sure everyone knew what was going on. The boat had two stories, the bottom was windowed-in, heated and had the food, restrooms, gift shop and of course all the seats. The upper part was mostly open, there was a section for the captain, a covered section with a few seats and then three tiers of open area (with rails). Despite the rain, I was in the open area a lot because the windows had water drops all over them making it difficult to see out and get good pictures.
There were about 60 people from the Oosterdam on this excursion. We saw harbor seals, otters (twice), humpback whales, a grey whale, jellyfish, salmon, and quite a few eagles. I’d say it was a very productive trip! God’s creation is truly wonderful, seeing all these intricate creatures that He showed me today just brings chills because they’re all so different, but all survive together. I’ve now seen otters swimming around playing in the middle of the water, eagles take off the top of trees, whales rolling near the surface and flipping their tails, seals asleep on buoys and salmon jumping out of the water!
I did talk quite a bit to the passengers, they were all rather nice once we got used to our surroundings. I met people from Florida and Michigan; both couples told me they’re impressed with the youth staff because of all the kids we take care of!
Speaking of the kids, I worked this afternoon. I arrived and there were 14 there, a lot for a port day (probably because of the rain). The 14 never left and others just came. Noone wanted to do the same thing, so some were playing wii, other xbox, others doing crafts and still others still deciding. My attention was divided so many ways, it was confusing. I had to fix the wii, turn on an Xbox, unlock the cabinet with the xbox games, and get out the markers all at the same time. It was crazy. Finally I convinced most of them to watch a movie; half ended up playing xbox instead of watching though. About halfway through the movie, only 5 of us were watching, others were wandering around, taking craft supplies out of the cabinet, running around playing a game and yelling at each other about an xbox game. I did my best to maintain control; it eventually worked. It probably would have been better if there was a set schedule I feel like, because over 20 kids and just me trying to keep them all calm doesn’t work too well.
Time for a nap now; or time to go through my pictures from this morning!
July 20, 2012
Apparently my teens adore me. Megan was talking to the front office and they told her that a lot of parents were even saying good things about me. I’m kind of amazed; I just sit around with them mostly, and tell them to pick up whatever game is spread across the room, don’t let them curse, and make them take dirty dishes back to the kitchen. I’m teaching them about the cursing thing. One was cursing accidently all the time at the start of the week and said he couldn’t help it, last night I noticed he didn’t and when he almost let it slip, he stopped himself!
I got to work last night and no one was there. About an hour later, only one teen was there playing xbox and the rest came back, turns out that they had gone to the show at 8. We sat around for a while and they suggested we all go to the dessert extravaganza. I ended up wandering around by myself for a while because the group divided up into groups of 3-4. They had SO much chocolate, even chocolate fountains which was very exciting! I ended up sitting with three of the more mature teens and listening to the band until they stopped playing. We went back to the Loft and the other teens surprisingly hadn’t made a mess everywhere! There were about 10 of us who sat and talked until I closed at1. We’re having prom later today, basically just dancing to music; I don’t think I’m even going to make them dress up if they don’t want to. Maybe they’ll want to go to the show tonight too.
I’m now in Ketchikan at a coffee shop getting internet(I bought a pepsi) and hanging out with Jessica and Ashley since Ashley leaves on Sunday!
I got off in Juneau today and actually did a bit of stuff. First I got on the internet because I wanted to talk to people. I was headed back towards the ship to change and get lunch before heading back out without my laptop when I was stopped by a sighting of an Eiffel Tower on a shop along the row of outdoor food places. I got closer and saw that it was a creperie!! YES! It was very exciting! A girl in line and I began talking somehow; she lives in Juneau and works with the tours and she just discovered the creperie last week! We had good conversation, she spent three weeks in Europe with her school last fall so we had a LOT to talk about while I waited in line and she waited for them to finish her order. I might meet her again next week there because she really likes going there now that she’s found it. I got a strawberry nutella crepe and ate it on a bench next to the road; I may have inspired several people passing to go get one too because I heard a few comments like “oh cool, we can get crepes!”
After going back on the ship to switch out my laptop for my camera, I began to wander around town to find the fire station. I couldn’t find it even after wandering around for about an hour. Caitlin (the girl I met in line for crepes) gave me some directions, but I just couldn’t find it for some reason; I’ll try again next week though, once I get some more exact directions. I went shopping for a while and got Mom a present :) then I just walked around browsing the various shops before going back to the ship. Jessica and I hung out for a while before dinner and then going to get her name badge finally made. We checked for our shore excursions and I got one! I get to go on the “Sea Otter Quest” tomorrow. Taking a boat and seeing wildlife: otters, seals, etc. The boat is heated and has restrooms; I’ll be doing that at 7:30 in the morning and it’ll last about 2.5 hours, so I won’t have much time in Sitka, but I’m okay with that if I get to see some otters!
July 19, 2012
Early morning. I had to be in the Vista Lounge at 7:30 to be directed to my excursion. I didn’t get breakfast, but Cheyane (she’s one of the ones in charge of excursions) was talking to me while I waited and told me that they’d have snacks onboard. We got directly onto the tour boat from the ship.
Sadly, it was raining, but it was still a great trip! I had a really good thing of hot chocolate and a muffin for breakfast on board; the people who ran the tour were really nice, they made sure everyone knew what was going on. The boat had two stories, the bottom was windowed-in, heated and had the food, restrooms, gift shop and of course all the seats. The upper part was mostly open, there was a section for the captain, a covered section with a few seats and then three tiers of open area (with rails). Despite the rain, I was in the open area a lot because the windows had water drops all over them making it difficult to see out and get good pictures.
There were about 60 people from the Oosterdam on this excursion. We saw harbor seals, otters (twice), humpback whales, a grey whale, jellyfish, salmon, and quite a few eagles. I’d say it was a very productive trip! God’s creation is truly wonderful, seeing all these intricate creatures that He showed me today just brings chills because they’re all so different, but all survive together. I’ve now seen otters swimming around playing in the middle of the water, eagles take off the top of trees, whales rolling near the surface and flipping their tails, seals asleep on buoys and salmon jumping out of the water!
I did talk quite a bit to the passengers, they were all rather nice once we got used to our surroundings. I met people from Florida and Michigan; both couples told me they’re impressed with the youth staff because of all the kids we take care of!
Speaking of the kids, I worked this afternoon. I arrived and there were 14 there, a lot for a port day (probably because of the rain). The 14 never left and others just came. Noone wanted to do the same thing, so some were playing wii, other xbox, others doing crafts and still others still deciding. My attention was divided so many ways, it was confusing. I had to fix the wii, turn on an Xbox, unlock the cabinet with the xbox games, and get out the markers all at the same time. It was crazy. Finally I convinced most of them to watch a movie; half ended up playing xbox instead of watching though. About halfway through the movie, only 5 of us were watching, others were wandering around, taking craft supplies out of the cabinet, running around playing a game and yelling at each other about an xbox game. I did my best to maintain control; it eventually worked. It probably would have been better if there was a set schedule I feel like, because over 20 kids and just me trying to keep them all calm doesn’t work too well.
Time for a nap now; or time to go through my pictures from this morning!
July 20, 2012
Apparently my teens adore me. Megan was talking to the front office and they told her that a lot of parents were even saying good things about me. I’m kind of amazed; I just sit around with them mostly, and tell them to pick up whatever game is spread across the room, don’t let them curse, and make them take dirty dishes back to the kitchen. I’m teaching them about the cursing thing. One was cursing accidently all the time at the start of the week and said he couldn’t help it, last night I noticed he didn’t and when he almost let it slip, he stopped himself!
I got to work last night and no one was there. About an hour later, only one teen was there playing xbox and the rest came back, turns out that they had gone to the show at 8. We sat around for a while and they suggested we all go to the dessert extravaganza. I ended up wandering around by myself for a while because the group divided up into groups of 3-4. They had SO much chocolate, even chocolate fountains which was very exciting! I ended up sitting with three of the more mature teens and listening to the band until they stopped playing. We went back to the Loft and the other teens surprisingly hadn’t made a mess everywhere! There were about 10 of us who sat and talked until I closed at1. We’re having prom later today, basically just dancing to music; I don’t think I’m even going to make them dress up if they don’t want to. Maybe they’ll want to go to the show tonight too.
I’m now in Ketchikan at a coffee shop getting internet(I bought a pepsi) and hanging out with Jessica and Ashley since Ashley leaves on Sunday!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
July 17
July 17, 2012
It’s strange having a later morning than the rest of the youth staff. I still get up and eat breakfast with them, but I can come back to the room and finish getting ready afterwards! I’ve been having at least 15 teens at any given time hanging out in the Loft; it’s almost as if they have a system, if one leaves, a few minutes later another or a group comes in. We had no schedule for today so we kind of just hung out, talked and listened to music. Pretty much what we do all the time anyway. The morning went by really quickly. I had lunch with Jessica and Ashley and spent the remaining portion of my break in the library studying Italian. A couple came down and sat near me to read, when the wife went to get coffee, the husband started talking to me. Turns out they’d spent a few weeks on vacation in Italy a few years ago; it was nice just casually talking to a passenger about places around the world.
This afternoon, we did finally get a printed schedule. They saw dodgeball on it for tonight and wanted to play it this afternoon instead, so we played dodgeball for about an hour. I mainly looked at icebergs, took pictures, watched for animals and made sure they were playing nice. Dodgeball lasted about an hour! I’m surprised that they didn’t get bored sooner, especially since they’re usually always eating something. We had ice cream and then went outside to watch for the glacier wall. We ended up going out right in time because it had just come into view! I have a few pictures of it (and me), and some of the comparison of a small boat (small compared to the cruise ship at least, we think it’s a yacht) to one of the medium sized icebergs floating around. My teens were excited, but not nearly as much as I was, haha.
They actually requested that I take them to the show tonight, the comedian on-board’s last performance before she leaves us in Juneau to go on another HAL ship. I have no idea what we’re doing before that because the schedule says “Olympics” but we’ll probably end up playing cards again, that’s the usual fallback that they love. I’m hoping for a semi-early night tonight because I had to actually kick them out at 1, then clean up a little bit before I got to come to bed.
Oh, other news, I’m changing rooms again! The ship finally has a life stylist again (whose room Jessica and I are in now), so we have to be moved. I’m moving back up to the fourth floor! Yay for bigger rooms. Not excited about packing all my stuff back up to take it up a few floors, but at least we’ll have more room to move around, and no tile floors! The downside is that I will be further away from Jenn, and that I’ll be further from the time computers so I’ll have to really think about going to put in my hours for the day (after 11:59pm, before 11:30am the day after I work… so, I have to remember that I need to add in my 12am-1am time in the next day… confusing). Oh well, things like this apparently change a lot.
Evening:
My kids were crazy tonight. I went in a bit late even though I arrived early because I met up with Jessica and Megan outside the room; Megan told us to go ahead and get our new keys because we have to be out of our room in the morning. When I got back to the Loft, we went outside and played dodgeball again for a while with the fewest number of teens I’ve had all week: 8. After an hour of that, we just hung out on the couches and talked until the show at 10. They weren’t really impressed by the comedian (I wasn’t really either to be honest, I mean I giggled some, but I wasn’t dying laughing.) but at least the conversation about the comedian lasted a while. Since everyone was tired, we just sat on the couches again, talking. These kids eat ALL the time, they’re constantly going downstairs for juice, ice cream, sandwiches, desserts, etc. The horrible thing is that they leave all the dishes in the room. That means I either have to take 20 glasses/bowls downstairs myself or put them on the try our snacks came on. Tonight, a good few helped me by each taking 4 items downstairs so the Lido staff could get them washed.
I did have to threaten to kick some of the teens out of the Loft tonight; they started laughing at something and would not stop, getting louder the longer they went on and it went on for about 15 minutes before I kind of stopped it. It got to the point where I couldn’t think, couldn’t hear the music I’d put on and when I walked down a floor, could still hear them. I ended up just telling them that if they were that tired, then they should just go to bed and they actually listened to me!
Strangely enough, despite all the bad things and the craziness, I like hanging out with the teens, it's a nice schedule (aside from the 1am close time) and it's really relaxed so I have a lot of say in what we should do.
So, Jessica and I are now in the “secret cabin” at least until the end of the week (3 rooms in 3 weeks for me). It’s on fourth floor, and it is BIG for a crew cabin. We had to ask someone to help us find it because it’s hidden behind a crew-only door which lead to the crew elevators. Wow is about all I can say. We were freaking out for a while because we’d walked all over and could not find the room anywhere; luckily one of the security team who comes to check on me at night in the Loft happened to walk by and we asked him where to go. I moved up half my stuff tonight and will finish in the morning. I really just threw everything into my suitcase when I got back to the room, then dumped it all out in the new room so I could bring it back down for the second load in the morning. I have less stuff here than I thought I did.
Tomorrow’s Juneau, I have to get used to my new room, but I might end up going on a crew tour which I just found out about. Yay for free internet as well!
July 18, 2012
Morning: I’ve now moved into my new room. I’m about to go to shore so figured I’d go ahead and type some stuff. The new room is HUGE, Jessica and I each have two closets; I don’t know why they didn’t just put the new lifestylist in here. Apparently there’s a chance Jessica and I may have to move again at the end of the week. That would make 4 rooms in 4 weeks. Moving is typical, but average of every week is not.
Nothing too new to report yet, I helped Jessica find the laundry room so she could finally wash her uniform, and in return she’s washing the little bit of clothes I have. We’re getting along a lot easier than me and Jordan. She gets lost easily, so she likes to have me around explaining how to get places around the ship. It’s really throwing her having to move rooms, because she only just figured out where the room was!
It’s strange having a later morning than the rest of the youth staff. I still get up and eat breakfast with them, but I can come back to the room and finish getting ready afterwards! I’ve been having at least 15 teens at any given time hanging out in the Loft; it’s almost as if they have a system, if one leaves, a few minutes later another or a group comes in. We had no schedule for today so we kind of just hung out, talked and listened to music. Pretty much what we do all the time anyway. The morning went by really quickly. I had lunch with Jessica and Ashley and spent the remaining portion of my break in the library studying Italian. A couple came down and sat near me to read, when the wife went to get coffee, the husband started talking to me. Turns out they’d spent a few weeks on vacation in Italy a few years ago; it was nice just casually talking to a passenger about places around the world.
This afternoon, we did finally get a printed schedule. They saw dodgeball on it for tonight and wanted to play it this afternoon instead, so we played dodgeball for about an hour. I mainly looked at icebergs, took pictures, watched for animals and made sure they were playing nice. Dodgeball lasted about an hour! I’m surprised that they didn’t get bored sooner, especially since they’re usually always eating something. We had ice cream and then went outside to watch for the glacier wall. We ended up going out right in time because it had just come into view! I have a few pictures of it (and me), and some of the comparison of a small boat (small compared to the cruise ship at least, we think it’s a yacht) to one of the medium sized icebergs floating around. My teens were excited, but not nearly as much as I was, haha.
They actually requested that I take them to the show tonight, the comedian on-board’s last performance before she leaves us in Juneau to go on another HAL ship. I have no idea what we’re doing before that because the schedule says “Olympics” but we’ll probably end up playing cards again, that’s the usual fallback that they love. I’m hoping for a semi-early night tonight because I had to actually kick them out at 1, then clean up a little bit before I got to come to bed.
Oh, other news, I’m changing rooms again! The ship finally has a life stylist again (whose room Jessica and I are in now), so we have to be moved. I’m moving back up to the fourth floor! Yay for bigger rooms. Not excited about packing all my stuff back up to take it up a few floors, but at least we’ll have more room to move around, and no tile floors! The downside is that I will be further away from Jenn, and that I’ll be further from the time computers so I’ll have to really think about going to put in my hours for the day (after 11:59pm, before 11:30am the day after I work… so, I have to remember that I need to add in my 12am-1am time in the next day… confusing). Oh well, things like this apparently change a lot.
Evening:
My kids were crazy tonight. I went in a bit late even though I arrived early because I met up with Jessica and Megan outside the room; Megan told us to go ahead and get our new keys because we have to be out of our room in the morning. When I got back to the Loft, we went outside and played dodgeball again for a while with the fewest number of teens I’ve had all week: 8. After an hour of that, we just hung out on the couches and talked until the show at 10. They weren’t really impressed by the comedian (I wasn’t really either to be honest, I mean I giggled some, but I wasn’t dying laughing.) but at least the conversation about the comedian lasted a while. Since everyone was tired, we just sat on the couches again, talking. These kids eat ALL the time, they’re constantly going downstairs for juice, ice cream, sandwiches, desserts, etc. The horrible thing is that they leave all the dishes in the room. That means I either have to take 20 glasses/bowls downstairs myself or put them on the try our snacks came on. Tonight, a good few helped me by each taking 4 items downstairs so the Lido staff could get them washed.
I did have to threaten to kick some of the teens out of the Loft tonight; they started laughing at something and would not stop, getting louder the longer they went on and it went on for about 15 minutes before I kind of stopped it. It got to the point where I couldn’t think, couldn’t hear the music I’d put on and when I walked down a floor, could still hear them. I ended up just telling them that if they were that tired, then they should just go to bed and they actually listened to me!
Strangely enough, despite all the bad things and the craziness, I like hanging out with the teens, it's a nice schedule (aside from the 1am close time) and it's really relaxed so I have a lot of say in what we should do.
So, Jessica and I are now in the “secret cabin” at least until the end of the week (3 rooms in 3 weeks for me). It’s on fourth floor, and it is BIG for a crew cabin. We had to ask someone to help us find it because it’s hidden behind a crew-only door which lead to the crew elevators. Wow is about all I can say. We were freaking out for a while because we’d walked all over and could not find the room anywhere; luckily one of the security team who comes to check on me at night in the Loft happened to walk by and we asked him where to go. I moved up half my stuff tonight and will finish in the morning. I really just threw everything into my suitcase when I got back to the room, then dumped it all out in the new room so I could bring it back down for the second load in the morning. I have less stuff here than I thought I did.
Tomorrow’s Juneau, I have to get used to my new room, but I might end up going on a crew tour which I just found out about. Yay for free internet as well!
July 18, 2012
Morning: I’ve now moved into my new room. I’m about to go to shore so figured I’d go ahead and type some stuff. The new room is HUGE, Jessica and I each have two closets; I don’t know why they didn’t just put the new lifestylist in here. Apparently there’s a chance Jessica and I may have to move again at the end of the week. That would make 4 rooms in 4 weeks. Moving is typical, but average of every week is not.
Nothing too new to report yet, I helped Jessica find the laundry room so she could finally wash her uniform, and in return she’s washing the little bit of clothes I have. We’re getting along a lot easier than me and Jordan. She gets lost easily, so she likes to have me around explaining how to get places around the ship. It’s really throwing her having to move rooms, because she only just figured out where the room was!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
July 16
July 16, 2012
Day two with the teens! It’s actually pretty fun to hang out with the teens, they call me their camp counselor and I’m pretty much one of them except for having the keys to the cabinets with all the games, and being in charge, telling them to clean up and stuff. A lot of them have been showing up; they like the laid-back atmosphere in the Loft, especially after I figured out how to plug mp3’s and phones with music into the speaker system. I’m slowly figuring out the room, but still have trouble with figuring out which key goes with which cabinet.
In the morning, we started out with playing board games, like on the schedule, but then we just kept playing various board games/Apples-to-Apples until it was time for me to lock up. Some of them stayed just to hang out. When I got back after lunch, another group was there and we played cards until I sent them on a “Tacky Tourist Hunt.” The room has a box of random activities and lists for scavenger hunts. For the Tacky Tourist Hunt, it was a list of people for them to get pictures with/signatures from. I chose 15 requirements and gave the teens a deadline for when to be back, and they were off! I think they were good, I haven’t heard any complaints from other guests about the teens wandering around asking strange questions. The teens had fun at least; maybe I’ll send them on another scavenger hunt another afternoon. After that, we just hung out with more card games.
I had dinner with the rest of the youth staff as I got off work at 6, then they went to work while I came downstairs to change. I’m allowed to take them to shows, and since tonight was a formal night, I had to be dressed up! YAY for not having to wear my uniform with the teens all the time! The schedule indicated it was Vegas Night so we ended up playing various versions of poker until the show. They tried to teach me, but I still haven’t caught on so gave up and entertained the others that didn’t want to play. The show last night was Ballroom Blitz; not the best show to dazzle them with, but some of them seemed to enjoy it when the faster-paced music started. I particularly loved the tango performance. It was fairly obvious though that the lead female singer can’t dance, because for the songs she was on stage for, she sang standing still. The lead male singer at least moved around a lot, and of course there was the other lead couple who are singer/dancers.
After the show, most of us returned to the Loft while others went to their rooms to change into more comfy clothes. Basically from 11 until 1 was hang out time, we chatted, found a few games to try out, and listened to music. I’m so glad they’re finally bringing their own music now because in the morning, I’d forgotten my mp3 so put on some CD’s that were in the room; the CDs didn’t have the best music on them. From now on, I’m at least bringing my mp3 in case someone else doesn’t, or in case all the teens leave before I can get off work.
Day two with the teens! It’s actually pretty fun to hang out with the teens, they call me their camp counselor and I’m pretty much one of them except for having the keys to the cabinets with all the games, and being in charge, telling them to clean up and stuff. A lot of them have been showing up; they like the laid-back atmosphere in the Loft, especially after I figured out how to plug mp3’s and phones with music into the speaker system. I’m slowly figuring out the room, but still have trouble with figuring out which key goes with which cabinet.
In the morning, we started out with playing board games, like on the schedule, but then we just kept playing various board games/Apples-to-Apples until it was time for me to lock up. Some of them stayed just to hang out. When I got back after lunch, another group was there and we played cards until I sent them on a “Tacky Tourist Hunt.” The room has a box of random activities and lists for scavenger hunts. For the Tacky Tourist Hunt, it was a list of people for them to get pictures with/signatures from. I chose 15 requirements and gave the teens a deadline for when to be back, and they were off! I think they were good, I haven’t heard any complaints from other guests about the teens wandering around asking strange questions. The teens had fun at least; maybe I’ll send them on another scavenger hunt another afternoon. After that, we just hung out with more card games.
I had dinner with the rest of the youth staff as I got off work at 6, then they went to work while I came downstairs to change. I’m allowed to take them to shows, and since tonight was a formal night, I had to be dressed up! YAY for not having to wear my uniform with the teens all the time! The schedule indicated it was Vegas Night so we ended up playing various versions of poker until the show. They tried to teach me, but I still haven’t caught on so gave up and entertained the others that didn’t want to play. The show last night was Ballroom Blitz; not the best show to dazzle them with, but some of them seemed to enjoy it when the faster-paced music started. I particularly loved the tango performance. It was fairly obvious though that the lead female singer can’t dance, because for the songs she was on stage for, she sang standing still. The lead male singer at least moved around a lot, and of course there was the other lead couple who are singer/dancers.
After the show, most of us returned to the Loft while others went to their rooms to change into more comfy clothes. Basically from 11 until 1 was hang out time, we chatted, found a few games to try out, and listened to music. I’m so glad they’re finally bringing their own music now because in the morning, I’d forgotten my mp3 so put on some CD’s that were in the room; the CDs didn’t have the best music on them. From now on, I’m at least bringing my mp3 in case someone else doesn’t, or in case all the teens leave before I can get off work.
July 15
July 15, 2012
Wow, I haven’t had much time to write in the last two days. Yesterday was the last day with that group of tweens and Natalie, Jordan and Karyn’s last day. The kids I think were ready to get off the ship, they had a hard time staying focused on games, and both Ashley and me were feeling blech with cold-ish symptoms, losing our voices a bit. But, we made it through the day. I got off early because I worked the first movie night in the week so I met up with Natalie, Karyn and Jenn and we went to the Bow to hang out for a while overlooking Victoria (normal clothes, YAY!) Natalie went to work while Karyn, Jenn and I got off the ship for free internet. After sitting outside for an hour online, we decided it was time to come in, so Jenn and I went up to the Bow to wait for Natalie so we could all hang out one last time before going our separate ways for a while. She was disembarked because of an eye problem, which we hope gets better soon!
Let’s see, this morning I got up late-ish, saw Jordan off and went to breakfast. The Lido was closed early for some reason (they’re supposed to be open until 10:30, but it was 9:50), so I went to the café in the library and bought a muffin to eat while I studied my Italian. I called mom after a while and finally got to answer most of her questions :) I went to lunch, but no one showed up, so I went back to my room where I found my new roommate Jessica. She was hungry so I took her up to the Lido and sat with her while she ate, then we took a tour of the ship. It’s so weird that I’m the one showing people around now! Two weeks ago I didn’t know where anything was. Jessica is new to cruise ship life so we had lots of fun talking about that and telling stories and such.
After wristband check during the Emergency Drill and our meeting, I went back to the library and read away the afternoon. It was kind of crowded, too many people for my taste, but I was glad to sit on a windowsill and watch as we passed tugboats, sailboats, and the buildings on land. Quite a few people came up to me to ask questions. I was very happy when I was actually able to answer all of them, it shows I know more about the ship. Again, some people even thought I was the librarian. One man was startled when I moved apparently, when I said hi he kind of jumped and said “oh my, I thought you were just a statue.” Maybe I sit too still when I’m really focusing on “Le Fantome de l’Opera.”
I went to dinner with Jessica and we met up with Megan (my new supervisor since Karyn left) and Ashley. We went up to the rooms to set up and Megan realized that I hadn’t worked with the littles yet (that’s what we call the 3-7 year olds). Since Megan was supposed to help me with them, and she has to do new(to the ship)-crew stuff this week as well as being Youth Program Coordinator- YPC- she asked if it was okay for me and Erica to switch jobs this week. Meaning, I’m now with the teens in the Loft! Entirely different experience!
I have an entirely new schedule now. I work 10-12, 2-6 and 8-1am. It’s very relaxed though, there’s a schedule of suggested events posted, but it’s optional to follow so I just get to figure out what they like to do and we can all do it. Like, if they want to, we can go see the shows as a group; I think we’re doing formal night tomorrow and going to the show. Tonight we hung out and talked for a while, played Cheats, played a trivia game, Taboo, Battle of the Sexes and Balderdash (they got bored of games somewhat quickly). It was kind of sad because we all went outside to see if we could see why the ship was rocking so much –it was something to do- I walked out with them, but came in before they did to organize the “where we are” signs. No one came back except for parents looking for their teens. Some came back looking for the others, but the others were nowhere to be found. A few more came back and we played cards for about 15 minutes before they got tired and said they were going to bed and weren’t coming back, so I was able to leave around 12:15!
Wow, I haven’t had much time to write in the last two days. Yesterday was the last day with that group of tweens and Natalie, Jordan and Karyn’s last day. The kids I think were ready to get off the ship, they had a hard time staying focused on games, and both Ashley and me were feeling blech with cold-ish symptoms, losing our voices a bit. But, we made it through the day. I got off early because I worked the first movie night in the week so I met up with Natalie, Karyn and Jenn and we went to the Bow to hang out for a while overlooking Victoria (normal clothes, YAY!) Natalie went to work while Karyn, Jenn and I got off the ship for free internet. After sitting outside for an hour online, we decided it was time to come in, so Jenn and I went up to the Bow to wait for Natalie so we could all hang out one last time before going our separate ways for a while. She was disembarked because of an eye problem, which we hope gets better soon!
Let’s see, this morning I got up late-ish, saw Jordan off and went to breakfast. The Lido was closed early for some reason (they’re supposed to be open until 10:30, but it was 9:50), so I went to the café in the library and bought a muffin to eat while I studied my Italian. I called mom after a while and finally got to answer most of her questions :) I went to lunch, but no one showed up, so I went back to my room where I found my new roommate Jessica. She was hungry so I took her up to the Lido and sat with her while she ate, then we took a tour of the ship. It’s so weird that I’m the one showing people around now! Two weeks ago I didn’t know where anything was. Jessica is new to cruise ship life so we had lots of fun talking about that and telling stories and such.
After wristband check during the Emergency Drill and our meeting, I went back to the library and read away the afternoon. It was kind of crowded, too many people for my taste, but I was glad to sit on a windowsill and watch as we passed tugboats, sailboats, and the buildings on land. Quite a few people came up to me to ask questions. I was very happy when I was actually able to answer all of them, it shows I know more about the ship. Again, some people even thought I was the librarian. One man was startled when I moved apparently, when I said hi he kind of jumped and said “oh my, I thought you were just a statue.” Maybe I sit too still when I’m really focusing on “Le Fantome de l’Opera.”
I went to dinner with Jessica and we met up with Megan (my new supervisor since Karyn left) and Ashley. We went up to the rooms to set up and Megan realized that I hadn’t worked with the littles yet (that’s what we call the 3-7 year olds). Since Megan was supposed to help me with them, and she has to do new(to the ship)-crew stuff this week as well as being Youth Program Coordinator- YPC- she asked if it was okay for me and Erica to switch jobs this week. Meaning, I’m now with the teens in the Loft! Entirely different experience!
I have an entirely new schedule now. I work 10-12, 2-6 and 8-1am. It’s very relaxed though, there’s a schedule of suggested events posted, but it’s optional to follow so I just get to figure out what they like to do and we can all do it. Like, if they want to, we can go see the shows as a group; I think we’re doing formal night tomorrow and going to the show. Tonight we hung out and talked for a while, played Cheats, played a trivia game, Taboo, Battle of the Sexes and Balderdash (they got bored of games somewhat quickly). It was kind of sad because we all went outside to see if we could see why the ship was rocking so much –it was something to do- I walked out with them, but came in before they did to organize the “where we are” signs. No one came back except for parents looking for their teens. Some came back looking for the others, but the others were nowhere to be found. A few more came back and we played cards for about 15 minutes before they got tired and said they were going to bed and weren’t coming back, so I was able to leave around 12:15!
Sunday, July 15, 2012
posting from Canada
Hey, I'm in Victoria with Jenn and Karyn, we found free internet so are quickly checking everything, so here's my blogs from the last three days! I'll write more later! :)
July 11, 2012
It’s funny the answers you get on cruise ships when you ask the crew if they went to shore and what they did. If they went ashore, the main answer you get is “internet.” I’ve yet to figure out shipboard internet, and really don’t think I can use it in my room; that’s really something they should work on because they’d probably get more people to buy it if it was easier to access. For now though, I’m just going to deal with free internet at the Viking (bar catering to crew members, thus the free internet) in Juneau and the internet+hot chocolate in other ports. So, after I got the internet, I walked around some of the shops here to figure out souvenirs and stuff I might want to get next week. It was cold and rainy again, I really miss summer weather!
I ended up reading a book in bed for the hour I had before dinner. I was going to be good and meet Natalie at dinner at 6 when she got off work with the teens. However, once I got to dinner I realized that it’s a port day, and she worked the 12-4 shift with all the kids. Sometimes I don’t know what goes through my mind.
Tonight was movie night! We watched Puss in Boots; rather funny, especially when a few of the kids have seen it before and forewarn you about the funny parts so you don’t miss it. Jordan started the movie early, so we ended at least 30 minutes before closing. I let them have some more free time. Naturally there were some that went straight to the Wii, and some that wanted to play apples to apples. Some of the two groups were even the same, so they were running back and forth between dying and turns. Slowly they trickled out and the last one left a few minutes before 10, so I got to run to the show in the Vista Lounge. Garage Band again. I noticed some things this week that I didn’t last week so it was cool to see it a second time. Plus I’ve actually met some of the dancers now, which makes it better for me to get/stay interested in the show!
I’m going to call it an early night. I’m going to Sitka tomorrow, maybe with Natalie since we’re both off. Or maybe I’ll just get internet to get some more books for my kindle and go to the library to read for a while.
July 12, 2012
I almost typed January instead of July as the date; but it makes sense to me, because we had days this temperature in January at home! Anyway, I had a lazy morning, waking up an hour later than normal since I didn’t have to work. I had breakfast alone and when I got back, Jordan told me that Natalie had called looking for me, so I went to her room, and went to breakfast again with her. The second time I just had a few pieces of watermelon and had to keep explaining that I do eat, I’d just eaten a lot earlier!
Natalie and I changed into normal clothes then proceeded to go to shore. We walked around a bit and both bought some postcards and a can of Dr Pepper. On the street there was a woman and her daughter and their dog next to their stand/doghouse. They had written books about their dog Tango, who had hiked to Juneau with the woman’s son, and about Tango’s adventures living in Sitka. It’s a cute, informative story with lots of information on the area and stuff. I have their card, so I may end up buying the book next week or ordering it. They have pictures too from the trip the son and dog took to Juneau!
Natalie and I went to Highliner, the café and sat with Jenn for a while, chatting, and getting warm. Turns out that Jenn watches Doctor Who as well! We’re so much alike with our preferences in books, TV, and movies! The reason that came up was because at my 2nd breakfast Natalie and the internet manager on board were talking about Natalie’s clutch and how much stuff was in it and I said “it’s bigger on the inside!” but neither of them got it, so I had to try to explain Doctor Who to them and they just looked at me like I was crazy. So, we were talking about TV shows in the café and I had to see if Jenn knew what I was talking about.
Natalie and I went to lunch (Jenn wanted to stay with the internet) and sat in the restaurant for a while. The food portions here are really big, I got a burger and it was enormous, about three inches thick; I only could eat about half of it. Even on the ship, they give lots of food, one bowl of pasta could easily be two meals for me, and all the main line entrees are served on plates the size of platters. Off the ship, food is expensive, but at least it comes in large quantities so it seems more worth it. I do feel like I’m wasting money getting food off the ship though because it costs a lot, and half of it just goes to the trash since I have nowhere to store it if I get a to-go box for it. But, it is nice not eating on the ship occasionally.
Oh, I haven’t mentioned something that happened yesterday. While online, I checked my email to discover an email from Disney Cruise Lines. They wanted to know what I’d done recently with kids. I take that as a sign they’re interested in hiring me. I’m going to have to email them back saying I’m currently with Holland America as youth staff until December and see if maybe next year I could do something with them. Funny, apparently this happens quite a bit though, but it normally takes longer. Ashley finally heard back from another line a year after she started working with Holland America. I think it’s cool that Disney actually did email me back instead of outright rejecting me, because I did technically send in my resume to apply for a job that wasn’t listed (the only youth counselor positions they had open were bi-lingual Spanish).
Not sure if anything else new/interesting happened. I finally get to take some good pictures, a lot of the snow-covered mountaintops, which fascinate me because it’s SUMMER.
It was Games Galore night in Club HAL, meaning after the hour of free time, we played board games. The group split themselves up in two groups so Ashley played with one and I played with the other. Two hours playing Apples to Apples is too long. I got bored less than halfway through, but the kids wanted to keep playing. We ended up going through all the red cards. For those that don’t know, Apples to Apples is a game with cards. Green cards are adjectives and red cards are nouns. A judge (all the players judge at some point, we go around in a circle) draws a green card and the others have to choose from the five red card in their hand which thing fits the adjective best. Some judges go for the funny card or the exact opposite and of course some pick the most similar choice. The judge chooses and the person who put down the chosen red card wins the green card. The person who gets a certain number of green cards wins.
We played until 10 when everyone had to sign out, then I came back and changed into a formal dress that Jenn lent me so we could go to the show and then dancing at the Northern Lights. Apparently the first formal night, Monday night, is the busy night for crew to do formal stuff; not many people were out last night, but Jenn, Natalie and I had fun together anyway. I’m helping put up posters for a walk for the cure in the morning so I probably won’t end up going to Ketchikan since I’ll only get to stay for 30 minutes to an hour.
July 13, 2012
It’s been a long day. Weird to think that I got off in Ketchikan this morning. I helped the Event Manager put up posters for Walk for the Cure at 9, then got Natalie and we went to breakfast; we hurried through breakfast and changed and went out for about an hour. Now I know what’s in Ketchikan, the first city in Alaska and the 4th largest in Alaska. It’s pretty small.
After lunch, I went back to work, we played Wii and I managed to get past a level alive! Horray! The kids have been getting tired, they weren’t really paying attention. Ashley is getting sick and I’m just quiet in general so we’ve had a hard time getting them to do what they need to do.
I ended up reading for two hours of my break today, studying actually. I took my Italian book to the library and studied some grammar. A few people actually mistaked me for the librarian. I was just sitting on the window sill with the book, taking notes. Jenn finds that pretty awesome, because everyone thinks that she’s part of Club HAL (we have the same uniform during the day.)
Tonight was “lights, camera action” and dance party night. The kids really weren’t into doing anything, but I kept up trying to help their interest. They all came to the dance, but most of them didn’t want to dance and just stood there, chasing each other. When Ashley and I brought the sheet for them to sign-out since they weren’t doing anything, they immediately went to the dance floor and danced for about a minute before stopping again. It was slightly frustrating for me, because I was actually dancing.
Ashley, Jenn, Karyn and I went to the show together tonight. I was kind of too tired to enjoy it, sadly. It was pretty cool though, the dancing was amazing and there were lots of songs I knew.
It’s hour back night, and Victoria tomorrow. I really hope the kids are better tomorrow, or at least I get some sleep.
July 11, 2012
It’s funny the answers you get on cruise ships when you ask the crew if they went to shore and what they did. If they went ashore, the main answer you get is “internet.” I’ve yet to figure out shipboard internet, and really don’t think I can use it in my room; that’s really something they should work on because they’d probably get more people to buy it if it was easier to access. For now though, I’m just going to deal with free internet at the Viking (bar catering to crew members, thus the free internet) in Juneau and the internet+hot chocolate in other ports. So, after I got the internet, I walked around some of the shops here to figure out souvenirs and stuff I might want to get next week. It was cold and rainy again, I really miss summer weather!
I ended up reading a book in bed for the hour I had before dinner. I was going to be good and meet Natalie at dinner at 6 when she got off work with the teens. However, once I got to dinner I realized that it’s a port day, and she worked the 12-4 shift with all the kids. Sometimes I don’t know what goes through my mind.
Tonight was movie night! We watched Puss in Boots; rather funny, especially when a few of the kids have seen it before and forewarn you about the funny parts so you don’t miss it. Jordan started the movie early, so we ended at least 30 minutes before closing. I let them have some more free time. Naturally there were some that went straight to the Wii, and some that wanted to play apples to apples. Some of the two groups were even the same, so they were running back and forth between dying and turns. Slowly they trickled out and the last one left a few minutes before 10, so I got to run to the show in the Vista Lounge. Garage Band again. I noticed some things this week that I didn’t last week so it was cool to see it a second time. Plus I’ve actually met some of the dancers now, which makes it better for me to get/stay interested in the show!
I’m going to call it an early night. I’m going to Sitka tomorrow, maybe with Natalie since we’re both off. Or maybe I’ll just get internet to get some more books for my kindle and go to the library to read for a while.
July 12, 2012
I almost typed January instead of July as the date; but it makes sense to me, because we had days this temperature in January at home! Anyway, I had a lazy morning, waking up an hour later than normal since I didn’t have to work. I had breakfast alone and when I got back, Jordan told me that Natalie had called looking for me, so I went to her room, and went to breakfast again with her. The second time I just had a few pieces of watermelon and had to keep explaining that I do eat, I’d just eaten a lot earlier!
Natalie and I changed into normal clothes then proceeded to go to shore. We walked around a bit and both bought some postcards and a can of Dr Pepper. On the street there was a woman and her daughter and their dog next to their stand/doghouse. They had written books about their dog Tango, who had hiked to Juneau with the woman’s son, and about Tango’s adventures living in Sitka. It’s a cute, informative story with lots of information on the area and stuff. I have their card, so I may end up buying the book next week or ordering it. They have pictures too from the trip the son and dog took to Juneau!
Natalie and I went to Highliner, the café and sat with Jenn for a while, chatting, and getting warm. Turns out that Jenn watches Doctor Who as well! We’re so much alike with our preferences in books, TV, and movies! The reason that came up was because at my 2nd breakfast Natalie and the internet manager on board were talking about Natalie’s clutch and how much stuff was in it and I said “it’s bigger on the inside!” but neither of them got it, so I had to try to explain Doctor Who to them and they just looked at me like I was crazy. So, we were talking about TV shows in the café and I had to see if Jenn knew what I was talking about.
Natalie and I went to lunch (Jenn wanted to stay with the internet) and sat in the restaurant for a while. The food portions here are really big, I got a burger and it was enormous, about three inches thick; I only could eat about half of it. Even on the ship, they give lots of food, one bowl of pasta could easily be two meals for me, and all the main line entrees are served on plates the size of platters. Off the ship, food is expensive, but at least it comes in large quantities so it seems more worth it. I do feel like I’m wasting money getting food off the ship though because it costs a lot, and half of it just goes to the trash since I have nowhere to store it if I get a to-go box for it. But, it is nice not eating on the ship occasionally.
Oh, I haven’t mentioned something that happened yesterday. While online, I checked my email to discover an email from Disney Cruise Lines. They wanted to know what I’d done recently with kids. I take that as a sign they’re interested in hiring me. I’m going to have to email them back saying I’m currently with Holland America as youth staff until December and see if maybe next year I could do something with them. Funny, apparently this happens quite a bit though, but it normally takes longer. Ashley finally heard back from another line a year after she started working with Holland America. I think it’s cool that Disney actually did email me back instead of outright rejecting me, because I did technically send in my resume to apply for a job that wasn’t listed (the only youth counselor positions they had open were bi-lingual Spanish).
Not sure if anything else new/interesting happened. I finally get to take some good pictures, a lot of the snow-covered mountaintops, which fascinate me because it’s SUMMER.
It was Games Galore night in Club HAL, meaning after the hour of free time, we played board games. The group split themselves up in two groups so Ashley played with one and I played with the other. Two hours playing Apples to Apples is too long. I got bored less than halfway through, but the kids wanted to keep playing. We ended up going through all the red cards. For those that don’t know, Apples to Apples is a game with cards. Green cards are adjectives and red cards are nouns. A judge (all the players judge at some point, we go around in a circle) draws a green card and the others have to choose from the five red card in their hand which thing fits the adjective best. Some judges go for the funny card or the exact opposite and of course some pick the most similar choice. The judge chooses and the person who put down the chosen red card wins the green card. The person who gets a certain number of green cards wins.
We played until 10 when everyone had to sign out, then I came back and changed into a formal dress that Jenn lent me so we could go to the show and then dancing at the Northern Lights. Apparently the first formal night, Monday night, is the busy night for crew to do formal stuff; not many people were out last night, but Jenn, Natalie and I had fun together anyway. I’m helping put up posters for a walk for the cure in the morning so I probably won’t end up going to Ketchikan since I’ll only get to stay for 30 minutes to an hour.
July 13, 2012
It’s been a long day. Weird to think that I got off in Ketchikan this morning. I helped the Event Manager put up posters for Walk for the Cure at 9, then got Natalie and we went to breakfast; we hurried through breakfast and changed and went out for about an hour. Now I know what’s in Ketchikan, the first city in Alaska and the 4th largest in Alaska. It’s pretty small.
After lunch, I went back to work, we played Wii and I managed to get past a level alive! Horray! The kids have been getting tired, they weren’t really paying attention. Ashley is getting sick and I’m just quiet in general so we’ve had a hard time getting them to do what they need to do.
I ended up reading for two hours of my break today, studying actually. I took my Italian book to the library and studied some grammar. A few people actually mistaked me for the librarian. I was just sitting on the window sill with the book, taking notes. Jenn finds that pretty awesome, because everyone thinks that she’s part of Club HAL (we have the same uniform during the day.)
Tonight was “lights, camera action” and dance party night. The kids really weren’t into doing anything, but I kept up trying to help their interest. They all came to the dance, but most of them didn’t want to dance and just stood there, chasing each other. When Ashley and I brought the sheet for them to sign-out since they weren’t doing anything, they immediately went to the dance floor and danced for about a minute before stopping again. It was slightly frustrating for me, because I was actually dancing.
Ashley, Jenn, Karyn and I went to the show together tonight. I was kind of too tired to enjoy it, sadly. It was pretty cool though, the dancing was amazing and there were lots of songs I knew.
It’s hour back night, and Victoria tomorrow. I really hope the kids are better tomorrow, or at least I get some sleep.
quick internet stop in Victoria!
Hey, I'm in Victoria with Jenn and Karyn, we found free internet so are quickly checking everything, so here's my blogs from the last three days! I'll write more later! :)
July 11, 2012
It’s funny the answers you get on cruise ships when you ask the crew if they went to shore and what they did. If they went ashore, the main answer you get is “internet.” I’ve yet to figure out shipboard internet, and really don’t think I can use it in my room; that’s really something they should work on because they’d probably get more people to buy it if it was easier to access. For now though, I’m just going to deal with free internet at the Viking (bar catering to crew members, thus the free internet) in Juneau and the internet+hot chocolate in other ports. So, after I got the internet, I walked around some of the shops here to figure out souvenirs and stuff I might want to get next week. It was cold and rainy again, I really miss summer weather!
I ended up reading a book in bed for the hour I had before dinner. I was going to be good and meet Natalie at dinner at 6 when she got off work with the teens. However, once I got to dinner I realized that it’s a port day, and she worked the 12-4 shift with all the kids. Sometimes I don’t know what goes through my mind.
Tonight was movie night! We watched Puss in Boots; rather funny, especially when a few of the kids have seen it before and forewarn you about the funny parts so you don’t miss it. Jordan started the movie early, so we ended at least 30 minutes before closing. I let them have some more free time. Naturally there were some that went straight to the Wii, and some that wanted to play apples to apples. Some of the two groups were even the same, so they were running back and forth between dying and turns. Slowly they trickled out and the last one left a few minutes before 10, so I got to run to the show in the Vista Lounge. Garage Band again. I noticed some things this week that I didn’t last week so it was cool to see it a second time. Plus I’ve actually met some of the dancers now, which makes it better for me to get/stay interested in the show!
I’m going to call it an early night. I’m going to Sitka tomorrow, maybe with Natalie since we’re both off. Or maybe I’ll just get internet to get some more books for my kindle and go to the library to read for a while.
July 12, 2012
I almost typed January instead of July as the date; but it makes sense to me, because we had days this temperature in January at home! Anyway, I had a lazy morning, waking up an hour later than normal since I didn’t have to work. I had breakfast alone and when I got back, Jordan told me that Natalie had called looking for me, so I went to her room, and went to breakfast again with her. The second time I just had a few pieces of watermelon and had to keep explaining that I do eat, I’d just eaten a lot earlier!
Natalie and I changed into normal clothes then proceeded to go to shore. We walked around a bit and both bought some postcards and a can of Dr Pepper. On the street there was a woman and her daughter and their dog next to their stand/doghouse. They had written books about their dog Tango, who had hiked to Juneau with the woman’s son, and about Tango’s adventures living in Sitka. It’s a cute, informative story with lots of information on the area and stuff. I have their card, so I may end up buying the book next week or ordering it. They have pictures too from the trip the son and dog took to Juneau!
Natalie and I went to Highliner, the café and sat with Jenn for a while, chatting, and getting warm. Turns out that Jenn watches Doctor Who as well! We’re so much alike with our preferences in books, TV, and movies! The reason that came up was because at my 2nd breakfast Natalie and the internet manager on board were talking about Natalie’s clutch and how much stuff was in it and I said “it’s bigger on the inside!” but neither of them got it, so I had to try to explain Doctor Who to them and they just looked at me like I was crazy. So, we were talking about TV shows in the café and I had to see if Jenn knew what I was talking about.
Natalie and I went to lunch (Jenn wanted to stay with the internet) and sat in the restaurant for a while. The food portions here are really big, I got a burger and it was enormous, about three inches thick; I only could eat about half of it. Even on the ship, they give lots of food, one bowl of pasta could easily be two meals for me, and all the main line entrees are served on plates the size of platters. Off the ship, food is expensive, but at least it comes in large quantities so it seems more worth it. I do feel like I’m wasting money getting food off the ship though because it costs a lot, and half of it just goes to the trash since I have nowhere to store it if I get a to-go box for it. But, it is nice not eating on the ship occasionally.
Oh, I haven’t mentioned something that happened yesterday. While online, I checked my email to discover an email from Disney Cruise Lines. They wanted to know what I’d done recently with kids. I take that as a sign they’re interested in hiring me. I’m going to have to email them back saying I’m currently with Holland America as youth staff until December and see if maybe next year I could do something with them. Funny, apparently this happens quite a bit though, but it normally takes longer. Ashley finally heard back from another line a year after she started working with Holland America. I think it’s cool that Disney actually did email me back instead of outright rejecting me, because I did technically send in my resume to apply for a job that wasn’t listed (the only youth counselor positions they had open were bi-lingual Spanish).
Not sure if anything else new/interesting happened. I finally get to take some good pictures, a lot of the snow-covered mountaintops, which fascinate me because it’s SUMMER.
It was Games Galore night in Club HAL, meaning after the hour of free time, we played board games. The group split themselves up in two groups so Ashley played with one and I played with the other. Two hours playing Apples to Apples is too long. I got bored less than halfway through, but the kids wanted to keep playing. We ended up going through all the red cards. For those that don’t know, Apples to Apples is a game with cards. Green cards are adjectives and red cards are nouns. A judge (all the players judge at some point, we go around in a circle) draws a green card and the others have to choose from the five red card in their hand which thing fits the adjective best. Some judges go for the funny card or the exact opposite and of course some pick the most similar choice. The judge chooses and the person who put down the chosen red card wins the green card. The person who gets a certain number of green cards wins.
We played until 10 when everyone had to sign out, then I came back and changed into a formal dress that Jenn lent me so we could go to the show and then dancing at the Northern Lights. Apparently the first formal night, Monday night, is the busy night for crew to do formal stuff; not many people were out last night, but Jenn, Natalie and I had fun together anyway. I’m helping put up posters for a walk for the cure in the morning so I probably won’t end up going to Ketchikan since I’ll only get to stay for 30 minutes to an hour.
July 13, 2012
It’s been a long day. Weird to think that I got off in Ketchikan this morning. I helped the Event Manager put up posters for Walk for the Cure at 9, then got Natalie and we went to breakfast; we hurried through breakfast and changed and went out for about an hour. Now I know what’s in Ketchikan, the first city in Alaska and the 4th largest in Alaska. It’s pretty small.
After lunch, I went back to work, we played Wii and I managed to get past a level alive! Horray! The kids have been getting tired, they weren’t really paying attention. Ashley is getting sick and I’m just quiet in general so we’ve had a hard time getting them to do what they need to do.
I ended up reading for two hours of my break today, studying actually. I took my Italian book to the library and studied some grammar. A few people actually mistaked me for the librarian. I was just sitting on the window sill with the book, taking notes. Jenn finds that pretty awesome, because everyone thinks that she’s part of Club HAL (we have the same uniform during the day.)
Tonight was “lights, camera action” and dance party night. The kids really weren’t into doing anything, but I kept up trying to help their interest. They all came to the dance, but most of them didn’t want to dance and just stood there, chasing each other. When Ashley and I brought the sheet for them to sign-out since they weren’t doing anything, they immediately went to the dance floor and danced for about a minute before stopping again. It was slightly frustrating for me, because I was actually dancing.
Ashley, Jenn, Karyn and I went to the show together tonight. I was kind of too tired to enjoy it, sadly. It was pretty cool though, the dancing was amazing and there were lots of songs I knew.
It’s hour back night, and Victoria tomorrow. I really hope the kids are better tomorrow, or at least I get some sleep.
July 11, 2012
It’s funny the answers you get on cruise ships when you ask the crew if they went to shore and what they did. If they went ashore, the main answer you get is “internet.” I’ve yet to figure out shipboard internet, and really don’t think I can use it in my room; that’s really something they should work on because they’d probably get more people to buy it if it was easier to access. For now though, I’m just going to deal with free internet at the Viking (bar catering to crew members, thus the free internet) in Juneau and the internet+hot chocolate in other ports. So, after I got the internet, I walked around some of the shops here to figure out souvenirs and stuff I might want to get next week. It was cold and rainy again, I really miss summer weather!
I ended up reading a book in bed for the hour I had before dinner. I was going to be good and meet Natalie at dinner at 6 when she got off work with the teens. However, once I got to dinner I realized that it’s a port day, and she worked the 12-4 shift with all the kids. Sometimes I don’t know what goes through my mind.
Tonight was movie night! We watched Puss in Boots; rather funny, especially when a few of the kids have seen it before and forewarn you about the funny parts so you don’t miss it. Jordan started the movie early, so we ended at least 30 minutes before closing. I let them have some more free time. Naturally there were some that went straight to the Wii, and some that wanted to play apples to apples. Some of the two groups were even the same, so they were running back and forth between dying and turns. Slowly they trickled out and the last one left a few minutes before 10, so I got to run to the show in the Vista Lounge. Garage Band again. I noticed some things this week that I didn’t last week so it was cool to see it a second time. Plus I’ve actually met some of the dancers now, which makes it better for me to get/stay interested in the show!
I’m going to call it an early night. I’m going to Sitka tomorrow, maybe with Natalie since we’re both off. Or maybe I’ll just get internet to get some more books for my kindle and go to the library to read for a while.
July 12, 2012
I almost typed January instead of July as the date; but it makes sense to me, because we had days this temperature in January at home! Anyway, I had a lazy morning, waking up an hour later than normal since I didn’t have to work. I had breakfast alone and when I got back, Jordan told me that Natalie had called looking for me, so I went to her room, and went to breakfast again with her. The second time I just had a few pieces of watermelon and had to keep explaining that I do eat, I’d just eaten a lot earlier!
Natalie and I changed into normal clothes then proceeded to go to shore. We walked around a bit and both bought some postcards and a can of Dr Pepper. On the street there was a woman and her daughter and their dog next to their stand/doghouse. They had written books about their dog Tango, who had hiked to Juneau with the woman’s son, and about Tango’s adventures living in Sitka. It’s a cute, informative story with lots of information on the area and stuff. I have their card, so I may end up buying the book next week or ordering it. They have pictures too from the trip the son and dog took to Juneau!
Natalie and I went to Highliner, the café and sat with Jenn for a while, chatting, and getting warm. Turns out that Jenn watches Doctor Who as well! We’re so much alike with our preferences in books, TV, and movies! The reason that came up was because at my 2nd breakfast Natalie and the internet manager on board were talking about Natalie’s clutch and how much stuff was in it and I said “it’s bigger on the inside!” but neither of them got it, so I had to try to explain Doctor Who to them and they just looked at me like I was crazy. So, we were talking about TV shows in the café and I had to see if Jenn knew what I was talking about.
Natalie and I went to lunch (Jenn wanted to stay with the internet) and sat in the restaurant for a while. The food portions here are really big, I got a burger and it was enormous, about three inches thick; I only could eat about half of it. Even on the ship, they give lots of food, one bowl of pasta could easily be two meals for me, and all the main line entrees are served on plates the size of platters. Off the ship, food is expensive, but at least it comes in large quantities so it seems more worth it. I do feel like I’m wasting money getting food off the ship though because it costs a lot, and half of it just goes to the trash since I have nowhere to store it if I get a to-go box for it. But, it is nice not eating on the ship occasionally.
Oh, I haven’t mentioned something that happened yesterday. While online, I checked my email to discover an email from Disney Cruise Lines. They wanted to know what I’d done recently with kids. I take that as a sign they’re interested in hiring me. I’m going to have to email them back saying I’m currently with Holland America as youth staff until December and see if maybe next year I could do something with them. Funny, apparently this happens quite a bit though, but it normally takes longer. Ashley finally heard back from another line a year after she started working with Holland America. I think it’s cool that Disney actually did email me back instead of outright rejecting me, because I did technically send in my resume to apply for a job that wasn’t listed (the only youth counselor positions they had open were bi-lingual Spanish).
Not sure if anything else new/interesting happened. I finally get to take some good pictures, a lot of the snow-covered mountaintops, which fascinate me because it’s SUMMER.
It was Games Galore night in Club HAL, meaning after the hour of free time, we played board games. The group split themselves up in two groups so Ashley played with one and I played with the other. Two hours playing Apples to Apples is too long. I got bored less than halfway through, but the kids wanted to keep playing. We ended up going through all the red cards. For those that don’t know, Apples to Apples is a game with cards. Green cards are adjectives and red cards are nouns. A judge (all the players judge at some point, we go around in a circle) draws a green card and the others have to choose from the five red card in their hand which thing fits the adjective best. Some judges go for the funny card or the exact opposite and of course some pick the most similar choice. The judge chooses and the person who put down the chosen red card wins the green card. The person who gets a certain number of green cards wins.
We played until 10 when everyone had to sign out, then I came back and changed into a formal dress that Jenn lent me so we could go to the show and then dancing at the Northern Lights. Apparently the first formal night, Monday night, is the busy night for crew to do formal stuff; not many people were out last night, but Jenn, Natalie and I had fun together anyway. I’m helping put up posters for a walk for the cure in the morning so I probably won’t end up going to Ketchikan since I’ll only get to stay for 30 minutes to an hour.
July 13, 2012
It’s been a long day. Weird to think that I got off in Ketchikan this morning. I helped the Event Manager put up posters for Walk for the Cure at 9, then got Natalie and we went to breakfast; we hurried through breakfast and changed and went out for about an hour. Now I know what’s in Ketchikan, the first city in Alaska and the 4th largest in Alaska. It’s pretty small.
After lunch, I went back to work, we played Wii and I managed to get past a level alive! Horray! The kids have been getting tired, they weren’t really paying attention. Ashley is getting sick and I’m just quiet in general so we’ve had a hard time getting them to do what they need to do.
I ended up reading for two hours of my break today, studying actually. I took my Italian book to the library and studied some grammar. A few people actually mistaked me for the librarian. I was just sitting on the window sill with the book, taking notes. Jenn finds that pretty awesome, because everyone thinks that she’s part of Club HAL (we have the same uniform during the day.)
Tonight was “lights, camera action” and dance party night. The kids really weren’t into doing anything, but I kept up trying to help their interest. They all came to the dance, but most of them didn’t want to dance and just stood there, chasing each other. When Ashley and I brought the sheet for them to sign-out since they weren’t doing anything, they immediately went to the dance floor and danced for about a minute before stopping again. It was slightly frustrating for me, because I was actually dancing.
Ashley, Jenn, Karyn and I went to the show together tonight. I was kind of too tired to enjoy it, sadly. It was pretty cool though, the dancing was amazing and there were lots of songs I knew.
It’s hour back night, and Victoria tomorrow. I really hope the kids are better tomorrow, or at least I get some sleep.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Juneau
So, this is the first port day where I actually know more of what I'm doing. I worked this morning, only one kid was there for the longest time, and he got there an hour after I opened. I'm slowly but surely getting better at SuperMario. I played that for a while this morning when noone else was there. It picked up eventually, we only had two (the one boy left) when Natalie and I took them to lunch. Then, I came to Juneau. Lots of comments and emails
Answering some of your comments Amy! Yes, I've had a few foreign kids, many from Canada, China, Puerto Rico and all over the states! I've been able to speak french to some of them!
Your comment about Harry's first day of Hogwarts made me very happy! Speaking of Harry Potter, I've made friends with the librarian, her name is Jenn and she and I are a lot alike. She's on pottermore as well (yes, I'm going to check out COS as soon as I can), and happens to have been sorted into Slytherin and has no idea how! Quite a few people actually know about Pottermore, which makes me feel better about being so crazy about it. :)
Hhmm... I need questions to go on more right now, but kind of wanted to write a blog in real time instead over the course of several breaks over several days! I might do a little souvenir shopping while I'm in Juneau, or maybe I'll leave that for next week (hoping I don't work the same day again).
Post questions so I might check tomorrow and answer them over the next week.
Answering some of your comments Amy! Yes, I've had a few foreign kids, many from Canada, China, Puerto Rico and all over the states! I've been able to speak french to some of them!
Your comment about Harry's first day of Hogwarts made me very happy! Speaking of Harry Potter, I've made friends with the librarian, her name is Jenn and she and I are a lot alike. She's on pottermore as well (yes, I'm going to check out COS as soon as I can), and happens to have been sorted into Slytherin and has no idea how! Quite a few people actually know about Pottermore, which makes me feel better about being so crazy about it. :)
Hhmm... I need questions to go on more right now, but kind of wanted to write a blog in real time instead over the course of several breaks over several days! I might do a little souvenir shopping while I'm in Juneau, or maybe I'll leave that for next week (hoping I don't work the same day again).
Post questions so I might check tomorrow and answer them over the next week.
July 9 and 10
July 9, 2012
Last night was our intro night! We did activities to help us get to know everyone, like make an All About Me poster, play apples to apples, and of course SuperMario. They seemed to enjoy it, but only a few were there in time for the making of the posters, so today when they finished their drawing of a ship, I asked those who hadn’t already made a poster to make one, they liked that idea because we tape them
up on the wall!
Today is going a LOT better than last Monday. I had breakfast with Natalie and a few other people then we had a lot of kids come for morning session and stay mostly the whole time. After a long lunch with Natalie and Ashley, Natalie and I walked around and talked some before I went back to Club HAL. This afternoon we had about 20 or so kids at a time. Some already didn’t want to leave when their parents came to pick them up early. We definitely have two artists in our group this week, one is a cartoonist and she made a really good penguin out of model magic. Another drew this amazing landscape for his ship in the ship-drawing contest this afternoon. I’m so glad they’re enjoying coming to see us as much as I love having them come. Again, some of the littlest ones have attached themselves to me, sitting in my lap when we’re both out during a game, sitting next to me during activities, etc. I’ve learned most of their names now, a few I still have trouble with of course, mainly because they’ve only come once or not stayed for more than one activity.
July 10, 2012
The kids loved our spy night last night, but they’re not very good at finding things. Ashley and I hid clues and answers all around the room and it took them ages to find them, sometimes even with our helpful hints. But at least they had fun. I wonder if all ships do the same theme nights; I know that other ships do different things for theme nights, different activities and such. Well, I guess I shall learn when I get on my next ship.
Because it was formal night and I wanted to go out with Ashley and Natalie, I ended up borrowing a dress from Ashley. We went to the show: Ballroom Blitz, Ashley and I only got to see the last 20 minutes or so because we had to wait for all our kids to sign out and I had to run around and change clothes. What I saw was pretty cool though; I love all the tech work that goes into these shows!
After the show, Ashley and I went dancing for over an hour in the club on board. So much fun! We were just having a good time, not caring how ridiculous we may have looked. Ashley normally doesn’t go out, but she went out because it was formal night and because it was hour-back night (meaning we reach Alaska).
This morning the kids were waiting right by the door at 9, strangely enough, they
haven’t tugged and banged on the door to get let in before it was time; they just stand patiently and wait. For a minute Ashley and I thought that we wouldn’t have anyone come right away and we’d get a chance to play SuperMario. This group is really good about taking turns though; I’m very grateful for that because last week, the kids were rather possessive of the game and didn’t play anything else.
After lunch with Ashley, Natalie and Jenn (the librarian), we started to see the small icebergs in the water as we got into Tracy Arm. Sadly, for the second week in a row, I didn’t get to see the glacier. Ashley and I helped with the tweens cooking class again after. It took a little longer than last week because there were a lot more kids in attendance. We were out by 4:45 though and went on deck to see whatever we could. The waterfalls are gorgeous, sometimes the water falls straight off the side of a mountain because of a cliff, other times it’s a slow stream; I saw one that had actually tunneled under a lot of snow in it’s path. We saw some puffins too, from very far away; they were black dots moving around and streaks of white as they tried to fly across the water.
Tonight was ‘Brave the Night’ theme, which (on this ship) is basically a series of team challenge activities. They make up a team flag, a team cheer, do wall-sits, unscramble words, do some Eye-Q riddles (example: the word sand is written inside a square. The answer is sandbox), and slurp jello through a straw. Even though some were skeptical about some of the activities, they still participated and now love them and want to do them again. One group is actually going to do the Human Knot as part of the talent show!
I work tomorrow morning through lunch, then I get to go to Juneau for the afternoon! Yay for internet and hopefully the ability to post all this I’ve been writing!
Last night was our intro night! We did activities to help us get to know everyone, like make an All About Me poster, play apples to apples, and of course SuperMario. They seemed to enjoy it, but only a few were there in time for the making of the posters, so today when they finished their drawing of a ship, I asked those who hadn’t already made a poster to make one, they liked that idea because we tape them
up on the wall!
Today is going a LOT better than last Monday. I had breakfast with Natalie and a few other people then we had a lot of kids come for morning session and stay mostly the whole time. After a long lunch with Natalie and Ashley, Natalie and I walked around and talked some before I went back to Club HAL. This afternoon we had about 20 or so kids at a time. Some already didn’t want to leave when their parents came to pick them up early. We definitely have two artists in our group this week, one is a cartoonist and she made a really good penguin out of model magic. Another drew this amazing landscape for his ship in the ship-drawing contest this afternoon. I’m so glad they’re enjoying coming to see us as much as I love having them come. Again, some of the littlest ones have attached themselves to me, sitting in my lap when we’re both out during a game, sitting next to me during activities, etc. I’ve learned most of their names now, a few I still have trouble with of course, mainly because they’ve only come once or not stayed for more than one activity.
July 10, 2012
The kids loved our spy night last night, but they’re not very good at finding things. Ashley and I hid clues and answers all around the room and it took them ages to find them, sometimes even with our helpful hints. But at least they had fun. I wonder if all ships do the same theme nights; I know that other ships do different things for theme nights, different activities and such. Well, I guess I shall learn when I get on my next ship.
Because it was formal night and I wanted to go out with Ashley and Natalie, I ended up borrowing a dress from Ashley. We went to the show: Ballroom Blitz, Ashley and I only got to see the last 20 minutes or so because we had to wait for all our kids to sign out and I had to run around and change clothes. What I saw was pretty cool though; I love all the tech work that goes into these shows!
After the show, Ashley and I went dancing for over an hour in the club on board. So much fun! We were just having a good time, not caring how ridiculous we may have looked. Ashley normally doesn’t go out, but she went out because it was formal night and because it was hour-back night (meaning we reach Alaska).
This morning the kids were waiting right by the door at 9, strangely enough, they
haven’t tugged and banged on the door to get let in before it was time; they just stand patiently and wait. For a minute Ashley and I thought that we wouldn’t have anyone come right away and we’d get a chance to play SuperMario. This group is really good about taking turns though; I’m very grateful for that because last week, the kids were rather possessive of the game and didn’t play anything else.
After lunch with Ashley, Natalie and Jenn (the librarian), we started to see the small icebergs in the water as we got into Tracy Arm. Sadly, for the second week in a row, I didn’t get to see the glacier. Ashley and I helped with the tweens cooking class again after. It took a little longer than last week because there were a lot more kids in attendance. We were out by 4:45 though and went on deck to see whatever we could. The waterfalls are gorgeous, sometimes the water falls straight off the side of a mountain because of a cliff, other times it’s a slow stream; I saw one that had actually tunneled under a lot of snow in it’s path. We saw some puffins too, from very far away; they were black dots moving around and streaks of white as they tried to fly across the water.
Tonight was ‘Brave the Night’ theme, which (on this ship) is basically a series of team challenge activities. They make up a team flag, a team cheer, do wall-sits, unscramble words, do some Eye-Q riddles (example: the word sand is written inside a square. The answer is sandbox), and slurp jello through a straw. Even though some were skeptical about some of the activities, they still participated and now love them and want to do them again. One group is actually going to do the Human Knot as part of the talent show!
I work tomorrow morning through lunch, then I get to go to Juneau for the afternoon! Yay for internet and hopefully the ability to post all this I’ve been writing!
July 7 and 8
July 7, 2012
Some parents are just plain mean. We had a dance party last night for all the kids at the Northern Lights (club area). It was on the schedule, on the sign-in sheet for where to pick the kids up, AND we left a note on the door to remind them. 10 o’clock is our sign-out time; after that, we consider it after-hours care and we should be informed early if we’re wanted to do that. One parent last night did not come to the Northern Lights at 10 (or earlier, because parents were invited too.) The four youth staff waited with two girls, calling the room phone with no answer. Finally, at 10:15, we decided just that one of us should go back up to Club HAL with the girls, and charge the parents with after-hours care, and warn them against being late a third time (three strikes and the kids can’t come to Club HAL anymore.) So, I volunteered. One of the sisters (they’re both named Maria) started crying and I did my best to comfort her. We ended up sitting in the big video game chairs in the room for a while. Finally, the whole family came up to Club HAL. The mother got mad at ME for not being in Club HAL at 10 for her to pick up the girls! I explained to her the rules and she proceeded to tell me that she was at the room at 10 and we weren’t so she’s not late. She was very unpleasant to talk to, wouldn’t let me get a word in, and the whole family was just standing there watching us as I tried to explain that it was on the schedule, a sign on the door and the sign-in sheet; ALL three noted that the pick up at 10 was to be in the Northern Lights. The mother refused to listen. She came in today as if everything was fine.
On to happier things now! I’m almost finished with my first week of cruise ship life! The last new-crew thing I have to do is go to an immigration meeting tomorrow at 5:45 AM. All the kids are sad that the week is almost over, they love coming to hang out with us, even the ones who were skeptical on Sunday have started coming to see us every chance they get. I think that shows we’re doing a good job. This afternoon is the talent show (every week that there are over 100 kids, we put on a talent show) and it should be entertaining with the group skits and dances. One of our kids is showcasing his ability to solve a rubix cube in under 2 minutes! A few other talents are singing, gymnastics and dancing. Tonight is Victoria night. Me and Jordan get off tonight; turns out that the two movie nights are so relaxed that one person from each age group gets the night off, it just so happens that tonight we’re stopping in Victoria, so I might go explore for a little bit there (the ship is there for a total of 4 hours only if we stay on schedule, which rarely happens).
It’s back to Seattle in the morning! I’ll get up for Immigration meeting at 5:45, then have the day free until 3 or so for Club HAL meetings with the new passengers. I’m going to miss my group of kids, they’re pretty awesome!
July 8, 2012
Victoria is a really pretty place, it kind of reminded me of Aix, but not so packed in a small space. There’s big buildings and grassy areas. The sun was gorgeous when we arrived, pulling in next to the Norwegian Pearl and the Star Princess. I didn’t take picture because we were trying to figure out what to do. I ended up going with Steven and Jordan and we met up with Dave, the Australian DJ we had lunch with in Juneau. We took a cab to town and walked around a bit before going to a restaurant. We stayed there for over an hour chatting, drinking and eating before going somewhere else where a lot of other crew members were. We hung out with them until it was time to get back to the ship. Crew has to be back 30 minutes before the passengers do, which is good I guess because that way we don’t have to worry about being late because of all the passengers trying to get on at the same time we are.
This morning, the new-crew and disembarking crew went through immigration at 5:45. Well, it was supposed to be at 5:45. I got to the room we were supposed to meet in and only one person was there. Slowly other people came, but by 6 only half of the people were there, so they started calling rooms. We got to the gangway and it wasn’t even open yet at 6:15. Finally, we got off and went through the building. I got my passport back, only to have to give it away again as they made sure I was who I said I was. Then it was back to the ship. I got up before 6 just to have my passport scanned, which took less than a minute, 5 if you count the walking to/from the ship.
This week is going to be pretty crazy, judging by the open house today. There are 78 tweens on board and a good number of them came to see us this afternoon. Some parents though, one set of parents brought their sleeping 2-year-old claiming she was 3, asked for something for her to lay down on and a blanket, and then tried to leave her with us. We weren’t actually open for kids this afternoon, just registration! Those parents were not happy.
I rediscovered the library today! I think I have a new favorite place on board. There are comfy chairs, and it’s rather quiet and there’s a good view. The only downside is that I have to be in uniform, but I can deal with that if I don’t have to sit on my bed (making me sleepy) or on a hard chair in the dark in my room while Jordan naps.
We have a new member of Youth Staff on board! Her name is Natalie and she seems pretty cool. I might now have someone to hang out with now. She’s done a few cruises before, during summers so she knows the main stuff I don’t know and I know more about this particular ship and our Club HAL better than her, so we balance out in knowledge of stuff. She’s also suggested we take an excursion together since we both have Ketchikan and Sitka days off (we’re both working Juneau- me morning and her afternoon). By the way, she also told me that excursions, aside from helicopter rides are free for us, as long as we sign up beforehand and get the times worked out and everything. How awesome is that!?
We left Seattle today, I was in the library where there are a lot of windows so I know what the city looks like from the ship now, which is nice because in my room a lot of the time, I forget that things are happening off the ship, that there is pretty stuff outside that I can look at. Round two of Alaska starts now! YAY! This time I know more of what I’m doing. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to post all this until Juneau afternoon because I’m having trouble with the internet card I bought.
I’m sorry if my blogs are getting confusing, I’m updating quickly during my breaks throughout the day rather than at the end of the day because I know I’ll forget stuff or be too tired to type it all out at once. Please let me know if it gets too confusing and I’ll try to figure out a new way of doing it.
Almost time for work now! A bientôt!
Some parents are just plain mean. We had a dance party last night for all the kids at the Northern Lights (club area). It was on the schedule, on the sign-in sheet for where to pick the kids up, AND we left a note on the door to remind them. 10 o’clock is our sign-out time; after that, we consider it after-hours care and we should be informed early if we’re wanted to do that. One parent last night did not come to the Northern Lights at 10 (or earlier, because parents were invited too.) The four youth staff waited with two girls, calling the room phone with no answer. Finally, at 10:15, we decided just that one of us should go back up to Club HAL with the girls, and charge the parents with after-hours care, and warn them against being late a third time (three strikes and the kids can’t come to Club HAL anymore.) So, I volunteered. One of the sisters (they’re both named Maria) started crying and I did my best to comfort her. We ended up sitting in the big video game chairs in the room for a while. Finally, the whole family came up to Club HAL. The mother got mad at ME for not being in Club HAL at 10 for her to pick up the girls! I explained to her the rules and she proceeded to tell me that she was at the room at 10 and we weren’t so she’s not late. She was very unpleasant to talk to, wouldn’t let me get a word in, and the whole family was just standing there watching us as I tried to explain that it was on the schedule, a sign on the door and the sign-in sheet; ALL three noted that the pick up at 10 was to be in the Northern Lights. The mother refused to listen. She came in today as if everything was fine.
On to happier things now! I’m almost finished with my first week of cruise ship life! The last new-crew thing I have to do is go to an immigration meeting tomorrow at 5:45 AM. All the kids are sad that the week is almost over, they love coming to hang out with us, even the ones who were skeptical on Sunday have started coming to see us every chance they get. I think that shows we’re doing a good job. This afternoon is the talent show (every week that there are over 100 kids, we put on a talent show) and it should be entertaining with the group skits and dances. One of our kids is showcasing his ability to solve a rubix cube in under 2 minutes! A few other talents are singing, gymnastics and dancing. Tonight is Victoria night. Me and Jordan get off tonight; turns out that the two movie nights are so relaxed that one person from each age group gets the night off, it just so happens that tonight we’re stopping in Victoria, so I might go explore for a little bit there (the ship is there for a total of 4 hours only if we stay on schedule, which rarely happens).
It’s back to Seattle in the morning! I’ll get up for Immigration meeting at 5:45, then have the day free until 3 or so for Club HAL meetings with the new passengers. I’m going to miss my group of kids, they’re pretty awesome!
July 8, 2012
Victoria is a really pretty place, it kind of reminded me of Aix, but not so packed in a small space. There’s big buildings and grassy areas. The sun was gorgeous when we arrived, pulling in next to the Norwegian Pearl and the Star Princess. I didn’t take picture because we were trying to figure out what to do. I ended up going with Steven and Jordan and we met up with Dave, the Australian DJ we had lunch with in Juneau. We took a cab to town and walked around a bit before going to a restaurant. We stayed there for over an hour chatting, drinking and eating before going somewhere else where a lot of other crew members were. We hung out with them until it was time to get back to the ship. Crew has to be back 30 minutes before the passengers do, which is good I guess because that way we don’t have to worry about being late because of all the passengers trying to get on at the same time we are.
This morning, the new-crew and disembarking crew went through immigration at 5:45. Well, it was supposed to be at 5:45. I got to the room we were supposed to meet in and only one person was there. Slowly other people came, but by 6 only half of the people were there, so they started calling rooms. We got to the gangway and it wasn’t even open yet at 6:15. Finally, we got off and went through the building. I got my passport back, only to have to give it away again as they made sure I was who I said I was. Then it was back to the ship. I got up before 6 just to have my passport scanned, which took less than a minute, 5 if you count the walking to/from the ship.
This week is going to be pretty crazy, judging by the open house today. There are 78 tweens on board and a good number of them came to see us this afternoon. Some parents though, one set of parents brought their sleeping 2-year-old claiming she was 3, asked for something for her to lay down on and a blanket, and then tried to leave her with us. We weren’t actually open for kids this afternoon, just registration! Those parents were not happy.
I rediscovered the library today! I think I have a new favorite place on board. There are comfy chairs, and it’s rather quiet and there’s a good view. The only downside is that I have to be in uniform, but I can deal with that if I don’t have to sit on my bed (making me sleepy) or on a hard chair in the dark in my room while Jordan naps.
We have a new member of Youth Staff on board! Her name is Natalie and she seems pretty cool. I might now have someone to hang out with now. She’s done a few cruises before, during summers so she knows the main stuff I don’t know and I know more about this particular ship and our Club HAL better than her, so we balance out in knowledge of stuff. She’s also suggested we take an excursion together since we both have Ketchikan and Sitka days off (we’re both working Juneau- me morning and her afternoon). By the way, she also told me that excursions, aside from helicopter rides are free for us, as long as we sign up beforehand and get the times worked out and everything. How awesome is that!?
We left Seattle today, I was in the library where there are a lot of windows so I know what the city looks like from the ship now, which is nice because in my room a lot of the time, I forget that things are happening off the ship, that there is pretty stuff outside that I can look at. Round two of Alaska starts now! YAY! This time I know more of what I’m doing. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to post all this until Juneau afternoon because I’m having trouble with the internet card I bought.
I’m sorry if my blogs are getting confusing, I’m updating quickly during my breaks throughout the day rather than at the end of the day because I know I’ll forget stuff or be too tired to type it all out at once. Please let me know if it gets too confusing and I’ll try to figure out a new way of doing it.
Almost time for work now! A bientôt!
first time in Sitka
Sitka:
I really think I’d be very willing to work every port-day afternoon. That would give me the morning to do some souvenir shopping and get the free internet with purchase of hot chocolate, and I wouldn’t be so bored when I get back to the ship. I might ask Karyn about that next week.
Anyway, Sitka is a small town; there are quite a few souvenir shops which I visited today. One of them had earrings like I like that I bought in Hendersonville. They’re the same brand as ones I have already and in all colors and styles! I’m very excited about this! I also bought a notebook/journal. Somehow I managed to make it here without any paper on which to write. Now I can leave notes for my roommate, take notes for myself during the day, etc. I found the post office here too, so I definitely know I can at least mail postcards from here. I also was told where there was internet. After my first trip to Sitka, I went back to the ship for lunch and to grab my laptop so I could get some stuff done before final call at 3 for crew to return to the ship. I bought a really good hot chocolate for 2.22 and got to post the last two blogs, check email and Face book. In the last four days, I’d managed to collect almost 40 emails in one of my three accounts! I was only there for about 15 minutes because I was worried about getting back to the ship (I’d caught the last tender leaving the ship with passengers).
I seem to remember Amy asking questions about the other new girl in Youth Staff. Her name is Erica, she’s from Phoenix Arizona. She’d been on a Princess cruise a few years ago to Alaska, so she knows the ports and all that already. She spent last summer in London with a large group of people from her school, taking two classes and doing an internship. She actually had applied for Disney first, and had interviews with them, but they told her that she needed more camp experience. The next day, Holland America called her (about a week before they called me). She’s on this ship for three months, leaving right before it heads to New Zealand. She has no idea what ship she’ll be on next or where it will go. She, like everyone else I told, was amazed that I’m only on this one for four weeks, and I’ve already been assigned a second contract and know where it’s going. Apparently the first contract is typically as long as the rest of them. Mine is easily the shortest, followed by Steven (one of the piano players). He’s here for six weeks because he’s still has a year left at college and this is just his summer job.
I can tell that we’re cruising again, have been for about an hour and a half (they certainly don’t leave much time between last call for guests and leaving port). The ship is rocking again and I can hear waves hitting outside. I think we’re going pretty fast, not as fast as we’ll be going tomorrow afternoon though apparently. There is an unrealistic goal in getting from Ketchikan to Victoria; it was scheduled like that because that’s how long it took in perfect conditions. There are only a few hours in Victoria, and some of that is taken away by our late arrival. A lot of people say that they should switch the amount of time spent in those two ports, that we should have just a few hours in the morning in Ketchikan, cruise the rest of the day and night and get to Victoria earlier in the day.
Tonight was board games night in the Tween Room of Club HAL. After our hour of free time, we got out the board games and cards and began to play. The kids had scrabble, chess, connect four, and a pack of cards/spoons out right away, and we never really switched from there. I had to switch games after the first game of scrabble though, because across the room the kids playing spoons had started throwing cards around at each other, and blaming each other for things. One of my girls asked me to intervene. So, I went over and tried to get them to stop. They wanted to test me when I said everyone holding cards can not throw them; they dropped the cards. I picked them up and walked away. It took a few minutes before they realized I’d tricked them, then I made them promise not to throw things (they were starting to go for the shoes!) before giving back the cards and sitting down with them to make sure they behaved. After that, they did, I had to give one of the boys a look because he started acting mischievous, but he stopped. He even admitted when he ripped one of the spoons out of one of the girls’ hand. I was proud of him for that and thanked him for it.
I was going to go to a show with Cheyan, but it is formal night all over the ship and I realized I didn’t have anything to wear, so I figured I’d make it an early night since I do have Port Day shift at 8 tomorrow morning! Ashley was kind enough to tell me to call her if I need anything tomorrow :) I’m glad she doesn’t have to leave for another week, I think we work well together, she organizes and I get the kids excited about activities. There’s a new girl coming on Sunday named Natalie, so that’ll help a bit with the craziness, so Karyn can spend time with her parents since they’ll be here and she’s been crazy-busy taking care of all her Coordinator stuff and the teenagers.
July 6, 2012
Today was port day at Ketchikan. I started work at 8:00 this morning and only just got back to my room (it’s a bit after 4). That wasn’t supposed to be how my day went though. Apparently Ketchikan is a different type of port day (great thing for someone to tell me BEFORE I work) as we’re only at the port from 8 to 12 noon; Club HAL closes at 12 then reopens at 1. Good to know that this port day we don’t take the kids down to lunch like we have the last two port days. I didn’t know. So, when parents asked me, I used what I’d observed from the last two days and told them that we’d be open until 4, thinking that one of the other girls would come take over for me at 12, like has been the case the last few days. How wrong I was. I called the one room number I know (Ashley and Erica), but no answer. By the time someone came in, it was 12:20. Jordan explained to me and I called Karyn to let her know about my mistake (it is my first week, I should be allowed a mistake or two, right?). She told me to take them to get burgers and stuff by the Lido pool, the other girls were down eating at the buffet and they should help me. Erica and I ended up getting their food and I sat with them while they ate. Then, we got back to the room 5 minutes early, so I ran downstairs to grab a slice of pizza and hot chocolate (which I only just found this morning!). 10 minutes, record eating time for me.
It was a busy afternoon with a free tag/ball game outside, an ice cream eating contest on the Lido deck, and a rehearsal of the skit they’re doing for the talent show.
Hm, I just realized that I don’t think I’ve really talked about what a (normal) ‘Port Day’ is. For the passengers it’s a day on shore, for Club HAL it’s a day of combined groups led by just one of the Youth Staff. The kids and tweens are together for these days and the youth staff divide the day up into two sessions (so we’ll at least have some time to go ashore if we’d like to that day). The first is 8-12; the second is 12-4. The 12-4 session includes taking the kids down to lunch (since the parents might be ashore, but I think a good many of the parents still sign their kids out and take them to lunch themselves.) It’s pretty much free time, there are no scheduled activities and we can decide what to do ourselves. It’s kind of odd having the younger kids because I don’t know them. Having such a variety in a group (3-12) with just me looking after them, hoping they have fun, is odd as well now that I’ve gotten used to only having the 8-12 year olds.
I really think I’d be very willing to work every port-day afternoon. That would give me the morning to do some souvenir shopping and get the free internet with purchase of hot chocolate, and I wouldn’t be so bored when I get back to the ship. I might ask Karyn about that next week.
Anyway, Sitka is a small town; there are quite a few souvenir shops which I visited today. One of them had earrings like I like that I bought in Hendersonville. They’re the same brand as ones I have already and in all colors and styles! I’m very excited about this! I also bought a notebook/journal. Somehow I managed to make it here without any paper on which to write. Now I can leave notes for my roommate, take notes for myself during the day, etc. I found the post office here too, so I definitely know I can at least mail postcards from here. I also was told where there was internet. After my first trip to Sitka, I went back to the ship for lunch and to grab my laptop so I could get some stuff done before final call at 3 for crew to return to the ship. I bought a really good hot chocolate for 2.22 and got to post the last two blogs, check email and Face book. In the last four days, I’d managed to collect almost 40 emails in one of my three accounts! I was only there for about 15 minutes because I was worried about getting back to the ship (I’d caught the last tender leaving the ship with passengers).
I seem to remember Amy asking questions about the other new girl in Youth Staff. Her name is Erica, she’s from Phoenix Arizona. She’d been on a Princess cruise a few years ago to Alaska, so she knows the ports and all that already. She spent last summer in London with a large group of people from her school, taking two classes and doing an internship. She actually had applied for Disney first, and had interviews with them, but they told her that she needed more camp experience. The next day, Holland America called her (about a week before they called me). She’s on this ship for three months, leaving right before it heads to New Zealand. She has no idea what ship she’ll be on next or where it will go. She, like everyone else I told, was amazed that I’m only on this one for four weeks, and I’ve already been assigned a second contract and know where it’s going. Apparently the first contract is typically as long as the rest of them. Mine is easily the shortest, followed by Steven (one of the piano players). He’s here for six weeks because he’s still has a year left at college and this is just his summer job.
I can tell that we’re cruising again, have been for about an hour and a half (they certainly don’t leave much time between last call for guests and leaving port). The ship is rocking again and I can hear waves hitting outside. I think we’re going pretty fast, not as fast as we’ll be going tomorrow afternoon though apparently. There is an unrealistic goal in getting from Ketchikan to Victoria; it was scheduled like that because that’s how long it took in perfect conditions. There are only a few hours in Victoria, and some of that is taken away by our late arrival. A lot of people say that they should switch the amount of time spent in those two ports, that we should have just a few hours in the morning in Ketchikan, cruise the rest of the day and night and get to Victoria earlier in the day.
Tonight was board games night in the Tween Room of Club HAL. After our hour of free time, we got out the board games and cards and began to play. The kids had scrabble, chess, connect four, and a pack of cards/spoons out right away, and we never really switched from there. I had to switch games after the first game of scrabble though, because across the room the kids playing spoons had started throwing cards around at each other, and blaming each other for things. One of my girls asked me to intervene. So, I went over and tried to get them to stop. They wanted to test me when I said everyone holding cards can not throw them; they dropped the cards. I picked them up and walked away. It took a few minutes before they realized I’d tricked them, then I made them promise not to throw things (they were starting to go for the shoes!) before giving back the cards and sitting down with them to make sure they behaved. After that, they did, I had to give one of the boys a look because he started acting mischievous, but he stopped. He even admitted when he ripped one of the spoons out of one of the girls’ hand. I was proud of him for that and thanked him for it.
I was going to go to a show with Cheyan, but it is formal night all over the ship and I realized I didn’t have anything to wear, so I figured I’d make it an early night since I do have Port Day shift at 8 tomorrow morning! Ashley was kind enough to tell me to call her if I need anything tomorrow :) I’m glad she doesn’t have to leave for another week, I think we work well together, she organizes and I get the kids excited about activities. There’s a new girl coming on Sunday named Natalie, so that’ll help a bit with the craziness, so Karyn can spend time with her parents since they’ll be here and she’s been crazy-busy taking care of all her Coordinator stuff and the teenagers.
July 6, 2012
Today was port day at Ketchikan. I started work at 8:00 this morning and only just got back to my room (it’s a bit after 4). That wasn’t supposed to be how my day went though. Apparently Ketchikan is a different type of port day (great thing for someone to tell me BEFORE I work) as we’re only at the port from 8 to 12 noon; Club HAL closes at 12 then reopens at 1. Good to know that this port day we don’t take the kids down to lunch like we have the last two port days. I didn’t know. So, when parents asked me, I used what I’d observed from the last two days and told them that we’d be open until 4, thinking that one of the other girls would come take over for me at 12, like has been the case the last few days. How wrong I was. I called the one room number I know (Ashley and Erica), but no answer. By the time someone came in, it was 12:20. Jordan explained to me and I called Karyn to let her know about my mistake (it is my first week, I should be allowed a mistake or two, right?). She told me to take them to get burgers and stuff by the Lido pool, the other girls were down eating at the buffet and they should help me. Erica and I ended up getting their food and I sat with them while they ate. Then, we got back to the room 5 minutes early, so I ran downstairs to grab a slice of pizza and hot chocolate (which I only just found this morning!). 10 minutes, record eating time for me.
It was a busy afternoon with a free tag/ball game outside, an ice cream eating contest on the Lido deck, and a rehearsal of the skit they’re doing for the talent show.
Hm, I just realized that I don’t think I’ve really talked about what a (normal) ‘Port Day’ is. For the passengers it’s a day on shore, for Club HAL it’s a day of combined groups led by just one of the Youth Staff. The kids and tweens are together for these days and the youth staff divide the day up into two sessions (so we’ll at least have some time to go ashore if we’d like to that day). The first is 8-12; the second is 12-4. The 12-4 session includes taking the kids down to lunch (since the parents might be ashore, but I think a good many of the parents still sign their kids out and take them to lunch themselves.) It’s pretty much free time, there are no scheduled activities and we can decide what to do ourselves. It’s kind of odd having the younger kids because I don’t know them. Having such a variety in a group (3-12) with just me looking after them, hoping they have fun, is odd as well now that I’ve gotten used to only having the 8-12 year olds.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
more new-ness
July 3 & 4
Okay, God’s creation never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday I saw a baby whale jumping out of the water, today I saw snow-capped mountains in the summer, mini-icebergs and a few eagles. We’re on a scenic cruise through Tracy Arm, which is rather narrow; the land isn’t really that far from the ship! It is so cool, I think I’m as excited as the kids are about it because during our ice cream time, we all sat at the window, staring at the mountains, icebergs and waterfalls.
I love hanging out with these kids, they’re so much fun! They’re most all excited about any activity we do, and always want me and Ashley to play the game with them! They’re so eager to learn more games too. Their enthusiasm kept me going yesterday when I was exhausted, and it’s making my day today all the more amazing now that I can appreciate it. We’ve done lots of active things today, and even more are to come tonight as we have our “brave the night” (survivor) challenge! I’m so glad that I’m finally figuring things out now and getting used to everything, I’m still learning though and it might be a long process as I don’t have a whole lot of spare time to do stuff.
The kids loved “Brave the night” activities, they had so much fun coming up with team names, flags, chants and getting points doing stuff like drinking jello through a straw, doing cryptograms, and getting a hula hoop around the circle. Afterwards, Ashley and I decided to hang out and see if it was true that we could see fireworks from Juneau. So, we stood around outside, and watched a whale and other cruise ships! We saw the whale breathe a lot, and jump twice out of the water! It was really exciting. Sadly, there were no fireworks. It’s the first port day, but we have an emergency drill at 10:30. So, I’m going to port after that.
One really good thing about Youth Staff uniforms is that we are provided with all sorts of gear. Sweaters, windbreakers and there are big orange puffy coats for us to use when we take the kids to the sports deck on a sea day! I surprisingly like the windbreaker-probably because it’s not bright orange like the shirt, it is navy with two small orange stripes down the arms.
I’m slowly getting used to this, but next week will be better because I won’t have to stop my regular job to do new-crew stuff.
We made it to Alaska and I’m going ashore this afternoon to explore and get some stuff. I was scheduled to work, but Jordan, my roommate wanted another day off, so we switched what port day to work. The Youth Staff has been understaffed the past few weeks, we’re still down at least one, which isn’t good, so we’re hoping to get at least two new people (my roommate is supposed to be leaving Sunday). We have 180 or so kids this week on board and most of them come to at least some of the activities. Next week, I think I heard someone say that there will be over 200!
Fourth of July!! I did see fireworks, but not in the normal sense, but I’ll explain that in a bit. I woke up at normal time and went to breakfast, sitting alone because no one else apparently goes to breakfast on port days. Then, I ended up hanging out in my room and walking around Lido deck until time for the new-crew emergency drill. Finally that was over with, and I could go with Erica and Ashley to shore! We were on our way somewhere when the parade started, it was pretty excellent timing actually because I had just left a store and there was the parade. We watched the whole thing, and were joined by two guys who are musicians on the ship (also new-crew), and an Australian guy who also works on the ship (but I forget what his job is). We’ve talked to the two musicians a few times before and since they’re new too we had stuff to talk about. We all went to lunch together (except for Ashley, who opted out of lunch in favor of hanging out at a place that had internet). It was pretty fun, I got to know Nick and Steven better. Steven actually studied abroad last spring, in Florence, so we had lots to talk about since it’s an experience that not everyone can relate to. Everyone else got food at a crab place, but Steven and I found something else and brought it to the table- they had picnic tables set up under tarps outside. Lunch lasted about an hour and a half, Erica and I ended up going to Wal-Mart (a 20 minute shuttle ride) to get some supplies, and then came back to the ship just as it started raining. We did more of our online training activities, getting those over with when we had time since we’re likely to forget about them because of their lack of deadline. Haha.
The Club HAL team (Karyn, Ashley, Jordan, Erica and me) helped decorate a room for Fourth of July before heading up to work. We watched Cars 2, the kids were rather antsy though so I had to keep them quiet and make sure they weren’t getting out games and stuff.
Finally, 10 o’clock came. I’d made plans with Ashley to go see a show! It’s called Garage Band and it was really cool. All sorts of moving stage pieces, trapdoors, backdrops, etc (yes, my techie side kicked in at times). They had a general story line using all sorts of songs including ‘Life is a Highway’ and ‘Car Wash.’ I enjoyed it. At the end, ‘fireworks’ took place, stage fireworks, but since we haven’t had any actual ones, I figured that stage ones would have to suffice.
It’s been a great day. I can’t wait for Sitka tomorrow! I’ll actually get a chance to explore instead of shopping the whole time. There’s a different way of getting off tomorrow because there’s no dock, so it should be interesting. Apparently crew is only allowed to go out after all the excursion groups leave, which may be around 10 o’clock, then we have to be back by 2:30. I really either need to buy an internet card or find somewhere with free internet soon so everyone can hear about all this!
Okay, God’s creation never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday I saw a baby whale jumping out of the water, today I saw snow-capped mountains in the summer, mini-icebergs and a few eagles. We’re on a scenic cruise through Tracy Arm, which is rather narrow; the land isn’t really that far from the ship! It is so cool, I think I’m as excited as the kids are about it because during our ice cream time, we all sat at the window, staring at the mountains, icebergs and waterfalls.
I love hanging out with these kids, they’re so much fun! They’re most all excited about any activity we do, and always want me and Ashley to play the game with them! They’re so eager to learn more games too. Their enthusiasm kept me going yesterday when I was exhausted, and it’s making my day today all the more amazing now that I can appreciate it. We’ve done lots of active things today, and even more are to come tonight as we have our “brave the night” (survivor) challenge! I’m so glad that I’m finally figuring things out now and getting used to everything, I’m still learning though and it might be a long process as I don’t have a whole lot of spare time to do stuff.
The kids loved “Brave the night” activities, they had so much fun coming up with team names, flags, chants and getting points doing stuff like drinking jello through a straw, doing cryptograms, and getting a hula hoop around the circle. Afterwards, Ashley and I decided to hang out and see if it was true that we could see fireworks from Juneau. So, we stood around outside, and watched a whale and other cruise ships! We saw the whale breathe a lot, and jump twice out of the water! It was really exciting. Sadly, there were no fireworks. It’s the first port day, but we have an emergency drill at 10:30. So, I’m going to port after that.
One really good thing about Youth Staff uniforms is that we are provided with all sorts of gear. Sweaters, windbreakers and there are big orange puffy coats for us to use when we take the kids to the sports deck on a sea day! I surprisingly like the windbreaker-probably because it’s not bright orange like the shirt, it is navy with two small orange stripes down the arms.
I’m slowly getting used to this, but next week will be better because I won’t have to stop my regular job to do new-crew stuff.
We made it to Alaska and I’m going ashore this afternoon to explore and get some stuff. I was scheduled to work, but Jordan, my roommate wanted another day off, so we switched what port day to work. The Youth Staff has been understaffed the past few weeks, we’re still down at least one, which isn’t good, so we’re hoping to get at least two new people (my roommate is supposed to be leaving Sunday). We have 180 or so kids this week on board and most of them come to at least some of the activities. Next week, I think I heard someone say that there will be over 200!
Fourth of July!! I did see fireworks, but not in the normal sense, but I’ll explain that in a bit. I woke up at normal time and went to breakfast, sitting alone because no one else apparently goes to breakfast on port days. Then, I ended up hanging out in my room and walking around Lido deck until time for the new-crew emergency drill. Finally that was over with, and I could go with Erica and Ashley to shore! We were on our way somewhere when the parade started, it was pretty excellent timing actually because I had just left a store and there was the parade. We watched the whole thing, and were joined by two guys who are musicians on the ship (also new-crew), and an Australian guy who also works on the ship (but I forget what his job is). We’ve talked to the two musicians a few times before and since they’re new too we had stuff to talk about. We all went to lunch together (except for Ashley, who opted out of lunch in favor of hanging out at a place that had internet). It was pretty fun, I got to know Nick and Steven better. Steven actually studied abroad last spring, in Florence, so we had lots to talk about since it’s an experience that not everyone can relate to. Everyone else got food at a crab place, but Steven and I found something else and brought it to the table- they had picnic tables set up under tarps outside. Lunch lasted about an hour and a half, Erica and I ended up going to Wal-Mart (a 20 minute shuttle ride) to get some supplies, and then came back to the ship just as it started raining. We did more of our online training activities, getting those over with when we had time since we’re likely to forget about them because of their lack of deadline. Haha.
The Club HAL team (Karyn, Ashley, Jordan, Erica and me) helped decorate a room for Fourth of July before heading up to work. We watched Cars 2, the kids were rather antsy though so I had to keep them quiet and make sure they weren’t getting out games and stuff.
Finally, 10 o’clock came. I’d made plans with Ashley to go see a show! It’s called Garage Band and it was really cool. All sorts of moving stage pieces, trapdoors, backdrops, etc (yes, my techie side kicked in at times). They had a general story line using all sorts of songs including ‘Life is a Highway’ and ‘Car Wash.’ I enjoyed it. At the end, ‘fireworks’ took place, stage fireworks, but since we haven’t had any actual ones, I figured that stage ones would have to suffice.
It’s been a great day. I can’t wait for Sitka tomorrow! I’ll actually get a chance to explore instead of shopping the whole time. There’s a different way of getting off tomorrow because there’s no dock, so it should be interesting. Apparently crew is only allowed to go out after all the excursion groups leave, which may be around 10 o’clock, then we have to be back by 2:30. I really either need to buy an internet card or find somewhere with free internet soon so everyone can hear about all this!
First Days
July 1 and 2
Life on a ship is insane. I’ve had a crazy two days and they’re not even over yet! It seems like weeks ago that I was flying out from Charlotte.
I met Erica, the other new youth staff at breakfast Sunday. We ate and talked until the shuttle came to pick us up. We got through security and went to the ship; we had to take a steep ramp to get up onto it, I had trouble dragging my suitcase. Funny thing is that ramp is one of the least steep ones they have! Crazy.
New staff had to sit through meetings. Erica and I met our supervisor and she took us to our rooms (guest rooms they had available) then gave us a tour of the ship. She never took the same elevator/stairs twice, and half the time took shortcuts through crew areas, etc. I still have no idea where half the stuff she showed us is. We had a meeting at 10 that lasted until lunch. Then, I got to go up to Club HAL and help with open house stuff before doing our job with the fire drill on the ship (Club HAL has to make sure everyone under 13 has a colored wristband so we can help them meet up with the parents). I went back to my room to unpack some and met my roommate for a few minutes before she left again. We had another meeting with parents about Club HAL, and I was told that my roommate and I had to move. Our room was going to guest entertainers. So, I had to pack up all my just-unpacked stuff. Great. Then the watertight doors were closed and we couldn’t get the trolley down there, then the keys didn’t work…. Luckily, after all that, we had night work, which cheered me up and kept me awake.
This morning, another meeting, the last planned thing of our training, the only other thing we have to do is online stuff (on our own time). Lots of other little stuff happened until afternoon work, which was fun, I got to play supermario on the Wii. I can actually feel the ship rocking back and forth, but only if I’m not focused on something else. If nothing interesting is going on, I kind of doze off and start swaying with the ship; it only really gets to me when I’m not fully focused on it. If I want to, I can focus fully on the rocking, moving with each sway and watching everything slightly shift; it’s even more successful if I’m near a window to see outside, I watch the horizon slowly move up and down through the window. Focusing on it completely calms me, as does focusing on the kids!
Thus far, it has kind of been a horrible two days. I had to move, I’ve had a headache since I arrived in Seattle, I haven’t gotten enough sleep, and I really don’t fit in personality-wise with the other youth staff. I mean, Ashley the other tween counselor and I get along, but she kind of keeps to herself more so I can’t really talk to her.
I really didn’t know what to expect, but I don’t think this was it. I like it when I’m with the kids and have something to do, but other times when I’m lost (physically or occupationally), it’s not good.
So, after I typed all that, took a nap had dinner, and went to work for the night session, I was feeling quite a bit better. The headache had dulled to something I could ignore. So, I decided to walk around the outside deck on the deck Club HAL is on. It was around10:30 and the sun was just about finished setting. On one side was land (which I was very glad to see!) and the other just water, but straight ahead was a gorgeous sunset! I only took my compact camera (it was COLD!) so I have some okay pictures. That just reminded me one of the reasons why I wanted to get on a cruise ship-to see the world. God reminded me of that tonight, and He reminded me of just how small I am in His vast creation-even only on Earth. It was beautiful, even with the freezing cold and wind, I stayed out watching for about 15 minutes.
God has made me learn a lot, really quickly these last few days, and I’m still learning them. During my nap, when my headache was worst and I was seriously reconsidering my wanting to do this for a long period of time, God reminded me that He never gives us more than we can handle! So, He trusts that I can handle this, and if God trusts me with this, what reason could I possibly have to question it! :)
Life on a ship is insane. I’ve had a crazy two days and they’re not even over yet! It seems like weeks ago that I was flying out from Charlotte.
I met Erica, the other new youth staff at breakfast Sunday. We ate and talked until the shuttle came to pick us up. We got through security and went to the ship; we had to take a steep ramp to get up onto it, I had trouble dragging my suitcase. Funny thing is that ramp is one of the least steep ones they have! Crazy.
New staff had to sit through meetings. Erica and I met our supervisor and she took us to our rooms (guest rooms they had available) then gave us a tour of the ship. She never took the same elevator/stairs twice, and half the time took shortcuts through crew areas, etc. I still have no idea where half the stuff she showed us is. We had a meeting at 10 that lasted until lunch. Then, I got to go up to Club HAL and help with open house stuff before doing our job with the fire drill on the ship (Club HAL has to make sure everyone under 13 has a colored wristband so we can help them meet up with the parents). I went back to my room to unpack some and met my roommate for a few minutes before she left again. We had another meeting with parents about Club HAL, and I was told that my roommate and I had to move. Our room was going to guest entertainers. So, I had to pack up all my just-unpacked stuff. Great. Then the watertight doors were closed and we couldn’t get the trolley down there, then the keys didn’t work…. Luckily, after all that, we had night work, which cheered me up and kept me awake.
This morning, another meeting, the last planned thing of our training, the only other thing we have to do is online stuff (on our own time). Lots of other little stuff happened until afternoon work, which was fun, I got to play supermario on the Wii. I can actually feel the ship rocking back and forth, but only if I’m not focused on something else. If nothing interesting is going on, I kind of doze off and start swaying with the ship; it only really gets to me when I’m not fully focused on it. If I want to, I can focus fully on the rocking, moving with each sway and watching everything slightly shift; it’s even more successful if I’m near a window to see outside, I watch the horizon slowly move up and down through the window. Focusing on it completely calms me, as does focusing on the kids!
Thus far, it has kind of been a horrible two days. I had to move, I’ve had a headache since I arrived in Seattle, I haven’t gotten enough sleep, and I really don’t fit in personality-wise with the other youth staff. I mean, Ashley the other tween counselor and I get along, but she kind of keeps to herself more so I can’t really talk to her.
I really didn’t know what to expect, but I don’t think this was it. I like it when I’m with the kids and have something to do, but other times when I’m lost (physically or occupationally), it’s not good.
So, after I typed all that, took a nap had dinner, and went to work for the night session, I was feeling quite a bit better. The headache had dulled to something I could ignore. So, I decided to walk around the outside deck on the deck Club HAL is on. It was around10:30 and the sun was just about finished setting. On one side was land (which I was very glad to see!) and the other just water, but straight ahead was a gorgeous sunset! I only took my compact camera (it was COLD!) so I have some okay pictures. That just reminded me one of the reasons why I wanted to get on a cruise ship-to see the world. God reminded me of that tonight, and He reminded me of just how small I am in His vast creation-even only on Earth. It was beautiful, even with the freezing cold and wind, I stayed out watching for about 15 minutes.
God has made me learn a lot, really quickly these last few days, and I’m still learning them. During my nap, when my headache was worst and I was seriously reconsidering my wanting to do this for a long period of time, God reminded me that He never gives us more than we can handle! So, He trusts that I can handle this, and if God trusts me with this, what reason could I possibly have to question it! :)
Sunday, July 1, 2012
flying and lessons
Hello from Seattle!
God was looking out for me today. He made me wait, but things turned out okay.
First flight: Charlotte to Memphis. I’d forgotten how friendly people in the US actually are, after doing all my flying in Europe. People TALK to one another on plane rides?! This was kind of a foreign concept to me until today. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. So, this flight had little (to no) Air Conditioning. It was HOT, and it smelled kind of gross. It was weird too, because it was the smallest plane I’ve been on. Ryanair and Easyjet both had bigger planes than this, more space AND more seats. The aisle was just big enough for me, as were the four seats in each row (two on each side of the plane). We were almost delayed because one seat had a broken seatbelt! Talk about a crazy start to the day!
Memphis: an hour behind, an hour and a half layover. Well, about half an hour of that was walking from one gate (the furthest one in A) to another (near the end of B!). I’m exaggerating; it was probably only 10 minutes. I was focused. Well, by the time I got to my gate, I was tired from all that walking (at least it was cool. Yes Dad, I just said that!), so I didn’t want to go far to eat. Let’s see, around my gate there were two bars and a BBQ place; it wasn’t worth it to go anywhere. Suddenly, I noticed that my flight was showing up on the monitors, and it said something about clearing seats. I didn’t know what that meant, so I just continued reading my book. I noticed a lot of people going up to the counter, everyone actually who was on the flight. So, I did too. Turns out, they’d overbooked the flight by 5 people. Guess who was one of the five? Yep, me. They kept asking for volunteers, offering A LOT of stuff to anyone who could give up their seat and stay the night. After 30 minutes, the flight was boarding, and I did not have a seat. Naturally, I couldn’t help but start crying as I was next to the desk and other people were being helped and I was kind of being ignored. I didn’t know what to do, so I just prayed. Turns out that the people being helped were giving up their seats. I got the last seat on that plane. One woman ended up having to stay in Memphis. Stressful.
The plane ride was fine, I sat next to a mother and daughter who were with the dad and 2 sons, going to visit family and see the area. They were really nice, and the mother, father and daughter all looked familiar (I didn’t see the sons). The daughter had a pizza and after eating a slice, wanted to share her mothers salad. The mother and I had been talking (about Seattle, why I was going, why they were going, etc), and she offered me the rest of the pizza if I wanted it. God really does look after me! :) I just read on my Kindle most of that flight, looked out the window a lot and listened to music, and talked to the mother and daughter. Sometime during the flight, a flight attendant made an announcement asking if anyone was a doctor and could help, and I found out through the father that someone on the plane had gotten sick. When we got to the airport, they had paramedics get on and take the person off.
So, Seattle airport. I made it to the baggage claim just fine, one of the first to get there actually. And I waited, and waited, and waited. No more bags came. I asked someone and she directed me to the questions area. I showed her my slip and she looked it up. Turns out, my bag made a side trip! It was coming in. So, I waited some more, another flight came in, my bag wasn’t there. Finally, a third plane came in and I found my bag (about 30 minutes later!) My bag had made a pit stop in Atlanta instead of coming straight to Seattle from Memphis. Interesting.
Anyway, I got to the shuttle area and mine finally came. Two other people were on it, turns out that they’re on the cruise too! They left their 4-year-old with family though, haha. It’s nice to actually see someone else here that’s on the same ship as I am!
Okay, I’ve written enough for now.
Thank you all for the prayers, I really could feel them working today. Now I just need to review what God taught me through all this today! :)
Tomorrow's my first day of a real job! I've decided to call it professional camp counselor, haha! We all know how much I love camp and working at camp! And my job is generally the same idea: camp counselor, for less time of the day of course, but still it's the perfect job for me!
God was looking out for me today. He made me wait, but things turned out okay.
First flight: Charlotte to Memphis. I’d forgotten how friendly people in the US actually are, after doing all my flying in Europe. People TALK to one another on plane rides?! This was kind of a foreign concept to me until today. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. So, this flight had little (to no) Air Conditioning. It was HOT, and it smelled kind of gross. It was weird too, because it was the smallest plane I’ve been on. Ryanair and Easyjet both had bigger planes than this, more space AND more seats. The aisle was just big enough for me, as were the four seats in each row (two on each side of the plane). We were almost delayed because one seat had a broken seatbelt! Talk about a crazy start to the day!
Memphis: an hour behind, an hour and a half layover. Well, about half an hour of that was walking from one gate (the furthest one in A) to another (near the end of B!). I’m exaggerating; it was probably only 10 minutes. I was focused. Well, by the time I got to my gate, I was tired from all that walking (at least it was cool. Yes Dad, I just said that!), so I didn’t want to go far to eat. Let’s see, around my gate there were two bars and a BBQ place; it wasn’t worth it to go anywhere. Suddenly, I noticed that my flight was showing up on the monitors, and it said something about clearing seats. I didn’t know what that meant, so I just continued reading my book. I noticed a lot of people going up to the counter, everyone actually who was on the flight. So, I did too. Turns out, they’d overbooked the flight by 5 people. Guess who was one of the five? Yep, me. They kept asking for volunteers, offering A LOT of stuff to anyone who could give up their seat and stay the night. After 30 minutes, the flight was boarding, and I did not have a seat. Naturally, I couldn’t help but start crying as I was next to the desk and other people were being helped and I was kind of being ignored. I didn’t know what to do, so I just prayed. Turns out that the people being helped were giving up their seats. I got the last seat on that plane. One woman ended up having to stay in Memphis. Stressful.
The plane ride was fine, I sat next to a mother and daughter who were with the dad and 2 sons, going to visit family and see the area. They were really nice, and the mother, father and daughter all looked familiar (I didn’t see the sons). The daughter had a pizza and after eating a slice, wanted to share her mothers salad. The mother and I had been talking (about Seattle, why I was going, why they were going, etc), and she offered me the rest of the pizza if I wanted it. God really does look after me! :) I just read on my Kindle most of that flight, looked out the window a lot and listened to music, and talked to the mother and daughter. Sometime during the flight, a flight attendant made an announcement asking if anyone was a doctor and could help, and I found out through the father that someone on the plane had gotten sick. When we got to the airport, they had paramedics get on and take the person off.
So, Seattle airport. I made it to the baggage claim just fine, one of the first to get there actually. And I waited, and waited, and waited. No more bags came. I asked someone and she directed me to the questions area. I showed her my slip and she looked it up. Turns out, my bag made a side trip! It was coming in. So, I waited some more, another flight came in, my bag wasn’t there. Finally, a third plane came in and I found my bag (about 30 minutes later!) My bag had made a pit stop in Atlanta instead of coming straight to Seattle from Memphis. Interesting.
Anyway, I got to the shuttle area and mine finally came. Two other people were on it, turns out that they’re on the cruise too! They left their 4-year-old with family though, haha. It’s nice to actually see someone else here that’s on the same ship as I am!
Okay, I’ve written enough for now.
Thank you all for the prayers, I really could feel them working today. Now I just need to review what God taught me through all this today! :)
Tomorrow's my first day of a real job! I've decided to call it professional camp counselor, haha! We all know how much I love camp and working at camp! And my job is generally the same idea: camp counselor, for less time of the day of course, but still it's the perfect job for me!
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