thoughts..

August 23, 2014
I have been really terrible about keeping up with this this summer. It really has been a whirlwind contract, even though I was here for three months, it went by so quickly.
We didn’t really do much special my last week, aside from my buying a really nice pendant for myself in Juneau. Skagway was a lazy day full of browsing around stores and sitting in the sun. I worked the afternoon shift in Ketchikan, which gave me no time at all to get off.



Having spent a summer in Alaska, I guess I can see how other youth staff can get tired of it and not want to spend a second more there than they have to. Yes, it’s rainy a lot, and cold (definitely a major negative, especially for me), and it’s repetitive. But, there is just something about it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just because it’s me, and I use my imagination for things to do while out and about (how many people find a playground a swing for half an hour just because it’s sunny?), and because I see the beauty in God’s creation regardless of the weather. I am absolutely pleased that I was given the opportunity to spend this summer here. I needed that somewhat, away from the flurry of ports and big cities in Europe, and the overcrowded towns in the Caribbean. It really did allow me to connect more with Creation and my Creator, because, despite all my protests, I had been feeling like I was starting to take it all for granted.

I have met some amazing people this contract, a lot of people that have helped me in some way or another. Some I wish I had been able to get to know better for longer, and others I admit, I was okay with knowing as little as I did. Some taught me what I want to improve on in myself, others showed me exactly what I don’t want to be like and why. It’s made me realize that I am a combination of the people I’ve known and the places I’ve been. Everything up to now has influenced my life in some way or another, positive or negative. And I am so very thankful for that.

As frustrating as my job is at times: being away from family (including pets), the politics of living with the people you work with, the sometimes (in my mind) unnecessary regulations we have to abide by on the ship, the short-lived friendships, the annoyances of embarking/disembarking/hotel limbo. I really do love it. I may complain, I may rant, I may talk sometimes like it isn’t worth it; but in the end, I really do love it, and sometimes just need time to sit back and think over what makes it worth it. Sometimes it just takes one person to question me for me to realize that I’m being stupid and negative.

Here I kindly ask, if you can tell I’m in a frustrated mood (I was earlier this morning, which is why I’m thinking about it so much right now), let me rant for a short time to get it out of my system, then, please, STOP me! Otherwise, I’ll just talk myself into getting more upset, and I regret wasting all that energy later. I don’t like it.


Anyway, I really am blessed with the people in my life to help me stay collected, calm, and generally me. Aside from my frustrations this morning, in the past week, I have felt more blessed than I have in a while (part of why I made the big purchase I did in Juneau). I found a job that is absolutely perfect for me and that I love, I get to travel the world for free, I get to meet some amazing people from all over the world, I have opportunities to do things that some other people would never consider or never have a chance to do. I have the best family anyone could ask for, they’re supportive in my choices, they’re encouraging to me on those internally rainy days, they’re there for me whatever happens, they are not resentful when I (unintentionally) ignore them for days at a time. They take care of me when I’m home, take care of stuff for me when I’m not home, make sure I keep on top of stuff when I am and when I’m not at home, pick me up from and take me to the airport at all times of the day, never consciously ignore my calls no matter the time of night when I forget the time difference. They record TV shows for me while I’m gone, send me presents to open on Christmas even after we celebrated before I went away, they are always there when I finally land after a long day(s) of flying after months at sea, and understand when all I want to do is hug them, then crash into bed. They look out for each other so I don’t have to worry (too much) about them while I am gone, and keep me updated on almost everything that happens back home.

I can not say just how much they mean to me.

I have the greatest friends as well, whether it be ship friends, college friends, or just old friends. There are some that I can tell absolutely anything do, my most random thoughts, and know that they will not judge me. Others I can go for months without responding to, but when we do talk again, it’s like no time as passed. Some know exactly what questions to ask about my life, while others are just content to let me talk myself out. They keep me down-to-earth, level-headed, and hold me accountable when it’s necessary.
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am making a new goal, a conscious decision to not take the places and people in my life for granted, to thank God every day for the new and old people and experiences I encounter at every point in my life.

I think it may be time for me to start a new blog. I need a new focus, not just my daily life (which, to me can sometimes get so repetitive, even in new ports and countries and all that).

lots at once

August 15, 2014
It has been busy here in Alaska the past week or two. Marti came on board, so most of my free time last week was spent hanging out, catching up with her, and showing her around the ship and ports and such.
Last week:
Juneau was a tender port, plus Marti had immigration and drill to go through, so we didn’t get off until later in the afternoon. We did a bit of shopping, got a crepe and hung out in the Viking using the internet until I had to get back for movie night in the Loft. The teens and I ended up playing Apples to Apples and Monopoly (which is their favorite game this week) before watching our movie. They’re a good group of teens, the ones that show up at least which has only been maybe a max of 7 at a time (out of the 90 or so on board). Marti, Lindsey, Randall (Lindsey’s boyfriend) and I decided a few nights ago to watch Land Before Time in one of our rooms after work tonight, so we got out food and stuff, and somehow we managed not to fall asleep through it (it helps that it’s only about an hour long!).
Skagway, Marti worked the morning shift, and I slept in and hung around until she was off duty. We’d discussed the day before going hiking if the weather was nice, and it looked sunny and beautiful out, so we decided to go on one of the longer hikes! I had the trail maps, so we set out, equipped with my camera, some water bottles, and some snacks. It was the perfect day for a hike, warm enough I could wear my sandals, but cool enough that we didn’t get too hot as we were climbing. The maps said it was a 14 mile total hike, we managed to do it in less than 4 hours, including frequent picture stops. The hike was Icy Lake and Upper Reid Falls; I’d been to Lower Reid falls a few weeks ago, with Abrie and that was much less of a hike, for a much prettier waterfall. The lake was beautiful, glacier water, that part was definitely worth the hike at least.
Ketchikan was rainy and cold. I had the morning shift, Marti slept in and waited for me. We got off the ship together, wandered around town and through Creek Street, then around the shops. Not too exciting of a day considering the rain, but we ended up just using the internet in the OB

Vancouver, Marti and I went out for a bit in Vancouver, to the Olympic Cauldron, then to get some internet for a bit before she had to get back for Open House.
Marti and I both had the day off in Juneau this week, she actually had the night off as well. I really wanted to do something other than just stay in town, so we went up to one of the booths selling tours, discussed a whale-watching one (too expensive for Marti at the moment), and ended up deciding to go on a short city bus tour to the Mendenhall Glacier. It got us out of the rain, we learned a bit about Juneau, and I finally got to see this glacier. We had an hour at the glacier site, and would’ve liked to ‘hike’ (the glacier’s receded from this land, so it’s very very flat) to the falls closer to the glacier, but the trail was closed due to flooding. Maybe another summer, the falls looked beautiful from afar, and they’re a lot closer to that giant glacier, plus it would be a short trip to and from and including plenty of pictures since it’s only a mile! Anyway, we enjoyed our time there, and the bad weather stopped for a bit, so we had a dry time there after the rainy bus ride. It was good to get away and do something other than sit in the Viking doing stuff on the internet (or pretending to do stuff on the internet because the people you hang out with were online and not really talking). We had some time before I had to be at work after all that, so we got crepes for dinner and looked through pictures for a bit. Overall, it was a very relaxing day.
I had the morning Skagway shift. I was surprised that so many kids showed up, and so early in the morning, and on such a beautiful looking day outside. But, a good many of them got picked up by lunchtime at least, so they did see some of the pretty day. I went outside and sat on one of my rocks by the train tracks to talk on the phone for a while, then got Marti once she was off work, and we got ice cream, and watched the three seals swimming around beside where we were docked. They were cute, looked like relatively baby ones being so small.

random thoughts (a bit late I know)

August 2, 2014
I just realized…. I only have three weeks left. Wow, this feels like it has been such a short contract, 3 months, but I guess after the total length of time I was on the Nieuw A, everything is going to seem short. And the realization that I only have a short time left (3 times in each port!), made me think about all the plans I had at the start of this contract, and expectations. Let’s just say this contract is nothing like I thought or planned it to be. Pensive day. That long long list of excursions I want to do might just have to keep until next time though (except maybe a few…), because………. (drumroll)……………. my friend Marti is on board working with me! She worked at Bonclarken with me a few summers and attends Erskine.

So, right now it’s like three aspects of my life are merging! It’s a bit confusing because there’s so much she needs to learn about the job and living on a ship, but then I want to catch up with her about the goings-on at Erskine, and reminisce about camp. It’s also a completely different kind of merging from when my family has come onboard as guests. As guest, I have to have special permission to hang out with them, and eat meals with them, and I also have my usual job and the stresses involved there to deal with, and I still want some time to hang out with my crew friends. I’ve mentioned before, it’s wonderful having family on board, but exhausting. But Marti is working as youth staff, and she’s my roommate! Eating together is not a problem, since we’re nearly on the same schedule (I’m on teens, and she’s with the kids, but I always make an effort to eat early for lunch and dinner so that I can see people anyway). She’s getting a taste of my current life, which is thoroughly amazing. I’ll admit, sometimes when I get back home, it’s somewhat difficult to relate to my old friends. Either they listen with disinterest when I want to tell about my adventures and don’t ask questions, which kills my desire to tell them anything else, or they make no time to talk to me during the short amount of time I’m on vacation. It just gets harder for me to try every time. Of course, that’s not everybody, but I am glad that Marti will understand some of my life nowadays, and we can talk about it.

busy busy busy

July 30, 2014
I know, it’s been ages since I last updated. My parents were here last week, which definitely kept me busy: work, family time, work, oh yeah I should eat, work, family time, sleep somewhere in there, friends I should hang out with them some too, work, excursion, dinner, etc, etc. My bottom bunk (since I don’t currently have a roommate) was a giant jumbled pile of clothes since I would have 2 minutes to change every time I ran to my room: work clothes, smart casual, ashore clothes, OB clothes, formalwear, pajamas, and more uniforms.

As stressful and busy as it is working with family on board, I really did enjoy it! Definitely wouldn’t like it every week, but it’s nice every once in a while.

Things have settled down(ish) now, with only one month left for me here. It’s gone by so quickly! I haven’t been able to do much of anything on my list! Hardly any hikes, and very few excursions; the next few weeks I feel are going to be very full for me trying to get stuff done!

I understand how some people could get really tired of Alaska, mainly because of the rain, definitely having a lot of rain gets you down and prevents a lot of adventures, but still, there’s just SO MUCH to possibly do when it IS sunny, that I doubt I’ll complain about coming back for a full summer contract another year (maybe not next year… I want to make it to the Baltic), maybe I’ll be able to get stuff done (and not have to work most Skagways, which is the best place to do hikes, but you need a bit of time for that, which I haven’t had, nor have I had a hiking buddy).
Anyway, this week has been my week of rest; every 7 weeks should be one of rest, right? Just like every 7 days; time to reflect, relax and appreciate everything God has given. I’m long overdue for that; I don’t think I’ve really stopped GO-ing since my vacation after the Nieuw A. It’s nice, I guess perfect timing seeing as it’s been raining the last two ports. I only got off ship in Juneau to run some errands (I needed goldfish, a Dr. Pepper, and a crepe; the essentials in life, haha), and that only took an hour. And with General Drill and Port day in Skagway, I didn’t even try to get off there. I have gotten a good bit of work stuff done. I helped Christine number and organize the programs (I kind of miss doing that, Erskine’s FAO helped me get really good at that kind of thing, and in my opinion it’s therapeutic work, simple, easy and repetitive, which sometimes I need to get my mind off all the craziness that’s going on outside. I decorated lots of letters for our kids this week as well! All my tweens, and most of the kids ones are complete, except for the actual letter-writing part; but they’re pretty! That’s the most important thing, right? Haha, it was good for me :)

Jenn is back after her short fill-in on the flagship, and we found out yesterday that Jordan got promoted to Show Host, so he’ll be leaving us in Vancouver. It seems this summer is definitely the summer of Club HAL switch-arounds, especially on this ship. I’ve never really seen it this bad with transfers and the like. Of course, it’s my first time in Alaska so it might be like this every year, and I’ve just missed it all by being in New England/Canada and the Med. So much for the idea at the beginning of the contract that we’d have a stable group in Club HAL for the entire summer… It’s almost over anyway, so I’m just going with it...

lunch date and Lumberjack show

July 17, 2014
I had the morning port day shift. It wasn’t too bad, a few of the kids came for Just Dance time before we arrived in port, then got picked up to go ashore. One stayed and we played Lego Star Wars for the next hour. Kayleigh and I had a lunch date planned, since we sadly haven’t gotten to see much of each other in the month and a half I’ve been back, so we met at the gangway once we both got off work and changed. It was another beautiful day out!

We met up with Alana, Christine and Curtis in my usual grassy spot and they came with us to lunch. At the restaurant, we’d ordered already when Jessica and Richard, photogs, came in, and of course we invited them to join us as well. Our table was really full and we had to pull up another chair for when Bonnie finally joined us as well! It was fun, surprisingly not everyone spent the whole time on their phones, so we got to chat and hang out, just enjoying being off the ship with friends (I was solar-powered happy, so I was jumping around a lot). It was nice. Kayleigh had to get back to work, so I walked most of the way with her, then did some shopping of my own since I’d made plans with Alana to attend the lumberjack show at 3.

I found a store that had a lot of cool things, and ended up buying some earrings (more than likely I will go back for another of the 5 pairs I was looking at as well, one pair was made of blue sea glass!). Alana and I found each other and got into the show with pretty decent seats. It was another fun hanging out time. We cheered on our team-which ended up winning- and took a lot of pictures and chatted.

We’re not the greatest friends, more like close acquaintances, but we’re closer now, and it’s good to know that if I run into her and neither of us have plans, we can do anything fun together and have a good time, without it being awkward.

waterfall in Skagway

July 15, 2014
I had today off until 8! That was really nice :) I slept in, went off the ship with Jordan before his tour with his friend, and hung out on my own for a bit, came back on the ship for a late lunch and to keep Lindsey company for the last little bit of her port day. Abrie, the techspert and I had made plans if it was nice to head out on our own photography expedition, so after his 3:30 class, we got our stuff and walked to the Gold Rush Cemetery and Lower Reid Falls just outside of town.

It was really fun actually. We had good timing because as we were walking along by the railroad tracks, all the train tours were returning, so we got some interesting pictures of the trains, and the tracks, and flowers. It was a bit longer of a walk than I was expecting, but that was probably because we stopped so often for photos. The weather was beautiful (I was in sandals!), so it was the perfect day for it.

It cooled off immensely when we arrived at the cemetery, under the cover of trees and right at the bottom of the mountain, where the wind was constantly blowing. I’m not that superstitious, but it would be really easy to believe that ghosts were wandering around the cemetery. The cool breeze, the sound of the wind through the leaves, the creaking of trees as they bent with the wind, the graves over a hundred years old…

We followed the path through the cemetery up to the waterfall. It was much colder there, a valley with no sunlight finding it’s way down into it, and of course the rushing water. We got a bit adventurous and climbed around with our cameras trying to get some interesting, atypical shots. It was fun, even if I did get muddy and slide around a few times. Nothing happened to the camera at least, jeans can be washed, but my camera is much more precious and not so easily fixed if anything happens! It was fun. It was getting late, and closer to all aboard time, so we made our way back to the ship, and I had a little bit of time to go through my pictures before I had to leave my hall before they started stripping and waxing the floor (an hour before I had to be at work :( I went instead and hung out with the kids and tweens to kill time since I couldn’t be in my room).

another rainy juneau

July 14, 2014: Juneau
I didn’t get off the ship in Vancouver, mainly because I’d been up somewhat late last night, but also I just wanted to sleep in and had Open House at 12. It would’ve been a great day to go out, but oh well. Instead, Christine and I worked Open House; we managed to watch the entire movie Planes before anyone showed up to look around and register. I’ve learned though, that the number of people that show up on the first day is absolutely no indication (at least here) of the typical numbers for the week. Only a few showed up for registration and first night activities, but a lot came the next morning for the sea day.

I’m on teens this week, there aren’t too many showing up but they’re all pretty willing willing to play whatever game I suggest; so we’ve been playing a lot of Skip-Bo, Phase 10, and MarioKart.

I worked port day today, had two kids for half an hour each, so most of the afternoon I had to myself. Since we’re writing letters to the kids, I figured I’d help out and decorate the names at the top for Jordan, since he has over 30 regulars. I put a lot more effort into that then I should probably, Christine only spends about 2 minutes per name, but I spend a minimum of 5, probably because I use a lot of colors, and write in bubble letters to fill in somehow. They look really nice though. :)

After port day, I met up with Jordan and Lindsey and the three of us got off the ship together, Jordan left us for a bit to meet up with a friend who’s on board for the week, while Lindsey and I ran some errands and hung out, which we haven’t had much of a chance to do lately and we’ve both missed it. We met up with Jordan at the Viking and pretty much hung out with crew for a while until it was time to make our way to the crepe place and back to the ship for work. I didn’t have much to do, so I hung out with the tweens and kids in the Screening Room and watched a bit of Mr. Peabody and Sherman before heading up to the Loft. My teens were rather happy it was movie night, they were all pretty tired from the day. They left not long after we finished the first movie, around 10:30. That seems to be typical of this group, which would be great if I didn’t have to stay in the Loft and close sometime after 11:30. Sitting there for an hour after everyone leaves gets a bit boring, and a bit creepy as well if we’re rocking a good amount, there’s creaks and the lights swing around. It is relaxing though, just hanging out there on my own, reading usually.

getting settled and maybe into a rhythm

July 9, 2014
Juneau day was pretty fun. I was asked at the OB the night before if I could be the bear for the photo department, and I agreed. So, after the morning shift of work, I grabbed a quick lunch, ran to my room to change into comfortable clothes, and met up with Jessica (the photographer) and got into the costume. It was giant on me, which was kind of entertaining because I looked like a baby bear that had just gotten out of hibernation so hadn’t eaten in ages, so skin was too big. I did help get a lot of pictures, despite the scary face of the bear costume. 3 hours of work and I get paid for it!

We got back on the tender once open tender happened, and I changed, met up with Jordan and Christine and the three of us went out together, to get crepes and then to the Viking. Movie night was kind of crazy. We were supposed to be watching Mr. Peabody and Sherman in the Screening Room, but the projector in the screening room was broken, so we had to stay in Club HAL and hope that we could get the movie from Broadcast. We finally did, and the movie was a lot shorter than we’d anticipated, so we added an extra half hour of free time at the end of the night.

I had a raft drill in the morning, which seemed to take forever, but it finally ended leaving me with about 30 minutes to relax before I had to work Port Day. It was a long port day, I got most of the kids settled in to watch a movie, but one of them just wanted to play board games with me, and only with me. At least it wasn’t too stressful, just very long. I went out and got some ice cream and finally got my pack of Dr. Pepper that I’ve somehow not bought yet.

It was beautiful weather in Glacier Bay today! I actually ended up taking off my jacket, it was that nice out, a bit chilly but the sun was out! I just wanted to stay outside the rest of the day! We had a busy busy day full of kids, we had over 30 tweens signed in at once. We were busy right at start with the Park Ranger, then a quick game, then we had to go downstairs for Kids in the Kitchen, which took a really long time since we had about 50 kids and tweens in attendance, and I had to do a lot of translating with my three French girls so they understood what was going on. I’m glad they weren’t there for the Park Ranger at least, she was talking rather fast and using quite a few words I didn’t know in French. At least the Huna lady this morning spoke somewhat slowly and had a lot of props to show and pass around amongst the kids. It’s nice being able to use my French again! :)

uneventful 4th of July

July 5, 2014
Alana, the On location guide hosted 4th of July trivia last night, which was supposed to start at midnight, but I got off work at midnight and made it to the OB by 12:35 and they’d yet to start. It seemed like everyone was pretty frustrated by that point, Lindsey was part of a team but she and I ended up just talking until I decided it was late enough and I’d socialized enough to head to bed. Christine and I got up and got off the ship for a while together. We went shopping, got a good ship off lunch, and got internet at Starbucks since the other three were taking care of Open House today. It was nice getting to finally get off and kind of explore Vancouver.

the weeks just go by so quickly!

July 3, 2014
I’m on teens this week, much less work than last week, but I definitely have a big consistent group. They’re all very talkative and get along well together, there’s not yet been a dull moment this week in the Loft.
I was going to get off the ship with Christine this Vancouver, but we ended up not because Canadian Public Health got on board and Christine had to stay onboard in case they came to Club HAL. I ended up going back to sleep instead of going out on my own, woke up with just enough time to grab a quick lunch before heading up to Open House.

I had to work port day this Juneau. I was surprised that a lot of kids showed up. Gladly though, most of them were older and could take care of themselves for the most part. I helped one of the little ones make a lego tower and all sorts of stuff while the others played MarioKart and other video games. Jordan got back on the ship today, so he came up to visit me for a bit. We finally got to finish the movie we started before he left. Movie night with the teens was fairly quiet. They didn’t really want to do much, most went to the movie in the showroom, so we just hung out in the Loft.
Skagway, we had general drill. So confusing with the new emergency functions we have. Are we really supposed to go upstairs to Club HAL with our life jackets on for drill to freak out the children? Poorly planned procedure in my opinion; they should give us instructions for what to do in case of emergency, and what to do in case of drill, and both for when we are in- and not in-session! Because at the moment, if something happens at 3am, when we’re not in session, we all have to go to Club HAL and call the front office to tell them that there are no children there, and then stay there until they dismiss us to our rafts… actually, our function cards never actually say to go to our rafts, only to take the children to their boats! You can tell I’m not too happy about this.

Anyway, after drill, Jordan convinced me to go get lunch with him where he could watch the World Cup game. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, I’m still not really into watching sports, but luckily, Jordan is decent company even when he’s watching a game, he could watch over my head, and I could turn around and see the TV if anything interesting happened, and we talked through the whole thing as well. Since it was such a nice day, after the game was pretty much decided, we ended up going ‘hiking’ to the same trail we’d gone on my first week here (in the rain that time). It looks a lot different when it’s not slippery and cold and cloudy and covered in water. It’s an extremely easy trail, we ended up just climbing around on the rocks and enjoying the sun for a while before we had to get back to the ship for dinner and work.

I took my DSLR up to the Loft on Glacier Bay day, hoping that it’d be nice weather so I could get some good pictures, not expecting my teens to show up until the afternoon, because on Glacier Bay day, they tend to spend time outside and with their families. I was much mistaken however, as when I got to the Loft at 9:30 to drop my bag off and go outside for a few pictures, most of my teens were already there waiting on me! I pretty much spent the day inside playing cards and stuff. Not what I was expecting from the day, but at least I like this group of teens.
Ketchikan was nice, I hung out on board all morning, went to Club HAL and helped Jordan take the kids to lunch until Jenn got there, then we got off the ship, wandered around, got a milkshake and wandered back to the ship because it was raining and the rain was getting heavier the longer we were out.

same ports, new week, but it's still pretty cool!

June 25, 2014
=
It’s Glacier Bay day again. Sometimes it really just hits me how lucky I am with this job. Today, the view from my workplace included glaciers and icebergs. Even in the rain, it was pretty.

Juneau, I had to work tendering, which was rather annoying. There were too many people working it in my opinion; two people in the Northern Lights giving out tickets and holding them until the Queen’s Lounge had some space (two people there as well, waiting to dismiss to one of three escorts to take them down to the tenders). I was the escort from the Northern Lights to the Queens Lounge- down a hallway that only exited into the Queen’s Lounge. A bit pointless. I got off the ship with Megan and Christine. We went to the Viking to hang out with people from the Westerdam, since it was a few of their last weeks there and we wanted to catch up for a bit before they went their separate ways. Lindsey and I worked the free time section of the night session, and Christine came in to help about snacktime. The projector still wasn’t working, so we ended up having to use one of the side TVs to watch our movie for the night. More kids than usual showed up for that, some were disappointed at the end of free time since they were drawing or making bead buddies, so I told them they could work on their stuff during the movie.

Skagway was my port day, I met up with Christine and Megan in port after work and we wandered around town, ducking into stores to escape from the cold and wind. We headed back early because of the cold. I ended up just watching a movie in the room until dinnertime.
Glacier Bay was exciting. The Huna interpreter came to visit us at 10 (we rescheduled her last week from 9am in hopes that more kids might have), she brought a lot of stuff for the kids to see, and we learned a few words in Tlingit from her. As we dismissed, a parent came in and showed us a video they had just taken of a giant chunk calving off the glacier. It was really cool! So, Megan, Christine and I went outside to see if it might happen again. It was chilly, so we didn’t stay out for too long, just enough to get a few pictures. Just as we left, another huge chunk fell off, we caught the last of it fall into the water. Sad we missed it, but at least the parent showed us the video.

The park ranger came at 1 like usual. She had a pretty cool speech for us, about sea otters! She told us a lot about them, and even brought a fur that had been confiscated since it’s illegal to have. I actually didn’t realize that otters were so big! Nearly as big as me. And the fur is possibly the softest thing I’ve ever felt. That makes me sad, but it’s so soft…..

ketchikan is blog day it seems

June 19, 2014
I guess blog writing/posting is going to be a Ketchikan thing now. It’s a nice port and all, but there’s not a whole lot to do, but that’s kind of nice since it seems like I haven’t had a whole lot of down time since getting here. There’s just so much to do! Especially since I’ve been helping train two new staff over the past two weeks. Carl left last Vancouver, and another YPC and youth staff got on. Megan is brand new to HAL (she’s actually friends with Christine, the YPC coming on next week). She’s working with the kids, I’m with the tweens, Lindsay’s with the teens and Laurie is floating between us. Not too bad of a setup, but it keeps us all very busy and we’re teaching the two where things are, what we can/can not do, and all the rest of that. PLUS, it’s DWTS at sea theme cruise this week. We haven’t done much stuff with that, but it is there, and we have gone out some at night out and about the ship. One of the troupe dancers actually remembered me from the cruises in January, I was definitely surprised at that.

Juneau day, I got off on my own for a bit, finally got some much-needed supplies like tissues and more hand soap, then when Laurie and Megan got off, I met up with them and we hung out for a while, briefly met up with Nick and Sam (rig tech and club hal I met last time on the zuiderdam, they’re on the westie right now and we’re in port every Juneau together), we got food (Hawaiian pizza crepe for me, YUM), then had to head back for work. Quiet night at work, only 4 kids showed up for movie night. That was very nice since we actually got to watch the movie as well instead of dealing with a lot of other stuff and behavioral problems at the same time.

Skagway was a crazy day. I had the morning port day shift; it was fine for the first hour, but then the day turned into insanity with lots of things going on at once, including a fire (not at work, one of the wires in the gym started smoking) at one point. I ended up staying the entire port day to help out Megan (since it was her first one), good thing too, because the insanity would not stop! I think she was glad to have someone experienced with her since things just kept seeming to go wrong. We were finally able to get off the ship when all the kids got picked up (finally), and it was cold and windy and a bit rainy. Happily, the sun did come out for a bit, and we enjoyed that despite the persistent wind. We went ‘shopping’ around town, she bought a raincoat (she didn’t come entirely prepared for cold/rainy weather), and I bought a new hoodie and a small birthday present for Lindsay (it seems to be the season for birthdays, mine was a few weeks ago, Lindsay’s on Skagway day, and Megan’s will be Vancouver day. We ended up just deciding to have dinner back on the ship so we wouldn’t spend any more money unnecessarily.

Glacier Bay day was almost just as insane as Skagway, but three of us were there to take care of it so it was a lot better.

The DWTS production show was last night, so we took turns at the end of the work night to change into formal so we could run down and see it as soon as the kids left. We stayed out after the show, and hung out at the Northern Lights with some of the dancers and other crew members. It was a nice night, but I was tired, so we didn’t stay out really late.

This morning, I got to sleep in! Only until 8:30ish, but that’s later than I have lately! I went to breakfast with Megan and hung out for a bit until the gangway cleared up, then wandered around Ketchikan for an hour in the rain. We got hungry and tired of the wet, so we found a place to get lunch, and headed back to the ship so she could get to work.

a few ports, a few animals and beautiful Glacier bay weather

June 12, 2014
It’s been a busy week again. There are three of us working now, a new girl named Lindsey, Carl and me. Lindsey is normally a dancer, but is filling in this summer as Club HAL. She’s pretty cool, Carl’s training her in the kids/tweens room and I’m with the teens this week. The Loft has been relative quiet, the first night was very long since it was mostly boys, and they didn’t really want to do anything aside from sit in silence. Finally I got them to play wii until they were ready to leave. And that’s pretty much what we’ve been doing the whole time, playing Super Mario Bros. So far, we’ve made it almost past world 7. Not bad for four days work!
I had port day in Juneau, none of the kids showed up, so I read the whole time. It was looking rainy and cold outside, plus we were tendering, so I didn’t bother getting off the ship. Skagway, I did get off the ship. I wandered around a while, met up with Bonnie and Carl for lunch, then wandered around some more after we parted ways. I talked a bit with Jordan, who was in port in Ketchikan on the Oostie, then the wind started picking up and I knew it was time to head back inside to the warmth.
Yesterday, Glacier Bay day, was beautiful! The weather was wonderful, I was happy in the orange parka, but I saw quite a few people walking around in shorts and t-shirts. When we got to Margorie Glacier, around lunchtime, I was off work, so I spent most of lunch outside. I got to see it calve quite a few times, once a huge chunk fell off, and there was a big splash, quite a cool sight! Later in the afternoon, I went outside with my teens when we heard an announcement from the Captain saying there had been sightings of whales nearby, and bears on the beach. We didn’t see any whales or bears outside, but we did see an otter swimming around in our wake, SO COOL! :)

never a dull moment

June 7, 2014
Never a dull moment on board the Zuiderdam! Katie found out on Wednesday that she was leaving in Ketchikan (Thursday) to join another ship for a week before her vacation, so it was a very busy Glacier Bay day with her packing and us all wanting to go take pictures outside and of course it basically being a sea day for us.
Ketchikan was a nice day. I slept in a bit before getting breakfast and killing some time hanging out in Club HAL with Jordan waiting for Carl to be ready so we could go to Burger Queen and get lunch (that’s the popular place for crew to get food here). We had a quick lunch ashore since he had to get back to the ship to work the afternoon shift. I wasn’t blown-away by the food, especially not the prices, so I’m still a bit confused about why that’s the most popular place for crew to get food. Maybe they haven’t found a better place, or maybe it’s just because they deliver wherever you ask them to in town? I now kind of want to take it upon myself to find another (cheaper, but good quality food) place to eat, there are plenty of places to choose from after all. Anyway, I came back to the ship when Carl did, so when Jordan was ready to go, we could wander around town with Ash (the DJ who’s leaving in Vancouver) and Ash’s fiancée.
Again, never a dull moment here, Jordan found out while taking the kids to lunch today that he’s being transferred to the Oosterdam in Vancouver for three weeks. I feel like this is going to be a repeat of January/February on the Nieuw A- never the same staff or YPC for more than 2 weeks in a row.
We wandered around town, just kind of seeing what’s there since none of us had really been there before (I had, but only twice and those were very short days where we only got food). Now at least, we know that there isn’t a lot to do here aside from shop and eat. We stopped at a café and hung out chatting for a while since we weren’t entirely ready to head back and we still had a few hours before all aboard.
My tweens have been great this week, wilder than I’m used to, but they’re really fun kids, and most always excited to do whatever activity is on the schedule. There were a few that came Ketchikan night that only wanted to play xbox, and Carl said it was okay, which was a bit frustrating since all the other kids wanted to know why they couldn’t just play xbox too. However, it makes me happy that a few activities into the theme night, all the tweens in the room were on a team and participating, abandoning their xbox games. I really think half of their obsession is parents influence, the parent tells the kid the activities aren’t fun, and the kid believes them so thinks the only age-appropriate thing to do is play video games. I was very happy when the parents came to pick them up and were surprised to see them participating in the games I was running!
Anyway, the week ended off well with a sea day, none of the kids showed up for the first hour of the morning session (probably because it was hour forward, but it was kind of nice regardless, I love working with the kids, but sometimes it’s difficult first thing in the morning). The rest of the day went smoothly, the weather was nice so we got to go outside to the sports deck (it was raining the other times we were supposed to go), and we all managed to stay on track with the schedule! After afternoon programming ended, I ended up hanging out in the Loft and teaching the teens and Jordan how to make friendship bracelets until about dinnertime. I’m not avoiding my room, I promise, I just haven’t spent more than 30 minutes in it between leaving in the morning and coming back at night every day; too much other stuff to do around here. 

rainy hike in skagway

June 3,2014: skagway
Today, Jordan and I had made plans to go hiking. I worked the morning port day shift, and had quite a few kids show up, most of which were 3-5 and wanted to play xbox without knowing how, made my morning a busy one running around. Katie found out that she leaves in Ketchikan to be transferred to the Zaandam, so we had to reaarange port day schedules since she was supposed to work that day (I was scheduled to work this afternoon, but am rather happy it got changed to the morning!). Anyway, all the kids left by 11:30, so when I was free, Jordan and I got off the ship, got some lunch, which took a while because it was cold and rainy and everyone on the 4 ships here today decided they wanted to eat ashore, and didn’t want to be in the rain. It wasn’t raining too terribly bad, so we thought we’d continue on with our hiking plans, taking a shorter hike instead of the longer one we’d previously discussed. It started raining harder once we were out there, luckily we’d both brought our raincoats, which kept us a bit drier and warmer. Somehow we managed to make a loop instead of retracing our steps, but we hung out under a shelter for a while, out of the rain, on our way back. We were really cold by that point, so we found a place that was off the main road and had hot chocolate before heading back to the ship to dry off and get warm. Not the best weather so far, terrible for me since last time I was here, it was warm and sunny, and that was 3 weeks ago!! Not what I expected at all.

back on the zuiderdam

June 2, 2014
It’s been a busy first few days on the Zuiderdam. I joined on my birthday, which wasn’t the best day ever. I had to wake up at 5:30 to be ready for the shuttle, then when we got to the terminal, they wouldn’t let us on yet because none of the passengers had gotten off yet, so we sat outside waiting for 45 minutes before we got through security, and had to wait another 30 minutes to get everyone’s forms filled out and collected and for a break in passengers leaving for us to run up the gangway. It was hectic. Then, I get to my room to find that there’s already two people there. They figured there would be confusion when they found out the other girl was staying, so I dropped my stuff off there, and went to breakfast with the librarian Bonnie, Club HAL Katie, Club HAL Jordan, and Christine (who was my YPC on the Nieuw A for the blues cruise, she left but will be back in 3 weeks to take over again as YPC). Thank goodness breakfast was still open! Anyway, it was a long morning of meetings, getting the room situation worked out (I’m rooming with the librarian), and then Open House. I had a massive headache by that point and was nearly at the point of tears. I tried to take a nap but I woke up every 5 minutes, and got up to go to sailaway feeling even worse than when I lay down. There was a few minutes of fear where I thought I was going to be sick any time I moved, but I went up to sailaway anyway, we had to stay there for 45 minutes, during which time we mostly talked with the rest of the on location team. Dinner helped my headache and I was feeling a bit better in time for work. Few kids showed up tonight, so Katie and I combined the kids and tweens programs. I went to the OB for a bit to see people who wanted to celebrate my birthday, but didn’t stay too long because I was exhausted.
Day 2 wasn’t bad, especially for a sea day. The kids were rather well behaved and they enjoyed their time. I didn’t spend any time in the room, from when I left at 8:40 for the HESS meeting, until midnight (because I had stayed upstairs hanging out with Jordan and the teens in the Loft).
Juneau was cold and rainy. I didn’t really have tweens come for the morning session, so I helped Katie with her 5 kids, then ran downstairs, changed and went to the crew office for immigration. Carl, YPC this week, was very frustrated that we had to be down there at 12, when we didn’t even arrive until 1. I did the same thing on the Volendam, so I came prepared with my phone to use while we sat and waited. It was really cold outside, and a bit rainy, but we made it through immigration and got back to the ship with an hour to spare before the newly-embarked crew raft drill. I had nothing to do, so I went up to Club HAL and watched Frozen with Jordan (who was on port day, with no kids showing up), we agreed to get off the ship and get crepes after he got off port day, so after the drill, I went back up there and helped him unlock characters in MarioKart to kill time until 4. Carl, Jordan, and I got off the ship and walked around town for a bit before going to the Viking, where we met some people Carl knew from the Westerdam. We hung out there for a while until I realized I should run and grab my crepe so I could get back and have plenty of time to change and get to work. Not many kids showed up for movie night, which was kind of nice. Easy night for us!

limbo

Don't worry, I'll post more about my second week later, but for now...

With this job comes lots of time spent in what I've come to call 'limbo.' Stuck between one place and the next. There's airport limbo, hotel limbo, de-bark limbo... It's one of the things that, despite... 8 contracts now? I have yet to get used to.
There's nothing we can do about it, it will always exist. It's the 'in-transit' (I guess that's the technical term?) time that must be passed in order to get from one place to another.
I haven't decided which is worse.

Boarding the ship, you're stuck first in airport limbo, then hotel limbo. It's not so bad, especially if they give you a direct flight or a semi-short layover, but it still is generally an entire day of travel, which might not seem that way, but it truly is exhausting. Once you finally arrive in the home port city, you must wait and catch a shuttle to the hotel. But once you're in the hotel, what do you do? Occasionally they flight you so early you have a good bit of time so if you're not feeling too tired and are feeling brave enough, you can venture out and explore the town, oh, and if the weather is cooperative. Usually though, the hotel is so far away from the airport, and from the town the other direction that it's a big task to get anywhere.
Most of the time, however, the plane lands in the mid to late afternoon, and you arrive at the hotel around dinnertime. So, the only thing to do is get comfortable, find dinner somewhere, and then wonder what to do with the rest of the evening until a reasonable time when you can get to sleep. At least the hotels usually have free wifi, so you can surf the internet for a time, maybe watch a movie on the TV. Usually I just end up going to sleep early for lack of anything better to do.

Leaving a ship is another set of limbos. First of all there is the de-bark limbo (rather, disembarkation). You have to get up with the sun to go to the crew office to wait in line and get paid, and typically there is nothing to do after that until meeting in the crew messroom to disembark. That's about three hours. In that time, new crew members come on board and take over your room, and of course breakfast is closed early because they don't want guests hanging around when they should be leaving. There's not really anywhere to go where you're not in the way of something else going on. Most all your friends are sleeping in or going off in port, so you've said all your 'goodbyes' the night before. Nothing left to do.
Finally, the ship is at what we call '0 count' which means all the passengers have gotten off the ship, so crew are allowed to go through immigration. After immigration, there's a shuttle ride and then the airport. Depending on the season and the airport, there may be no checking luggage until 2 hours before the flight, and we've usually been booked for flights later in the afternoon so we're stuck outside the security lines. Not all the time though. When we can get through security, we at least have one less bag to look after, though two is sometimes still too many. There's a few hours to kill, staring at the same seats and restaurants and gates. Again, usually airports have wifi, so it's a great time to catch up on all the news you've missed while away, but you can only do that for so long, and you don't want to take a nap in the airport for fear of someone stealing your stuff or missing your flight. And of course, you never want to wander far from your gate, just in case something changes...

So, now you know about 'limbo.' It's unavoidable this job, but I'd much rather it was consistant at least!

Vancouver embark day

May 7, 2014: Vancouver
Home port day. One week down, one week to go! Not that I’m way too excited to come home, just this past week was really hard on me. I need one night where I sleep the whole night through without waking up, and where I might be able to sleep past 8. That might cure me. That I needed that wasn’t helped by the amount of energy it took me to work with the kids. I have realized that I may find working with the little ones so difficult and exhausting because the first time I was ‘alone’ with the little group, I had that sinus infection and felt horrible all week; and now I just associate the two: the littles and being sick and tired. Maybe.

Anyway, I had to go gangway farewell this morning at 8:30, so I was up early yet again. The good thing about it was that I only had to be out there for half an hour! Once I finished that, I came back on the ship, changed, and Dianne and I got off the ship for a late breakfast. We hung out in the food court across from the ship for a while using the internet, before I had to come back to change again to do Open House. Teleya and I worked open house, and no one showed up until the end of our time, when Dianne and Danielle showed up to take over. We ended up staying an extra 20 minutes to help them with the flood of families that came in at 1:30. Very hungry by this point, we got some lunch and hung out by the pool for a while. I tried to take a nap once I got back to the room, but I didn’t manage to fall asleep. When Dianne got off, she showed me where the laundry room was and we washed some clothes between then and the entertainment department meeting and sailaway.

I’m on tweens this week, so after sailaway and a quick dinner, I went upstairs to get stuff ready for the night. The tween room got crowded quickly! I had over 20 signed in by snacktime. Luckily we had just enough chairs for everyone. We made it through making the contract of fun and ‘all about me’ sheets before most of the parents came to pick up their kids to go to the show, so for the last 45 minutes, I had 5 kids. We played ‘move your booty’ that entire time because they figured out they loved it. It’s a good group of kids. As always, there’s the one crazy one who influences some of the others into being wild with him, but other than that, I like this group of tweens, they’re willing to do the activities and are all pretty creative.

admiring Creation in Glacier Bay

4 May, 2014 Glacier Bay
Today was one of those days where I find it crazy that people don’t believe God created Earth. I didn’t really know much about Glacier Bay until today, but everything I saw and found out just amazes me. It’s such a wonderful Creation! I can hardly even begin to describe.

Of course, for us, today is barely more than just another day at sea. For passengers though, it is a day of scenic cruising. The outside decks and even the Lido pool have an ongoing commentary by a ranger on the ship about what’s around the ship, any animal sightings, names of glaciers we pass and random information. The outside decks were full of people, despite the cold weather. I, however, was stuck inside most of the morning. We did get to take the kids out and walk around for about half an hour instead of the usual sports deck time. It took my breath away the beauty of what was surrounding us. It was freezing out though, I had on the bright orange Club HAL uniform parka and most of the parents had actually read the schedule and dropped their kids off with their jackets, but some of the kids were not dressed warmly at all, so we had to cut our outside time short so they could get back inside where it was warm.

(pictures to come when I can finally get them to upload

During lunchtime, I spent the time outside on the deck with my camera, listening to the little bits of commentary they were still doing (not as constant, just every few minutes telling about the two major glaciers at the dead end where we were headed to turn around), and was still outside when we turned around at Marjorie glacier. Apparently, the ship usually stops moving and just drifts for a while while there, but there was so much ice in the water today, which meant we had to move slowly to get safely through, and we had to do the same going back out of the bay, we literally just turned the ship around and started making our way back out.

I managed to get a slice of pizza for lunch before running back up to work for the afternoon session. The ranger who’d been making announcements came to Club HAL and gave a speech to the kids as one of our activities, a nice break for us, especially since our kids were strangely well-behaved while he was talking. The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and Dianne and I got some food from the grill and sat watching us leave Glacier Bay before heading down to the room to rest before dinner and another session of work.

I had Un-Birthday party as my theme. It was a rather interesting night, odd in many many ways. First of all, there were no kids waiting for me before we actually opened. At 7:30, I only had two of my kids there, whereas usually I have all 10 that’ve been showing up. They finally all showed up a few minutes later, but snack hadn’t arrived by 8, so I had the kids decorate their party hats while Danielle called about the snack. While that was going on, one of the little ones had an accident in the bathroom, so I had to stand at the door (on this ship, the bathroom is outside the kids room) as she went on a search for the mom who we couldn’t seem to get a hold of. Snack finally arrived, and that situation was handled. It was 9 by the time I finished handing out snack, which left very little time for activities. I had to sit my kids down again to stress the importance of listening so we might be able to get through a few of the activities. No luck with that at all. When I tried to explain the next activity, they all started talking and guessing and telling me stories yet again. Finally, we played two rounds of musical chairs before moving on to their favorite: 4 corners (which is a great game as I can use it on any and every theme night, tonight I had a cake, party hat, balloon and present as the corners instead of plain numbers). They played that until all their parents came to pick them up.

Another exhausting day; Danielle, Dianne, Jenna (who’d come to help the teens eat their snack) and I sat in the Loft for about an hour before we finally got the energy to make our way downstairs.

little town of Skagway

3 May 2014 Skagway
I had the morning shift of port day. It was uneventful for the first hour, I just read a book, but at 9 some of the officers came in, checking out the area because a fire drill was taking place in the Loft at 9:30. I had to call Danielle and figure out what to do about that. Since I still didn’t have any kids, she told me just to hang out in the Lido until the fire drill was complete. So, I got a cup of tea and sat with Jim and Dan as they had breakfast. Once the drill ended, I wandered back upstairs and had just a few minutes to myself to turn the wii’s and music back on before all my little ones came up for port day. They kept running back and forth from coloring to the wii’s, and complaining that I didn’t have all the coloring sheet’s they’d started the day before in the other room. Finally, I managed to get them all settled watching or playing MarioKart, just about the time Teleya came up to take over and help take them to lunch. I will admit, it is kind of nice not having the Slice on this ship when we have kids on port days, because we can just get all their meals at once instead of having to visiting a few different places.

I sat and ate a light lunch with them, then joined Dianne as she passed by going back down to the room. She invited me to come ashore with her and the CAC host Barbara and her husband Bob, so we waited for them to finish Pinnacle lunch and all wandered into town together. We stayed together for a while, then just ended up wandering into different shops and got separated, which we figured would eventually happen anyway. So, Dianne and I wandered around together talking and basically just enjoying the day. We kept moving from sunny bench to sunny beach, getting ice cream and ever-so-slowly making our way back to the ship. We moved to different benches closer to the ship every 15 minutes, and still made it back by 5:30. It was nice though, we got to sit in the sun and just enjoy being outside on a pretty day for Alaska (I was bundled up in my coat, two shirts and a scarf, but in the sun I was happy).

We had dinner, then it was back to work. I had Alien night, which my kids enjoyed despite the fact that I kept having to gather them and spend ten minutes to make them stop talking in order to explain the next activity. This group just doesn’t want to listen at all. The best thing about tonight was that I found out a game they actually enjoy!! At the beginning of the week, they quickly tired of “where’s my shoe” and even stopped asking about hide-and-seek when I let them play and they discovered there really wasn’t anywhere to hide in that room, but by then I didn’t remember any other time-killer games that aren’t too complex for this age group. But tonight, I found out that they love playing 4 corners! We spent 20 minutes playing and they begged me to keep playing even though all their parents were picking them up! I’m very grateful I finally figured out something they actually like to do!

After work, we quickly cleaned up, and Danielle, Dianne and I went to the show with Jenna, the librarian. It was the first time this show has been performed on this ship, and the first performance for this cast. It wasn’t a bad show, a bit weird at times and I could tell a few times when they messed up, but we enjoyed it. After the show, we decided that it would be a good night to stay out a bit and go to the OB, so we hung out at the OB until we all realized how tired we were and how early we have to get up and work tomorrow.

relaxing in Juneau

2 May 2014: Juneau
Juneau is a late arrival port on this run, so we had the normal morning programming. It was of course, a busy morning with the kids, they were running around wanting to play on the slide and climb on the paintbucket instead of the activities on the schedule. Danielle helped out a bit, she’s been going back and forth between the kids room and the tweens room, spending most of her time in the tween room, but she did come up with the idea of putting the slide to ‘sleep’ with a sheet over it to stop it being such a distraction. Things calmed down a little after that, at least the little helped me keep my sanity even if it didn’t really make that much difference. Anyway, we had a very quick lunch, and Dianne went upstairs to cover for Danielle’s port day since she, Teleya and I had to join the rest of the new crew and go through immigration. They told us to be in the crew mess at 12:15, and the ship wasn’t even docked until 1. At least most of us had our phones and had signal there.

Finally, we moved, but we didn’t make it far because the guests were crowded around, up and down the stairs around the gangway, the crew officers had to clear a path for us to get by to get out and to the office where we had to be. It was a really small office, so they only let in 5 of us at a time. We went through quickly though, and afterward, we decided just to stay off the ship for a bit. I went to the Viking with Jim and Dan (they’re two members of the Neptunes band, I know Jim from the Maasdam) and the three of us hung out there, got internet and talked for half an hour or so before they figured they’d head back so Dan could get all his online new-crew training done. I went back with them and met Dianne on the gangway, perfect timing since we had planned to get off together but hadn’t made our plans definite. She waited for me, while I ran to the room to grab my purse, then we and the acupuncturist Amanda went back to the Viking to hang out. It was fun, they have lots of pool tables and video games and stuff on the second floor where a lot of crew go to hang out, and we ended up playing Mario on the Nintendo for a good long time before Amanda had to head back to the ship and then Dianne and I decided we were hungry enough to find the pizza place we’d been told about. We found it and had a nice midafternoon dinner and basically just hung out there the rest of the afternoon. We got back to the ship and relaxed for about half an hour before I had to head back to work. Danielle had given Dianne the night off since she’d been covering a lot for us, with the meetings and immigration, and later the new-crew drill.

It was movie night, so rather relaxed. Though, with this group, it never really was that relaxed, they were constantly talking and asking questions, moving around and ‘singing along.’ I had to tell them that I’d never seen Frozen before in order to make them be somewhat quiet so I could know what was going on. It helped only slightly. But at least we made it through!

We supersan-ed quickly and I just went to bed since I was kind of exhausted from the last few days still.

first day on a new ship

1 May 2014
I was definitely right about this group of kids, they’re a noisy, easily distracted handful. This morning I had a wide variety of ages, but we mostly managed to stay following the schedule, probably because they were rather tired and there were only 6 of them, some of them shy. We had a quick lunch and then it was back up to Club HAL. At 12:45 (we don’t open until 1), I had 4 kids waiting outside for me. By 10 after, I had 3 3-year olds and 3 6-year olds signed in and attempting to do model magic. At least that seemed to keep their attention for the most part. Well, one of the ‘3’ year olds really was two, his parents made a very big deal of his not being able to come, and apparently corporate has given permission for him to be allowed in, he does after all turn 3 in 10 days (and is better spoken than some of the 6 year olds). That slide though is definitely a problem and a giant distraction. Danielle came in to cover for me as I had to attend the HESS meeting for new crew (she’d gotten out of it since we at least needed two of us working at that time, and Teleya-my hotel roommate-and I had to go to the meeting since we’re NEOPs).

The meeting lasted a very long hour and a half, but at least I’m pretty much done with NEOP stuff now. I made it to Club HAL for the last activity to find a bunch of kids running around doing various things. We covered up the slide, saying it needs a nap, to try to stop that major distraction and it kind of worked a bit. I did at least get most of them to sit down in the paint bucket when I asked. Although, this group does have a very difficult time with the whole “close your eyes” thing, which makes games like ‘where’s my shoe’ hard to continue. I was very glad when the afternoon session ended, even those last 30 minutes felt like it was taking an entire afternoon’s worth of energy.

airplanes and embark day

30 April 2014
Possibly two of the longest days have just passed, finally. It’s been so long, even though it’s only been two days.

Yesterday was full of airports and airplanes. I got to the airport first thing, but when I went to check-in, a message came up saying that I was too late to check-in with my bag. The lady behind the counter was not happy and informed me that they need at least 45 minutes for checked baggage. Luckily she was nice enough to get a tag and get mine on the flight. I made it through security and to my gate just as they were calling my zone to board. No breakfast in the airport for me, not like I was really hungry at 7am, but still. Anyway, 4 hour flight to phoenix, they gave us drinks, but snacks were only for purchase. I read/slept the whole flight. We landed early, I was awake for that part, from above, outside of Phoenix kind of reminded me of Greece, the mountains all rocky and empty, just surrounded by dirt and flat land instead of water. Like I said, we landed early. However, we landed so early, the flight leaving the gate we were coming in to was still there…. And then of course, they took off late, so we sat outside near our gate for 25 minutes before we could get start getting off. I was at the back of the plane, so had to wait another 10 minutes to get off myself. By that point, it was nearly boarding time for my next flight.

I pretty much ran through the airport, and made it to my gate when they were making announcements saying they would board in a few minutes. So, I quickly went back to a coffee place I’d passed, grabbed a pre-made sandwich and a drink and ran back to the gate. They were making announcements saying they had to check everyone’s documents (I guess for customs) and stamp the tickets before we boarded. I got that done, and then got in line to board. So little time. I was on the very back row on the plane, ate half the sandwich quickly while everyone else was boarding. Everyone wts on the plane when I realized that no one else was in my row (three seat row, I was in the aisle). The flight attendant asked a little bit later if I minded letting a mother and her 7-month old take those seats, so she could give the baby her own seat for a bit. I, of course, didn’t mind at all since I was absolutely shocked no one was in those seats anyway. The little girl was very cute and I helped distract her some during the flight. And I talked with the mom, who’s from Victoria BC. The flight was another long one, 3 hours, but at least I was kept occupied between talking to the mom, helping with the baby and reading my book. We finally landed and the flight attendant was surprised to see me grab the mom’s bag from the overhead bin for her while she got situated with her baby. That actually surprised me, that he was surprised. A mom carrying a baby off a plane shouldn’t have to fumble around and reach into the overhead compartments for a bag when there’s plenty of other people there to help!

Anyway, I got off the plane, went through immigration (I accidently filled out some of the form wrong since I wasn’t really sure how it worked. However, the immigration officer was really nice about it and corrected it for me, smiled and let me go on my way), and made my way to the hotel.

Then was the frustrating part. My headache was getting worse, and when I checked into the hotel, they informed me that the internet wasn’t free, but the internet in the airport was. So, after a semblance of a 30 minute nap, I went back downstairs into the airport to try to message Mom to let her know I’d made it there. No luck, the internet in the airport just wouldn’t load for me. I had some food and gave up, going back to the hotel. My head was really hurting and I wasn’t feeling so well, probably from the sandwich I had at lunch, so I slept the rest of the afternoon away off and on, waking up with my stomach and head competing to be the one that hurt the most. Mom called the hotel to talk to me and I felt a little bit better after that, and ended up falling asleep for a while finally.

When I’d checked in, they informed me that I would be sharing a room, but when no one had arrived by 9 when Mom called, I figured that something had changed. However, at 2 am, I heard banging of bags against the door as someone came in. They really should plan better for things like that. They hadn’t told her someone would be in the room, so she kind of freaked out when she saw me sit up in bed. It was a long time before either of us got to sleep, her because she had a lot to do to get herself settled (including calling the office and complaining that they hadn’t told her about me), and me of course because she was there wandering around the room doing stuff.

Morning came and again, I had to get up at 5:30 to get ready before I left. My head was still hurting really bad, but I managed to get ready and get downstairs on time. I checked out and had to wait around as they made more bags for breakfast. There I met my new YPC Danielle as she was checking out as well. We sat next to each other on the bus and talked some, but we were both pretty tired so zoned out on the ride. I got onto the ship just fine, but they didn’t really do anything for those of us that hadn’t been on R-class before, just set us free to go find our rooms and be at the meeting in an hour. Luckily Danielle helped me find the room, I briefly met my roommate (another Club HAL who’s been on for a month or so) before she went ashore for a while. The meeting was painful, my head was still pounding, but it was only an hour long. I had an hour before lunch and open house, so I went back to the room for a nap. They hadn’t put sheets on my bed yet, so I curled up under my jacket on top of the mattress and tried my best to sleep a bit so I could last the day.

It was a really busy day. Danielle, Diane (my roommate) and I had lunch together before going up to Open House. I’m on kids, but I had no time to look around the room because Diane was helping Danielle learn where everything was, then Danielle had to run around doing things, and needed the two of us to stay in the tween room registering people. We had a pretty constant flow of two or three families in to register at a time.

We had 30 minutes after Open House before the Entertainment Department meeting, so we just got some tea and sat in the lido for a bit. After the meeting, me and Diane had 30 minutes to kill before the drill, so we took our phones up to Club HAL and she made hers a hotspot so we could both use the internet for a bit (only 10 minutes by the time we got up there). After checking wristbands, which lasted the entire drill because half the kids didn’t have any and the other halves were too tight and needed to be replaced, we went back up to Club HAL to continue use of our phones for the 20 minutes before we had to be at Sailaway. We wandered around for the required 30 minutes (this cruise director and EM actually show up to sailaway and make sure we’re doing at least a semblance of invasive mingling) before we made our way to the Lido, ready for it to open for dinner. I wasn’t really hungry and my head was still hurting, so I ended up just forcing myself to eat some ice cream just to get some sort of something in my system, hoping that’d make me feel like eating anything else.

I’m not entirely sure how I made it through the night, it kind of helped that 45 minutes of my worktime were spent in line for the crew office to get my ID and forms signed. I’m on kids this week, and though they all seem really cute and sweet, they’re definitely a handful, a very easily distracted and non-listening handful. Though, when 10:15 finally came around and we were done cleaning up and waiting for someone to pick up the snack trays, I did feel better enough to eat two small slices of pizza- the first time today that I’d really felt well and hungry enough to eat! Diane and I went back down to the room to discover that I still didn’t have sheets, so she took me to housekeeping and we told them and they brought some to the room and made my bed for me. I unpacked a bit as they were doing that since I wasn’t really sure what else to do at the time. Once they left, Diane and I pretty much changed and went straight to bed, thoroughly exhausted.

dolphins!!!!!

March 13, 2014: Cozumel
This contract is definitely an excellent one for getting fun stuff done!
So, I had work this morning, port day until 12:15. That wasn’t too bad, but there were a lot of kids there. Daniella came to take over while we were at lunch, and I ran downstairs to change and grab all my stuff. I’d talked to Cassandra last week, and she ended up getting both me and Michelle on a tour… to go swim with dolphins!!!!!

I was a bit worried that the tour might be cancelled because it was raining and foggy. But when we arrived at the pier to meet the tour, we were both ecastic to hear that they were still going to do it. We got our wristbands and met our tour guide, and then loaded up in taxis to head to the place, which was only a 5 minute ride down the road. It was cool, we had to wait a bit once we got there to get our lifejackets and stuff, but the area we could wait in overlooked the whole area with the dolphins. Some people were in the water with the dolphins, others were following trainers instructions and ‘training’ the dolphins to splash, high five, jump, etc, and others were sitting on the sidelines watching. I took my camera, so I got it a bit wet (from the rain) as I took pictures of all that.

Then, it was our turn, we got our lifejackets, and those of us that were swimming got goggles, then we followed our trainer to our section of the area and got in the water. It was still raining, but that just made the sea water feel so much better! Our group included 8 people, and we had two dolphins named Alaina and Vina to hang out with for the hour or so. Our trainer was really cool, he told us a little bit about the dolphins, and we swam out to the middle, where one of the dolphins swam in front of our row and we got to pet it for a bit, they both seemed to enjoy that, they came back by at least one more time after the trainer signaled to return to him. Then, we took turns holding, dancing with and kissing one of them (the two dolphins took turns) for photos. I was kind of the guinea pig for that for our group because I was first in line closest to the trainer. It was cool, but the trainer didn’t really tell me what was going on at first, so I was trying to figure that out as it was happening. After everyone got their pictures, we moved on to something else. I was told to swim out almost to the other side of the pool, then to put one arm straight out and the other on my lifejacket, so I did. Then the trainer said something and all I got from that was the word “bike.” He said okay, and next thing I know, one of the dolphins comes up behind and next to me, I grab one of its flippers with my outstretched hand and suddenly I’m FLYING back to the group! Apparently when the dolphin came by, I was supposed to us both hands and hold onto both sides, but by the time I understood that, I was back at the group! The dolphin didn’t really seem to mind though, kind of funny because anytime anyone else in the group let go one hand, she just stopped and waited until they were ready again. That was really cool! Water flying everywhere, being pulled by a dolphin!
After we all had a chance to be pulled across the area by one of the dolphins, every group around the area finished as well, and the trainers got our dolphins to put on a show for us. 5 dolphins sped around the pool, spraying water at us, jumping in the air, etc. SO COOL!!

And that was the end, sadly. We got out of the water, back into the rain, went and looked at our pictures, gathered our stuff, dried off, bought pictures (I bought a package that included all the individual shots of my-19 of them- on a CD with one printed copy), then sat and watched other groups experience what we just did as we waited for our ride back to the pier. Such a good experience.

On our way back to the ship- walking through the mall that you must to get from the street to the pier, we met Jeremy at Starbucks, so stopped and got some food and a hot chocolate for a bit, before all three of us decided to go to the Mega store (Target-like store) down the street since they all needed stuff. I just tagged along because I wasn’t quite ready to go back to the ship yet. Michelle went back to the ship to go work out before dinner and work, but Jeremy and I walked across the street to the crew bar and got wifi before we decided it was time to head back.
I had a quick shower, and an even quicker dinner before movie night at work.

can I say it again? I love my job!

March 11, 2014: Sea day
I really do love my job. I’m not sure why, but today it just really hit me. Nothing really bothered me like it sometimes does, the little frustrating things the kids do sometimes. I felt content. One of the little girls fell down as she was running on the sports deck and I got to her before Michelle and got her to a bench and talking to me and stopped the tears really quickly. I had two of the girls holding my hands as we left the sports deck and all through ice cream time, and though one of them felt bad when one of the older boys said something mean to her during ice cream, she wouldn’t sit up to talk to her friend, but she sat up and talked to me. Somehow everything just went right this morning and afternoon. When I called for their attention, it took a second, but once they were quiet, all the kids were quiet until I’d finished. And none of them really complained about the activities we were doing. We’ve spent today alternating between the kids and tweens schedules, since we’re still keeping them combined for the moment, and none of them have had any trouble with it!
It’s just been an overall satisfying day at work :)

just another day in paradise

March 10, 2014: Half Moon Cay
Daniella and I were on a tender by 8:30 this morning, which meant that we were on the island by 8:50, so we had half an hour of time before ‘work.’ I guess I could have run down the beach again, but I was just too tired today to do that, so we both ended up laying out on the sand and taking a nap for the half hour. None of the kids ended up showing up for island activities (as usual, it’s the first full day of the cruise, and we only had 4 show up last night, so I wasn’t really expecting anyone anyway), so we packed up and went to my normal beach spot to spend the afternoon.

The beach really wasn’t very crowded, which was surprising, of course I guess most people take longer to recover from Daylight Savings hour forward than I do now, seeing as we change hours twice a week! Daniella had to check out the volleyball court to see if any of the teens showed up (she had almost half the teens show up last night, so it’ll be a busy week for her). Jeremy joined me while she was gone until he had to go to team basketball. When they both finally got back, the three of us got a drink (strawberry-banana daiquiri for me, minus the actual daiquiri part) and took out snacks and enjoyed sitting in the sun for a while. Slowly more crew members joined us, Dani the port shopping girl, Greg the piano bar guy, the cast, a few HAL Cats, lots of people were there to hang out with! We played Frisbee for a bit, and watched the cast/HAL cats throw football, and swam. It was easy to pretend (for once) that we were just on vacation, not crew members, probably because none of the guests really ventured that far down the beach today.

Daniella had to work at 4, so she headed back around 2 to make sure she caught a tender and had enough time, but Jeremy and I stayed and hung out with everyone else for a while before I helped him go collect the sports equipment and we headed back to the ship. It had been a perfectly beautiful day! :)
Back on the ship, I kind of took a nap while doing laundry, and decided to curl my hair for formal night, even though I wasn’t quite sure how much time I’d actually be out in formal after work. Work went by quickly, Spy Night was a hit as always! We combined the tweens and kid since there were only about 10 total, strange since there are 30 on board. It’s good because they’re working very well together, and Michelle and I work really well together, we take turns running activities and I guess it’s because I helped train her with these age groups that we both kind of run the activities the same way. The night went by more quickly than any night from the past month or so, I guess really since the Blues Cruise! Wow, that was a really long time ago it feels like now!

I quickly changed into formal and went to the Northern lights to check on Jeremy for a bit, it wasn’t crowded there, and I ended up making a loop around decks 2 and 3 to see if there were many people out anywhere around the ship. Very few people were out tonight for some reason, it was a bit strange; the piano bar wasn’t even that crowded! I left before closing to go to the PO for a party Santana organized (she wasn’t sure until yesterday if she would be leaving in Grand Cayman or not, turns out that she’s not, so it was a ‘just because’ party instead of a ‘going away’ party). She had ordered so much food, so we all had to help eat all the chicken nuggets, sandwiches and pizza. It was nice, just a chance to hang out and chat, different location than normal which always makes things more fun. I hung out with Cassandra and some of the photogs for a bit before Daniella came and of course, we ended up just hanging out with the rest of the “On location” team the rest of the night (the librarian Antonio, Santana, and Jeremy once he got off work). Not a bad way to end a great day!

beach day (again)!

March 8, 2014: Half Moon Cay
We were in port with the Zuiderdam again today. It was pretty cool because the two staff that were working on the island are also going to be there this summer, one’s only there until mid-June, and the other goes home for the repositioning but returns for the summer. So, I know my co-workers already (except the YPC)! It was a bit odd because our ships were on different times. We didn’t go hour back yesterday since we’d just have to go hour forward again for daylight savings tonight, but the Zuiderdam just left Fort Lauderdale, so they were still on normal time. We were just one hour ahead of them, it was fine as long as we didn’t discuss what time we leave or what time activities were going on.

Anyway, after Daniella and I finished our hour waiting for kids to come build sandcastles, we headed down the beach to try to claim a spot. We found a nice spot on the sand and I left her to see if any of the teens (who haven’t shown up all week) would come to volleyball. None of them did, but some people got there early for Zuiderdam vs Nieuw A volleyball, so I stayed and talked to them, keeping them entertained until everyone else showed up. Even once everyone showed up, I stayed and talked to Jeremy while he waited on the other show host to get there. Then, I returned to our spot on the beach. Santana joined us later, after she finished a Vow Renewal ceremony. I didn’t have a whole lot of time, so I enjoyed what time I did have before heading back. I met up with Jeremy on the way back, he was coming to find us, so he ended up walking with me back to the tenders. I started work at three, meaning I put a sign up on the door and went to the Lido for some food. When I went back upstairs, Michelle said I could leave early if I wanted to since it would be weird if the teens showed up today when they hadn’t all week. I ended up getting a nice nap in before dinner.

I helped out with the younger kids again at work, most of who wanted to watch one of the new movies we got today (it was a weird Disney channel movie, kind of a mix between Grease and the ship production show Garage Band). Anyway, they all left early and I sat in the Loft for another hour before heading downstairs to change and head to the Northern Lights. The normal group of girls were there of course, but somehow we managed to close early-ish (the bar staff helped since they told Jeremy when to announce last call for drinks since they had to start getting ready for next cruise).

St Thomas port day

March 6, 2014: St Thomas
Another 12 hour day. I had to be at work at 8 this morning, but was surprisingly awake somehow. Two kids came in around 9 and their mom said she’d be back around 11 to pick them up because she had a meeting or something ashore that she couldn’t take them to. Not the best three hours of my life. They were terrible, refusing to listen, throwing things at each other or just on the ground, taking off their shoes, climbing on the cab, and screaming for me not to tell their mommy they’re being bad. They finally did get settled about the time their mom came back around 12. I was just ready for them to be gone by that point, it felt like those 3 hours lasted the entire day.

I had a nice long lunch with Jeremy and Blair and a few others, then headed back upstairs for what I hoped would be a quiet afternoon. It was a quiet afternoon, but there was a kid walking in as I was just getting back and propping the door open. She just colored for a while, so I put on some music and read until she stopped coloring and I asked if she wanted a movie or a game or something else. So, I put in Tangled. Another two kids came in, French speaking boys, and one played Minecraft for a while until Tangled got too interesting, the other one immediately sat down to watch the movie. The girl left, and so it was just the two French boys sitting and watching Tangled. That’s what I love about that movie! Everyone loves it even though it is a ‘princess movie.’ I took a quick nap before dinner and work again. Tonight’s work was really just helping out with the tweens again, then hanging out in the Loft watching another movie until an appropriate time to close. The teens just aren’t showing up this week, makes it a bit boring for me as I’m in there all alone for at least an hour at night after the others leave. After work, I went to the Northern Lights to hang out with Jeremy and got roped into dancing for a bit by some of the younger crowd that’ve been there a lot this week too. It was pretty fun, there were a lot more people there than have been the rest of the week, and a lot of people were dancing, by the end of the night, none of them wanted to stop!

shopping in San Juan

March 5, 2014: San Juan
It was a normal sea day morning, with none of the teens showing up, so I got to sit and read until lunchtime. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do ashore when I went to lunch, but Daniella (she’s my new roommate) invited me to go to the mall with her and a group. There ended up being 7 of heading to the mall together. It was fun, Daniella and I got what we needed and just walked around talking for the remaining two hours. We met back up with everyone else around 4, and took another taxi back to the port. There, everyone else went to CVS, but I went back to the ship to drop off bags and pick up Michelle, then we met them and all went to an outdoor restaurant for dinner. It felt like eating in a jungle actually, because this restaurant was separated from other cafes by a wall of plants, and there were birds, insects, lizards, etc. living in the bushes and trees. Bit weird, but at least they didn’t come that close to us.

I relaxed for a bit until work at 8, then helped out in the tween room until they closed, then I decided to watch a movie in the Loft. Daniella and Michelle ended up joining me and we all watched Chronicles of Narnia until time to leave. We went to the Northern Lights for a bit to hang out with Jeremy, then the four of us went to the OB to see if anyone was still there. They weren’t, so we just hung out on the bow stargazing and chatting.

Grand Turk

I know, I know, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I'm sorry. It's been a bit busy around here and there was another week where I just didn't feel like I had anything to say that I hadn't already, aside from the very little that changed from the usual routine. It's better though now!


March 4, 2014: Grand Turk
It was a beautiful day in the Caribbean! Of course, we had fire drill this morning, so Michelle and I had to wait around for that to finish before we could get off the ship. We tried to call Jeremy, the show host, to get him to come out with us, but he needed to rest and recover from his first few days on board, so the two of us headed to the beach. The normal place crew go was rather full by the time we got there, but we managed to get a free table to sit in the shade and use the internet for a bit before we transitioned to the beach. I actually didn’t spend much time at all laying out on the beach this time. Topher, the dog who’s always been at Jack’s Shack was there of course, but there was another dog there this time as well. The other dog had an orange ball that people would throw and she would race after it, only to lay it on the beach close to where she found it, and then bark at it until someone threw it again. And I discovered the Topher loves to play with Frisbees! Mine now has quite a few teeth marks on it, but he didn’t bite all the way through it or even chew on it really, he would just chase after it, pick it up and then run around the beach with it. I had a fun time chasing him down for the Frisbee, because he’s a smart dog and knew to switch directions randomly and quickly to confuse me. Later in the afternoon, another dog came up with a toy of his own, a giant rock/shell that he carried around. I think he just liked to run around, because he only gave up the shell for me to throw twice. It was a fun hanging out with people and splashing around in the water with the dogs.

I had to work at 3, so I headed back a bit early to shower and get ready before I went upstairs and put a sign on the door saying I was in the Lido, since I hadn’t had lunch yet. Finally I remembered to try the new grill by the pool called Dive In. It’s actually very good, even better than the burgers and stuff they used to have. Of course, it helps that they can give you cheesy fries! Turns out that I wasn’t the only one with that idea today, because I joined Megan, Matt and Cassandra at a table (at the end of their meal, they didn’t stay for too long) and they all had the trays, and then Michelle and Krista joined me, also with trays, and Jeremy joined us as well, with yet another Dive-In tray. We sat and talked for a while before everyone had to go our separate ways, either for a nap or work. I went back to the Loft and sat around there waiting to see if any of my teens would show up, but not really expecting any to, since none of them showed yesterday, the sea day! It’s going to be a slow week in the Loft.

climbing waterfalls!

February 12, 2014: Ocho Rios, Jamaica
I had raft drill this morning, but it wasn’t anything more than: do you know how to find your liferaft? okay, well then you can leave now. After the drill, I went back to the room to call Amanda since she and I had agreed last night to get off the ship together. Johan had invited her to come with a group to climb up a waterfall, so we changed our nonexistent plans and joined the group. I had 5 minutes to get ready! I managed it though! It was a fun group: Martien (now my YPC), Amanda, Johan, Megan, Matt, Cassandra and a girl from the casino. Cassandra organized it, though we didn’t know too much about it beforehand, so she was upset when we found out it was 7 dollars to rent water shoes (required to climb the falls) from the place outside, instead of 3 dollars which is what she had previously been told. Turns out that the $3 rental was INSISDE the park area. It was nice though because crew got a discount on entrance to the falls: $6 instead of $20! We put our stuff in the locker and decided that we didn’t need a guide, so we made our way to the beach, the start of the falls, on our own.

We had a fun climb and quickly realized that we were smart not to get a guide. The guided climbing groups looked absolutely terrified as they held hands and stepped up the equivalent of stairs the whole way up. That would’ve been very boring for us. We were the adventurous ones, finding our own ways up, accidently stepping in holes and walking into rocks, and stopping to take pictures every so often (Matt had a waterproof camera). The climb itself really didn’t take that long, despite our frequent photo stops, what really took longest before we started was the locker-rental for our stuff, figuring out the guide situation, wandering around taking pictures of the falls before we climbed them, and just general confusion of trying to make sure we were all together. We’d told the taxi guide that we would only be two hours, so once we finished the climb, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to get our stuff and walk 15 minutes back to the parking lot.

We had the taxi drop us off in town (only a 5 minute walk from the ship), and we got some lunch (finally, it was after 2 by then!) and wifi before heading back to the ship.

I didn’t really do anything else interesting the rest of the day. Actually, all I did do was take a nap and watch movies.