August 31, 2012
It’s been a busy last few days. I had a headache while we were in Charlottetown and no one aside from my teens saw me for the rest of the day. I got off and wandered around some in Sydney
In Halifax, I got off and tried to get internet with Glenn, but the internet wasn’t working very well for any site except for Facebook. I hung out with the teens at night, playing various card games before I taught them signs, which they enjoyed quite a bit. When we went up to Club HAL from the half moon room, we continued to play until we went to the dessert extravaganza. Only one of the girls returned to Club HAL with me, and she had a curfew so left early, so I got to clean up early.
Today, I wasn’t expecting any kids, but five showed up all at once not long after I got there. I helped one of the boys get through Lego Harry Potter, and switched back and forth between that and foosball. There was quite a bit of confusion with lunch; Jacob told me to order room service for Club HAL, but when I tried, they told me I had the wrong number. Luckily just when I was trying to call Jacob to help, he walked in the door and got everything straightened out before I left for my own lunch.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Drills
Saturday August 25, 2012
Embarking day from Montreal! I helped with open house for two hours and there were a few families who came in, but not too many. After wristbands, Alyssa and I walked around during sailaway. Apparently that is an important thing for the cruise director here. Not many of the guests ahd questions for us, so we left as soon as we could. I went down to deck six to walk around and watch us take off. It was pretty cool, even though we created a traffic jam for the other tiny boats around us. Next time, I’m taking my camera because Montreal is a beautiful city. I talked to quite a few passengers while out there too. They are a friendlier bunch this week. I met a woman from Montreal originally who now lives in Arizona, she used to work in the building across from the port and would watch them leave from her window! That was pretty cool to hear about. I got to my room in just enough time to get ready for dinner. Edison and I went because Alyssa was still getting ready about 15 minutes after the normal time.
After dinner, I had plenty of time to go back to the room to relax and give my teeth a good brushing before heading up to Club HAL to retrieve the supplies for the teen activities. Because this is the only Holland America ship without a Loft, we have to move rooms constantly. We were in the Crow’s Nest playing cards for an hour, before moving to the Half-Moon Room for an hour of apples to apples or cards. We ended up playing blackjack with apples-to-apples cards as chips. Finally at 10 we got to go up to Club HAL and play all the stuff up there. On this ship, the person on teens only has to work until 12, it’s nice to have some time out after work. I went to bed not long after I got off though.
August 26, 2012
Busy day today. I was intending to get off the ship kind of early to go walk around for a while before work at 12. However, I overslept. Actually, it’s a good thing I overslept because we had an “unexpected” fire drill. It was unexpected for me because Jacob hadn’t updated the schedule from yesterday. Apparently they changed the fire drill from Tuesday morning to today, and only a few people knew about it. I had just gotten out of the shower when it went off, and the front office actually called my room to see if I was coming. I was very out-of-breath with wet hair when I got there. At least now I know.
So, by the time I got back to the room, it was about 10:15, too late to go get breakfast like I had been planning on since breakfast closes at 10:30 (usually they close up early though). So, I ended up deciding not to get off, freaked out that I might miss something important like I about did (the fire drill; I planned on getting off around 9!) By the time I got my hair dried normally, it was kind of too late to get off the ship. So I just hung out in my room until I could go to lunch before work. Alyssa put up the sign and came with me since she hadn’t had kids all morning.
Around 1, 5 kids came in and stayed until 4. We played Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, Just Dance, Jenga, foosball, and one kid read when he didn’t want to play anything. It was a pretty relaxed afternoon for me. They were very happy to be here, much improvement since last week.
After I locked up after work- did I tell you already that I have my own set of keys now!? Each of us has one now and I’ll keep mine until I leave because there won’t be more than 3 of us at a time during my contract. Anyway, after I locked up, I was heading back to the room when I saw Edison in line for food at the Lido Grill, so we started talking and I sat with him while he ate his “lunch” until he had to go to work. Then, I went up and out. I walked around outside and talked some to guests as we passed each other. I ran to my room to get my camera then walked around some more. It was almost dinnertime, so I went back to the room to wait for Alyssa to call, she called not long after and said it’d be 20 minutes, so I went back up to deck 6 (you can walk all around the ship on that level, it’s where the lifeboats/rafts are- 1 lap is ¼ mile) and took pictures.
I went to dinner with Alyssa, then Edison came at 7 when he got off work and Alyssa left for work. Edison and I sat and talked until he had to go back to work at 8. Jacob had only made the schedule from 9-12 so the hours wouldn’t be as long; but the rest of the week will just be 8-12. I went up to Club HAL at 8:30 to gather stuff again and interact with the little ones a bit. We played card games and ‘stop the boat’ in the Hudson room. It was interesting adding people into card games as they came in. We attempted to play speed with 5 people!
More hanging out in Club HAL followed, they really like foosball and Just Dance, we played cards but other than that, everything in the room was left alone.
August 27, 2012
Sea Day! I worked a lot today. At 10, I had breakfast in the Lido; the teens were supposed to meet me there but none of them were quite awake at that point. One came for scattegories in the Lido, but we ended up switching to cards because Scattergories is not all that fun with just two people. We met up with another teen when we went to the Sports Deck for basketball. I actually managed to make a few baskets! The sun was in a great spot, if I ‘looked’ at the sun when I shot, I was much more likely to make the basket. More of them showed up when we went to Club HAL for game time. I had to kick them out at 12; lunch wasn’t really open yet, so I went to my room and watched the news for about 30 minutes before going back to the Lido.
At 2, I sent the teens on a scavenger hunt. I found a fun one for them. They had to find various objects around the ship (mostly clothing materials) and one had to wear it for them to get the points. We all laughed when we saw the odd combination of stuff they had on. We went out for basketball, but it was really windy and not everyone wanted to play, so we moved to the tennis court on the other side. That was interesting. The wind would mess us up when we tried to hit the ball. It was kind of exciting though. At one point, the ball went through the net at the top, and rolled around up there, getting close to the edge, then rolling away; then it bounced over each section towards the back where it could fall off. I thought it had rolled off into the water, but it had bounced off the railing to safety! Exciting 2 minutes of my day, haha.
We hung out in Club HAL for the rest of the afternoon, playing lots of xbox and card games. The one girl that was there (and a big fan of Harry Potter) and I played “Scene It?” on the xbox, which wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I went straight down from Club HAL to dinner at 6, and ended up staying there until around 7:30. There’s a new vocalist for the HAL Cats named Kaylie and we talked all through dinner. She’s nice, another one of us younger staff (I think most of the staff here are in their 30s or so); it’s her first contract so I got to help encourage her a lot on getting through the first week.
No one came for the first hour of the Loft. Mainly because Jacob accidently put 9 o’clock twice on the schedule of events instead of having the first one be 8. I studied Italian and talked to the people who came by. At 9, they all showed up to play games. We played UNO for an hour instead of starting Monopoly (scheduled at 8), and instead of heading to play ping pong at 9:30. We almost continued in Club HAL, but the boys discovered Xbox Kinect “Wipeout” and the girls and I worked through and I Spy book! We went down to late snack in the Lido and they all got hot chocolate. We were kind of loud, but they’re teens so what else should I expect. They were glad that we all got to come as a group and hang out. We just kind of hung out for the last 30 minutes playing cards again. I kicked them out just after 12, then had to “SuperSan.” It was a much bigger deal on the other ship, super sanitizing, we had to wipe down every surface that could have been touched and contaminated. Here, it’s just wipe the tables and chairs and then you’re done.
I went back down to the Lido to hang out with Alyssa, Glenn, Edison and Kaylie since they were still there. After a few minutes, they headed up to the Crow’s Nest and I went to the room to change into my formal gear. Once I got up to the Crow’s Nest, we only had about 30 minutes to hang out, but it was still good to be able to hang out with people since I hadn’t seen anyone but the teens for most of the day. Kaylie and I are planning on going to a church together on Sunday, as long as neither of us has IPM (for Youth Staff that means working on a port day, for everyone else that means just being on the ship in case of an emergency- we have to have a certain percentage of crew on board at all times.) I get off in Bar Harbor in the afternoon, so I’m going to scope out the churches around there then! I’m very excited about this. Glenn said he might come too if he’s not working; he misses going to church as well. There is actually a mass every week on the ship, but I work when that’s going on I think, and it’s not really the same as actually going to church somewhere.
August 28, 2012
Another drill this morning. We have 4 this week because the Coast Guard is coming in Bar Harbor and they want us to be prepared. Alyssa assured me that this is not normal, having 4 in one week. At least I knew about this one! We actually had to do stuff in this one, put up signs explaining what was going on, and standing in the hall to give information (about the ‘fire’ to the guests). I got to go to breakfast at least, because we were out by 10. I met up with Brandi right before breakfast and we agreed to meet and get off together once she finished her raft drill. I didn’t quite realize that it would be so late. I work at 12, so I don’t have much time to do anything other than get the internet.
Embarking day from Montreal! I helped with open house for two hours and there were a few families who came in, but not too many. After wristbands, Alyssa and I walked around during sailaway. Apparently that is an important thing for the cruise director here. Not many of the guests ahd questions for us, so we left as soon as we could. I went down to deck six to walk around and watch us take off. It was pretty cool, even though we created a traffic jam for the other tiny boats around us. Next time, I’m taking my camera because Montreal is a beautiful city. I talked to quite a few passengers while out there too. They are a friendlier bunch this week. I met a woman from Montreal originally who now lives in Arizona, she used to work in the building across from the port and would watch them leave from her window! That was pretty cool to hear about. I got to my room in just enough time to get ready for dinner. Edison and I went because Alyssa was still getting ready about 15 minutes after the normal time.
After dinner, I had plenty of time to go back to the room to relax and give my teeth a good brushing before heading up to Club HAL to retrieve the supplies for the teen activities. Because this is the only Holland America ship without a Loft, we have to move rooms constantly. We were in the Crow’s Nest playing cards for an hour, before moving to the Half-Moon Room for an hour of apples to apples or cards. We ended up playing blackjack with apples-to-apples cards as chips. Finally at 10 we got to go up to Club HAL and play all the stuff up there. On this ship, the person on teens only has to work until 12, it’s nice to have some time out after work. I went to bed not long after I got off though.
August 26, 2012
Busy day today. I was intending to get off the ship kind of early to go walk around for a while before work at 12. However, I overslept. Actually, it’s a good thing I overslept because we had an “unexpected” fire drill. It was unexpected for me because Jacob hadn’t updated the schedule from yesterday. Apparently they changed the fire drill from Tuesday morning to today, and only a few people knew about it. I had just gotten out of the shower when it went off, and the front office actually called my room to see if I was coming. I was very out-of-breath with wet hair when I got there. At least now I know.
So, by the time I got back to the room, it was about 10:15, too late to go get breakfast like I had been planning on since breakfast closes at 10:30 (usually they close up early though). So, I ended up deciding not to get off, freaked out that I might miss something important like I about did (the fire drill; I planned on getting off around 9!) By the time I got my hair dried normally, it was kind of too late to get off the ship. So I just hung out in my room until I could go to lunch before work. Alyssa put up the sign and came with me since she hadn’t had kids all morning.
Around 1, 5 kids came in and stayed until 4. We played Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, Just Dance, Jenga, foosball, and one kid read when he didn’t want to play anything. It was a pretty relaxed afternoon for me. They were very happy to be here, much improvement since last week.
After I locked up after work- did I tell you already that I have my own set of keys now!? Each of us has one now and I’ll keep mine until I leave because there won’t be more than 3 of us at a time during my contract. Anyway, after I locked up, I was heading back to the room when I saw Edison in line for food at the Lido Grill, so we started talking and I sat with him while he ate his “lunch” until he had to go to work. Then, I went up and out. I walked around outside and talked some to guests as we passed each other. I ran to my room to get my camera then walked around some more. It was almost dinnertime, so I went back to the room to wait for Alyssa to call, she called not long after and said it’d be 20 minutes, so I went back up to deck 6 (you can walk all around the ship on that level, it’s where the lifeboats/rafts are- 1 lap is ¼ mile) and took pictures.
I went to dinner with Alyssa, then Edison came at 7 when he got off work and Alyssa left for work. Edison and I sat and talked until he had to go back to work at 8. Jacob had only made the schedule from 9-12 so the hours wouldn’t be as long; but the rest of the week will just be 8-12. I went up to Club HAL at 8:30 to gather stuff again and interact with the little ones a bit. We played card games and ‘stop the boat’ in the Hudson room. It was interesting adding people into card games as they came in. We attempted to play speed with 5 people!
More hanging out in Club HAL followed, they really like foosball and Just Dance, we played cards but other than that, everything in the room was left alone.
August 27, 2012
Sea Day! I worked a lot today. At 10, I had breakfast in the Lido; the teens were supposed to meet me there but none of them were quite awake at that point. One came for scattegories in the Lido, but we ended up switching to cards because Scattergories is not all that fun with just two people. We met up with another teen when we went to the Sports Deck for basketball. I actually managed to make a few baskets! The sun was in a great spot, if I ‘looked’ at the sun when I shot, I was much more likely to make the basket. More of them showed up when we went to Club HAL for game time. I had to kick them out at 12; lunch wasn’t really open yet, so I went to my room and watched the news for about 30 minutes before going back to the Lido.
At 2, I sent the teens on a scavenger hunt. I found a fun one for them. They had to find various objects around the ship (mostly clothing materials) and one had to wear it for them to get the points. We all laughed when we saw the odd combination of stuff they had on. We went out for basketball, but it was really windy and not everyone wanted to play, so we moved to the tennis court on the other side. That was interesting. The wind would mess us up when we tried to hit the ball. It was kind of exciting though. At one point, the ball went through the net at the top, and rolled around up there, getting close to the edge, then rolling away; then it bounced over each section towards the back where it could fall off. I thought it had rolled off into the water, but it had bounced off the railing to safety! Exciting 2 minutes of my day, haha.
We hung out in Club HAL for the rest of the afternoon, playing lots of xbox and card games. The one girl that was there (and a big fan of Harry Potter) and I played “Scene It?” on the xbox, which wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I went straight down from Club HAL to dinner at 6, and ended up staying there until around 7:30. There’s a new vocalist for the HAL Cats named Kaylie and we talked all through dinner. She’s nice, another one of us younger staff (I think most of the staff here are in their 30s or so); it’s her first contract so I got to help encourage her a lot on getting through the first week.
No one came for the first hour of the Loft. Mainly because Jacob accidently put 9 o’clock twice on the schedule of events instead of having the first one be 8. I studied Italian and talked to the people who came by. At 9, they all showed up to play games. We played UNO for an hour instead of starting Monopoly (scheduled at 8), and instead of heading to play ping pong at 9:30. We almost continued in Club HAL, but the boys discovered Xbox Kinect “Wipeout” and the girls and I worked through and I Spy book! We went down to late snack in the Lido and they all got hot chocolate. We were kind of loud, but they’re teens so what else should I expect. They were glad that we all got to come as a group and hang out. We just kind of hung out for the last 30 minutes playing cards again. I kicked them out just after 12, then had to “SuperSan.” It was a much bigger deal on the other ship, super sanitizing, we had to wipe down every surface that could have been touched and contaminated. Here, it’s just wipe the tables and chairs and then you’re done.
I went back down to the Lido to hang out with Alyssa, Glenn, Edison and Kaylie since they were still there. After a few minutes, they headed up to the Crow’s Nest and I went to the room to change into my formal gear. Once I got up to the Crow’s Nest, we only had about 30 minutes to hang out, but it was still good to be able to hang out with people since I hadn’t seen anyone but the teens for most of the day. Kaylie and I are planning on going to a church together on Sunday, as long as neither of us has IPM (for Youth Staff that means working on a port day, for everyone else that means just being on the ship in case of an emergency- we have to have a certain percentage of crew on board at all times.) I get off in Bar Harbor in the afternoon, so I’m going to scope out the churches around there then! I’m very excited about this. Glenn said he might come too if he’s not working; he misses going to church as well. There is actually a mass every week on the ship, but I work when that’s going on I think, and it’s not really the same as actually going to church somewhere.
August 28, 2012
Another drill this morning. We have 4 this week because the Coast Guard is coming in Bar Harbor and they want us to be prepared. Alyssa assured me that this is not normal, having 4 in one week. At least I knew about this one! We actually had to do stuff in this one, put up signs explaining what was going on, and standing in the hall to give information (about the ‘fire’ to the guests). I got to go to breakfast at least, because we were out by 10. I met up with Brandi right before breakfast and we agreed to meet and get off together once she finished her raft drill. I didn’t quite realize that it would be so late. I work at 12, so I don’t have much time to do anything other than get the internet.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Montreal
August 25, 2012
So, Quebec yesterday was beautiful. There's an old chateau that is now a hotel and a kind of tram to take you up there. It's not a cable car, it's more like a trolly on a really steep hill. I'm definitely excited to go back tomorrow to take pictures with my DSLR! I watched a movie for a little while when I got back on the ship, then had dinner. After dinner, of course we had work; they had free hour then a very large snack: popcorn, cookies and a cake! We watched How to Train Your Dragon (my choice). It ended earlier than we thought it would, so they had soem free time afterwards as well, though we wouldn't let them play on the xboxes.
I hung out with Chrissy after work because it was her last night. Now we are down to three youth staff.
This morning, I had breakfast with Chrissy and Alyssa. Alyssa and I then changed and got off in Montreal. We checked out the Seaman's Club- a hang out place for crew. There's snacks, drinks, some souvenirs, pool tables, ping pong tables, and free internet.
Then, Alyssa and I walked around the city a bit.It's very prety, I took a few pictures; I'll take more in two weeks when we come back. I'll go exploring on my own then too, so I don't get lost (I seem to have better directional skills than others). We found downtown and shops (it's sale time, they're getting rid of spring clothes; I bought a shirt kind of like the one I bought in France, haha). We ended up going past the ship into the old part of town, which is gorgeous! Alyssa has to get back on the ship soon so we didn't get to look around there much. We were only going to be out for an hour, but two hours passed before we got back to the Seaman's Club. Now I'm sitting finally having a good long conversation with Mom and I don't have to be back at work until 2:30!
I get to go back to Quebec tomorrow! It's very exciting speaking in French to people who speak it every day; I'd forgotten how helpful it is to my communication skills.
Friday, August 24, 2012
nearing the end of week 1
August 23, 2012
I’m losing track of the days. On the Oosterdam, we were allowed to take the guest elevators (so we could have more communication with guests), but here we are not, and the crew elevators/stairs don’t have rugs that tell us what day it is. I miss that.
Yesterday I went ashore in Charlottetown. I brought my phone but not computer because I didn’t know there was free internet right in the terminal. I posted the last blog, and then went out into town. I went by all the touristy areas first, then made my way more into town. I just walked, exploring. There’s a gorgeous cathedral that I want to go to when we come back. I ended up spending the last hour or so on the internet. I came back to the room and just hung out watching TV until my cabin steward came in and we talked as he cleaned a bit. Alyssa called and invited me to come with her and Edison (photographer who came on the same time as me) by the Lido pool. It was nice to have something different for a change: tacos.
After dinner, we went up to Club HAL for “Lights, Camera, Action” night. Mostly it was crafts which kind of bored a lot of the kids. We actually ended up with 6 French kids, of the 12 that came! First they decorated a star which they finished in about 5 minutes. The next activity was to create a movie poster. They really enjoyed making up stories for their own movie, especially the French kids. I got to translate the instructions for them, then translate their movie info to the other group! It was very exciting!
After work, we went downstairs to talk to people. We watched some of the show, then went up to the dessert extravaganza around the Lido pool. After that, we went downstairs to get ready for the crew party. It was interesting, not a whole lot of good music which was sad.
Today was the only sea day on this cruise. It’s not nearly as organized as it was on the Oosterdam; we didn’t really follow the schedule, so it was kind of frustrating having to ask Alyssa when we could move on to the next activity when all the kids were asking to play xbox.
This afternoon seemed really short since we had the parents come to go with the kids on a scavenger hunt at 3. It was a disorganized afternoon of events as well. I did get to help the communication barrier a lot today too. It was nice being able to help them all make friends.
Now I’m sitting in the room watching the Hunger Games on TV. I’ll probably go up to the library in a little while to read on my kindle (and to get out of the room to leave my cabin steward to clean up without me being in the way). I work in the morning in Quebec and then I’ll be online in the afternoon!
Jacob’s assigning me to the teens next week. That’ll be interesting as there’s no Loft, so I’ll have to follow the schedule so they know where to find us. They spend various amounts of time in Club HAL, the Crow’s Nest, the Half-Moon meeting room and the Lido. It’ll be fun; there’s only supposed to be 16 on the ship.
Friday, August 24, 2012
The kids made their own board games last night. I wish that we didn’t have so many arts and crafts things; some of the kids just don’t like them and it makes it diffult to keep their attention, expecially when I’m dividing my attention between keeping everyone under control and helping out the French kids. They actually took pretty much the whole time to make their games, so we didn’t even have a chance to play them. At least they managed to work together somewhat quietly.
It was also formal night so Alyssa and I went down to the show for a bit and then changed into nice clothes and went to the Crow’s Nest to hang out with people. We danced there for a while and just talked with two of the photographers and a friend on board. It was fun, but I was tired so went down to my room after a short time. It was hour back night, so a lot of people stayed up late making noise in the halls so it took me a while to get to sleep.
This morning, I had two siblings come in at 8. They were content just to play jenga for a while, but the boy wanted to play video games. So, they got out lego Star Wars and played that for a while, then I got out Harry Potter and started playing it. Just as I began to figure out what was going on, the boy came over and insisted upon playing it as well, and kept telling me what to do even though he didn’t know how to play it either; then would ask me how to complete tasks. It was frustrating. After a while, the girl asked me to play foosball with her, so I gladly gave up the video game and played with her until the boy started complaining about how he needed me to help him play. I let his sister play with him and I started playing another game, which he then proceeded to connect his remote to and tell me what to do. Jacob came not long after and I got to get away from exploring video games.
I went to lunch and now I’m in Quebec!
I’m losing track of the days. On the Oosterdam, we were allowed to take the guest elevators (so we could have more communication with guests), but here we are not, and the crew elevators/stairs don’t have rugs that tell us what day it is. I miss that.
Yesterday I went ashore in Charlottetown. I brought my phone but not computer because I didn’t know there was free internet right in the terminal. I posted the last blog, and then went out into town. I went by all the touristy areas first, then made my way more into town. I just walked, exploring. There’s a gorgeous cathedral that I want to go to when we come back. I ended up spending the last hour or so on the internet. I came back to the room and just hung out watching TV until my cabin steward came in and we talked as he cleaned a bit. Alyssa called and invited me to come with her and Edison (photographer who came on the same time as me) by the Lido pool. It was nice to have something different for a change: tacos.
After dinner, we went up to Club HAL for “Lights, Camera, Action” night. Mostly it was crafts which kind of bored a lot of the kids. We actually ended up with 6 French kids, of the 12 that came! First they decorated a star which they finished in about 5 minutes. The next activity was to create a movie poster. They really enjoyed making up stories for their own movie, especially the French kids. I got to translate the instructions for them, then translate their movie info to the other group! It was very exciting!
After work, we went downstairs to talk to people. We watched some of the show, then went up to the dessert extravaganza around the Lido pool. After that, we went downstairs to get ready for the crew party. It was interesting, not a whole lot of good music which was sad.
Today was the only sea day on this cruise. It’s not nearly as organized as it was on the Oosterdam; we didn’t really follow the schedule, so it was kind of frustrating having to ask Alyssa when we could move on to the next activity when all the kids were asking to play xbox.
This afternoon seemed really short since we had the parents come to go with the kids on a scavenger hunt at 3. It was a disorganized afternoon of events as well. I did get to help the communication barrier a lot today too. It was nice being able to help them all make friends.
Now I’m sitting in the room watching the Hunger Games on TV. I’ll probably go up to the library in a little while to read on my kindle (and to get out of the room to leave my cabin steward to clean up without me being in the way). I work in the morning in Quebec and then I’ll be online in the afternoon!
Jacob’s assigning me to the teens next week. That’ll be interesting as there’s no Loft, so I’ll have to follow the schedule so they know where to find us. They spend various amounts of time in Club HAL, the Crow’s Nest, the Half-Moon meeting room and the Lido. It’ll be fun; there’s only supposed to be 16 on the ship.
Friday, August 24, 2012
The kids made their own board games last night. I wish that we didn’t have so many arts and crafts things; some of the kids just don’t like them and it makes it diffult to keep their attention, expecially when I’m dividing my attention between keeping everyone under control and helping out the French kids. They actually took pretty much the whole time to make their games, so we didn’t even have a chance to play them. At least they managed to work together somewhat quietly.
It was also formal night so Alyssa and I went down to the show for a bit and then changed into nice clothes and went to the Crow’s Nest to hang out with people. We danced there for a while and just talked with two of the photographers and a friend on board. It was fun, but I was tired so went down to my room after a short time. It was hour back night, so a lot of people stayed up late making noise in the halls so it took me a while to get to sleep.
This morning, I had two siblings come in at 8. They were content just to play jenga for a while, but the boy wanted to play video games. So, they got out lego Star Wars and played that for a while, then I got out Harry Potter and started playing it. Just as I began to figure out what was going on, the boy came over and insisted upon playing it as well, and kept telling me what to do even though he didn’t know how to play it either; then would ask me how to complete tasks. It was frustrating. After a while, the girl asked me to play foosball with her, so I gladly gave up the video game and played with her until the boy started complaining about how he needed me to help him play. I let his sister play with him and I started playing another game, which he then proceeded to connect his remote to and tell me what to do. Jacob came not long after and I got to get away from exploring video games.
I went to lunch and now I’m in Quebec!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
week one continued
August 20, 2012
In Halifax, Alyssa and I went to a coffee place to get a snack and internet. The internet there was very slow, all sites except for Facebook. Oh well, at least I got to post the blog. After Alyssa went back to work, I ended up wandering around for a while. I wasn’t sure where to go, so I walked next to the water on the boardwalk. It kept going and going, but there were some pretty views. I had to squint a lot though because the clouds were so bright. I wandered for about 30 minutes before I stopped at what looked like the main area; there was a museum and a few food places. I ended up getting a personal pizza, Hawaiian! It was good, although sad to sit at a big picnic table and eat a pizza all alone. I sat eating for a while, then decided to walk back to the ship to drop off my laptop. I’d forgotten how far of a walk it was. I was halfway back to the ship when the shoe started to rub the back of my heel again (I got a blister the other day that’s been very frustrating), so I decided to sit and rest and enjoy the sea air for a while. For some reason I thought about looking up internet on my phone since my computer died earlier and found free wifi. The water walkway had its own internet!
I texted mom and looked up stuff on the internet for at least an hour before I decided to head back to the ship. I saw quite a few kids from Club HAL walk by, some of them stopped to talk to me, others didn’t see me. It was funny; I recognized some of the parents better than the kids. I walked through some shops on the way back and saw quite a few cool things that I’ll think about getting one week. One place did have cans of…. Dr. Pepper! I hadn’t seen many sodas in any of the stands or restaurants so it was a nice surprise to see it in one of the terminal shops. I’m back on the ship now, about to study Italian for a while before Alyssa and I go to dinner.
August 21, 2012
Alyssa was actually on time to go to dinner yesterday, so I had plenty of time to eat my not-so-impressive pasta. It’s the same food every night on the staff side of the Lido. I’m not sure I mentioned this before but the staff has one side of the Lido reserved for us from 5-7 every night. Guests can’t eat on our side and we can’t eat on the guest side. It’s definitely interesting this way as at any one point, we take up maybe… 1/3 of our side.
We had about 8 kids last night as well, quite a few left right after free time ended because they came for the video games. The theme nights aren’t really that planned out in my opinion. Mostly it’s arts and crafts, which some kids get bored with really easily so they start disrupting which leads to other kids getting distracted and then the whole group ends up having to be silent for 5 minutes before we move on. That’s what happened yesterday; it wasn’t good for anyone.
After they all left- we had a talk with one of the parents because their child wouldn’t listen to us- Alyssa and I changed and met up with Chrissy at the show. The show had a ‘country’ theme, which was interesting because I found out last cruise that some people just can’t sing country well at all. Luckily, this group didn’t really try to sound country; they just sang the country songs with their normal singing voices.
After the show, we went to the ocean bar and met up with some of the photo staff and socialized for a while. We finished our drinks and went up to the Crow’s Nest to see if anyone else was there. There, I found the closest thing to the Northern Lights, a dance floor and screen in the middle of the bar. We did a little bit of dancing because there was some good music, and we had gotten tired of sitting down.
Sydney:
This morning, I was up and ready when Alyssa called to let me know she was almost ready to go to help with Kids in the Kitchen. I think I know now where most everything is on the ship now, I actually looked at a map to get it in my head for the first time today. Oh, another difference from the Oosterdam is that we’re not allowed to use the guest elevators. The maps are near the elevators, and the days of the week are on rugs in the elevators. That’s part of why I’ve been having such a hard time this week I think. They made “silver dollar pancakes.” Basically really tiny pancakes and we added lots of toppings to them. That was my breakfast! I had a few and ate strawberries with them. About 12 kids showed up to that; the most kids we’ve had at an event so far. After that, Alyssa and I went to the Lido to get a real breakfast. I had French toast with powdered sugar on top! Finally, it’s not just syrup to go on it!
Over breakfast, Alyssa convinced me to to ashore for a bit, even though I only had an hour until I needed to be back on to get lunch before I went up to Club HAL. I was going to get internet, but the internet was a 15 minute walk, so I ended up just walking around on the boardwalk and taking a few pictures. By the time I got on the ship and changed, I had about 20 minutes to eat. Then, I got up to the Lido and stood in line for about 15 before I got my food. Needless to say it was a quick lunch and I took up my tea to Club HAL.
There were 5 kids in Club HAL today and none of them were going to lunch with parents, so Jacob and I took them down and got pizza and burgers. I took them back up to Club HAL and they put on shows for me for about an hour before other kids started coming. Quite a few of the other kids who came in were French, so I got to be the translator for a bunch of kids. That was an interesting task. I need to look up some vocabulary tomorrow when I have internet!
I have a cabin inspection tomorrow. I won’t be here for it though because I work from 8-12. I also have the safety drill for new-crew; Jacob is going to come up to relieve me so I can attend that one. I really don’t think many people are going to come tomorrow morning though. We haven’t had many in the mornings, after 2 is when it gets busy.
August 22, 2012
Club HAL theme last night was Brave the night. We made it through a grand total of three activities. They have some listening problems, escalated by the fact that Alyssa and I are both rather soft-spoken. It was okay though, by the last activity they had calmed down a bit. Then, a parent called to ask about after-hours for her two sons. They ended up staying for an hour; Alyssa and I both stayed with them and played Jenga and foosball. We were too late to go to the show, but Indonesian Independence day was a few days ago, so the community on board put on a show to showcase their culture for everyone last night. I really enjoyed it! Especially one part at the end where a group had instruments made of bamboo that they shook to have the bamboo sticks bang together to create different sounds. It was really cool.
This morning, I didn’t have any kids until about 10. Not long after they got there, I had to leave for the safety drill, then only had an hour or so with them afterwards. There were just two girls and we colored for a bit, then they came up with an idea for a show which we started to prepare for. I went with them to lunch when Alyssa got there and now I get to get off the ship and hopefully get internet for a while and explore!! YAY!
In Halifax, Alyssa and I went to a coffee place to get a snack and internet. The internet there was very slow, all sites except for Facebook. Oh well, at least I got to post the blog. After Alyssa went back to work, I ended up wandering around for a while. I wasn’t sure where to go, so I walked next to the water on the boardwalk. It kept going and going, but there were some pretty views. I had to squint a lot though because the clouds were so bright. I wandered for about 30 minutes before I stopped at what looked like the main area; there was a museum and a few food places. I ended up getting a personal pizza, Hawaiian! It was good, although sad to sit at a big picnic table and eat a pizza all alone. I sat eating for a while, then decided to walk back to the ship to drop off my laptop. I’d forgotten how far of a walk it was. I was halfway back to the ship when the shoe started to rub the back of my heel again (I got a blister the other day that’s been very frustrating), so I decided to sit and rest and enjoy the sea air for a while. For some reason I thought about looking up internet on my phone since my computer died earlier and found free wifi. The water walkway had its own internet!
I texted mom and looked up stuff on the internet for at least an hour before I decided to head back to the ship. I saw quite a few kids from Club HAL walk by, some of them stopped to talk to me, others didn’t see me. It was funny; I recognized some of the parents better than the kids. I walked through some shops on the way back and saw quite a few cool things that I’ll think about getting one week. One place did have cans of…. Dr. Pepper! I hadn’t seen many sodas in any of the stands or restaurants so it was a nice surprise to see it in one of the terminal shops. I’m back on the ship now, about to study Italian for a while before Alyssa and I go to dinner.
August 21, 2012
Alyssa was actually on time to go to dinner yesterday, so I had plenty of time to eat my not-so-impressive pasta. It’s the same food every night on the staff side of the Lido. I’m not sure I mentioned this before but the staff has one side of the Lido reserved for us from 5-7 every night. Guests can’t eat on our side and we can’t eat on the guest side. It’s definitely interesting this way as at any one point, we take up maybe… 1/3 of our side.
We had about 8 kids last night as well, quite a few left right after free time ended because they came for the video games. The theme nights aren’t really that planned out in my opinion. Mostly it’s arts and crafts, which some kids get bored with really easily so they start disrupting which leads to other kids getting distracted and then the whole group ends up having to be silent for 5 minutes before we move on. That’s what happened yesterday; it wasn’t good for anyone.
After they all left- we had a talk with one of the parents because their child wouldn’t listen to us- Alyssa and I changed and met up with Chrissy at the show. The show had a ‘country’ theme, which was interesting because I found out last cruise that some people just can’t sing country well at all. Luckily, this group didn’t really try to sound country; they just sang the country songs with their normal singing voices.
After the show, we went to the ocean bar and met up with some of the photo staff and socialized for a while. We finished our drinks and went up to the Crow’s Nest to see if anyone else was there. There, I found the closest thing to the Northern Lights, a dance floor and screen in the middle of the bar. We did a little bit of dancing because there was some good music, and we had gotten tired of sitting down.
Sydney:
This morning, I was up and ready when Alyssa called to let me know she was almost ready to go to help with Kids in the Kitchen. I think I know now where most everything is on the ship now, I actually looked at a map to get it in my head for the first time today. Oh, another difference from the Oosterdam is that we’re not allowed to use the guest elevators. The maps are near the elevators, and the days of the week are on rugs in the elevators. That’s part of why I’ve been having such a hard time this week I think. They made “silver dollar pancakes.” Basically really tiny pancakes and we added lots of toppings to them. That was my breakfast! I had a few and ate strawberries with them. About 12 kids showed up to that; the most kids we’ve had at an event so far. After that, Alyssa and I went to the Lido to get a real breakfast. I had French toast with powdered sugar on top! Finally, it’s not just syrup to go on it!
Over breakfast, Alyssa convinced me to to ashore for a bit, even though I only had an hour until I needed to be back on to get lunch before I went up to Club HAL. I was going to get internet, but the internet was a 15 minute walk, so I ended up just walking around on the boardwalk and taking a few pictures. By the time I got on the ship and changed, I had about 20 minutes to eat. Then, I got up to the Lido and stood in line for about 15 before I got my food. Needless to say it was a quick lunch and I took up my tea to Club HAL.
There were 5 kids in Club HAL today and none of them were going to lunch with parents, so Jacob and I took them down and got pizza and burgers. I took them back up to Club HAL and they put on shows for me for about an hour before other kids started coming. Quite a few of the other kids who came in were French, so I got to be the translator for a bunch of kids. That was an interesting task. I need to look up some vocabulary tomorrow when I have internet!
I have a cabin inspection tomorrow. I won’t be here for it though because I work from 8-12. I also have the safety drill for new-crew; Jacob is going to come up to relieve me so I can attend that one. I really don’t think many people are going to come tomorrow morning though. We haven’t had many in the mornings, after 2 is when it gets busy.
August 22, 2012
Club HAL theme last night was Brave the night. We made it through a grand total of three activities. They have some listening problems, escalated by the fact that Alyssa and I are both rather soft-spoken. It was okay though, by the last activity they had calmed down a bit. Then, a parent called to ask about after-hours for her two sons. They ended up staying for an hour; Alyssa and I both stayed with them and played Jenga and foosball. We were too late to go to the show, but Indonesian Independence day was a few days ago, so the community on board put on a show to showcase their culture for everyone last night. I really enjoyed it! Especially one part at the end where a group had instruments made of bamboo that they shook to have the bamboo sticks bang together to create different sounds. It was really cool.
This morning, I didn’t have any kids until about 10. Not long after they got there, I had to leave for the safety drill, then only had an hour or so with them afterwards. There were just two girls and we colored for a bit, then they came up with an idea for a show which we started to prepare for. I went with them to lunch when Alyssa got there and now I get to get off the ship and hopefully get internet for a while and explore!! YAY!
Monday, August 20, 2012
first days on the Maasdam
Sunday August 19, 2012
Yesterday was a pretty busy day, starting at 7am. The bus was pretty full from the hotel to the ship. When we arrived, it turns out that the ship hadn’t even docked yet. You’d think they’d plan for this sort of thing and let us sleep in just an hour more or so. It was low tide too, so that meant it was even longer before the crew gangway could be put out. So, after signing contracts and turning in passports and stuff, we just had to stand there and wait. Luckily, I’d made friends with a girl named Brandi on the bus. She’s a solo guitarist, on the ship until the end of November (10 days before I leave); so, we ended up talking a lot, me telling her about ship life. Finally we were able to get on.
It took a while for everyone to get through security but we finally made it and went straight into our first meeting. It didn’t last long and then we had a security walk before going back and meeting up with our buddies. My buddy wasn’t there, I actually didn’t even know who my buddy was supposed to be. So, one of the officers took me to the HR dept and they found out who my buddy was and called him to come get me. Jacob is a YPC who’s currently just youth staff but will take over as YPC when Chrissy, the current one, leaves next week. He let me drop off my stuff and took me on a tour of the ship, then dropped me off back at the room to wait until I went to lunch, then up to Club HAL for open house. I just sat around in the room kind of bored; I watched the news.
Finally I decided I could go eat. Jacob was eating with his wife and Chrissy and Alyssa (the other youth staff) were both off ship, so I had resigned myself to eating alone. When I got to the elevators though, I met up with another guitarist, a man named Glenn, who was headed to lunch too. He was having a bad day because he didn’t have a room and his buddy had just left him on his own. I was very glad I generally knew my way around the ship so I could at least get us to the Lido for lunch. I was not impressed at all with this Lido. I got pasta thinking that it would be alright, but the noodles had already been mixed with vegetables, so I had to pick out all the peppers and stuff, yet it still ended up with a weird taste. This Lido definitely does not have kids in mind when making the menu. No pizza either. I might have to get sandwiches every day for lunch. At least I had someone to talk to.
At 1, I went up to Club HAL to work open house with Jacob. The kids and parents came in waves, so occasionally we’d sit there and talk about Club HALs on other ships and occasionally we’d be swamped by families. I did get to look around and see what all we had. This Club HAL is very different from the one on the Oosterdam. There’s no wall separating the kids and tweens, a lot more games and chairs and tables, and xbox connect instead of a Wii. There’s also no Loft. The teens just have to move around to different rooms during the day, then take over Club HAL after the 3-12 year olds leave. I did get to use my French skills during open house! A family from France was on the ship and I got to explain Club HAL and the registration form to them! It was very exciting. I think they were relieved someone could understand some of the questions they had in French. Apparently there are quite a few families from France on the ship this week; I’m excited to meet them.
After open house, Jacob and Alyssa did the wristbands and I was told just to go to my room and rest. My favorite thing to hear. I didn’t want to unpack because of what happened the first day on the Oosterdam, so I ended up sitting in bed reading and watching the news. The news is extremely repetitive. Alyssa did come by to ask if I wanted to go to dinner with her, so we ended up going around 6:30 (she has a tendency to run late, 5 minutes usually ends up being 15 she told me).
Though we arrived in Club HAL at exactly 7 (we’re supposed to be there 15 minutes early), Chrissy wasn’t there so Alyssa had to unlock the door. For about the first 20 minutes or so it was just me and Alyssa talking. Chrissy came and a few kids came, but not many. Since there weren’t that many, we just kept the groups together even after free time ended. One girl attached herself to me as soon as her parents left. She was interesting to play with because she would start to get sad and ask to call her parents to come get her, then she’d start playing something and be perfectly fine. I was worried when all the kids were washing their hands for snack, she came out crying for her mommy. I asked if she wanted snack first, and she nodded yes so I took her to wash her hands and she was fine. I think she’s okay as long as she has someone’s attention, because the second I left her alone she began to get upset again. So, I had a hand around my fingers most of the rest of the night. According to Alyssa, we had a lot of kids; I think we had 8 at one point. I guess that is a lot for the rest of them because they just got back from a 35 day Europe trip where there were about 8 total on board. For me though, this was a tiny group! By 10, we only had 2 siblings. They pulled out Clue and started making up things to do with the pieces so I sat with them while Chrissy and Alyssa sat at the computer and cleaned the other room. There’s a computer in this Club HAL! And a printer. There’s coloring sheets, our time clock and all sorts of stuff on there for us to use.
At 10, we left and “made the rounds” as Alyssa called it. We walked through the lower decks- the library, the shops, the casino- and talked to all the crew working. We stopped for a while at the photo gallery because Alyssa is friends with one of the girls there. While she talked to Lauren (her friend), I talked to another new guy named Edison. He lives in Florida and has been to various places in North and South Carolina, so we had plenty to talk about.
I ended up watching the end of Transformers on TV before Alyssa came to get me to go out and meet some more people. I didn’t stay out long because I was really tired, but I did at least meet some people.
Today, I ended up skipping breakfast because I woke up with a headache again. I did eat a cookie (thanks Mom for sending them with me) and took an advil. Now I’m just waiting to go to HR again to turn in my new-crew form, get my new ID card and to go to work Port Day at 12. Not sure how many kids will be there since it sounded like all these parents wanted to take the kids on excursions or just into town. Different from the Oosterdam when the parents usually left them with the grandparents or with us.
Monday August 20, 2012
Yesterday was another busy day. I woke up with a really bad headache, luckily I could just sleep in a bit; I didn’t work until 12. I ended up going in a little early because I got bored in my cabin. There was only one kid up there, so Jacob asked if it was okay for him to leave, which it was. The one kid hardly spoke English, he spoke French!! So, it was very exciting for me to ask him stuff in French. As the afternoon went on, two siblings came in and the French boy left. The girl kind of likes attention and if she’s not getting it, she starts to cry and say s he wants to lleave. Halfway through the afternoon she decided she wanted to go, I had to chase her down to make sure she didn’t get out the door. I called her parents, but they didn’t answer; she said she didn’t want to do any activities and other kids were coming in, so I let her do what she wanted: sit on the floor doing nothing. What else could I do, it’s what she wanted to do. Quite a few of the kids who came in spoke French too, so I got to communicate with them. I need to learn some video game vocab now, so I can explain things; and I also need to learn how to work some of the games on the Xboxes so I can explain them as well. Most of the kids are very polite, and their parents are very nice. When I had to close up and parents were playing games, they were very apologetic about staying so late playing with their kids.
It was only when everyone left when I realized that Jacob hadn’t left me the key to lock up, so I called Alyssa to come (there are three keys, I guess when Chrissy, the YPC, leaves next week, I’ll get her set). She took me down to the crew area to show me where the snack food is and we ended up talking to people in the hall for at least an hour. I watched about 30 minutes of Pirates of the Caribbean on the TV before dinner (we have TNT Dad, if only I wasn’t working last night, I could’ve actually watched Leverage, although it wouldn’t have been as fun not talking about it with you). Dinner was better than the first night, I was really hungry though because I hadn’t had much for lunch.
The night session was very small. Only about 8 kids showed up, so for about the first hour and a half we played video games, then went on to combine the theme nights: Camp night and Alien night turned into Alien Camp. It was interesting. There actually weren’t that many activities; basically it was just crafts: making a planet, making an alien mask and creating a camp on a different planet with a group. Nothing too exciting sadly. Alyssa and I left at 10 and made the rounds before going to the show. Then we changed into formal wear (I got to wear my new black dress!) and went to late night snack to socialize. I met quite a few people before we headed down to our cabins. I was exhausted.
This morning, I didn’t have to work, but I did have to go to a safety meeting (the last new-crew meeting; YAY!). I met up with Alyssa afterwards and now we’re at a coffee shop getting internet!
Yesterday was a pretty busy day, starting at 7am. The bus was pretty full from the hotel to the ship. When we arrived, it turns out that the ship hadn’t even docked yet. You’d think they’d plan for this sort of thing and let us sleep in just an hour more or so. It was low tide too, so that meant it was even longer before the crew gangway could be put out. So, after signing contracts and turning in passports and stuff, we just had to stand there and wait. Luckily, I’d made friends with a girl named Brandi on the bus. She’s a solo guitarist, on the ship until the end of November (10 days before I leave); so, we ended up talking a lot, me telling her about ship life. Finally we were able to get on.
It took a while for everyone to get through security but we finally made it and went straight into our first meeting. It didn’t last long and then we had a security walk before going back and meeting up with our buddies. My buddy wasn’t there, I actually didn’t even know who my buddy was supposed to be. So, one of the officers took me to the HR dept and they found out who my buddy was and called him to come get me. Jacob is a YPC who’s currently just youth staff but will take over as YPC when Chrissy, the current one, leaves next week. He let me drop off my stuff and took me on a tour of the ship, then dropped me off back at the room to wait until I went to lunch, then up to Club HAL for open house. I just sat around in the room kind of bored; I watched the news.
Finally I decided I could go eat. Jacob was eating with his wife and Chrissy and Alyssa (the other youth staff) were both off ship, so I had resigned myself to eating alone. When I got to the elevators though, I met up with another guitarist, a man named Glenn, who was headed to lunch too. He was having a bad day because he didn’t have a room and his buddy had just left him on his own. I was very glad I generally knew my way around the ship so I could at least get us to the Lido for lunch. I was not impressed at all with this Lido. I got pasta thinking that it would be alright, but the noodles had already been mixed with vegetables, so I had to pick out all the peppers and stuff, yet it still ended up with a weird taste. This Lido definitely does not have kids in mind when making the menu. No pizza either. I might have to get sandwiches every day for lunch. At least I had someone to talk to.
At 1, I went up to Club HAL to work open house with Jacob. The kids and parents came in waves, so occasionally we’d sit there and talk about Club HALs on other ships and occasionally we’d be swamped by families. I did get to look around and see what all we had. This Club HAL is very different from the one on the Oosterdam. There’s no wall separating the kids and tweens, a lot more games and chairs and tables, and xbox connect instead of a Wii. There’s also no Loft. The teens just have to move around to different rooms during the day, then take over Club HAL after the 3-12 year olds leave. I did get to use my French skills during open house! A family from France was on the ship and I got to explain Club HAL and the registration form to them! It was very exciting. I think they were relieved someone could understand some of the questions they had in French. Apparently there are quite a few families from France on the ship this week; I’m excited to meet them.
After open house, Jacob and Alyssa did the wristbands and I was told just to go to my room and rest. My favorite thing to hear. I didn’t want to unpack because of what happened the first day on the Oosterdam, so I ended up sitting in bed reading and watching the news. The news is extremely repetitive. Alyssa did come by to ask if I wanted to go to dinner with her, so we ended up going around 6:30 (she has a tendency to run late, 5 minutes usually ends up being 15 she told me).
Though we arrived in Club HAL at exactly 7 (we’re supposed to be there 15 minutes early), Chrissy wasn’t there so Alyssa had to unlock the door. For about the first 20 minutes or so it was just me and Alyssa talking. Chrissy came and a few kids came, but not many. Since there weren’t that many, we just kept the groups together even after free time ended. One girl attached herself to me as soon as her parents left. She was interesting to play with because she would start to get sad and ask to call her parents to come get her, then she’d start playing something and be perfectly fine. I was worried when all the kids were washing their hands for snack, she came out crying for her mommy. I asked if she wanted snack first, and she nodded yes so I took her to wash her hands and she was fine. I think she’s okay as long as she has someone’s attention, because the second I left her alone she began to get upset again. So, I had a hand around my fingers most of the rest of the night. According to Alyssa, we had a lot of kids; I think we had 8 at one point. I guess that is a lot for the rest of them because they just got back from a 35 day Europe trip where there were about 8 total on board. For me though, this was a tiny group! By 10, we only had 2 siblings. They pulled out Clue and started making up things to do with the pieces so I sat with them while Chrissy and Alyssa sat at the computer and cleaned the other room. There’s a computer in this Club HAL! And a printer. There’s coloring sheets, our time clock and all sorts of stuff on there for us to use.
At 10, we left and “made the rounds” as Alyssa called it. We walked through the lower decks- the library, the shops, the casino- and talked to all the crew working. We stopped for a while at the photo gallery because Alyssa is friends with one of the girls there. While she talked to Lauren (her friend), I talked to another new guy named Edison. He lives in Florida and has been to various places in North and South Carolina, so we had plenty to talk about.
I ended up watching the end of Transformers on TV before Alyssa came to get me to go out and meet some more people. I didn’t stay out long because I was really tired, but I did at least meet some people.
Today, I ended up skipping breakfast because I woke up with a headache again. I did eat a cookie (thanks Mom for sending them with me) and took an advil. Now I’m just waiting to go to HR again to turn in my new-crew form, get my new ID card and to go to work Port Day at 12. Not sure how many kids will be there since it sounded like all these parents wanted to take the kids on excursions or just into town. Different from the Oosterdam when the parents usually left them with the grandparents or with us.
Monday August 20, 2012
Yesterday was another busy day. I woke up with a really bad headache, luckily I could just sleep in a bit; I didn’t work until 12. I ended up going in a little early because I got bored in my cabin. There was only one kid up there, so Jacob asked if it was okay for him to leave, which it was. The one kid hardly spoke English, he spoke French!! So, it was very exciting for me to ask him stuff in French. As the afternoon went on, two siblings came in and the French boy left. The girl kind of likes attention and if she’s not getting it, she starts to cry and say s he wants to lleave. Halfway through the afternoon she decided she wanted to go, I had to chase her down to make sure she didn’t get out the door. I called her parents, but they didn’t answer; she said she didn’t want to do any activities and other kids were coming in, so I let her do what she wanted: sit on the floor doing nothing. What else could I do, it’s what she wanted to do. Quite a few of the kids who came in spoke French too, so I got to communicate with them. I need to learn some video game vocab now, so I can explain things; and I also need to learn how to work some of the games on the Xboxes so I can explain them as well. Most of the kids are very polite, and their parents are very nice. When I had to close up and parents were playing games, they were very apologetic about staying so late playing with their kids.
It was only when everyone left when I realized that Jacob hadn’t left me the key to lock up, so I called Alyssa to come (there are three keys, I guess when Chrissy, the YPC, leaves next week, I’ll get her set). She took me down to the crew area to show me where the snack food is and we ended up talking to people in the hall for at least an hour. I watched about 30 minutes of Pirates of the Caribbean on the TV before dinner (we have TNT Dad, if only I wasn’t working last night, I could’ve actually watched Leverage, although it wouldn’t have been as fun not talking about it with you). Dinner was better than the first night, I was really hungry though because I hadn’t had much for lunch.
The night session was very small. Only about 8 kids showed up, so for about the first hour and a half we played video games, then went on to combine the theme nights: Camp night and Alien night turned into Alien Camp. It was interesting. There actually weren’t that many activities; basically it was just crafts: making a planet, making an alien mask and creating a camp on a different planet with a group. Nothing too exciting sadly. Alyssa and I left at 10 and made the rounds before going to the show. Then we changed into formal wear (I got to wear my new black dress!) and went to late night snack to socialize. I met quite a few people before we headed down to our cabins. I was exhausted.
This morning, I didn’t have to work, but I did have to go to a safety meeting (the last new-crew meeting; YAY!). I met up with Alyssa afterwards and now we’re at a coffee shop getting internet!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Boston!
I'm on my second contract now!
I flew from Charlotte to New York to Boston today! We arrived to New York early, but ended up having to circle around for a while because a lot of other planes were coming in too. And during the flight from NY to Boston, a total of... 30 minutes was spent at cruising altitude. Interesting few hours of flying... I met Jr Miss South Carolina, who was flying to New York to talk to a magazine, then to CT for another competition. I got to encourage her because it was her first time flying. I also met a man from Boston who used to work as a travelling tour guide. I think I convinced him to go on a HAL cruise in Alaska next summer; he was thinking about it anyway, but I told him how much I enjoyed working on the ship there and all about Holland America). On the flight to Boston, I had a middle seat but there was no one in the aisle, and a flight attendant (I guess going home) in the window seat. Not much talking went on there, but I'm finally almost finished reading Le Fantome de l'Opera!
There was a 20 minute wait for the shuttle, and I was the only one on it. Then, it took a while to get to the hotel because of traffic. I did get to see a little bit of Boston that way at least. There are some pretty little houses. I saw a stretch of beach too. Ah, water (the ocean), how I missed it these past three weeks.
The hotel couldn't find my reservation at first, then they realized that I did say "Holland America," which means my key is with the group. Apparently there are quite a few people getting on. Doesn't surprise me really, since it's just getting back from Europe. We'll probably get a lot of new people when we get back from the Med at the end of November too.
Off on another adventure. I spent a lot of my bored-time online, looking at all the excursions and starting to pick out ones I'd like to go on. In New England/Canada, it's mainly tours. I'll probably do quite a bit of exploring on my own then, or do the hop on-hop off tours. That way I can get the info, but also have time for photos and enjoying what I want to enjoy instead of rushing through.
Hopefully tomorrow won't be nearly as bad as my first first day was! We leave at 7 this time, instead of 6:30, so that's an improvement. I'll let you know how the day goes when I can. It'll be different in a lot of ways, but the ship layout has to be somewhat similar, so doubt I'll get too lost at least! :)
I flew from Charlotte to New York to Boston today! We arrived to New York early, but ended up having to circle around for a while because a lot of other planes were coming in too. And during the flight from NY to Boston, a total of... 30 minutes was spent at cruising altitude. Interesting few hours of flying... I met Jr Miss South Carolina, who was flying to New York to talk to a magazine, then to CT for another competition. I got to encourage her because it was her first time flying. I also met a man from Boston who used to work as a travelling tour guide. I think I convinced him to go on a HAL cruise in Alaska next summer; he was thinking about it anyway, but I told him how much I enjoyed working on the ship there and all about Holland America). On the flight to Boston, I had a middle seat but there was no one in the aisle, and a flight attendant (I guess going home) in the window seat. Not much talking went on there, but I'm finally almost finished reading Le Fantome de l'Opera!
There was a 20 minute wait for the shuttle, and I was the only one on it. Then, it took a while to get to the hotel because of traffic. I did get to see a little bit of Boston that way at least. There are some pretty little houses. I saw a stretch of beach too. Ah, water (the ocean), how I missed it these past three weeks.
The hotel couldn't find my reservation at first, then they realized that I did say "Holland America," which means my key is with the group. Apparently there are quite a few people getting on. Doesn't surprise me really, since it's just getting back from Europe. We'll probably get a lot of new people when we get back from the Med at the end of November too.
Off on another adventure. I spent a lot of my bored-time online, looking at all the excursions and starting to pick out ones I'd like to go on. In New England/Canada, it's mainly tours. I'll probably do quite a bit of exploring on my own then, or do the hop on-hop off tours. That way I can get the info, but also have time for photos and enjoying what I want to enjoy instead of rushing through.
Hopefully tomorrow won't be nearly as bad as my first first day was! We leave at 7 this time, instead of 6:30, so that's an improvement. I'll let you know how the day goes when I can. It'll be different in a lot of ways, but the ship layout has to be somewhat similar, so doubt I'll get too lost at least! :)
Friday, August 3, 2012
home
God really does have a plan for my life. A lot of the time I forget that, I think we all do. The last month just proved that to me and the next four months will do the same. I graduated with my French degree with little to no idea of what to do next. Everyone else graduating was either going to grad school or already had a job in their major field. Then there was me, the girl with no idea what to do with her life. Little over a month later, I had a job, my dream job. Two months after graduation I was a few weeks into my first job. Now, less than three months later, I have received my first paycheck and I'm about to start a new contract with the company.
All this because of my major in French, my study abroad experience AND all the camp experience I've had in the past... 17 years? I'm perfectly suited to this job and I love it! There's also plenty of opportunity to discreetly witness to my fellow ship-mates, which is wonderful for me because I get frustrated after a lot of time spent only with fellow Christians. Fellow Christians don't see me as anything different and I don't have any chance to show God's love to someone who's never experienced it. It's hard on me there, but it's worth the pain and I feel that God has more of a chance to make a difference with me there.
I'm home now and thinking about my next contract which starts in two weeks. It's on a different ship and stops at very different places; I get to visit different parts of Canada, New England, bits of Europe I missed when I studied abroad, and the Caribbean. I'm thoroughly excited about all the people I will get to meet, things I will get to do and places I will go!
It's a bit scary in a way as well. If, after only a month, I wake up twice every night not knowing where I am and why I don't have keys to the room and why the kids I was watching are gone and why the ship isn't rocking, then what is it going to do to me when I come back after four months on a ship that's been all over the Atlantic?
We'll see I guess. But, in the meantime, let's hope I remember that I'm not on the ship and get a good nights sleep! I have lots of preparation to undertake in these remaining two weeks!
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