Well... We're in St. Thomas again. The ship has officially been repositioned from New York to Miami. It's been an eventful couple weeks. Unfortunately, they've been keeping me pretty busy and by the time I get a few free minutes to write anything, I'm ready to drop. So you'll have to wait for the full update until later.
I just wanted to take a minute to bitch about this week - and we've only been on this cruise since Saturday. We've got a private group onboard this week - about 600 jazz nuts and the musicians they came to see. And they like to treat us like they own the ship, which is really annoying. They close all the lounges for private events and like to talk to us (the techs anyway) like we don't know the first thing about what we're doing... And then make ludicrous demands, like moving a grand piano into Dazzles (which is a small lounge, deck 7 forward) because the other lounge they've been using (Star Bar, deck 13 midship) is too small. Sorry dudes, you knew the size of the ship and the lounges before booking the cruise. Do what everyone else does and play a keyboard. But oh MAN, some of these jazz guys would SHIT themselves if you told them to play a keyboard instead of a piano with the top all the way open. Or even a grand piano with the top closed. God forbid!!!
Pricks.
The tech they brought with them... I could've knocked the dude out the first night. He's gotten a little better (with me anyway) since we've talked and he realized I know what the hell I'm doing and I learned recording on analog gear... That I know how to cut tape and I know how to chain an LA2A and an 1176. The first night, he was over my shoulder barking orders and I wanted to turn around and break his nose.
The funny part is, I like jazz... But after this week I could do without it for a while.
Ok, gotta get back to the ship and do some laundry before work (more jazz... yay)
I've got a few pictures from the beach the other day - none of me, of course haha - and uh... a few random ones from some of the ports we've been in. Nothing too exciting because... For the most part, they were crap. I didn't go to the beach and if you don't do that, they're like run down third world countries nearly... So not many pictures.
Anyway, more about that later.
See ya!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Oh the EXCITEMENT!
People complain that I have no pictures of ME in any of these places I go...
So here's a picture of me in New York! Note how thrilled I am to be here!
OR maybe what I should do is have the guys onboard take my picture in front of their big green screen and superimpose myself onto some of my other pictures... Now THAT'S an idea! Heh heh heh...
Anyway, we're in New York for the last time today. After we leave here, it's off to the Caribbean and then Miami, where we sail out of until April.
I had a passenger give me a gift last night... I mean she got something for several people but... I mean it's a $40 Nautica leather wallet, which is no small trinket. She was this Indian lady in her late 30s who had come on the cruise by herself. Ya know, finally having the resources to do all the things she's wanted to do and having the courage to get out there and do them... That sort of thing. Anyway, so Lisa first got to know her and then, through her, I was introduced, as well as several others. And I guess we made such a difference in her cruise - to have some people to talk to and hang out with in the evenings and stuff - that she got us all gifts. I was pretty blown away...
anyway... it sucks calling people sometimes because I use a prepaid phone card and it shows up as a number people don't recognize, so they don't answer. I mean I can't blame them, I did the same thing with unknown numbers. But still - got off the ship all excited to talk to a bunch of people and no one answered the phone. Did get to talk to my brother though, which was nice.
Anyway, it's about time to pack it up and head for the ship. I'd like to not be scrambling on 30 seconds before all aboard for once :)
So... I've got basic safety training for the next week, so I'm not sure how much time in ports I'll have so... We're in Miami on the 15th (which is when Felix moves out, actually) so hopefully I'll have a chance to get online sooner than the next 13 days. Blah!
But... Til then... Later!
So here's a picture of me in New York! Note how thrilled I am to be here!
OR maybe what I should do is have the guys onboard take my picture in front of their big green screen and superimpose myself onto some of my other pictures... Now THAT'S an idea! Heh heh heh...
Anyway, we're in New York for the last time today. After we leave here, it's off to the Caribbean and then Miami, where we sail out of until April.
I had a passenger give me a gift last night... I mean she got something for several people but... I mean it's a $40 Nautica leather wallet, which is no small trinket. She was this Indian lady in her late 30s who had come on the cruise by herself. Ya know, finally having the resources to do all the things she's wanted to do and having the courage to get out there and do them... That sort of thing. Anyway, so Lisa first got to know her and then, through her, I was introduced, as well as several others. And I guess we made such a difference in her cruise - to have some people to talk to and hang out with in the evenings and stuff - that she got us all gifts. I was pretty blown away...
anyway... it sucks calling people sometimes because I use a prepaid phone card and it shows up as a number people don't recognize, so they don't answer. I mean I can't blame them, I did the same thing with unknown numbers. But still - got off the ship all excited to talk to a bunch of people and no one answered the phone. Did get to talk to my brother though, which was nice.
Anyway, it's about time to pack it up and head for the ship. I'd like to not be scrambling on 30 seconds before all aboard for once :)
So... I've got basic safety training for the next week, so I'm not sure how much time in ports I'll have so... We're in Miami on the 15th (which is when Felix moves out, actually) so hopefully I'll have a chance to get online sooner than the next 13 days. Blah!
But... Til then... Later!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Nearly a Month... As Promised!
12:09pm ADT/11:09am EDT
Alright then… Here it is, as promised – an overview of the last few weeks here aboard the Norwegian Dawn. I’ve meant to sit down and write on SEVERAL occasions and, for one reason or another, haven’t. And most of those times, it was pretty eventful around here, so hopefully I’ll remember everything and this won’t be too much of a novel at the same time. Ok so… *flashback/dream sequence sound*
New York has been frustrating pretty much every time I’ve been there… Searching for things I can’t find, or finding things that are of no help. I haven’t had an opportunity to venture outside of this rectangle from about 60th-32nd and 12th-7th, wherein you’ll find Times Square, Madison Square Garden, and some of Central Park… So I guess I don’t need to go far from there anyway. Not a whole lot to talk about in New York, really. My attempts to send money and get a haircut amounted to only tired legs for a few weeks in a row, but I was able to manage both eventually. Other than that, I walked past Juliard and bought an H.P. Lovecraft book at Barnes and Noble, so I’d have something interesting to read. And that’s New York.
A few cruises back – three I believe… they all kind of run together – while sailing to Bermuda on Monday evening, the ocean started to get a little bit rocky. It seemed a little odd and out of place but… What do I know. And then Pedro (cruise director) came on the PA and announced that the ship had pulled a U-turn and was headed full steam back towards New York. Apparently there had been a medical emergency onboard with a passenger and we had to get within helicopter-flight distance so that the Coast Guard could land a chopper on the ship and evacuate this passenger. I’ve heard a few different stories about what happened, but it seems either a guy had a stroke, or a lady lied about how far along she was in her pregnancy so that she could come onboard and then had her baby prematurely. Either way, they were airlifted off of the ship late Monday night. The ocean becoming rocky is relevant because you don’t feel it as much when you’re going slow, but it’s more dramatic when you’re going fast. So I’d noticed we were going faster (after the turn) before knowing that we were going faster. Anyway, we didn’t go ALL the way back to New York, just close enough to get the helicopter on. Then we turned back around, and sailed quite a bit faster than our usual cruising speed and arrived in Bermuda on time Wednesday morning. That was the excitement around the ship for a few days.
Then two cruises ago, I was sick for most of the week. It was really going around – lots of sinus pressure and congestion, and a fever. Eventually it dropped into my chest and was a pretty nasty cough and I felt generally horrible for a few days. After about 5 days, I got around to going to the doctor who put me on Zithromax and I started feeling better after a few more days. All better now. But man… Tons of people – passengers and crew – were sick with it that week. It was ugly.
I haven’t had a lot of time to do anything cool in Bermuda. I wanted to go diving and stuff… See the pink sands that I keep hearing about. But truthfully, I kind of enjoy the quaintness of the area where the ship docks and am fairly happy just kind of hanging out there… Which is good because that’s nearly all I’ve done. I did take the ferry into Hamilton one day and went to a Bank of Bermuda. Which was huge. Apparently Bermuda makes a lot of money in the banking industry – there are a lot of banks here, or so I hear. Anyway, where the ship docks is an old naval shipyard. In fact, it’s called Dockyard. Or King’s Wharf. But there are all these old stone buildings and the fortress wall surrounding much of the area. It’s a damn big wall. See pictures. There’s not much here – a few restaurants/bars, a few ship-related businesses (sail makers, painters, etc), and a small mall. Again, see the pictures. It can barely be called a mall at all, but it’s really neat inside. There’s a place inside that has cheap wifi and that’s where this will be posted from… There’s also a couple jewelry stores, an ice cream place, a few touristy stores, a little mini-mart general store thing, a soccer store (?!), a clothing store or two… A kid’s store and a bookstore… And I think that’s about it. But it’s SO quiet and on nice days, I’ve never seen a more gorgeous sky. There is a small beach where I went swimming one day when it was deserted, and then, when I went back to take pictures, it was really busy. Oh well. It’s called Snorkel Park and you have to walk through a gate in the massive stone wall to get to it. There is also a place here called Dolphin Quest, where you can go swimming with dolphins. I wanted to do that but I don’t think I’ll have the time or money… Considering this is our last day in Bermuda haha. Things are very expensive here, I don’t think I mentioned that. A cheeseburger at a sit down restaurant is about 16 bucks. And that’s the cheapest thing on the menu. There are some really cool apartments in Dockyard that were once officer’s quarters when they were built. I mean, I assume they’re cool based on the outsides haha… I’ve no idea what they cost, but I’m curious. And kind of afraid to know! Behind some of them is an area that was called the Victualling Yard, which – to my understanding – is where they prepared and stored the food for the sailors. Now, it’s kind of like ruins. But very pretty. See the pictures! The water here isn’t as clear as I expected, but it’s a really cool jade green color. Oh! Other action – two cruises ago I believe it was… Maybe last week… We left over an hour late because someone had to be evacuated from the ship via ambulance… So we couldn’t leave until the ambulance showed up and they were able to get her off. The captain mentioned something this morning in the monthly meeting commending the medical team for having done a great job and kept her alive… Never heard what happened but it was the buzz around here for a few days.
And I think that’s all I have to say about Bermuda.
Other things about life… Found out the other day that Felix, my roommate, is signing off on Nov. 15. So I assume I’ll be getting a new roommate but it’d sure be nice to have the cabin to myself… Even if just for a week! Uh… A little more about this ship vs. the Jewel. The Jewel is a bigger ship, I don’t know if I mentioned that… or if I was sure about what I was saying if I DID mention it. But the Jewel class of ships are bigger and newer than the Dawn class (those are actually the titles of multiple ships… for example the Norwegian Gem is a Jewel class ship… The Norwegian Spirit, I believe, is a Dawn class ship.) The Dawn has the Jean Ann Ryan Company onboard as well… I assumed all NCL ships did but I was wrong about that. They do three shows here too, but only one is the same. And by the same, I mean the same music and a lot of the same choreography. The set is significantly different, as well as a few other things. Anyway, that’s Band on the Run. Other than that, they do a show called South Beach Rave, and a show called Bollywood, that is their Cirque-style show. I haven’t had a chance to see any of them yet, but I’d like to. We also have a Second City cast onboard… If you’re not familiar with Second City, it’s a Chicago-based comedy troupe where a LOT of famous comedians got their start. Look it up. The cast on the Jewel was funnier overall, but I like these guys. Their improv isn’t the greatest, and I haven’t seen their scripted show but… Either way, I like them as people… They’re all really nice and friendly and whatever. We have a bunch of lounge singers and pianists here – more than on the Jewel I think. The duo, Jose (not José, but Jose… Like “Joe-say”) and Patti, are good and good friends of mine. Patti was actually going to transfer money from their bank account into mine, and let me just give her the cash I had in hand, when I was having problems with that. Very nice people and they’re fun to watch perform. I don’t see most of the other performers more than once a week or so… There’s one guy, Bernie Martini, who is a GREAT singer. He does a phenomenal version of “Georgia on My Mind.” Other than that, we’ve got the showband – which is a lot bigger than the showband on the Jewel. We’ve also got a trio that plays in the atrium, a 4-piece calypso band that plays out by the pool called FLEX, and the main club band, the Sound Bytes. I work mostly with them, because they play in Spinnaker pretty much every night. Other than running sound for them, I do stuff like Bingo, game shows hosted by the cruise staff, the comedy shows there, and any other events. Like once a week, there’s a show called The Liars Club, which is hosted by the assistant cruise director Archie. It’s a panel of four – Pedro, the comedian Dave Heenan, one of the JAR dancers Brian, and the magician Greg – and they’re given a real (but funny sounding) word and must provide a definition. Only one of them gives the real definition and the audience is asked to decide who it is. Some of the stuff they come up with is hilarious. Of course, week after week, it starts to be all the same jokes but it’s still a good time. The words they get are CHUBBLE, TITTUP, TRION, and FULLFART. It’s a good time. After that, we do a show called The Quest, which is hosted by Pedro and Brian… Basically, they divide the audience up into teams and ask them to bring something to the stage… Kind of like a scavenger hunt, but it’s often actions too… And it gets RIDICULOUS. It’s late, people are drunk… It’s fun. They keep score and announce a winner at the end… Give out prizes. It starts out with “I need to see a piece of fruit GO!” and people come running up on stage with their team number and the garnish from their drink… And then “I need to see a piercing other than the ear GO!” – a few weeks ago a lady ran up on stage and just lifted her skirt to Pedro and Brian on that one haha… And then it’ll be like “I need to see a man on all fours with a woman riding on his back GO!” and people scramble and trip over each other… Some others are “A woman doing 10 jumping jacks,” “a man with two bras on his head,” or they’ll get a bald guy up on stage in a chair and say “I need a woman wearing lipstick to kiss the top of his head GO!” followed by “Now I need a MAN wearing lipstick to kiss the top of his head GO!” People just go NUTS and will do some ridiculous stuff haha… The final quest, then, is they get a couple from each team up on stage, and we black out all the lights in the room… And they have to completely exchange clothing. It’s pretty hysterical to see these guys squeezing into their wives’/girlfriends’ clothes…
We also do a show called Newlywed/Not So Newlywed… Which I think was on TV as well? Four couples, usually honeymooners, a couple married 1-25 years, a couple married 25-50 years, and a couple over 50 years… Those old guys are hilarious. They send the men away, ask the women 5 questions and then bring the guys back… Ask the guys the same 5 questions and see if the answers match, then do the same with the women. It’s a good time and causes some trouble occasionally… Especially when they have a bunch of family there, and Pedro asks, “if you were stranded on a desert island, who in her family or in yours would you NOT want to be stuck with?” Or “where is the most unusual place you two have ever made whoopee?” – guys are like “oh man her DAD is here!’ haha… Good times.
The job is still easy… Just spread out throughout the day, which kind of sucks. I usually prefer to get it all done at once, but oh well… It’s not bad. A lot of going up to the cinema and sitting until the movie starts, just to make sure it comes on. Or showing up to a lounge until the singer gets there and saying “need anything from me? Ok cool see ya.” Speaking of the cinema, I fall asleep in those damn chairs all the time. I’ll show up 10-15 min before the movie and doze on and off until about 10-15 min into the movie haha… In Spinnaker, I work mostly with a guy named Dennis. He’s a really nice guy and easily my favorite of the techs, so I’m glad I’m stuck with him haha. I’m the only American and the only honky in my department… And really, the only other non-Filipino is a guy named Alex, who’s Mexican. Think maybe I mentioned that before… Moving on.
Like I said, this is our last week in Bermuda… Our last day in fact, today. After this, we head back to New York one more time, and then we’re on the repositioning cruise to the Caribbean and finally Miami. After that, we’ll be based in Miami until the end of April. Apparently we have to get frisked EVERY time we get off the ship in Miami. They don’t mess around with the drugs thing down there.
On a side note, I’m not big on cigars or anything… But Cuban cigars are perfectly legal here and I kind of wanted to get some to sneak home… Or just one to try, to say I did. But I don’t think there are any in Dockyard and I don’t have time to get to Hamilton again. I had all day duty yesterday, which sucked. The last full day in Bermuda…
Last night was fun though – it was the crew Halloween party. For as much as I love Halloween, I’d been too focused on other things and didn’t really have anything I could wear as a costume. But there was some good and funny stuff last night. They had another raffle – I didn’t win anything this time – and a costume contest. Since I didn’t have a costume, I don’t have a whole lot to say about it… It was fun. There were a lot of other people not in costume as well, so I didn’t feel too bad. If I’d been thinking, I would’ve waited on the haircut, and bought a Superman tshirt and suspenders in New York… And worn my white dress shirt with suspenders, dress pants and shoes, done my hair and put on my glasses… and worn the Superman shirt underneath the white shirt… Left the white shirt unbuttoned halfway. Which is an idea I totally swiped from a guy at Bel’s birthday party, so what! Also, I’ve turned – I’m drinking beer these days. Discovered that I like Corona now, much to my simultaneous dismay and excitement.
Ah yeah – haircut. I finally got fed up with it being so fluffy and a general pain in the ass, and also fed up with trying to find a place in New York to get it cut… So I went up to the salon, which felt weird at first but they were very cool and did a good job so… It’s nice having short, low maintenance hair again.
Shifting gears abruptly, as I’m apt to do – one of the things I really like about the atmosphere here is the general acceptance of people. There is a room steward (I think?) who is VERY flamboyantly gay. Really nice guy and everyone loves him but he’s TOTAL flamer. And when he dresses in drag, goes by the name Jessica… And what’s cool to me is that people call him Jessica on a regular basis, even when he’s not dressed up. Like today in the captain’s meeting, he won a STYLE award for October and was introduced as Jessica on the slide show and on stage. Even last night during the party, that’s what I heard everyone calling him. His/her costume was great too – half and half angel and demon, all homemade. Wings, halo/horns and all. Half of her face painted white and the other black. It was well done… Also, during The Liars Club, there’s usually a “Vannah” who brings the words out and struts them across the stage before the panelists give their definitions. Usually it’s Lisa – my fellow Ohioan – but last night it was one of the cruise staff Mikee. So the first two words he brought out normally… And then the last two, he came out in a wig, miniskirt and makeup… And people went NUTS cheering for him. Er her. Or whatever. Guests, I mean. It was hilarious – though rather a surprise to me. I mean, I knew he was gay, there’s no question about that… But THAT was not something I expected NCL would be ok with, for whatever reason. Anyway, so the general acceptance of people makes me happy, that’s my point.
Ok so there’s 5 more pages about things. Between money issues and them keeping me pretty busy, I just haven’t been in as much communication lately… Which sucks… A lot. I don’t have any idea what the Caribbean is like – hopefully I can find some places with FREE wifi (what a novel concept!) or something. And since several places are American territories, maybe calling won’t be so damn expensive either. They introduced a new thing on the ship where you can use your cell phone to call but… you have to have an unlocked cell phone… And to get mine unlocked I need to pay my last month’s bill with T-mobile. Priority right now is student loans so we’ll see what I’ve got left after I pay them. I’m excited – today is pay day, so hopefully the money will hit my account today or… Maybe Monday since it’s a wire transfer. But then I can FINALLY pay the past due on my loans and get caught up again. Of course that won’t leave me with much – if any – money for the month but whatever. I hear the Caribbean’s cheap and we’ll be there for a while, so I won’t need cash immediately anyway. Getting caught up on back-debt is most important right now.
Ok time to go to work. I spent the better part of an hour and a half writing that, so you better be thankful!
It’ll be Sunday at the earliest before I’ll be able to post again, but probably more like when we get to the Caribbean… I’m not sure when that is – Wednesday or Thursday maybe? Since you can only buy internet cards in $20 increments, that’s cut down on my use a lot… Since I don’t have any twenties haha… Anyway so… Til next time!
OH! Also... There's pictures up from New York now too...
Here's links -
Bermuda
New York
Alright then… Here it is, as promised – an overview of the last few weeks here aboard the Norwegian Dawn. I’ve meant to sit down and write on SEVERAL occasions and, for one reason or another, haven’t. And most of those times, it was pretty eventful around here, so hopefully I’ll remember everything and this won’t be too much of a novel at the same time. Ok so… *flashback/dream sequence sound*
New York has been frustrating pretty much every time I’ve been there… Searching for things I can’t find, or finding things that are of no help. I haven’t had an opportunity to venture outside of this rectangle from about 60th-32nd and 12th-7th, wherein you’ll find Times Square, Madison Square Garden, and some of Central Park… So I guess I don’t need to go far from there anyway. Not a whole lot to talk about in New York, really. My attempts to send money and get a haircut amounted to only tired legs for a few weeks in a row, but I was able to manage both eventually. Other than that, I walked past Juliard and bought an H.P. Lovecraft book at Barnes and Noble, so I’d have something interesting to read. And that’s New York.
A few cruises back – three I believe… they all kind of run together – while sailing to Bermuda on Monday evening, the ocean started to get a little bit rocky. It seemed a little odd and out of place but… What do I know. And then Pedro (cruise director) came on the PA and announced that the ship had pulled a U-turn and was headed full steam back towards New York. Apparently there had been a medical emergency onboard with a passenger and we had to get within helicopter-flight distance so that the Coast Guard could land a chopper on the ship and evacuate this passenger. I’ve heard a few different stories about what happened, but it seems either a guy had a stroke, or a lady lied about how far along she was in her pregnancy so that she could come onboard and then had her baby prematurely. Either way, they were airlifted off of the ship late Monday night. The ocean becoming rocky is relevant because you don’t feel it as much when you’re going slow, but it’s more dramatic when you’re going fast. So I’d noticed we were going faster (after the turn) before knowing that we were going faster. Anyway, we didn’t go ALL the way back to New York, just close enough to get the helicopter on. Then we turned back around, and sailed quite a bit faster than our usual cruising speed and arrived in Bermuda on time Wednesday morning. That was the excitement around the ship for a few days.
Then two cruises ago, I was sick for most of the week. It was really going around – lots of sinus pressure and congestion, and a fever. Eventually it dropped into my chest and was a pretty nasty cough and I felt generally horrible for a few days. After about 5 days, I got around to going to the doctor who put me on Zithromax and I started feeling better after a few more days. All better now. But man… Tons of people – passengers and crew – were sick with it that week. It was ugly.
I haven’t had a lot of time to do anything cool in Bermuda. I wanted to go diving and stuff… See the pink sands that I keep hearing about. But truthfully, I kind of enjoy the quaintness of the area where the ship docks and am fairly happy just kind of hanging out there… Which is good because that’s nearly all I’ve done. I did take the ferry into Hamilton one day and went to a Bank of Bermuda. Which was huge. Apparently Bermuda makes a lot of money in the banking industry – there are a lot of banks here, or so I hear. Anyway, where the ship docks is an old naval shipyard. In fact, it’s called Dockyard. Or King’s Wharf. But there are all these old stone buildings and the fortress wall surrounding much of the area. It’s a damn big wall. See pictures. There’s not much here – a few restaurants/bars, a few ship-related businesses (sail makers, painters, etc), and a small mall. Again, see the pictures. It can barely be called a mall at all, but it’s really neat inside. There’s a place inside that has cheap wifi and that’s where this will be posted from… There’s also a couple jewelry stores, an ice cream place, a few touristy stores, a little mini-mart general store thing, a soccer store (?!), a clothing store or two… A kid’s store and a bookstore… And I think that’s about it. But it’s SO quiet and on nice days, I’ve never seen a more gorgeous sky. There is a small beach where I went swimming one day when it was deserted, and then, when I went back to take pictures, it was really busy. Oh well. It’s called Snorkel Park and you have to walk through a gate in the massive stone wall to get to it. There is also a place here called Dolphin Quest, where you can go swimming with dolphins. I wanted to do that but I don’t think I’ll have the time or money… Considering this is our last day in Bermuda haha. Things are very expensive here, I don’t think I mentioned that. A cheeseburger at a sit down restaurant is about 16 bucks. And that’s the cheapest thing on the menu. There are some really cool apartments in Dockyard that were once officer’s quarters when they were built. I mean, I assume they’re cool based on the outsides haha… I’ve no idea what they cost, but I’m curious. And kind of afraid to know! Behind some of them is an area that was called the Victualling Yard, which – to my understanding – is where they prepared and stored the food for the sailors. Now, it’s kind of like ruins. But very pretty. See the pictures! The water here isn’t as clear as I expected, but it’s a really cool jade green color. Oh! Other action – two cruises ago I believe it was… Maybe last week… We left over an hour late because someone had to be evacuated from the ship via ambulance… So we couldn’t leave until the ambulance showed up and they were able to get her off. The captain mentioned something this morning in the monthly meeting commending the medical team for having done a great job and kept her alive… Never heard what happened but it was the buzz around here for a few days.
And I think that’s all I have to say about Bermuda.
Other things about life… Found out the other day that Felix, my roommate, is signing off on Nov. 15. So I assume I’ll be getting a new roommate but it’d sure be nice to have the cabin to myself… Even if just for a week! Uh… A little more about this ship vs. the Jewel. The Jewel is a bigger ship, I don’t know if I mentioned that… or if I was sure about what I was saying if I DID mention it. But the Jewel class of ships are bigger and newer than the Dawn class (those are actually the titles of multiple ships… for example the Norwegian Gem is a Jewel class ship… The Norwegian Spirit, I believe, is a Dawn class ship.) The Dawn has the Jean Ann Ryan Company onboard as well… I assumed all NCL ships did but I was wrong about that. They do three shows here too, but only one is the same. And by the same, I mean the same music and a lot of the same choreography. The set is significantly different, as well as a few other things. Anyway, that’s Band on the Run. Other than that, they do a show called South Beach Rave, and a show called Bollywood, that is their Cirque-style show. I haven’t had a chance to see any of them yet, but I’d like to. We also have a Second City cast onboard… If you’re not familiar with Second City, it’s a Chicago-based comedy troupe where a LOT of famous comedians got their start. Look it up. The cast on the Jewel was funnier overall, but I like these guys. Their improv isn’t the greatest, and I haven’t seen their scripted show but… Either way, I like them as people… They’re all really nice and friendly and whatever. We have a bunch of lounge singers and pianists here – more than on the Jewel I think. The duo, Jose (not José, but Jose… Like “Joe-say”) and Patti, are good and good friends of mine. Patti was actually going to transfer money from their bank account into mine, and let me just give her the cash I had in hand, when I was having problems with that. Very nice people and they’re fun to watch perform. I don’t see most of the other performers more than once a week or so… There’s one guy, Bernie Martini, who is a GREAT singer. He does a phenomenal version of “Georgia on My Mind.” Other than that, we’ve got the showband – which is a lot bigger than the showband on the Jewel. We’ve also got a trio that plays in the atrium, a 4-piece calypso band that plays out by the pool called FLEX, and the main club band, the Sound Bytes. I work mostly with them, because they play in Spinnaker pretty much every night. Other than running sound for them, I do stuff like Bingo, game shows hosted by the cruise staff, the comedy shows there, and any other events. Like once a week, there’s a show called The Liars Club, which is hosted by the assistant cruise director Archie. It’s a panel of four – Pedro, the comedian Dave Heenan, one of the JAR dancers Brian, and the magician Greg – and they’re given a real (but funny sounding) word and must provide a definition. Only one of them gives the real definition and the audience is asked to decide who it is. Some of the stuff they come up with is hilarious. Of course, week after week, it starts to be all the same jokes but it’s still a good time. The words they get are CHUBBLE, TITTUP, TRION, and FULLFART. It’s a good time. After that, we do a show called The Quest, which is hosted by Pedro and Brian… Basically, they divide the audience up into teams and ask them to bring something to the stage… Kind of like a scavenger hunt, but it’s often actions too… And it gets RIDICULOUS. It’s late, people are drunk… It’s fun. They keep score and announce a winner at the end… Give out prizes. It starts out with “I need to see a piece of fruit GO!” and people come running up on stage with their team number and the garnish from their drink… And then “I need to see a piercing other than the ear GO!” – a few weeks ago a lady ran up on stage and just lifted her skirt to Pedro and Brian on that one haha… And then it’ll be like “I need to see a man on all fours with a woman riding on his back GO!” and people scramble and trip over each other… Some others are “A woman doing 10 jumping jacks,” “a man with two bras on his head,” or they’ll get a bald guy up on stage in a chair and say “I need a woman wearing lipstick to kiss the top of his head GO!” followed by “Now I need a MAN wearing lipstick to kiss the top of his head GO!” People just go NUTS and will do some ridiculous stuff haha… The final quest, then, is they get a couple from each team up on stage, and we black out all the lights in the room… And they have to completely exchange clothing. It’s pretty hysterical to see these guys squeezing into their wives’/girlfriends’ clothes…
We also do a show called Newlywed/Not So Newlywed… Which I think was on TV as well? Four couples, usually honeymooners, a couple married 1-25 years, a couple married 25-50 years, and a couple over 50 years… Those old guys are hilarious. They send the men away, ask the women 5 questions and then bring the guys back… Ask the guys the same 5 questions and see if the answers match, then do the same with the women. It’s a good time and causes some trouble occasionally… Especially when they have a bunch of family there, and Pedro asks, “if you were stranded on a desert island, who in her family or in yours would you NOT want to be stuck with?” Or “where is the most unusual place you two have ever made whoopee?” – guys are like “oh man her DAD is here!’ haha… Good times.
The job is still easy… Just spread out throughout the day, which kind of sucks. I usually prefer to get it all done at once, but oh well… It’s not bad. A lot of going up to the cinema and sitting until the movie starts, just to make sure it comes on. Or showing up to a lounge until the singer gets there and saying “need anything from me? Ok cool see ya.” Speaking of the cinema, I fall asleep in those damn chairs all the time. I’ll show up 10-15 min before the movie and doze on and off until about 10-15 min into the movie haha… In Spinnaker, I work mostly with a guy named Dennis. He’s a really nice guy and easily my favorite of the techs, so I’m glad I’m stuck with him haha. I’m the only American and the only honky in my department… And really, the only other non-Filipino is a guy named Alex, who’s Mexican. Think maybe I mentioned that before… Moving on.
Like I said, this is our last week in Bermuda… Our last day in fact, today. After this, we head back to New York one more time, and then we’re on the repositioning cruise to the Caribbean and finally Miami. After that, we’ll be based in Miami until the end of April. Apparently we have to get frisked EVERY time we get off the ship in Miami. They don’t mess around with the drugs thing down there.
On a side note, I’m not big on cigars or anything… But Cuban cigars are perfectly legal here and I kind of wanted to get some to sneak home… Or just one to try, to say I did. But I don’t think there are any in Dockyard and I don’t have time to get to Hamilton again. I had all day duty yesterday, which sucked. The last full day in Bermuda…
Last night was fun though – it was the crew Halloween party. For as much as I love Halloween, I’d been too focused on other things and didn’t really have anything I could wear as a costume. But there was some good and funny stuff last night. They had another raffle – I didn’t win anything this time – and a costume contest. Since I didn’t have a costume, I don’t have a whole lot to say about it… It was fun. There were a lot of other people not in costume as well, so I didn’t feel too bad. If I’d been thinking, I would’ve waited on the haircut, and bought a Superman tshirt and suspenders in New York… And worn my white dress shirt with suspenders, dress pants and shoes, done my hair and put on my glasses… and worn the Superman shirt underneath the white shirt… Left the white shirt unbuttoned halfway. Which is an idea I totally swiped from a guy at Bel’s birthday party, so what! Also, I’ve turned – I’m drinking beer these days. Discovered that I like Corona now, much to my simultaneous dismay and excitement.
Ah yeah – haircut. I finally got fed up with it being so fluffy and a general pain in the ass, and also fed up with trying to find a place in New York to get it cut… So I went up to the salon, which felt weird at first but they were very cool and did a good job so… It’s nice having short, low maintenance hair again.
Shifting gears abruptly, as I’m apt to do – one of the things I really like about the atmosphere here is the general acceptance of people. There is a room steward (I think?) who is VERY flamboyantly gay. Really nice guy and everyone loves him but he’s TOTAL flamer. And when he dresses in drag, goes by the name Jessica… And what’s cool to me is that people call him Jessica on a regular basis, even when he’s not dressed up. Like today in the captain’s meeting, he won a STYLE award for October and was introduced as Jessica on the slide show and on stage. Even last night during the party, that’s what I heard everyone calling him. His/her costume was great too – half and half angel and demon, all homemade. Wings, halo/horns and all. Half of her face painted white and the other black. It was well done… Also, during The Liars Club, there’s usually a “Vannah” who brings the words out and struts them across the stage before the panelists give their definitions. Usually it’s Lisa – my fellow Ohioan – but last night it was one of the cruise staff Mikee. So the first two words he brought out normally… And then the last two, he came out in a wig, miniskirt and makeup… And people went NUTS cheering for him. Er her. Or whatever. Guests, I mean. It was hilarious – though rather a surprise to me. I mean, I knew he was gay, there’s no question about that… But THAT was not something I expected NCL would be ok with, for whatever reason. Anyway, so the general acceptance of people makes me happy, that’s my point.
Ok so there’s 5 more pages about things. Between money issues and them keeping me pretty busy, I just haven’t been in as much communication lately… Which sucks… A lot. I don’t have any idea what the Caribbean is like – hopefully I can find some places with FREE wifi (what a novel concept!) or something. And since several places are American territories, maybe calling won’t be so damn expensive either. They introduced a new thing on the ship where you can use your cell phone to call but… you have to have an unlocked cell phone… And to get mine unlocked I need to pay my last month’s bill with T-mobile. Priority right now is student loans so we’ll see what I’ve got left after I pay them. I’m excited – today is pay day, so hopefully the money will hit my account today or… Maybe Monday since it’s a wire transfer. But then I can FINALLY pay the past due on my loans and get caught up again. Of course that won’t leave me with much – if any – money for the month but whatever. I hear the Caribbean’s cheap and we’ll be there for a while, so I won’t need cash immediately anyway. Getting caught up on back-debt is most important right now.
Ok time to go to work. I spent the better part of an hour and a half writing that, so you better be thankful!
It’ll be Sunday at the earliest before I’ll be able to post again, but probably more like when we get to the Caribbean… I’m not sure when that is – Wednesday or Thursday maybe? Since you can only buy internet cards in $20 increments, that’s cut down on my use a lot… Since I don’t have any twenties haha… Anyway so… Til next time!
OH! Also... There's pictures up from New York now too...
Here's links -
Bermuda
New York
Thursday, October 30, 2008
AH!
Wow... 26 days without an update. I fail. Much apologies.
And now, I don't have much time to post, but I promise I'll write something and put it up tomorrow, of what's happened the last few weeks.
I just wanted to say, check out the pictures page. I put up some shots from Bermuda.
And I'm alive. That too. A lot of you are asking.
So thanks for your concern!
Post tomorrow.
And now, I don't have much time to post, but I promise I'll write something and put it up tomorrow, of what's happened the last few weeks.
I just wanted to say, check out the pictures page. I put up some shots from Bermuda.
And I'm alive. That too. A lot of you are asking.
So thanks for your concern!
Post tomorrow.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The Switch (and after...)
2:31am ADT/1:31am EDT
Wow… So it’s been almost 2 weeks. Sorry… Kind of been caught up in a lot of things. Eventful day today, and that’s where I’m going to start.
Today was day 3 of Bermuda, so we were departing in the evening… Started out as no big deal – woke up for a training that I thought was at 11 but had been moved to 1… went back to bed and got back up to go to the training… Had a meeting with the tech crew and did some maintenance up in Spinnaker on the lights. It looks like I’m going to be posted in Spinnaker full time – it’s going to be MY room. Which is nice – Matt took some level of ownership for the theater on the Jewel and I like the idea of doing the same in Spinnaker here. Anyway… Did bingo and whatever up there. Ok so more like an eventful evening, how’s that haha
Got the stage all setup for the “famous” NCL “White Hot Party” tonight, which actually was kind of cool. They have these ice sculptures; everyone’s supposed to wear white… They blow “snow” (which is more like very small soapy bubbles) and lots of fog on the dance floor, play non-hip hop dance music all night. I dunno, it was cool… Something different. I wanted to wear my suit and white shirt and a white tie… But I don’t have a white tie. Maybe I’ll pick one up in NYC. Then again, maybe not because… All I really did there was click the mouse once to change some lights, and then get in the DJ’s way… And leave. So I don’t know if it’d be worth changing into a suit for or not… I think I MAY start wearing a suit for the bigger shows in the evenings, though. The booth is right out in the middle of the room and I like the idea of being seen and part of the show instead of being in all black (not that I won’t wear an all black suit of course…) and looking like I’m trying to blend in and not be seen at all.
So then it was a crew party, of sorts. They had a bunch of crew musicians set up in the provisions loading dock area of the ship – a whole PA with two dual 15” JBL mains and two big dual 18” EAW subs – on deck 4. And everybody was going up to the crew bar (on deck 5) for 6 packs, 12 packs, or even full cases of beers, bringing them down to deck 4, and standing around drinking and watching/listening to the music. It was actually a good time. One of the cooler techs here is a guy named Alex (well… Alejandro, but everyone calls him Alex) from Mexico, and apparently he’s a rock guitar player and singer… So he put some guys together and they played 4 covers to close the night out, which was really cool. He’s good and has a really good voice, which is kind of funny because he’s very soft spoken. He actually reminds me a lot of Chris Cornell, watching him play and sing… Anyway, it was good. They closed with Enter Sandman haha
But immediately before them, the Crew Welfare and STYLE Committee did the drawing for a raffle they’d been selling tickets for all week. There were 5 prizes – an HP laptop, a 16GB iPod Touch, a PSP and a few accessories, a JVC mini-DVD video camera, and a Canon SD1000 7.1MP digital camera. It was 5 bucks for a strip of 10 tickets, and I figured what the hell… Bought 10 bucks worth on my account. Wrote my name and cabin number on them and dropped a most in the laptop box, just a couple in the iPod box and the rest in the camera box. Now… I never win at this sort of thing but there weren’t THAT many tickets in the boxes so I thought my odds were pretty ok. I mean I was obviously hopeful. They called the iPod first, and then the PSP, and then the Canon… And lo and behold… They called me! I set down my beer (yes… another revelation… more on that in a moment) and ran up to claim my prize. I got a 1GB memory card along with it, and they took my picture with the Crew Welfare and STYLE Committee chairman. Pretty swell. The battery’s charging right now, but I’ll probably put some pictures up of New York while in New York that’ll be taken on it.
So yeah. I rock.
Pretty awesome, because I’d been thinking about buying a little nicer camera for stills, but money money… My video camera is nice for video, for sure, but the stills aren’t the greatest… As most video cameras seem to be.
Also – I discovered a beer that I kind of dig on. I still am not wild about it and would still take liquor any day but… Seeing as the crew bar doesn’t serve liquor, I’ve come to realize that I need to just learn to like at least SOME beer that they serve. Tonight, one of the techs, Dennis, more or less ordered me to drink a Red Stripe. I’ve never had that one before that I recall… And even just slightly cooler than room temperature – like maybe it’d been sitting in a room that’s a comfortable temperature for me! – it was still pretty damn good. Still had that beer-y aftertaste, but I can live with it. So that’s pretty swell too.
*sigh* so let’s see. What’s new.
Transferring ships was a BITCH. I broke my suitcase, I broke my glasses, I was drenched in sweat and exhausted… We had full crew immigration in New York, which was well over an hour behind. I got up to the crew bar and got in line, and they told signing off crew to come back in an hour. Sweet. So I did that, FINALLY got through the line, and the dude took all of about 7 seconds with me, since I’m a US citizen. So all of that disorganized horseshit for that. Went back to my cabin and started to watch Iron Man on TV… Dave, the sax player in the show band, stopped by and wanted to ask Igor something, but he wasn’t there. Dave had his bag on, like he was about to go out, and I asked him if we’d been cleared by customs. Full crew immigration means EVERY SINGLE crew member has to take their passport, visa, whatever to a customs official and get signed off before they’ll let ANY crew members off the ship. So I was waiting for us to be clear before heading to the gangway. Dave said we had been cleared, just then, so I sat for a few more minutes, gathered the remainder of my things and headed up to the gangway. My big luggage had to be taken to security the night before and “searched” (which was really “open it, ok cool here’s your sticker, put it in that pile”) and then stay there overnight. So I had my backpack and Stephanie’s small carry-on bag. Which was still too damn heavy. Made it up to deck 4 and there was a huge line of crew waiting to get off. Apparently we HADN’T been cleared. Instead of going with my first instinct – go back and sit down in the cabin again – I got in line. And stood. And stood. And stood. Probably for 30-45 minutes. The line FINALLY starts to move and someone (Shawn or Janet or someone) goes “oh Sean! The sign off line is over there!” and points to the other side of the hall. So I pick up my stuff and move to the shorter line on the other side of the hallway that most people assumed were just people from cultures who didn’t comprehend the queue and who were waiting to get out.
Most of the main line goes out, and they keep us there. Finally, someone from personnel comes and says “SIGN OFFS!” and starts leading the group off the ship. Naturally, I follow. We walk ALL the way down to the end of the dock – by the way, I could SEE the side of the Dawn from the exit door of the Jewel – to where the crew luggage was set up… And the personnel office lady comes to me and goes “oh no, you need to go back to the ship and wait for me… I’ll take you over to the Dawn at noon.” Confused and pissed, I start back towards the Jewel – even though I could’ve hit the Dawn with a rock at this point – and look at my watch. 11:15. Seriously? I had to wait til noon for her to come back with my passport and escort 3 of us from the Jewel to the Dawn, through security checkpoints, etc etc etc. First we had to go get our bags. The other guys found theirs right away, but not I. Janet was kind enough to give me a nice duffel bag that NCL had given the crew for Christmas… It’s black and says Jewel Crew on the side. She insisted she wasn’t going to use it ever and it was just taking up space and that I could have it. Of course there were roughly 38938734598701 of them in the crew luggage area. Imagine that. So personnel lady is waiting, rather far around the corner for me, and comes back VERY impatiently, and tries to help me find my bag. Which really only succeeds in making me more anxious and annoyed.
Finally I get everything, and attempt to load it together in a way that’s quasi-ergonomical and not too much of a hassle. And she’s already turned the corner towards the Dawn. I throw my shit together and rush after her. The whole time, she is BOOKING. I mean she is hauling ass. So I’m struggling to keep up with her anyway… But since my bags weighed about a million pounds (or at least more than 85) and one wheel was breaking off of my big suitcase, I was quickly losing ground. Conveniently, the broken wheel on my suitcase popped off about 1/3 of the way to the Dawn. I’ve no idea when I lost the other but somewhere before we got to the K9 unit… Sweating, panting, and carrying my personnel folder now wet from rain, I stumbled into a small lobby area, where they instructed me to un-sling everything and set it on the floor… Which took some effort and I was getting the impatient New Yorker stare. Dog came in, sniffed everything, and walked out. Very pretty yellow lab. So load everything BACK up (again, with not nearly enough time to situate it properly before the personnel lady was nearly out of sight) and go to the passport checkpoint. Right then, 63456 Filipino crew decided to come back onboard and I get cut off from the other guys who were transferring. Personnel lady gets me through passport check, and zooms off even faster through the terminal. By the time I get inside, and she sees me there and turns to leave, I’m sucking wind. Damn near gasping, dripping sweat and rain water… Literally dragging my bag the whole way, through puddles and everything, my personnel folder thoroughly wet. In short, rather miserable.
Drag my bag up the gangway, onto the ship, through security… And relieved to be on. At the personnel office, I sign a few things to get on the ship… They go to give me my cabin assignment, but… No one knows what it is! I hear “we don’t have a bed for you” which to ME means “you’re going to be in a passenger cabin” which is a-ok with me! Of course, THAT doesn’t happen. They find where I’m supposed to be and send me down. Open the door, and there’s my roommate walking around in his boxers, eating something, and looking very confusedly at me. No one informed him he was getting a new roommate, and apparently he’d been living by himself for a few weeks and just assumed it was going to stay that way. There was no room for anything of mine, so he took a few minutes to clean up and I went back to personnel to laugh at the lady working in there about it. After that, safety training and familiarization… Jumping through the hoops, blah blah blah…
Over the first few days, my roommate – Felix, a host (which means Cruise Staff… hosting events and stuff) – made some rather offhand comments that really gave me the impression he wanted me out. Like it was my fault he didn’t have a room to himself anymore. Thankfully, he seems to have accepted it and calmed down, and the last few days have been cool. He’s not such a bad guy after all, thankfully. I have a top bunk though now… Which kind of sucks. I’m acclimating but sometimes I still feel like I’m going to fall off and the ceiling feels lower than it did when I was on the bottom. On the Jewel, I measured the bed to the ceiling, and it was the same for both top and bottom. May have to check that here too… This cabin is definitely bigger, but doesn’t have carpeting… The floor isn’t as cold as I’d anticipated, so I don’t mind the linoleum. And there’s a small fridge which is fan-freakin’-tastic. Still TINY shower though.
After signing on to the ship, I found – much to my dismay – that I wasn’t allowed to get back off. It’d been my plan to sign on, and then head into New York to take care of a bunch of things. Money, phone calls, haircut, bills bills bills… No dice. So now I’m behind on a bunch of things. It’ll have to wait one more day – we’re back in New York on Sunday. And speaking of… I was under the impression I was going to be in the same port as the Jewel every couple weeks… Apparently that doesn’t start til we’re in Miami. Bummer. Anyway…
The last tech – whose spot I took – was also an American guy, named Nick. Apparently he didn’t handle the all-Filipino crew very well. It can be tough sometimes when you’re hanging out with a crew of 10 guys and you’re the only one who doesn’t speak their native tongue. They all speak fluent English but heavily accented and they’re much faster at their own, of course. Anyway, that and some other things contributed to Nick bailing out after only two weeks. Pedro, the Cruise Director, emailed someone shoreside and requested someone specifically trained in audio… And voila, here I be. Pretty sure that’s why I got transferred, instead of bringing the other guy here who ended up on the Jewel. Anyway, all the guys onboard here have been great. I work most closely with 3 guys – Dennis, in Spinnaker, and Alex and Mar if I’m doing anything else. My new boss is a guy named Mike. He’s quiet but jumps right in to help on pretty much everything, which is nice. All the guys have been very welcoming and encouraging for me to hang out with them. They’re always damn near dragging me along with them to go eat or whatever… Not that I have to be dragged to food, mind you. But they’ll just say “come on, we go eat now.” And that’s that. The crew all sticks together most of the time… Eats together, drinks together… It’s cool. You usually don’t see one guy in all black, you see a crew of them. On the Jewel, people would jokingly call the techs the “Men in Black” – but here, you kind of feel like the name means something… Hard to explain, but cool.
Other than that, I like the overall layout of this ship better. I like the atrium really well… The booth in Spinnaker is right in the middle of the room, which is cool. On the Jewel, it’s far off on the house left corner. I like the way the theater is setup better and the décor. The Blue Lagoon restaurant is its own thing and not attached to another restaurant. The wait staff there seems a lot more friendly too, even at 1:30 in the morning. My emergency station sort of sucks, but whatever. It’s inside, in a restaurant all the way aft. Before, I was out on the deck, and didn’t have to move. Now I go to the restaurant and stay there a while… Then go outside for the abandon ship portion of the drill. Anyway, it’s no big deal… QQ, right?
So I think that’s about it. On Word, I’m onto my 5th page, so that’d BETTER be it. Plus I need to sleep. Thankfully, I get an extra hour tonight because we’re headed back into Eastern time. Actually, I’m there. Now. How do ya like this one – I’m going to finish this monster post in less than 15 minutes! (by looking at just the times, not what time zone I was in, of course) I am amazing!
Sorry I haven’t updated pictures in a while either. I got kind of discouraged there at the end and didn’t take as many as I would’ve liked. There are a lot of things that didn’t happen the way I wanted them to but hey… Live and learn, right? Anyway, I should be getting some photos from Shawn, and Brett (Ondine’s, the art auctioneer, brother) from Dover, Oslo, and St. John’s. Had all day duty in Halfax, so I couldn’t go ashore. Anyway, I’ll post the very few I have soon and the rest later. With my new camera, I should have some cool pictures coming up soon of my new locations as well.
Oh speaking of… Bermuda looked nice from the ship. Days 1 and 3 I had to work most of the day. Day 2, I could’ve gotten off… But it rained a lot – actually it rained all 3 days, but most on day 2 - and I needed to do some laundry and other stuff. Anyway we come back here 3 more times so I think I’ll get to do what I wanted to do. The water wasn’t as clear as I’d expected but I think I was anticipating more like the Caribbean – or what I’ve heard the Caribbean is like. It was very gorgeous water, just not as clear as I thought. Definitely had a very nice dark hint to it. There was some cool old stone stuff visible from the ship but, until we come back, I have no idea what it is. Hopefully it’ll cool off some too before we get back… It was pretty damn warm and humid this week… Lots of people out by the pool, which surprised me at first. Mostly because the crowd on the Jewel had been mostly old people. Here, there are younger folks and people who like to party. So things that drew little to no crowds on the Jewel (dancing, the parties, even playing Wii), are SLAMMED here. It’s a nice change of pace in that respect – to really SEE people having fun. A LOT of alcohol being consumed too. Whew. I can’t imagine what some of these peoples’ bar bills look like… I always thought being on a cruise was expensive but once you were there, you didn’t have to pay for anything. I guess there probably ARE all inclusive cruises, but… Not in this company (that I’m aware of) and… Yeah people rack up a LOT of money around here. Must be nice.
Ok, I just jumped onto page 6 in Word. I’m officially done. Hope I didn’t bore you too much. If I left out any big details you’d like to know about, let me know.
I’ll try to keep up posting more frequently too. Now that I’m a little more settled in, it’ll be easier. So til next time… G’night!
(Finished at 2:44am)
Wow… So it’s been almost 2 weeks. Sorry… Kind of been caught up in a lot of things. Eventful day today, and that’s where I’m going to start.
Today was day 3 of Bermuda, so we were departing in the evening… Started out as no big deal – woke up for a training that I thought was at 11 but had been moved to 1… went back to bed and got back up to go to the training… Had a meeting with the tech crew and did some maintenance up in Spinnaker on the lights. It looks like I’m going to be posted in Spinnaker full time – it’s going to be MY room. Which is nice – Matt took some level of ownership for the theater on the Jewel and I like the idea of doing the same in Spinnaker here. Anyway… Did bingo and whatever up there. Ok so more like an eventful evening, how’s that haha
Got the stage all setup for the “famous” NCL “White Hot Party” tonight, which actually was kind of cool. They have these ice sculptures; everyone’s supposed to wear white… They blow “snow” (which is more like very small soapy bubbles) and lots of fog on the dance floor, play non-hip hop dance music all night. I dunno, it was cool… Something different. I wanted to wear my suit and white shirt and a white tie… But I don’t have a white tie. Maybe I’ll pick one up in NYC. Then again, maybe not because… All I really did there was click the mouse once to change some lights, and then get in the DJ’s way… And leave. So I don’t know if it’d be worth changing into a suit for or not… I think I MAY start wearing a suit for the bigger shows in the evenings, though. The booth is right out in the middle of the room and I like the idea of being seen and part of the show instead of being in all black (not that I won’t wear an all black suit of course…) and looking like I’m trying to blend in and not be seen at all.
So then it was a crew party, of sorts. They had a bunch of crew musicians set up in the provisions loading dock area of the ship – a whole PA with two dual 15” JBL mains and two big dual 18” EAW subs – on deck 4. And everybody was going up to the crew bar (on deck 5) for 6 packs, 12 packs, or even full cases of beers, bringing them down to deck 4, and standing around drinking and watching/listening to the music. It was actually a good time. One of the cooler techs here is a guy named Alex (well… Alejandro, but everyone calls him Alex) from Mexico, and apparently he’s a rock guitar player and singer… So he put some guys together and they played 4 covers to close the night out, which was really cool. He’s good and has a really good voice, which is kind of funny because he’s very soft spoken. He actually reminds me a lot of Chris Cornell, watching him play and sing… Anyway, it was good. They closed with Enter Sandman haha
But immediately before them, the Crew Welfare and STYLE Committee did the drawing for a raffle they’d been selling tickets for all week. There were 5 prizes – an HP laptop, a 16GB iPod Touch, a PSP and a few accessories, a JVC mini-DVD video camera, and a Canon SD1000 7.1MP digital camera. It was 5 bucks for a strip of 10 tickets, and I figured what the hell… Bought 10 bucks worth on my account. Wrote my name and cabin number on them and dropped a most in the laptop box, just a couple in the iPod box and the rest in the camera box. Now… I never win at this sort of thing but there weren’t THAT many tickets in the boxes so I thought my odds were pretty ok. I mean I was obviously hopeful. They called the iPod first, and then the PSP, and then the Canon… And lo and behold… They called me! I set down my beer (yes… another revelation… more on that in a moment) and ran up to claim my prize. I got a 1GB memory card along with it, and they took my picture with the Crew Welfare and STYLE Committee chairman. Pretty swell. The battery’s charging right now, but I’ll probably put some pictures up of New York while in New York that’ll be taken on it.
So yeah. I rock.
Pretty awesome, because I’d been thinking about buying a little nicer camera for stills, but money money… My video camera is nice for video, for sure, but the stills aren’t the greatest… As most video cameras seem to be.
Also – I discovered a beer that I kind of dig on. I still am not wild about it and would still take liquor any day but… Seeing as the crew bar doesn’t serve liquor, I’ve come to realize that I need to just learn to like at least SOME beer that they serve. Tonight, one of the techs, Dennis, more or less ordered me to drink a Red Stripe. I’ve never had that one before that I recall… And even just slightly cooler than room temperature – like maybe it’d been sitting in a room that’s a comfortable temperature for me! – it was still pretty damn good. Still had that beer-y aftertaste, but I can live with it. So that’s pretty swell too.
*sigh* so let’s see. What’s new.
Transferring ships was a BITCH. I broke my suitcase, I broke my glasses, I was drenched in sweat and exhausted… We had full crew immigration in New York, which was well over an hour behind. I got up to the crew bar and got in line, and they told signing off crew to come back in an hour. Sweet. So I did that, FINALLY got through the line, and the dude took all of about 7 seconds with me, since I’m a US citizen. So all of that disorganized horseshit for that. Went back to my cabin and started to watch Iron Man on TV… Dave, the sax player in the show band, stopped by and wanted to ask Igor something, but he wasn’t there. Dave had his bag on, like he was about to go out, and I asked him if we’d been cleared by customs. Full crew immigration means EVERY SINGLE crew member has to take their passport, visa, whatever to a customs official and get signed off before they’ll let ANY crew members off the ship. So I was waiting for us to be clear before heading to the gangway. Dave said we had been cleared, just then, so I sat for a few more minutes, gathered the remainder of my things and headed up to the gangway. My big luggage had to be taken to security the night before and “searched” (which was really “open it, ok cool here’s your sticker, put it in that pile”) and then stay there overnight. So I had my backpack and Stephanie’s small carry-on bag. Which was still too damn heavy. Made it up to deck 4 and there was a huge line of crew waiting to get off. Apparently we HADN’T been cleared. Instead of going with my first instinct – go back and sit down in the cabin again – I got in line. And stood. And stood. And stood. Probably for 30-45 minutes. The line FINALLY starts to move and someone (Shawn or Janet or someone) goes “oh Sean! The sign off line is over there!” and points to the other side of the hall. So I pick up my stuff and move to the shorter line on the other side of the hallway that most people assumed were just people from cultures who didn’t comprehend the queue and who were waiting to get out.
Most of the main line goes out, and they keep us there. Finally, someone from personnel comes and says “SIGN OFFS!” and starts leading the group off the ship. Naturally, I follow. We walk ALL the way down to the end of the dock – by the way, I could SEE the side of the Dawn from the exit door of the Jewel – to where the crew luggage was set up… And the personnel office lady comes to me and goes “oh no, you need to go back to the ship and wait for me… I’ll take you over to the Dawn at noon.” Confused and pissed, I start back towards the Jewel – even though I could’ve hit the Dawn with a rock at this point – and look at my watch. 11:15. Seriously? I had to wait til noon for her to come back with my passport and escort 3 of us from the Jewel to the Dawn, through security checkpoints, etc etc etc. First we had to go get our bags. The other guys found theirs right away, but not I. Janet was kind enough to give me a nice duffel bag that NCL had given the crew for Christmas… It’s black and says Jewel Crew on the side. She insisted she wasn’t going to use it ever and it was just taking up space and that I could have it. Of course there were roughly 38938734598701 of them in the crew luggage area. Imagine that. So personnel lady is waiting, rather far around the corner for me, and comes back VERY impatiently, and tries to help me find my bag. Which really only succeeds in making me more anxious and annoyed.
Finally I get everything, and attempt to load it together in a way that’s quasi-ergonomical and not too much of a hassle. And she’s already turned the corner towards the Dawn. I throw my shit together and rush after her. The whole time, she is BOOKING. I mean she is hauling ass. So I’m struggling to keep up with her anyway… But since my bags weighed about a million pounds (or at least more than 85) and one wheel was breaking off of my big suitcase, I was quickly losing ground. Conveniently, the broken wheel on my suitcase popped off about 1/3 of the way to the Dawn. I’ve no idea when I lost the other but somewhere before we got to the K9 unit… Sweating, panting, and carrying my personnel folder now wet from rain, I stumbled into a small lobby area, where they instructed me to un-sling everything and set it on the floor… Which took some effort and I was getting the impatient New Yorker stare. Dog came in, sniffed everything, and walked out. Very pretty yellow lab. So load everything BACK up (again, with not nearly enough time to situate it properly before the personnel lady was nearly out of sight) and go to the passport checkpoint. Right then, 63456 Filipino crew decided to come back onboard and I get cut off from the other guys who were transferring. Personnel lady gets me through passport check, and zooms off even faster through the terminal. By the time I get inside, and she sees me there and turns to leave, I’m sucking wind. Damn near gasping, dripping sweat and rain water… Literally dragging my bag the whole way, through puddles and everything, my personnel folder thoroughly wet. In short, rather miserable.
Drag my bag up the gangway, onto the ship, through security… And relieved to be on. At the personnel office, I sign a few things to get on the ship… They go to give me my cabin assignment, but… No one knows what it is! I hear “we don’t have a bed for you” which to ME means “you’re going to be in a passenger cabin” which is a-ok with me! Of course, THAT doesn’t happen. They find where I’m supposed to be and send me down. Open the door, and there’s my roommate walking around in his boxers, eating something, and looking very confusedly at me. No one informed him he was getting a new roommate, and apparently he’d been living by himself for a few weeks and just assumed it was going to stay that way. There was no room for anything of mine, so he took a few minutes to clean up and I went back to personnel to laugh at the lady working in there about it. After that, safety training and familiarization… Jumping through the hoops, blah blah blah…
Over the first few days, my roommate – Felix, a host (which means Cruise Staff… hosting events and stuff) – made some rather offhand comments that really gave me the impression he wanted me out. Like it was my fault he didn’t have a room to himself anymore. Thankfully, he seems to have accepted it and calmed down, and the last few days have been cool. He’s not such a bad guy after all, thankfully. I have a top bunk though now… Which kind of sucks. I’m acclimating but sometimes I still feel like I’m going to fall off and the ceiling feels lower than it did when I was on the bottom. On the Jewel, I measured the bed to the ceiling, and it was the same for both top and bottom. May have to check that here too… This cabin is definitely bigger, but doesn’t have carpeting… The floor isn’t as cold as I’d anticipated, so I don’t mind the linoleum. And there’s a small fridge which is fan-freakin’-tastic. Still TINY shower though.
After signing on to the ship, I found – much to my dismay – that I wasn’t allowed to get back off. It’d been my plan to sign on, and then head into New York to take care of a bunch of things. Money, phone calls, haircut, bills bills bills… No dice. So now I’m behind on a bunch of things. It’ll have to wait one more day – we’re back in New York on Sunday. And speaking of… I was under the impression I was going to be in the same port as the Jewel every couple weeks… Apparently that doesn’t start til we’re in Miami. Bummer. Anyway…
The last tech – whose spot I took – was also an American guy, named Nick. Apparently he didn’t handle the all-Filipino crew very well. It can be tough sometimes when you’re hanging out with a crew of 10 guys and you’re the only one who doesn’t speak their native tongue. They all speak fluent English but heavily accented and they’re much faster at their own, of course. Anyway, that and some other things contributed to Nick bailing out after only two weeks. Pedro, the Cruise Director, emailed someone shoreside and requested someone specifically trained in audio… And voila, here I be. Pretty sure that’s why I got transferred, instead of bringing the other guy here who ended up on the Jewel. Anyway, all the guys onboard here have been great. I work most closely with 3 guys – Dennis, in Spinnaker, and Alex and Mar if I’m doing anything else. My new boss is a guy named Mike. He’s quiet but jumps right in to help on pretty much everything, which is nice. All the guys have been very welcoming and encouraging for me to hang out with them. They’re always damn near dragging me along with them to go eat or whatever… Not that I have to be dragged to food, mind you. But they’ll just say “come on, we go eat now.” And that’s that. The crew all sticks together most of the time… Eats together, drinks together… It’s cool. You usually don’t see one guy in all black, you see a crew of them. On the Jewel, people would jokingly call the techs the “Men in Black” – but here, you kind of feel like the name means something… Hard to explain, but cool.
Other than that, I like the overall layout of this ship better. I like the atrium really well… The booth in Spinnaker is right in the middle of the room, which is cool. On the Jewel, it’s far off on the house left corner. I like the way the theater is setup better and the décor. The Blue Lagoon restaurant is its own thing and not attached to another restaurant. The wait staff there seems a lot more friendly too, even at 1:30 in the morning. My emergency station sort of sucks, but whatever. It’s inside, in a restaurant all the way aft. Before, I was out on the deck, and didn’t have to move. Now I go to the restaurant and stay there a while… Then go outside for the abandon ship portion of the drill. Anyway, it’s no big deal… QQ, right?
So I think that’s about it. On Word, I’m onto my 5th page, so that’d BETTER be it. Plus I need to sleep. Thankfully, I get an extra hour tonight because we’re headed back into Eastern time. Actually, I’m there. Now. How do ya like this one – I’m going to finish this monster post in less than 15 minutes! (by looking at just the times, not what time zone I was in, of course) I am amazing!
Sorry I haven’t updated pictures in a while either. I got kind of discouraged there at the end and didn’t take as many as I would’ve liked. There are a lot of things that didn’t happen the way I wanted them to but hey… Live and learn, right? Anyway, I should be getting some photos from Shawn, and Brett (Ondine’s, the art auctioneer, brother) from Dover, Oslo, and St. John’s. Had all day duty in Halfax, so I couldn’t go ashore. Anyway, I’ll post the very few I have soon and the rest later. With my new camera, I should have some cool pictures coming up soon of my new locations as well.
Oh speaking of… Bermuda looked nice from the ship. Days 1 and 3 I had to work most of the day. Day 2, I could’ve gotten off… But it rained a lot – actually it rained all 3 days, but most on day 2 - and I needed to do some laundry and other stuff. Anyway we come back here 3 more times so I think I’ll get to do what I wanted to do. The water wasn’t as clear as I’d expected but I think I was anticipating more like the Caribbean – or what I’ve heard the Caribbean is like. It was very gorgeous water, just not as clear as I thought. Definitely had a very nice dark hint to it. There was some cool old stone stuff visible from the ship but, until we come back, I have no idea what it is. Hopefully it’ll cool off some too before we get back… It was pretty damn warm and humid this week… Lots of people out by the pool, which surprised me at first. Mostly because the crowd on the Jewel had been mostly old people. Here, there are younger folks and people who like to party. So things that drew little to no crowds on the Jewel (dancing, the parties, even playing Wii), are SLAMMED here. It’s a nice change of pace in that respect – to really SEE people having fun. A LOT of alcohol being consumed too. Whew. I can’t imagine what some of these peoples’ bar bills look like… I always thought being on a cruise was expensive but once you were there, you didn’t have to pay for anything. I guess there probably ARE all inclusive cruises, but… Not in this company (that I’m aware of) and… Yeah people rack up a LOT of money around here. Must be nice.
Ok, I just jumped onto page 6 in Word. I’m officially done. Hope I didn’t bore you too much. If I left out any big details you’d like to know about, let me know.
I’ll try to keep up posting more frequently too. Now that I’m a little more settled in, it’ll be easier. So til next time… G’night!
(Finished at 2:44am)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Chapter 2 Preface...
1:58am NDT/12:28am EDT
Apparently St. John’s, Newfoundland is the reason there’s a half hour break instead of a full hour… Jerks.
So I got some interesting news today – apparently I’m transferring ships. Damn near immediately. I will be joining the Norwegian Dawn in New York on the 28th. It’s going to be docked at the same time the Jewel is. So I will be signing off the Jewel, walking down the pier, and signing on to the Dawn. Woah.
The Dawn has a fairly similar itinerary, except instead of Canada/New England for October, it goes to Bermuda. New York to Bermuda, 2 overnights in Bermuda, and then back to New York. Tough life, eh? I hear the show setups and strikes are WAY easier on the Dawn too. Also, apparently there are small refrigerators in the crew cabins – but no carpet, which kind of sucks. Cold linoleum floors. Hopefully I can get ahold of (or there already will be) some kind of small rug or something by the bed so it’s not freakin’ freezing when I get out of bed.
Anyway after Bermuda, then the Dawn will do the same thing the Jewel is doing – round trip Miami or New York to the Caribbean. St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, Curacao, the Caymans… Oh darn.
Though I’d still prefer the Mediterranean onboard the Jade, but apparently they just don’t need anyone else. I kind of hope they don’t bring a new person on here on the Jewel – that would be kind of pointless…
In any case, I’m a little excited. A little nervous. A slight bit disappointed because I’m finally getting to the point where more than a few people say hi to me in the hallway, ya know? But it’s been a good experience, and I’m overall looking forward to the Dawn. My biggest things right now are a.) wondering about my cabin mate… I’d REALLY like to have my own cabin but I don’t think that’ll happen. Might be worth asking – all they can say is no… and b.) I need to get a second (smaller) suitcase or duffel bag (more likely), to pack some of the stuff that was in the cardboard box on the airplane. It’d realistically do me some good to mail some stuff home but I don’t know if I’ll have time on the 28th.
So yeah. Big news. It’ll be a new chapter in the blog! New pictures and stuff too – drastic change of scenery. And maybe a little sun… Haven’t seen much of it lately, which is usually ok with me… But I’ll be damned if I don’t miss it a little. A little. I’ll be sick of it in a month, I’m sure.
Tomorrow (or later today, technically), we’re in St. John’s… Apparently there is a Titanic victims museum there with stuff from the ship, and a lot of graves of people they picked out of the water. St. John’s sent out ships to aid in the rescue of survivors and collection of bodies of victims, so… that’s why there’s the museum. Luis (lighting guy) called me from the booth earlier to ask how I felt about passing over the same general region where Titanic sank. I think it’s kind of cool, really. I mean I don’t know if we passed DIRECTLY over it (and I highly doubt that we did) but it was in that stretch of the North Atlantic, roughly where we were… I mean… Very roughly. Anyway, rough estimations aren’t so rough out here where all you can see is water. No animals, no land, no other ships or buoys… Just dark blue gorgeous water.
Anyway… I’m rambling.
Did I ever talk about Basilio the magician?! He’s one of my favorite people on the ship! Of course, he’s only here for a couple weeks – guest entertainer. He and his wife/assistant Daniella (half) jokingly asked me if they could take Gilbert (the other tech working backstage on their show) and me with them to the Norwegian Sun, which is where they’re headed next, because they liked us and how “professional” we were so much. Anyway, I’m sleepy now and have to get up early tomorrow to start taking care of this sign off junk. It’s a 4-day ordeal, really. Getting this person and that person to sign off here and there, initial here, here and here. I’ll talk more about Basilio and Daniella later.
Sleepin’ time.
Apparently St. John’s, Newfoundland is the reason there’s a half hour break instead of a full hour… Jerks.
So I got some interesting news today – apparently I’m transferring ships. Damn near immediately. I will be joining the Norwegian Dawn in New York on the 28th. It’s going to be docked at the same time the Jewel is. So I will be signing off the Jewel, walking down the pier, and signing on to the Dawn. Woah.
The Dawn has a fairly similar itinerary, except instead of Canada/New England for October, it goes to Bermuda. New York to Bermuda, 2 overnights in Bermuda, and then back to New York. Tough life, eh? I hear the show setups and strikes are WAY easier on the Dawn too. Also, apparently there are small refrigerators in the crew cabins – but no carpet, which kind of sucks. Cold linoleum floors. Hopefully I can get ahold of (or there already will be) some kind of small rug or something by the bed so it’s not freakin’ freezing when I get out of bed.
Anyway after Bermuda, then the Dawn will do the same thing the Jewel is doing – round trip Miami or New York to the Caribbean. St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, Curacao, the Caymans… Oh darn.
Though I’d still prefer the Mediterranean onboard the Jade, but apparently they just don’t need anyone else. I kind of hope they don’t bring a new person on here on the Jewel – that would be kind of pointless…
In any case, I’m a little excited. A little nervous. A slight bit disappointed because I’m finally getting to the point where more than a few people say hi to me in the hallway, ya know? But it’s been a good experience, and I’m overall looking forward to the Dawn. My biggest things right now are a.) wondering about my cabin mate… I’d REALLY like to have my own cabin but I don’t think that’ll happen. Might be worth asking – all they can say is no… and b.) I need to get a second (smaller) suitcase or duffel bag (more likely), to pack some of the stuff that was in the cardboard box on the airplane. It’d realistically do me some good to mail some stuff home but I don’t know if I’ll have time on the 28th.
So yeah. Big news. It’ll be a new chapter in the blog! New pictures and stuff too – drastic change of scenery. And maybe a little sun… Haven’t seen much of it lately, which is usually ok with me… But I’ll be damned if I don’t miss it a little. A little. I’ll be sick of it in a month, I’m sure.
Tomorrow (or later today, technically), we’re in St. John’s… Apparently there is a Titanic victims museum there with stuff from the ship, and a lot of graves of people they picked out of the water. St. John’s sent out ships to aid in the rescue of survivors and collection of bodies of victims, so… that’s why there’s the museum. Luis (lighting guy) called me from the booth earlier to ask how I felt about passing over the same general region where Titanic sank. I think it’s kind of cool, really. I mean I don’t know if we passed DIRECTLY over it (and I highly doubt that we did) but it was in that stretch of the North Atlantic, roughly where we were… I mean… Very roughly. Anyway, rough estimations aren’t so rough out here where all you can see is water. No animals, no land, no other ships or buoys… Just dark blue gorgeous water.
Anyway… I’m rambling.
Did I ever talk about Basilio the magician?! He’s one of my favorite people on the ship! Of course, he’s only here for a couple weeks – guest entertainer. He and his wife/assistant Daniella (half) jokingly asked me if they could take Gilbert (the other tech working backstage on their show) and me with them to the Norwegian Sun, which is where they’re headed next, because they liked us and how “professional” we were so much. Anyway, I’m sleepy now and have to get up early tomorrow to start taking care of this sign off junk. It’s a 4-day ordeal, really. Getting this person and that person to sign off here and there, initial here, here and here. I’ll talk more about Basilio and Daniella later.
Sleepin’ time.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Rockin' and a-Rollin'!
1:38am ???/September 22, 11:08pm EDT
I don’t have any idea what time zone I’m in right now.
My brain is on shuffle it would seem, so pardon if this post is very disjointed.
So! It’s been a few days, no? Don’t worry – you haven’t missed much. But your nagging for updates makes me warm and fuzzy… Glad to know I have some readership.
Ever watch any of those “movie magic” documentaries… or the “making of” special features on DVDs? I love that stuff… When they’re making cheesy disaster flicks (or even some good action movies), they have a thing called a gimble. It’s a big hydraulically controlled section of a plane/train/ship/whatever, and they can rock it to and fro and knock the actors around… The last few days on the ship have felt kind of like that. I’ve never had issues with seasickness… Til 2 days ago. Whew. Managed to keep my lunch intact, but I felt pretty much like hell. Seasickness pills don’t work too well after you already feel it, either… They really only work when taken ahead of time. So I spent a lot of time laying down Saturday. Yesterday was better… Today had its ups and downs (HA! Get it!?) but I still feel fairly crappy and like I might tumble out of bed at any second… Even now.
There is really only one comfortable position for me to lay with my laptop in bed and after a while even that becomes uncomfortable. The fact that it’s a lot easier to read than it is to type in bed is a big contributor to my relative lack of posting lately.
I’m reading “The Stand” by Stephen King. I like his writing – very much in the vernacular most of the time… He writes like people talk, and I like that. I like to think that if I were a writer, my style would be very similar to his. Anyway, I’ve seen the miniseries with Gary Sinese and Molly Ringwald a few times, but wanted to read the book… And found it for 99p (‘bout 2 bucks) while in Dover… Which is a great segue for…
We were in Dover on the 17th – I wanted to see the castle but didn’t. Was able to pick up some essentials at local stores though… Soap, a washcloth… Nail clippers. Pulse pounding stuff, lemme tell ya.
After that, we were at sea for a day, and in Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands – which are north and a little east of Scotland. Boat drill in the morning and an early all-aboard… and something else – can’t remember what now – let to me sleeping most of the day. Igor took some pictures and said he’d share. It looked cool from the ship and from the pics I saw but nothing that I would really call an “attraction” and I didn’t feel too hateful about staying on. Another day at sea after that (if you’re counting, that’s Saturday the 20th) and Iceland on Sunday.
I need to shave, my chin itches. I should’ve today but didn’t have time. Beard seems to be coming in a lot faster lately… or maybe it’s just because I’m used to having a lot more facial hair so I notice it more when it’s coming in…
The ship creaks a lot, which I find amusing. And I can hear the outside surprisingly well from my cabin. Sometimes a big wave gives you that feeling like when you go over a hill real fast in the car, or on the drop of a rollercoaster. And sometimes it’s fun and other times not so much. More on that later I think… Back to Iceland.
Iceland was gorgeous really. Mountains in the mist in the distance. The weather was crap. It was in the mid-40s, overcast and windy, and rained off and on. And the big church tower that everyone goes to see was wrapped in some major scaffolding and under construction. Lame. I spent most of my time wandering around looking for that. Got a few things for friends and family…
I’m hearing some kind of siren – probably from a TV or something – but it made me think… The kind of thing you’d hear at home and not even give a second thought to. Sounded slightly like a car alarm. And then you stop and realize you’re on a ship in the middle of the North Atlantic and there ARE no car alarms…
I noticed this in… uh… probably Stockholm… A lot of Scandinavia reminds me of the Pacific Northwest… Like Seattle. Hilly residential areas and… I dunno. I dig it a lot though. Makes wandering around through a foreign country not so intimidating. And most Icelanders speak English so that was ok too.
Anyway – at sea today and tomorrow, and Halifax the next day. Yay. Note the lackluster sarcasm. No, I’m excited to be back on this side of the globe. Well… THAT side of the globe I should say. I’m still far from there. I think we have another stop or two, but New York on the 28th (Igor leaves that day, if I’m not mistaken) and Boston on my mom’s birthday, the 29th.
That’s kind of what’s up in the travels. Oslo didn’t really work out the way I wanted – believe I mentioned that. Spent too much time just putzin’ around, and didn’t really get to do the things I wanted to do. I was happy to have company but in retrospect, I’d do it differently if I had the chance. Or rather – WILL do it differently next time. There will be a next time. Oh yes. I did make it to Kolbotn – where Pamparius Pizza is – and even got the girl at the gas station to draw me a map on a piece of receipt paper… But I didn’t have time to walk there, eat there, and walk back to the train. Norway is an expensive place – we were talking to the girl working the merch shop at the Hard Rock Café and she was saying she makes the equivalent of about 20 bucks an hour… But she pays 35% in taxes and stuff is SO expensive there… That the standard of living works out about the same… for example, 5KR = 1USD… Roughly of course. A whiskey drink cost 98KR. Nearly 20 bucks for a drink. I passed on that noise. Anyway, kind of a disappointment but… It’s my fault really, and I’ll find my way back there eventually… At least I was there. And to quote the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “that’s all I have to say about that.”
The job continues to be easy. I find myself having to do a lot of wardrobe-related things lately, and that kind of makes me laugh. I’ve never had to help a man put on a belt or take off a jumpsuit before – but that’s a couple of things I’ve been doing during the Band on the Run show. They don’t allow videotaping but I kind of wish I had a recording I could post so y’all could see what I’m talking about... But… Then the show last night was a violinist playing to backing tracks and also with the band. She had a regular, acoustic violin with a mic and wireless pack… And then an electric violin with another wireless pack. So twice during her set, I had to go out on stage, help swap violins and get the cabling situated. She said she’d have it on the back of her dress, no problem. I assumed by that, she meant OUT of her dress… But no. So I go out on stage and am basically digging in the back of her dress while she’s talking. It was rather amusing and the guys in the booth weren’t helping any. They were on the com like “make sure you don’t undo her bra! Or maybe you should!!!” – it was most entertaining. I guess tonight I didn’t have to do any wardrobe stuff. I did have to lift a woman up and put her like a board between two chairs – that was interesting.
That violinist… Ugh. She was playing to the beat of her own drummer, that’s for sure. Not so much with the track or with the band, when it came to tempo. Which is frustrating enough but when it’s a VIOLIN. Whew.
Tonight’s show was a hypnotist. A very seasick hypnotist. The first show was a little rough – a combination of just not-so-good volunteers and a lot of people distracted by the ship’s motion… Hypnosis is very centered on calm and relaxation and it’s hard to be relaxed and focus and calm when the ship is nearly about to pitch you out of your chair and shit’s bangin’ around behind you at the bow of the ship like Moby Dick himself is knocking and wants to come in. The second show was much better. One lady took to it really well. But the finale of her show is self hypnosis and she has two guys – in this case myself and Alex, one of the other backstage guys – lift her up after she’s in the trance, and lay her across two chair backs. Think of a board laid between two sawhorses. Same thing. And then a guy gets up and stands on her for 3-5 seconds. It was pretty cool and she stayed rigid the whole time. She was kind of a weird person, but nice enough…
I’m coming to the end of my 3rd page in Word. I suppose that’s enough. My brain has settled from its earlier randomness and I’m kind of tired… Crew party again last night. A little different because we were underway, not docked overnight. So not as big, but still a good time. They put it back in Spinnaker again so it wasn’t frigidly cold… I talked to some people, mingled a bit, and just kind of hung out. And had too many rum and coke’s. Oops. Humorously, the rocking of the ship didn’t seem NEARLY as bad while intoxicated. I’ll tell ya one thing though – it makes your legs real damn sore. Shawn told me but… I really experienced it last night. My hips and knees had been aching for hours and I couldn’t figure out why until… I had a light bulb moment when I was standing waiting for… something… And felt my legs shifting with the moving floor beneath me. And then DUH. No wonder I hurt.
Yeah. I could probably ramble on for 3 more pages. But I’m tired now… I’ll try not to space my entries so far apart next time… Til then…
I don’t have any idea what time zone I’m in right now.
My brain is on shuffle it would seem, so pardon if this post is very disjointed.
So! It’s been a few days, no? Don’t worry – you haven’t missed much. But your nagging for updates makes me warm and fuzzy… Glad to know I have some readership.
Ever watch any of those “movie magic” documentaries… or the “making of” special features on DVDs? I love that stuff… When they’re making cheesy disaster flicks (or even some good action movies), they have a thing called a gimble. It’s a big hydraulically controlled section of a plane/train/ship/whatever, and they can rock it to and fro and knock the actors around… The last few days on the ship have felt kind of like that. I’ve never had issues with seasickness… Til 2 days ago. Whew. Managed to keep my lunch intact, but I felt pretty much like hell. Seasickness pills don’t work too well after you already feel it, either… They really only work when taken ahead of time. So I spent a lot of time laying down Saturday. Yesterday was better… Today had its ups and downs (HA! Get it!?) but I still feel fairly crappy and like I might tumble out of bed at any second… Even now.
There is really only one comfortable position for me to lay with my laptop in bed and after a while even that becomes uncomfortable. The fact that it’s a lot easier to read than it is to type in bed is a big contributor to my relative lack of posting lately.
I’m reading “The Stand” by Stephen King. I like his writing – very much in the vernacular most of the time… He writes like people talk, and I like that. I like to think that if I were a writer, my style would be very similar to his. Anyway, I’ve seen the miniseries with Gary Sinese and Molly Ringwald a few times, but wanted to read the book… And found it for 99p (‘bout 2 bucks) while in Dover… Which is a great segue for…
We were in Dover on the 17th – I wanted to see the castle but didn’t. Was able to pick up some essentials at local stores though… Soap, a washcloth… Nail clippers. Pulse pounding stuff, lemme tell ya.
After that, we were at sea for a day, and in Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands – which are north and a little east of Scotland. Boat drill in the morning and an early all-aboard… and something else – can’t remember what now – let to me sleeping most of the day. Igor took some pictures and said he’d share. It looked cool from the ship and from the pics I saw but nothing that I would really call an “attraction” and I didn’t feel too hateful about staying on. Another day at sea after that (if you’re counting, that’s Saturday the 20th) and Iceland on Sunday.
I need to shave, my chin itches. I should’ve today but didn’t have time. Beard seems to be coming in a lot faster lately… or maybe it’s just because I’m used to having a lot more facial hair so I notice it more when it’s coming in…
The ship creaks a lot, which I find amusing. And I can hear the outside surprisingly well from my cabin. Sometimes a big wave gives you that feeling like when you go over a hill real fast in the car, or on the drop of a rollercoaster. And sometimes it’s fun and other times not so much. More on that later I think… Back to Iceland.
Iceland was gorgeous really. Mountains in the mist in the distance. The weather was crap. It was in the mid-40s, overcast and windy, and rained off and on. And the big church tower that everyone goes to see was wrapped in some major scaffolding and under construction. Lame. I spent most of my time wandering around looking for that. Got a few things for friends and family…
I’m hearing some kind of siren – probably from a TV or something – but it made me think… The kind of thing you’d hear at home and not even give a second thought to. Sounded slightly like a car alarm. And then you stop and realize you’re on a ship in the middle of the North Atlantic and there ARE no car alarms…
I noticed this in… uh… probably Stockholm… A lot of Scandinavia reminds me of the Pacific Northwest… Like Seattle. Hilly residential areas and… I dunno. I dig it a lot though. Makes wandering around through a foreign country not so intimidating. And most Icelanders speak English so that was ok too.
Anyway – at sea today and tomorrow, and Halifax the next day. Yay. Note the lackluster sarcasm. No, I’m excited to be back on this side of the globe. Well… THAT side of the globe I should say. I’m still far from there. I think we have another stop or two, but New York on the 28th (Igor leaves that day, if I’m not mistaken) and Boston on my mom’s birthday, the 29th.
That’s kind of what’s up in the travels. Oslo didn’t really work out the way I wanted – believe I mentioned that. Spent too much time just putzin’ around, and didn’t really get to do the things I wanted to do. I was happy to have company but in retrospect, I’d do it differently if I had the chance. Or rather – WILL do it differently next time. There will be a next time. Oh yes. I did make it to Kolbotn – where Pamparius Pizza is – and even got the girl at the gas station to draw me a map on a piece of receipt paper… But I didn’t have time to walk there, eat there, and walk back to the train. Norway is an expensive place – we were talking to the girl working the merch shop at the Hard Rock Café and she was saying she makes the equivalent of about 20 bucks an hour… But she pays 35% in taxes and stuff is SO expensive there… That the standard of living works out about the same… for example, 5KR = 1USD… Roughly of course. A whiskey drink cost 98KR. Nearly 20 bucks for a drink. I passed on that noise. Anyway, kind of a disappointment but… It’s my fault really, and I’ll find my way back there eventually… At least I was there. And to quote the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “that’s all I have to say about that.”
The job continues to be easy. I find myself having to do a lot of wardrobe-related things lately, and that kind of makes me laugh. I’ve never had to help a man put on a belt or take off a jumpsuit before – but that’s a couple of things I’ve been doing during the Band on the Run show. They don’t allow videotaping but I kind of wish I had a recording I could post so y’all could see what I’m talking about... But… Then the show last night was a violinist playing to backing tracks and also with the band. She had a regular, acoustic violin with a mic and wireless pack… And then an electric violin with another wireless pack. So twice during her set, I had to go out on stage, help swap violins and get the cabling situated. She said she’d have it on the back of her dress, no problem. I assumed by that, she meant OUT of her dress… But no. So I go out on stage and am basically digging in the back of her dress while she’s talking. It was rather amusing and the guys in the booth weren’t helping any. They were on the com like “make sure you don’t undo her bra! Or maybe you should!!!” – it was most entertaining. I guess tonight I didn’t have to do any wardrobe stuff. I did have to lift a woman up and put her like a board between two chairs – that was interesting.
That violinist… Ugh. She was playing to the beat of her own drummer, that’s for sure. Not so much with the track or with the band, when it came to tempo. Which is frustrating enough but when it’s a VIOLIN. Whew.
Tonight’s show was a hypnotist. A very seasick hypnotist. The first show was a little rough – a combination of just not-so-good volunteers and a lot of people distracted by the ship’s motion… Hypnosis is very centered on calm and relaxation and it’s hard to be relaxed and focus and calm when the ship is nearly about to pitch you out of your chair and shit’s bangin’ around behind you at the bow of the ship like Moby Dick himself is knocking and wants to come in. The second show was much better. One lady took to it really well. But the finale of her show is self hypnosis and she has two guys – in this case myself and Alex, one of the other backstage guys – lift her up after she’s in the trance, and lay her across two chair backs. Think of a board laid between two sawhorses. Same thing. And then a guy gets up and stands on her for 3-5 seconds. It was pretty cool and she stayed rigid the whole time. She was kind of a weird person, but nice enough…
I’m coming to the end of my 3rd page in Word. I suppose that’s enough. My brain has settled from its earlier randomness and I’m kind of tired… Crew party again last night. A little different because we were underway, not docked overnight. So not as big, but still a good time. They put it back in Spinnaker again so it wasn’t frigidly cold… I talked to some people, mingled a bit, and just kind of hung out. And had too many rum and coke’s. Oops. Humorously, the rocking of the ship didn’t seem NEARLY as bad while intoxicated. I’ll tell ya one thing though – it makes your legs real damn sore. Shawn told me but… I really experienced it last night. My hips and knees had been aching for hours and I couldn’t figure out why until… I had a light bulb moment when I was standing waiting for… something… And felt my legs shifting with the moving floor beneath me. And then DUH. No wonder I hurt.
Yeah. I could probably ramble on for 3 more pages. But I’m tired now… I’ll try not to space my entries so far apart next time… Til then…
Monday, September 15, 2008
Oslo or bust...
4:08pm CEST/10:08am EDT
Bust apparently.
Made it to Kolbotn (where Pamparius Pizza is) but didn't have time to make it there and back to the train before I'd miss the ship.
Didn't find the official TJ Oslo bar, or the bar with Happy Tom's first sailor hat.
Accomplished very little. Though I did get a small gift for someone and a patch for myself.
Details later.
Lame.
Bust apparently.
Made it to Kolbotn (where Pamparius Pizza is) but didn't have time to make it there and back to the train before I'd miss the ship.
Didn't find the official TJ Oslo bar, or the bar with Happy Tom's first sailor hat.
Accomplished very little. Though I did get a small gift for someone and a patch for myself.
Details later.
Lame.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Sound of Music
11:52pm MSD/3:52pm EDT
Hm… All dressed up and no place to go.
Today’s kind of a let down, unfortunately. The highlights of my day – since I got stuck with all day duty – were gonna be dinner at Teppanyaki and the crew party tonight.
Well dinner kind of fell through. I was scheduled to be in the theater for the showing of the sing-along version of “The Sound of Music.” I thought it was going to be a simple matter of dropping the screen and turning it on… but apparently I had to stay there the whole time because of adjusting the volume up and down during the songs. People started singing and I had to turn the sound up. Songs were over, and I had to turn it back down… Or whatever. Blah blah blah… I had never seen it before though, and actually kind of enjoyed it. The cruise director (Soozy) had some pretty hilarious comments throughout the show that definitely made it funnier… But… Blah. So anyway I had to skip dinner with them, and settle for the staff mess instead. Lame.
OH and speaking of which, lunch today… The mess was closed so cold-wind-deck barbecue it was. As they were about to shut it down, so there wasn’t a whole lot of good stuff left. Also lame.
So… anyway, I’m thinking the party is in Spinnaker again – which is a pretty cool bar up on deck 13 – and is going to be more or less like last time. Last time, it started at 11:30… So after “The Sound of Music” was over at 11, I went down on the big hallway on deck 4 (what we call the I-95), where the crew events bulletin board is… Looked, and the party had started at 10:30 and was in the Sky Bar. No big deal, it goes til late. That being said, I don’t really know anything about the Sky Bar… I came back to the cabin, and changed into some nicer clothes. Last crew party, I wasn’t really sure what was happening and felt a little unsure… This time, I was pretty excited and went up there with a little more confidence and excitement. And got up to the Sky Bar to find… very loud music, outside in the cold, with maybe 20 or 25 people sitting all huddled in hoodies. Not nearly as “happenin’” as last time… And cold. So I skipped out. Also lame. Bah.
You know it’s a bad day when the highlight of your day is sitting through “The Sound of Music.”
Mawr.
Hm… All dressed up and no place to go.
Today’s kind of a let down, unfortunately. The highlights of my day – since I got stuck with all day duty – were gonna be dinner at Teppanyaki and the crew party tonight.
Well dinner kind of fell through. I was scheduled to be in the theater for the showing of the sing-along version of “The Sound of Music.” I thought it was going to be a simple matter of dropping the screen and turning it on… but apparently I had to stay there the whole time because of adjusting the volume up and down during the songs. People started singing and I had to turn the sound up. Songs were over, and I had to turn it back down… Or whatever. Blah blah blah… I had never seen it before though, and actually kind of enjoyed it. The cruise director (Soozy) had some pretty hilarious comments throughout the show that definitely made it funnier… But… Blah. So anyway I had to skip dinner with them, and settle for the staff mess instead. Lame.
OH and speaking of which, lunch today… The mess was closed so cold-wind-deck barbecue it was. As they were about to shut it down, so there wasn’t a whole lot of good stuff left. Also lame.
So… anyway, I’m thinking the party is in Spinnaker again – which is a pretty cool bar up on deck 13 – and is going to be more or less like last time. Last time, it started at 11:30… So after “The Sound of Music” was over at 11, I went down on the big hallway on deck 4 (what we call the I-95), where the crew events bulletin board is… Looked, and the party had started at 10:30 and was in the Sky Bar. No big deal, it goes til late. That being said, I don’t really know anything about the Sky Bar… I came back to the cabin, and changed into some nicer clothes. Last crew party, I wasn’t really sure what was happening and felt a little unsure… This time, I was pretty excited and went up there with a little more confidence and excitement. And got up to the Sky Bar to find… very loud music, outside in the cold, with maybe 20 or 25 people sitting all huddled in hoodies. Not nearly as “happenin’” as last time… And cold. So I skipped out. Also lame. Bah.
You know it’s a bad day when the highlight of your day is sitting through “The Sound of Music.”
Mawr.
Round 2
11:09am MSD/3:09am EDT
Wow… I’ve been up for a little less than 3 hours and it’s only 3am back home. That’s so weird.
Well, we’re back in St. Petersburg. And I have all day duty, which kind of sucks. Apparently it’s freezing outside though. I think it’s mostly the wind because I went out on deck 12 where the pool is and it felt fine… And then the wind blew haha
Had another boat drill yesterday. Which basically means wake up at 10 and go stand on deck 7 while people who are trained to respond to emergencies practice their duties. I am what you would call a Supernumerary – my orders are “await further instruction.” Learned today that they cross train the supernumeraries… We have a job, we just may not be called upon to do it, depending on the situation. So, in my first of two trainings today, I learned that my job is Pier Preparation. Which means that, in the unlikely event that there was an emergency while docked and we had to offload the passengers to the dock, I would be called upon to assist getting the passengers ashore and figuring out where to put them, etc. Thrilling.
Country Gold again last night. Easy strike and we didn’t have anything to set up for today… So overall, last night went quick.
Heh, today I was supposed to set up sound in the sports court but a.) it’s real cold, b.) the sound system isn’t up there, and c.) I know where the sound system is but not how to get it back to the court. I walked every route I know of that doesn’t involve stairs (it’s in a big rack case) and I couldn’t find how to get it up there. We had a Cruise Programs meeting this morning, and then a Production meeting after that – which I had to skip out on for my supernumerary cross training… But I came late, since the training was really short. Anyway, I meant to ask Shawn about getting the system up there but forgot. At this point, I don’t know if it’s worth it to mess with.
Shawn’s girlfriend – I can’t, for the life of me, remember her name (I know she’s from India and her parents were on the last cruise but…) – invited me out to dinner with them tonight. We’re going to Teppanyaki, which is the Japanese hibachi restaurant onboard… I’m pretty excited but also kind of nervous… I don’t know what I should wear (I mean like nice dress or a t-shirt?) – though I assume it’d be better to err on the side of overdressed than under… She (Shawn’s girlfriend) seems very determined to get me out and sociable… Which is nice even though it’s kind of outside my comfort zone and I feel rather awkward at times. Oh well, it’s still a good thing for me – I somehow seem to find those people… Or maybe they find me…
Anywho, crew party again tonight. Last time was pretty crazy, and I’m kind of excited to go again, even if I mostly sit by myself in the corner laughing. There’s a crew barbeque going on right now but it’s at the Great Outdoors and I think the wind is probably too much to persuade me to go out. It annoys me enough when I go to breakfast there and my “eggs” (aka liquid heated to a fluff to resemble scrambled eggs) and sausage (aka turkey sausage…) get cold from the wind. And that’s on a regular day. Naw, I’ll just stick to the regular staff mess.
I’ve been actually doing stuff at the shows now, which is nice. I mean, I feel useful and not just like some guy hanging around… I haven’t even been here 3 weeks yet, so I guess I’m still the new guy and that’s to be expected. When you live and work here and are here every day and blah blah blah, feeling useless is kind of magnified… But, it’s getting a lot better. I mean, I’m still not doing much in the shows… In Country Gold, I get the wireless mics ready before show – check the batteries in the body packs and get them matched up with the corresponding microphone for that person – and then hold the curtain open at one point. Other than that, I kinda just hang out and laugh at the performers doing silly versions of the dances backstage, or the guys singing hilarious renditions of the songs over the com. We had a magic show the other day, and I had a few jobs for that but again… not much. I had to help put the assistant in a box before the show, catch the guy’s coat when he threw it off stage, move some props off stage behind the curtain, and set and strike a chair. So far the most strenuous thing I’ve had to do during a show was Cirque Bijoux – and really the hardest part about that was climbing in and out of the catwalk… And putting the harness on. I hate wearing those things… I don’t recall if I talked about that or not. I’ll have to try to remember to check next time I’m online – and if not, I will! We’ve got that show coming up again in a few days anyway.
And ADD takes over… I’m sure there was something else I was going to talk about but I got distracted by Valient Thorr. And also I’m hungry. Also I can’t stop yawning. Also…
“Don’t need no coffee, don’t need no coal, this motherfucker runs on rock ‘n’ roll!” – Valient Himself
Fooooooood.
Wow… I’ve been up for a little less than 3 hours and it’s only 3am back home. That’s so weird.
Well, we’re back in St. Petersburg. And I have all day duty, which kind of sucks. Apparently it’s freezing outside though. I think it’s mostly the wind because I went out on deck 12 where the pool is and it felt fine… And then the wind blew haha
Had another boat drill yesterday. Which basically means wake up at 10 and go stand on deck 7 while people who are trained to respond to emergencies practice their duties. I am what you would call a Supernumerary – my orders are “await further instruction.” Learned today that they cross train the supernumeraries… We have a job, we just may not be called upon to do it, depending on the situation. So, in my first of two trainings today, I learned that my job is Pier Preparation. Which means that, in the unlikely event that there was an emergency while docked and we had to offload the passengers to the dock, I would be called upon to assist getting the passengers ashore and figuring out where to put them, etc. Thrilling.
Country Gold again last night. Easy strike and we didn’t have anything to set up for today… So overall, last night went quick.
Heh, today I was supposed to set up sound in the sports court but a.) it’s real cold, b.) the sound system isn’t up there, and c.) I know where the sound system is but not how to get it back to the court. I walked every route I know of that doesn’t involve stairs (it’s in a big rack case) and I couldn’t find how to get it up there. We had a Cruise Programs meeting this morning, and then a Production meeting after that – which I had to skip out on for my supernumerary cross training… But I came late, since the training was really short. Anyway, I meant to ask Shawn about getting the system up there but forgot. At this point, I don’t know if it’s worth it to mess with.
Shawn’s girlfriend – I can’t, for the life of me, remember her name (I know she’s from India and her parents were on the last cruise but…) – invited me out to dinner with them tonight. We’re going to Teppanyaki, which is the Japanese hibachi restaurant onboard… I’m pretty excited but also kind of nervous… I don’t know what I should wear (I mean like nice dress or a t-shirt?) – though I assume it’d be better to err on the side of overdressed than under… She (Shawn’s girlfriend) seems very determined to get me out and sociable… Which is nice even though it’s kind of outside my comfort zone and I feel rather awkward at times. Oh well, it’s still a good thing for me – I somehow seem to find those people… Or maybe they find me…
Anywho, crew party again tonight. Last time was pretty crazy, and I’m kind of excited to go again, even if I mostly sit by myself in the corner laughing. There’s a crew barbeque going on right now but it’s at the Great Outdoors and I think the wind is probably too much to persuade me to go out. It annoys me enough when I go to breakfast there and my “eggs” (aka liquid heated to a fluff to resemble scrambled eggs) and sausage (aka turkey sausage…) get cold from the wind. And that’s on a regular day. Naw, I’ll just stick to the regular staff mess.
I’ve been actually doing stuff at the shows now, which is nice. I mean, I feel useful and not just like some guy hanging around… I haven’t even been here 3 weeks yet, so I guess I’m still the new guy and that’s to be expected. When you live and work here and are here every day and blah blah blah, feeling useless is kind of magnified… But, it’s getting a lot better. I mean, I’m still not doing much in the shows… In Country Gold, I get the wireless mics ready before show – check the batteries in the body packs and get them matched up with the corresponding microphone for that person – and then hold the curtain open at one point. Other than that, I kinda just hang out and laugh at the performers doing silly versions of the dances backstage, or the guys singing hilarious renditions of the songs over the com. We had a magic show the other day, and I had a few jobs for that but again… not much. I had to help put the assistant in a box before the show, catch the guy’s coat when he threw it off stage, move some props off stage behind the curtain, and set and strike a chair. So far the most strenuous thing I’ve had to do during a show was Cirque Bijoux – and really the hardest part about that was climbing in and out of the catwalk… And putting the harness on. I hate wearing those things… I don’t recall if I talked about that or not. I’ll have to try to remember to check next time I’m online – and if not, I will! We’ve got that show coming up again in a few days anyway.
And ADD takes over… I’m sure there was something else I was going to talk about but I got distracted by Valient Thorr. And also I’m hungry. Also I can’t stop yawning. Also…
“Don’t need no coffee, don’t need no coal, this motherfucker runs on rock ‘n’ roll!” – Valient Himself
Fooooooood.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Tallinn... or out.
Here's another real time post... A quick one though.
We're in Tallinn, Estonia again today... The last time. And I didn't get off when we were here before, planning to get off today... Except I kind of procrastinated, thinking we were going to be here longer... By the time I was walking off the ship, I would've had to be back in an hour. Part of it was the fact that we had a boat drill and then rehearsal this morning. Then lunch and getting cleaned up and... I admit, some TV...
Walked outside and it was shitty rainy and cold... Not a far walk to the city, but nasty out... So, despite all the cool medieval stuff and stuff from the 12th or 14th century, I decided to stay on board.
Lame.
St. Petersburg tomorrow... I have all day duty. Also lame.
Out.
We're in Tallinn, Estonia again today... The last time. And I didn't get off when we were here before, planning to get off today... Except I kind of procrastinated, thinking we were going to be here longer... By the time I was walking off the ship, I would've had to be back in an hour. Part of it was the fact that we had a boat drill and then rehearsal this morning. Then lunch and getting cleaned up and... I admit, some TV...
Walked outside and it was shitty rainy and cold... Not a far walk to the city, but nasty out... So, despite all the cool medieval stuff and stuff from the 12th or 14th century, I decided to stay on board.
Lame.
St. Petersburg tomorrow... I have all day duty. Also lame.
Out.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Head, Meet Wall.
10:31pm EEST/3:32pm EDT
Look at me… Posting machine today. So the whole point of this post is to make fun of myself for being a big dumb retard.
I’ve been doing my own laundry for a while now… One could say I am proficient in the use of the washer and drier. Apparently, I’ve met my match.
I’ve only done laundry twice, thankfully… but it’s still kind of embarrassing and a big pain in the ass…
Basically, the two times I’ve done laundry thus far, plus one out of 3 of the loads I’ve done today… I put the soap in the wrong place on the machine. Not only that, but I put it in a location where it wasn’t even finding its way into the wash. So basically, the washings I’ve done on my clothes thus far have been glorified rinsings. And since I don’t have drier sheets to at least lend SOME aroma to them… A pretty elaborate version of getting wet in the rain and then drying off. No cleaning at all. Now… I don’t think girls have this problem… and I don’t know if other guys do or not. But me, when I re-wear a shirt… I seem to sweat more than I do if I put on a clean one. That is to say, if I pick up the shirt I had on yesterday and put it on, I’ll be more prone to sweat than I would if I put on a clean shirt. Don’t know why… but the same goes for socks and undershirts too. Probably boxers, I haven’t paid that close of attention… And I’ve felt like I’ve been sweating profusely lately. Or at least, more than I should be given the amount of work I’m NOT doing and the overall temperature. I’d say I have the culprit right here! My own idiocy in the operation of these washing machines. Epic fail.
So, I still have some of the stuff in a “to be put away” pile – imagine me, procrastinating! – so tomorrow, when I can get some more laundry soap (I am, of course, out) I’m going to rewash those, the stuff that’s currently in the drier from the first load I did tonight… and all of the black socks I own that are currently in my drawer, that were among the very first load of laundry I did.
Re. Tard.
I make my own brain hurt with that one. Upon closer inspection, I see both how I was confused and how the machine is labeled to inform you of the correct way to put the soap in. So I understand my confusion and also understand that I’m dumb for screwing it up.
*sigh*
Hopefully good things will come of this anyway – and maybe I’ll be a little more comfortable in cleaner clothes, eh?
Look at me… Posting machine today. So the whole point of this post is to make fun of myself for being a big dumb retard.
I’ve been doing my own laundry for a while now… One could say I am proficient in the use of the washer and drier. Apparently, I’ve met my match.
I’ve only done laundry twice, thankfully… but it’s still kind of embarrassing and a big pain in the ass…
Basically, the two times I’ve done laundry thus far, plus one out of 3 of the loads I’ve done today… I put the soap in the wrong place on the machine. Not only that, but I put it in a location where it wasn’t even finding its way into the wash. So basically, the washings I’ve done on my clothes thus far have been glorified rinsings. And since I don’t have drier sheets to at least lend SOME aroma to them… A pretty elaborate version of getting wet in the rain and then drying off. No cleaning at all. Now… I don’t think girls have this problem… and I don’t know if other guys do or not. But me, when I re-wear a shirt… I seem to sweat more than I do if I put on a clean one. That is to say, if I pick up the shirt I had on yesterday and put it on, I’ll be more prone to sweat than I would if I put on a clean shirt. Don’t know why… but the same goes for socks and undershirts too. Probably boxers, I haven’t paid that close of attention… And I’ve felt like I’ve been sweating profusely lately. Or at least, more than I should be given the amount of work I’m NOT doing and the overall temperature. I’d say I have the culprit right here! My own idiocy in the operation of these washing machines. Epic fail.
So, I still have some of the stuff in a “to be put away” pile – imagine me, procrastinating! – so tomorrow, when I can get some more laundry soap (I am, of course, out) I’m going to rewash those, the stuff that’s currently in the drier from the first load I did tonight… and all of the black socks I own that are currently in my drawer, that were among the very first load of laundry I did.
Re. Tard.
I make my own brain hurt with that one. Upon closer inspection, I see both how I was confused and how the machine is labeled to inform you of the correct way to put the soap in. So I understand my confusion and also understand that I’m dumb for screwing it up.
*sigh*
Hopefully good things will come of this anyway – and maybe I’ll be a little more comfortable in cleaner clothes, eh?
"it'll drive your woman wild..."
The title's from a Jeff Foxworthy song...
Hey I never claimed to be classy...
Pictures -
Copenhagen, September 6
Hey I never claimed to be classy...
Pictures -
Copenhagen, September 6
...Rough Seas Behind
3:54pm EEST/8:54am EDT
So after not really writing anything for a week, here I am writing twice in one day. As if I didn’t yammer enough the first time haha
The fog got worse. Apparently early this morning, they were sounding the horn every few minutes because the fog was so bad. It wasn’t that bad when I got up but… It GOT that bad while I was up in Spinnaker (deck 13) running sound for that dance class. You couldn’t see the water from the deck… Maybe if you looked straight down, but not looking out. I went down to deck 7 and out on the promenade… And I mean you could only see probably less than 100ft out. And the bridge is on deck 11, so I’m sure it was even harder to see up there. They were back to sounding the horn every 2 or 3 minutes. So then I went up to deck 12 aft (aka the back) for this little bar/restaurant thing that’s out there on the very very ass end of the ship, and had a little snack… And in that time, the fog cleared. It was pretty wild… A side note, this ship leaves a visible trail in the water – I assume because it churns and moves so much water – for probably a mile behind it. Maybe not quite that far, but… a real long damn way. It’s kind of weird.
Speaking of that dance class – it wasn’t nearly as bad as the last one I had to work. It was a country line dancing class haha. This one, though, was slightly more ballroom oriented. Still hilarious to watch people with ZERO rhythm try to do easy dance steps. Of course, if I was out there trying it, I would probably look like a complete retard myself. At least I have a little bit of rhythm… The couple teaching it are the same ones who do ballroom dancing for the JAR shows. The guy looks unhappy like… ALL the time. The only time I think I’ve ever seen him smile is when he’s on stage… or earlier when he was laughing at how bad some of these people are and talking about how he hates this part of the job haha
I had a bunch of other stuff I wanted to talk about but uh… I’ve gotta run. Need to head up to the finance office and then go setup trivia… I think. Or something. Anyway, I’ll probably just pick this same one up later when I get back, instead of starting ANOTHER new one.
See ya.
4:39pm EEST/9:54am EDT
And I’m back. Anyway… I had this whole thing I wanted to write about that was things I’ve learned in the last 2+ weeks I’ve been living onboard here. And now I sit down (or lay, as it were) to write it and I’ve got nothing. I can only remember one of them, which was one of the more obvious ones…
Football (soccer to us) is really popular everywhere else. I kind of knew that. So is tennis. That I didn’t know. The US Open has been like a weeklong Superbowl onboard here… Even the Canadians and Russians are excited about it. Well, were, considering it’s almost over but… ya know. They’re still excited about the final. I just found that interesting. I’ve never really given a crap about tennis, but man… you can’t help but get drawn in when everyone else is so excited about it.
Oh I do remember another one… People of other nationalities – specifically Asian and Filipino – eat a lot of raw vegetables. I find it really interesting to see people grabbing platefuls of the raw veggies that are laid out with the salad bar… Ya know, to me they’re just toppings for the lettuce (and vessels for the dressing!), but a lot of people just eat them as is. Even the “sautéed” vegetables are really just warmed up, but still crunchy and what I would consider raw or very near to it. I ain’t hatin’. I just find it interesting.
The last couple of days, the food in the crew mess has been crap. There were a few redeeming desserts, but not enough to make up for the food. Thankfully there are other places to eat on board but… Blah. There was Hawaiian pizza and ham and cheese sandwiches on a couple different occasions… both of which I was very excited about, and both of which were terrible. No good. Doing without pop is probably a good thing for me, but a difficult adjustment still.
And I still have nothing to do for an hour. I just bought a new phone card, though, so I’m going to upload those pictures, so if you’re reading this before you read my account of Copenhagen – not that there was much to talk about – then make sure you look at the pictures too!
After I tear down the sports court (aka turn off the mixer and cover it all back up… takes about 2 minutes), then it’s laundry time. One pair of my pants apparently shrunk in the drier (or wash?) and is entirely too short now. Weak. I really want to get some liquid laundry soap. I hate the powder stuff. QQ
On to pictures. Later.
So after not really writing anything for a week, here I am writing twice in one day. As if I didn’t yammer enough the first time haha
The fog got worse. Apparently early this morning, they were sounding the horn every few minutes because the fog was so bad. It wasn’t that bad when I got up but… It GOT that bad while I was up in Spinnaker (deck 13) running sound for that dance class. You couldn’t see the water from the deck… Maybe if you looked straight down, but not looking out. I went down to deck 7 and out on the promenade… And I mean you could only see probably less than 100ft out. And the bridge is on deck 11, so I’m sure it was even harder to see up there. They were back to sounding the horn every 2 or 3 minutes. So then I went up to deck 12 aft (aka the back) for this little bar/restaurant thing that’s out there on the very very ass end of the ship, and had a little snack… And in that time, the fog cleared. It was pretty wild… A side note, this ship leaves a visible trail in the water – I assume because it churns and moves so much water – for probably a mile behind it. Maybe not quite that far, but… a real long damn way. It’s kind of weird.
Speaking of that dance class – it wasn’t nearly as bad as the last one I had to work. It was a country line dancing class haha. This one, though, was slightly more ballroom oriented. Still hilarious to watch people with ZERO rhythm try to do easy dance steps. Of course, if I was out there trying it, I would probably look like a complete retard myself. At least I have a little bit of rhythm… The couple teaching it are the same ones who do ballroom dancing for the JAR shows. The guy looks unhappy like… ALL the time. The only time I think I’ve ever seen him smile is when he’s on stage… or earlier when he was laughing at how bad some of these people are and talking about how he hates this part of the job haha
I had a bunch of other stuff I wanted to talk about but uh… I’ve gotta run. Need to head up to the finance office and then go setup trivia… I think. Or something. Anyway, I’ll probably just pick this same one up later when I get back, instead of starting ANOTHER new one.
See ya.
4:39pm EEST/9:54am EDT
And I’m back. Anyway… I had this whole thing I wanted to write about that was things I’ve learned in the last 2+ weeks I’ve been living onboard here. And now I sit down (or lay, as it were) to write it and I’ve got nothing. I can only remember one of them, which was one of the more obvious ones…
Football (soccer to us) is really popular everywhere else. I kind of knew that. So is tennis. That I didn’t know. The US Open has been like a weeklong Superbowl onboard here… Even the Canadians and Russians are excited about it. Well, were, considering it’s almost over but… ya know. They’re still excited about the final. I just found that interesting. I’ve never really given a crap about tennis, but man… you can’t help but get drawn in when everyone else is so excited about it.
Oh I do remember another one… People of other nationalities – specifically Asian and Filipino – eat a lot of raw vegetables. I find it really interesting to see people grabbing platefuls of the raw veggies that are laid out with the salad bar… Ya know, to me they’re just toppings for the lettuce (and vessels for the dressing!), but a lot of people just eat them as is. Even the “sautéed” vegetables are really just warmed up, but still crunchy and what I would consider raw or very near to it. I ain’t hatin’. I just find it interesting.
The last couple of days, the food in the crew mess has been crap. There were a few redeeming desserts, but not enough to make up for the food. Thankfully there are other places to eat on board but… Blah. There was Hawaiian pizza and ham and cheese sandwiches on a couple different occasions… both of which I was very excited about, and both of which were terrible. No good. Doing without pop is probably a good thing for me, but a difficult adjustment still.
And I still have nothing to do for an hour. I just bought a new phone card, though, so I’m going to upload those pictures, so if you’re reading this before you read my account of Copenhagen – not that there was much to talk about – then make sure you look at the pictures too!
After I tear down the sports court (aka turn off the mixer and cover it all back up… takes about 2 minutes), then it’s laundry time. One pair of my pants apparently shrunk in the drier (or wash?) and is entirely too short now. Weak. I really want to get some liquid laundry soap. I hate the powder stuff. QQ
On to pictures. Later.
Rough Seas Ahead...
12:18pm EEST/5:18am EDT
Hm… It’s been a few days! Being without cash has meant not much internet time, so I guess I haven’t really been keeping up on this either… The paradox is I should be doing this MORE when I don’t have internet so that when I do I can post them… Hm…
Anyway, not a WHOLE lot to report really. Things have been getting easier. On the 4th, we were in Dover again and, as far as my job is concerned, everything is now on repeat. I suppose some of the shows are in a little different order, and we have a different magic act now… But the big setups – the JAR stuff – are exactly the same. The sets and strikes of their stuff get easier each time, so that’s good news too. Makes a big difference for me when I’m not just standing around clueless…
Um… Didn’t go ashore in Tallinn, pretty sure I mentioned that. I’m forgetful enough that I don’t remember what I said… and I think I discussed Tallinn in a real-time post so I can’t go back and reference it without internet. Ah!
So… Tallinn, Dover, sea day… All of those days, the sea was really rough. 7-12ft waves if I remember correctly. And then Copenhagen.
Since I didn’t go ashore last time, I went this time. It’s a very nice city… clean and pleasant. As usual, I just kinda wandered around the city. Made my way first to the Little Mermaid statue, which is of the main character from the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. The one the Disney movie was based on? Yeah… It’s surprisingly small and in a kind of non-descript location. By small, I really mean life-size. But since so many statues are huge and way bigger than the real thing, it’s odd to see this life-size one just kind of sitting there. Look at the pictures, you’ll see. I then wandered up to this really cool fountain/statue of a woman behind a plow with a whip behind a team of bulls. The water sprayed up around the plow, like she was plowing the water… And water sprayed from the nostrils of the bulls. It was pretty cool. And large. There’s pictures of that too. Wandered by a bunch of random other statues. Like most places, the information about most of these things were in the native language, so I have no idea what any of them are. Doesn’t make them any less cool though. Had some troubles with my BRAND NEW 4GB memory card for my camera, but luckily I have a backup (thanks Steph!) so I was still able to get some cool pictures…
Next to that big fountain with the bulls and the plow, there was this cool cathedral. I started taking pictures of it, and saw a sign that talked about it. Should’ve photographed the sign because I don’t remember much about it… I do remember, however, that it was constructed in the 1880s and I was kind of disappointed by that. It looks a lot older and I wasn’t nearly as interested after that haha – still, it looked neat and was set in a very pretty place so… From there, I went into Denmark’s oldest fortress. It was surrounded by a moat, with two bridges on opposite ends of the ramparts. So only two gates to guard, surrounded by big hills of earth. Walls of earth, really. In the center, then, were the barracks, store, offices, and church. There was a wedding at the church, which was kind of cool. Behind the church was a very cliché windmill, so I took pictures of that too haha
From the fortress, I could see the big dome top of… something. Looked like a big cathedral so I started wandering my way towards that. On the way, I saw several things that were Russian-influenced, which I thought was very interesting. Like a café, called Café Petersborg, and this cathedral with the onion top spires (that were, of course, all gold). See photos for that one. Anyway, I found the big dome… Which was, as I suspected, a cathedral. See a trend here?! Churches are as prevalent in the old world as in America. They’re just bigger, older, and a lot more interesting to look at. If anything, though, they represent even more atrocity and hypocrisy but that’s a whole different story ☺
There are plenty of pictures of that one too, and as usual, I included one with people near it so you can see just how massive the thing is. Wandered around a little more, through a few big squares with lots of tourists and people. Passed by the big shopping row… Or something. It was a street JAMMED with pedestrians… Based on what I’ve seen in other countries, I’d guess that’s what it was, anyway. Needless to say, I didn’t try to fight my way through the crowd, and kept on my way. At this point, I was a little turned around and, even though I had plenty of time, started making my way back to the ship.
It was at this point that I saw the dragon-statue thing on the building and the guy in the Dallas Cowboys shirt, if you’re following along with the photos. If not… why not?!
Maybe because I haven’t posted them yet? Who can say at this point?!
Anyway… Talking in present and past tense about the future makes my brain hurt.
Made it back to the docks just fine. I’m finding I have a pretty good sense of direction. I mean I was pretty sure I did, but this is sort of trial by fire on finding out for sure haha - I sure wouldn’t mind having my GPS though if someone wouldn’t mind ya know… mailing it to me ☺
Perused a few shops within spitting distance of the ship… paid $4 for a Diet Coke. Ow. I didn’t know it was that much or I wouldn’t have, but I felt weird being like “no never mind” when I was already at the counter with my wallet out. Anyway… back on board. That was… 2 days ago. Saturday. Sunday, we were in Warnemünde again. And again, I stayed on board. I heard it was a nice day, but a.) I’ve heard there’s not much to that area, and most people go on to Berlin but that costs money… and b.) I was having another day where I was just exhausted. Yesterday and today kind of sucked like that – the first two nights that I’ve slept REALLY soundly and well… and I have to wake up in the morning. I’d like a day where I don’t have to get up in the morning, and I actually sleep well. I mean… It’s not like I haven’t been sleeping… I just wake up anytime between 4 and 7, and then drift in and out, toss and turn for a few hours. Nothing really satisfying. The last two nights, I’ve crashed and then I wake up and I’m like “ugh… 4am again…” and it’s 9 or 10 and time to get up haha… and I’m like “oh cool!... now why couldn’t I have slept another 2 hours!” And then when Igor gets up and is getting ready for the day, he turns the big overhead lights on. I mean, I don’t claim to be better than everyone (well ok that’s a lie, I do) but… I definitely don’t turn on bright ass lights when my roommate is trying to sleep. I’m thinking that, if I switch to the Jade, I’ll see if they’ll give me a private room. Not likely but it’s a nice thought.
Anyway… blah blah
The job is still easy, did I mention that? The last few days especially, so I can’t bitch too much haha
Today, the sea is eerily calm, after the way it’s been so choppy and rough lately. The only waves I see are coming out from the ship. It’s really foggy too, but the sun is coming through so it’s like a weird bright whiteout almost.
Found out some good news and bad news the other day. Good news is that they do a payday advance, so you can get some of your money in the middle of the month, instead of having to wait until the very end. The bad news is, I can’t get it until the sea day before we’re back in Dover. Which means I still have no money for St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Stockholm, Helsinki… or Oslo! I have to have enough to eat at Pamparius Pizza! If it’s still there, anyway. I have to get internet access to find out if it’s there haha And I was hoping most of the “stuff I buy for other people” would come from Oslo… For all my friends in the Turbojugend. We’ll see. My supervisor, Shawn, said he’d lend me some money til the cash advance day but… I’m not pushing the issue. I hate asking people for money. He offered when I asked him if the finance office might help me out and pay out early. So we’ll see…
Uh… I need a haircut. I’m glad I got these IE40 earphones. I use them daily. Life onboard is still kind of lonely. I’m sleepy. And need a shower. And my eyes are doing that thing where you yawn and they water and you rub them and get irritated so they water more… Very irritating.
But really, I need to get cleaned up. I have a dance class at 2, bingo at 3:15, and trivia at 4:30 – all of which only involve turning on a mic and turning down the background music and walking away… then strike the sound at the sports court at 6, and setup for tomorrow’s Country Gold show tonight at 11. That’s a JAR thing, so it’s hardly “country” thankfully. And the easiest setup of the 3 JAR shows we do… Other than training this morning at 11 – which was about terrorism, so actually kind of interesting – that’s my day today. And we’re at sea today, which are usually the days we do the most work, because everyone’s on board and we have to entertain them. Port days, we don’t have as much going on during the day. Aw, speaking of… My next all day duty is the first St. Petersburg day. Lame! I’m going to see if I can get someone to trade me for the second or for another port. Matt said he’d trade me for Dover, but I don’t know if I want to be stuck onboard all day when we’re in Dover next. That reminds me, I need to check the Jade’s schedule too… If I’m going to be switching, I need to know where it’s going to be when. Anyway… Shower time, for real. Later!
Hm… It’s been a few days! Being without cash has meant not much internet time, so I guess I haven’t really been keeping up on this either… The paradox is I should be doing this MORE when I don’t have internet so that when I do I can post them… Hm…
Anyway, not a WHOLE lot to report really. Things have been getting easier. On the 4th, we were in Dover again and, as far as my job is concerned, everything is now on repeat. I suppose some of the shows are in a little different order, and we have a different magic act now… But the big setups – the JAR stuff – are exactly the same. The sets and strikes of their stuff get easier each time, so that’s good news too. Makes a big difference for me when I’m not just standing around clueless…
Um… Didn’t go ashore in Tallinn, pretty sure I mentioned that. I’m forgetful enough that I don’t remember what I said… and I think I discussed Tallinn in a real-time post so I can’t go back and reference it without internet. Ah!
So… Tallinn, Dover, sea day… All of those days, the sea was really rough. 7-12ft waves if I remember correctly. And then Copenhagen.
Since I didn’t go ashore last time, I went this time. It’s a very nice city… clean and pleasant. As usual, I just kinda wandered around the city. Made my way first to the Little Mermaid statue, which is of the main character from the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. The one the Disney movie was based on? Yeah… It’s surprisingly small and in a kind of non-descript location. By small, I really mean life-size. But since so many statues are huge and way bigger than the real thing, it’s odd to see this life-size one just kind of sitting there. Look at the pictures, you’ll see. I then wandered up to this really cool fountain/statue of a woman behind a plow with a whip behind a team of bulls. The water sprayed up around the plow, like she was plowing the water… And water sprayed from the nostrils of the bulls. It was pretty cool. And large. There’s pictures of that too. Wandered by a bunch of random other statues. Like most places, the information about most of these things were in the native language, so I have no idea what any of them are. Doesn’t make them any less cool though. Had some troubles with my BRAND NEW 4GB memory card for my camera, but luckily I have a backup (thanks Steph!) so I was still able to get some cool pictures…
Next to that big fountain with the bulls and the plow, there was this cool cathedral. I started taking pictures of it, and saw a sign that talked about it. Should’ve photographed the sign because I don’t remember much about it… I do remember, however, that it was constructed in the 1880s and I was kind of disappointed by that. It looks a lot older and I wasn’t nearly as interested after that haha – still, it looked neat and was set in a very pretty place so… From there, I went into Denmark’s oldest fortress. It was surrounded by a moat, with two bridges on opposite ends of the ramparts. So only two gates to guard, surrounded by big hills of earth. Walls of earth, really. In the center, then, were the barracks, store, offices, and church. There was a wedding at the church, which was kind of cool. Behind the church was a very cliché windmill, so I took pictures of that too haha
From the fortress, I could see the big dome top of… something. Looked like a big cathedral so I started wandering my way towards that. On the way, I saw several things that were Russian-influenced, which I thought was very interesting. Like a café, called Café Petersborg, and this cathedral with the onion top spires (that were, of course, all gold). See photos for that one. Anyway, I found the big dome… Which was, as I suspected, a cathedral. See a trend here?! Churches are as prevalent in the old world as in America. They’re just bigger, older, and a lot more interesting to look at. If anything, though, they represent even more atrocity and hypocrisy but that’s a whole different story ☺
There are plenty of pictures of that one too, and as usual, I included one with people near it so you can see just how massive the thing is. Wandered around a little more, through a few big squares with lots of tourists and people. Passed by the big shopping row… Or something. It was a street JAMMED with pedestrians… Based on what I’ve seen in other countries, I’d guess that’s what it was, anyway. Needless to say, I didn’t try to fight my way through the crowd, and kept on my way. At this point, I was a little turned around and, even though I had plenty of time, started making my way back to the ship.
It was at this point that I saw the dragon-statue thing on the building and the guy in the Dallas Cowboys shirt, if you’re following along with the photos. If not… why not?!
Maybe because I haven’t posted them yet? Who can say at this point?!
Anyway… Talking in present and past tense about the future makes my brain hurt.
Made it back to the docks just fine. I’m finding I have a pretty good sense of direction. I mean I was pretty sure I did, but this is sort of trial by fire on finding out for sure haha - I sure wouldn’t mind having my GPS though if someone wouldn’t mind ya know… mailing it to me ☺
Perused a few shops within spitting distance of the ship… paid $4 for a Diet Coke. Ow. I didn’t know it was that much or I wouldn’t have, but I felt weird being like “no never mind” when I was already at the counter with my wallet out. Anyway… back on board. That was… 2 days ago. Saturday. Sunday, we were in Warnemünde again. And again, I stayed on board. I heard it was a nice day, but a.) I’ve heard there’s not much to that area, and most people go on to Berlin but that costs money… and b.) I was having another day where I was just exhausted. Yesterday and today kind of sucked like that – the first two nights that I’ve slept REALLY soundly and well… and I have to wake up in the morning. I’d like a day where I don’t have to get up in the morning, and I actually sleep well. I mean… It’s not like I haven’t been sleeping… I just wake up anytime between 4 and 7, and then drift in and out, toss and turn for a few hours. Nothing really satisfying. The last two nights, I’ve crashed and then I wake up and I’m like “ugh… 4am again…” and it’s 9 or 10 and time to get up haha… and I’m like “oh cool!... now why couldn’t I have slept another 2 hours!” And then when Igor gets up and is getting ready for the day, he turns the big overhead lights on. I mean, I don’t claim to be better than everyone (well ok that’s a lie, I do) but… I definitely don’t turn on bright ass lights when my roommate is trying to sleep. I’m thinking that, if I switch to the Jade, I’ll see if they’ll give me a private room. Not likely but it’s a nice thought.
Anyway… blah blah
The job is still easy, did I mention that? The last few days especially, so I can’t bitch too much haha
Today, the sea is eerily calm, after the way it’s been so choppy and rough lately. The only waves I see are coming out from the ship. It’s really foggy too, but the sun is coming through so it’s like a weird bright whiteout almost.
Found out some good news and bad news the other day. Good news is that they do a payday advance, so you can get some of your money in the middle of the month, instead of having to wait until the very end. The bad news is, I can’t get it until the sea day before we’re back in Dover. Which means I still have no money for St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Stockholm, Helsinki… or Oslo! I have to have enough to eat at Pamparius Pizza! If it’s still there, anyway. I have to get internet access to find out if it’s there haha And I was hoping most of the “stuff I buy for other people” would come from Oslo… For all my friends in the Turbojugend. We’ll see. My supervisor, Shawn, said he’d lend me some money til the cash advance day but… I’m not pushing the issue. I hate asking people for money. He offered when I asked him if the finance office might help me out and pay out early. So we’ll see…
Uh… I need a haircut. I’m glad I got these IE40 earphones. I use them daily. Life onboard is still kind of lonely. I’m sleepy. And need a shower. And my eyes are doing that thing where you yawn and they water and you rub them and get irritated so they water more… Very irritating.
But really, I need to get cleaned up. I have a dance class at 2, bingo at 3:15, and trivia at 4:30 – all of which only involve turning on a mic and turning down the background music and walking away… then strike the sound at the sports court at 6, and setup for tomorrow’s Country Gold show tonight at 11. That’s a JAR thing, so it’s hardly “country” thankfully. And the easiest setup of the 3 JAR shows we do… Other than training this morning at 11 – which was about terrorism, so actually kind of interesting – that’s my day today. And we’re at sea today, which are usually the days we do the most work, because everyone’s on board and we have to entertain them. Port days, we don’t have as much going on during the day. Aw, speaking of… My next all day duty is the first St. Petersburg day. Lame! I’m going to see if I can get someone to trade me for the second or for another port. Matt said he’d trade me for Dover, but I don’t know if I want to be stuck onboard all day when we’re in Dover next. That reminds me, I need to check the Jade’s schedule too… If I’m going to be switching, I need to know where it’s going to be when. Anyway… Shower time, for real. Later!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Real Time
2:27pm EEST/7:27am EDT
A first! I'm actually making a post in real time while waiting on photos to upload (ya know, as opposed to writing in Word and backdating my posts...)
Went to St. Petersburg again yesterday. Walked to the Cathedral of Spilt Blood - should have photos up from both trips today if Photobucket will quit being a bastard. Didn't have time to go in though. I will next trip. Checked out a couple tourist trap vendors and got VERY interested in some KGB pins. I wasn't prepared to drop cash on them this time around but I'm still debating it for next time. Anyway, just a quick in and out trip. Russians are more friendly when they're trying to sell you stuff. When you don't buy though, they go back to being pretty unhappy.
We're sitting in port in Tallinn, Estonia. I have no idea where that even is. But I'm on all day duty today by myself, so I can't get off the ship anyway. The city looks pretty from the deck! haha At least it's a light day onboard today so having all day duty doesn't really mean a whole lot. Had to set up a mic earlier, gotta go put a movie on at 3, another mic later on, and strike the poolside trio. Easy day.
After today, we have 2 days at sea and then it's back to Dover, and we start this run all over again. I wish we were going to be doing it a third time, but... I'll have to make the most of it this go-round. And then it's off to the Shetland Islands, Iceland, and the crossing to New York. Unless I decide to switch ships and stay in the Mediterranean. Which I'm highly considering... I REALLY want to go to Iceland though. We'll see...
Discovered today that I DO in fact have internet in my room. Igor has an ethernet cable plugged in somewhere behind the TV and... voila, internet! It's not wireless but really... who cares! Pretty excited about that.
And uh... I posted a photo in the main directory that's a layout of my cabin, with measurements. The ceiling is 6'9", and a little lower in the bathroom, because the bathroom has a step up.
Ok well - apparently the internet just isn't going to let me upload the rest of these pictures now, and I have to be up in the lounge on deck 13 to get a movie going. And I'm still slightly uncertain on how to do it so I'm going early...
So uh... Word. I'll try to get those pics up tonight. Later!
A first! I'm actually making a post in real time while waiting on photos to upload (ya know, as opposed to writing in Word and backdating my posts...)
Went to St. Petersburg again yesterday. Walked to the Cathedral of Spilt Blood - should have photos up from both trips today if Photobucket will quit being a bastard. Didn't have time to go in though. I will next trip. Checked out a couple tourist trap vendors and got VERY interested in some KGB pins. I wasn't prepared to drop cash on them this time around but I'm still debating it for next time. Anyway, just a quick in and out trip. Russians are more friendly when they're trying to sell you stuff. When you don't buy though, they go back to being pretty unhappy.
We're sitting in port in Tallinn, Estonia. I have no idea where that even is. But I'm on all day duty today by myself, so I can't get off the ship anyway. The city looks pretty from the deck! haha At least it's a light day onboard today so having all day duty doesn't really mean a whole lot. Had to set up a mic earlier, gotta go put a movie on at 3, another mic later on, and strike the poolside trio. Easy day.
After today, we have 2 days at sea and then it's back to Dover, and we start this run all over again. I wish we were going to be doing it a third time, but... I'll have to make the most of it this go-round. And then it's off to the Shetland Islands, Iceland, and the crossing to New York. Unless I decide to switch ships and stay in the Mediterranean. Which I'm highly considering... I REALLY want to go to Iceland though. We'll see...
Discovered today that I DO in fact have internet in my room. Igor has an ethernet cable plugged in somewhere behind the TV and... voila, internet! It's not wireless but really... who cares! Pretty excited about that.
And uh... I posted a photo in the main directory that's a layout of my cabin, with measurements. The ceiling is 6'9", and a little lower in the bathroom, because the bathroom has a step up.
Ok well - apparently the internet just isn't going to let me upload the rest of these pictures now, and I have to be up in the lounge on deck 13 to get a movie going. And I'm still slightly uncertain on how to do it so I'm going early...
So uh... Word. I'll try to get those pics up tonight. Later!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Eh, Comrade?!
3:22am MSD/August 30, 2008 – 7:22pm EDT
Eventful day today… Woke up around 10:30 after losing an hour of sleep to yet another time change. Thankfully after tomorrow, we start to get those hours back. Really I should say I woke up around 5:30 and then slept fitfully and not very well until about 9:45 and then was doing great… Til I had to get up. Bah. Got dressed and went to the theater to help hang lights. That was a bitch. I don’t know how much a Martin 2000 weighs but it’s too damn much to be hoisting on a single pulley way up onto a catwalk. They have electric winches but the Filipinos say they’re “too slow”… I think we’ll be using them next time anyway – to hell with that!
Ate lunch (or breakfast, as it were) and came back to my cabin for a shower. Picked up my pay – which was more than I thought it was going to be, happily… still not enough of course – and came BACK to the cabin again to pack my backpack for the day. I do a lot of back and forth here. Forgetting things or going somewhere only to come right back… It’s lame. But it’s fairly cold in here so I generally don’t mind haha… Anyway, departed and headed for the gangway to make my way into St. Petersburg. Got to the customs desk and, when I didn’t have a photocopy of my passport, was turned away. The security guys on the gangway told me if I showed them my crew ID, they would let me through… So I did (went to a different line!) and got through no problem. It’s been my experience overall that Russians aren’t very… warm and friendly. To say the least. Stood around for a few and then got on the crew shuttle van to head for the city.
Which is a good way to segue into my next point – traffic in St. Petersburg (and I imagine Russia as a whole) is fucking SCARY. There’s not much in the way of lines on the road, and what is there doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and isn’t really paid any heed anyway. People weaving in and out of traffic, multiple cars making turns from all lanes… Including the van driver. I kind of feared for my life, not gonna lie. I’ve never seen anything like that. I mean at least sometimes they use their turn signals. But this made Washington DC and Chicago look like a gentle, mid-afternoon lunch rush. Very discomforting. Very happy when we got dropped off at Issac’s Square. I walked around with Matt and his girlfriend Candi, who is what is known onboard as a JAR. JAR stands for Jean Anne Rynd (sp?) which is the company I believe I mentioned before that is contracted out to do all the shows. Yeah, Candi works for them and is in the shows onboard. Anyway, after taking a few pictures of St. Issac’s Cathedral, we headed for the Peter and Paul fortress. Along the way, we stopped at this really neat old bank to change some dollars into Russian rubles. 24 rubles = 1 dollar. Or at least today. When I go back tomorrow, I hope it’s gone down some so I’ll get more dollars for my rubles!
St. Petersburg, like Stockholm, is a couple of islands connected by bridges. Or rather, it’s a couple parts of mainland that encircle a bay, with an island or 2. Anyway bridges over water, that’s my point. We had to cross several. Got there and walked around the outside wall of the fortress… Went inside, and made for the cathedral. Bought tickets and went in and took lots of pictures. Apparently the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood is even more spectacular… We’ll see tomorrow. Stopped at a stand and got some food and drink. Very difficult to communicate with Russians – they don’t speak ANY English and the language is so different (as opposed to French, German, Finnish, etc) that it can be very difficult for both parties to make themselves understood. Couple cups of coffee, a Pepsi Max in a bottle, a hot dog, a bag of chips, a microwave apple pie pastry thing, and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds… The coffee and hot dog were pretty terrible but… Everything else (read: the prepackaged things) was good. Paid some more rubles to go up on the wall of the fortress and walk around. For both the cathedral and the wall, we showed our NCL crew badges and claimed we were students and got the half price discount. So the language barrier DID help us a bit. The wall was neat – a nice view of the city. Of course it started to rain (again) while we were walking around on it but… It was still a nice view. Got to the end and headed back, and back to the shuttle. We had to kind of hurry to get to the shuttle on time and I was pretty exhausted by the time we got there. Very brisk pace.
Matt and Candi have, of course, been to St. Petersburg before… I say of course because they’ve been on this boat for a while… So they’ve been doing laps around this course for a while. So they weren’t real into a lot of exploring, and after feeling like I needed to keep up with them to get back to the shuttle, I was ready to drop. So I opted to come back to the ship and just go back to the city tomorrow, since we’re docked here overnight. Before heading into the ship, I stopped at the CD/DVD store and souvenir store right next to the berth… Got a couple Russian DVDs, which I’m sure are some kind of bootlegged… One of them sucks and I’m considering taking it back to swap for a more expensive one (a dollar more)… I don’t think they’ll mind. They said if there were problems we could return them and exchange so… Also got something for my parents…
So came back on board, had some dinner, and then came back to my cabin to watch a movie and just lay for a while. As I mentioned, pretty exhausted. At about 11:15, I ran up to the crew store to get my shuttle pass for tomorrow, and then came back to the cabin. Since tonight is an overnight stay, they let crew bend the rules a bit and they throw a big party in one of the guest areas of the ship, up on deck 13 (remember, I live on deck 3!). I moseyed up there to check it out and… everybody was dressed kinda nice and dancing and whatever. I felt kind of out of place in my shorts and t-shirt, so I came BACK to the cabin (see what I mean?!) to wash my face and change into something nicer. Once done, I headed back up and hung out til the end of the party. I mostly sat off to the side watching, but talked to a few people I’ve met in the last week. I suppose all told, it was more a waste of money than anything… I had to pay for my drinks. I don’t know if they were charging for beer, but they were certainly charging for liquor. But it’s not like I really met anyone new or… strengthened any connections with anyone I already knew… I suppose I had a reasonably good time all things considered so I don’t mind too much…
Some people got really drunk. And there are still people partying around the ship – I hear a few down the hall. Pretty funny and… Cool I guess. I just wish I knew more people so I could partake some in the merriment. We’ll be back in St. Petersburg in a week or so, so maybe by then I’ll be a little better off if they do this again. I kinda hope they will.
Finally, the damn phone thing won’t work so I can’t dial out. It’s only early evening at home and I was hoping to make a phone call or two, but apparently not! Jerks. And I still haven’t figured out the laundry thing. I really need to do that – work clothes are getting very slim.
Ok, it’s nearly 4am and I have a meeting at 11 and a bunch of things I want to see in St. Petersburg still. And I feel like my typing might potentially be disturbing Igor. Not likely, he’s a pretty heavy sleeper, which is good… But I just feel better being cautious about such things. I want to be a good roommate and not “that guy”. Hm just heard a snore, guess I’m ok. But the other thing, about it being real damn late… that still stands. I really wish I could get wifi in my cabin. And this blog entry is onto the third page now in Word. I blather a lot. Apparently you don’t mind too much or you wouldn’t have made it this far!
Soooooooo…. G’night!
Eventful day today… Woke up around 10:30 after losing an hour of sleep to yet another time change. Thankfully after tomorrow, we start to get those hours back. Really I should say I woke up around 5:30 and then slept fitfully and not very well until about 9:45 and then was doing great… Til I had to get up. Bah. Got dressed and went to the theater to help hang lights. That was a bitch. I don’t know how much a Martin 2000 weighs but it’s too damn much to be hoisting on a single pulley way up onto a catwalk. They have electric winches but the Filipinos say they’re “too slow”… I think we’ll be using them next time anyway – to hell with that!
Ate lunch (or breakfast, as it were) and came back to my cabin for a shower. Picked up my pay – which was more than I thought it was going to be, happily… still not enough of course – and came BACK to the cabin again to pack my backpack for the day. I do a lot of back and forth here. Forgetting things or going somewhere only to come right back… It’s lame. But it’s fairly cold in here so I generally don’t mind haha… Anyway, departed and headed for the gangway to make my way into St. Petersburg. Got to the customs desk and, when I didn’t have a photocopy of my passport, was turned away. The security guys on the gangway told me if I showed them my crew ID, they would let me through… So I did (went to a different line!) and got through no problem. It’s been my experience overall that Russians aren’t very… warm and friendly. To say the least. Stood around for a few and then got on the crew shuttle van to head for the city.
Which is a good way to segue into my next point – traffic in St. Petersburg (and I imagine Russia as a whole) is fucking SCARY. There’s not much in the way of lines on the road, and what is there doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and isn’t really paid any heed anyway. People weaving in and out of traffic, multiple cars making turns from all lanes… Including the van driver. I kind of feared for my life, not gonna lie. I’ve never seen anything like that. I mean at least sometimes they use their turn signals. But this made Washington DC and Chicago look like a gentle, mid-afternoon lunch rush. Very discomforting. Very happy when we got dropped off at Issac’s Square. I walked around with Matt and his girlfriend Candi, who is what is known onboard as a JAR. JAR stands for Jean Anne Rynd (sp?) which is the company I believe I mentioned before that is contracted out to do all the shows. Yeah, Candi works for them and is in the shows onboard. Anyway, after taking a few pictures of St. Issac’s Cathedral, we headed for the Peter and Paul fortress. Along the way, we stopped at this really neat old bank to change some dollars into Russian rubles. 24 rubles = 1 dollar. Or at least today. When I go back tomorrow, I hope it’s gone down some so I’ll get more dollars for my rubles!
St. Petersburg, like Stockholm, is a couple of islands connected by bridges. Or rather, it’s a couple parts of mainland that encircle a bay, with an island or 2. Anyway bridges over water, that’s my point. We had to cross several. Got there and walked around the outside wall of the fortress… Went inside, and made for the cathedral. Bought tickets and went in and took lots of pictures. Apparently the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood is even more spectacular… We’ll see tomorrow. Stopped at a stand and got some food and drink. Very difficult to communicate with Russians – they don’t speak ANY English and the language is so different (as opposed to French, German, Finnish, etc) that it can be very difficult for both parties to make themselves understood. Couple cups of coffee, a Pepsi Max in a bottle, a hot dog, a bag of chips, a microwave apple pie pastry thing, and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds… The coffee and hot dog were pretty terrible but… Everything else (read: the prepackaged things) was good. Paid some more rubles to go up on the wall of the fortress and walk around. For both the cathedral and the wall, we showed our NCL crew badges and claimed we were students and got the half price discount. So the language barrier DID help us a bit. The wall was neat – a nice view of the city. Of course it started to rain (again) while we were walking around on it but… It was still a nice view. Got to the end and headed back, and back to the shuttle. We had to kind of hurry to get to the shuttle on time and I was pretty exhausted by the time we got there. Very brisk pace.
Matt and Candi have, of course, been to St. Petersburg before… I say of course because they’ve been on this boat for a while… So they’ve been doing laps around this course for a while. So they weren’t real into a lot of exploring, and after feeling like I needed to keep up with them to get back to the shuttle, I was ready to drop. So I opted to come back to the ship and just go back to the city tomorrow, since we’re docked here overnight. Before heading into the ship, I stopped at the CD/DVD store and souvenir store right next to the berth… Got a couple Russian DVDs, which I’m sure are some kind of bootlegged… One of them sucks and I’m considering taking it back to swap for a more expensive one (a dollar more)… I don’t think they’ll mind. They said if there were problems we could return them and exchange so… Also got something for my parents…
So came back on board, had some dinner, and then came back to my cabin to watch a movie and just lay for a while. As I mentioned, pretty exhausted. At about 11:15, I ran up to the crew store to get my shuttle pass for tomorrow, and then came back to the cabin. Since tonight is an overnight stay, they let crew bend the rules a bit and they throw a big party in one of the guest areas of the ship, up on deck 13 (remember, I live on deck 3!). I moseyed up there to check it out and… everybody was dressed kinda nice and dancing and whatever. I felt kind of out of place in my shorts and t-shirt, so I came BACK to the cabin (see what I mean?!) to wash my face and change into something nicer. Once done, I headed back up and hung out til the end of the party. I mostly sat off to the side watching, but talked to a few people I’ve met in the last week. I suppose all told, it was more a waste of money than anything… I had to pay for my drinks. I don’t know if they were charging for beer, but they were certainly charging for liquor. But it’s not like I really met anyone new or… strengthened any connections with anyone I already knew… I suppose I had a reasonably good time all things considered so I don’t mind too much…
Some people got really drunk. And there are still people partying around the ship – I hear a few down the hall. Pretty funny and… Cool I guess. I just wish I knew more people so I could partake some in the merriment. We’ll be back in St. Petersburg in a week or so, so maybe by then I’ll be a little better off if they do this again. I kinda hope they will.
Finally, the damn phone thing won’t work so I can’t dial out. It’s only early evening at home and I was hoping to make a phone call or two, but apparently not! Jerks. And I still haven’t figured out the laundry thing. I really need to do that – work clothes are getting very slim.
Ok, it’s nearly 4am and I have a meeting at 11 and a bunch of things I want to see in St. Petersburg still. And I feel like my typing might potentially be disturbing Igor. Not likely, he’s a pretty heavy sleeper, which is good… But I just feel better being cautious about such things. I want to be a good roommate and not “that guy”. Hm just heard a snore, guess I’m ok. But the other thing, about it being real damn late… that still stands. I really wish I could get wifi in my cabin. And this blog entry is onto the third page now in Word. I blather a lot. Apparently you don’t mind too much or you wouldn’t have made it this far!
Soooooooo…. G’night!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Abanodon Ship!
11:30am EEST/4:30am EDT
Just got back from my first lifeboat drill. No big deal. My assembly station is a bunch of the musicians and singers and dancers… And all the new people. So basically, our job is to stand there and not be in the way. Which, if the ship is sinking, is fine with me. And then a meeting with the whole crew and the captain, which was pretty uneventful. I guess he’d been on vacation or something and had just recently come back (I think he rejoined the ship the same day I signed on) so he didn’t really have anything to say. Not that I minded that either. And then the S.T.Y.L.E. awards. STYLE (cuz I’m too lazy to type it with the periods) is an acronym NCL uses for… the crew? Or something? It’s like a philosophy of the company and… They do a great job of jamming it in your face. We have to wear STYLE pins every day as part of the uniform, things about STYLE or the “stylish crew” are all over in the back crew stairways and stuff… And they talk to the guests about it too – there are STYLE cards the guests can fill out about a crew member. STYLE stands for “Service, Teamwork, and Yes Lead to Excellence!” and every month, they have an awards ceremony where crew members, who are nominated by other crew members, are chosen for various things they’ve done onboard and win various prizes. For example, crew member of the month gets you $400. There are 12 categories, I believe, and some are for individuals and others for teams. The individual winners get to stay a night (and can bring a friend) in one of the big suites with butler service… A bunch of the other prizes are free meals in one of the nicer restaurants with a bottle of wine, etc etc. Even though the lady who was presenting the awards had horrible timing with her speech and the Powerpoint presentation, she burned through it and it was mercifully short – although the cheese factor was still pretty high. And THEN we had a Cruise Programs department meeting. Which again, wasn’t too hateful. Sat and talked about various issues that had come up, presented those STYLE cards to the people they were about, introduced the new guys (including me) and wrapped up. All told, the whole thing (including the fire drill that immediately preceded the lifeboat drill) only took about an hour and 15 minutes. Not bad at all.
Today, we’re in Helsinki, Finland. I don’t think I’m going to get off the ship today, for a few reasons. One: I need to do laundry. More like, I need to figure out where to do my laundry... And then do it. Two: my right knee is REALLY pissed at me about yesterday. I need to start stretching and stuff on a regular basis, but ESPECIALLY if I’m going to be walking around for 4 and 5 hours at a time. Three: the city isn’t really close. There’s a shuttle you have to take, and it costs 10 bucks for a round trip ticket and… Well, I don’t have 10 bucks. Not til tomorrow, anyway. Saturday is payday. It’s also our first day in St. Petersburg and I can’t pick up my money until 1:30pm. I have a ticket for the shuttle to St. Petersburg but I don’t know if I should trade it for a ticket for Sunday, since I don’t really have money and I can’t pick up my pay until 1:30… Bah we’ll see. Anyway uh… Oh right. Four: we’ll be back to Helsinki next month. And Oslo! Of course, the pay I get now is SUPPOSED to last me for the whole month (since we only get paid monthly) but I have to give it all to other people. So we’ll see. I think I can make something work so that I can go to some of these places next time around. Anyway, those are the reasons I’m staying onboard today.
Tonight is the first night I’m not scheduled in the theater. I don’t know how I feel about that… I kind of like it in there, but probably because it’s like a “safe zone” of sorts. It’s familiar and comfortable because it’s where I’ve spent most of my time thus far. Speaking of, last night I sat backstage for the Country Gold show. The music wasn’t TOO horrible, but it was still pretty irritating. Nice part was, though, the only thing I did the whole show was hand the cruise director a wireless mic, and hold the curtain open for a guy who had to hold a girl up in the air as they went out on stage. And then before the show, lay out all the performers’ mics and check the batteries… After the show, put them away. Easy enough. Actually, most of this job is pretty damn easy, once you learn where things are and the basic procedure of what they want done. Ya know, for trivia, turn on and unmute the mic. Wait for the start time, and turn off the background music. Done for an hour. Come back, turn the background music on, put the mic away (unless there’s more trivia later). Sometimes you run into some weird issues (we had one with the video feed to the TVs from the Wii a couple days ago) but… That’s the bulk of my job. That and setting up/striking stage sets. Mic checks and shows in the theater are pretty easy, although right now I’m not doing much with them. But watching Matt, he’s usually not doing much. Since the shows are the same, the channel mutes and stuff are all programmed in the board, so, for the most part, it’s pushing Next a bunch of times throughout the show. And playing background music or a backing track for the show. Setting up bands is usually only a few channels. 3 or 4 on drums, bass, keys, 3 horns, and vocals. The board in the booth is big enough that everything has a dedicated channel. Everything’s labeled so it’s the same every time. Some of the smaller live music setups are the same – everything’s labeled and the boards have dedicated tracks for, say, the karaoke mics and the band. Pretty much a cakewalk. Mmmmmm cake…
My belly just grumbled real loud. I was thinking I might head up to the mess hall to get some foods, and I’d say that confirms it. I need to figure out where all on the ship has wifi, so I can tote my laptop around and get online. Gotta be careful though, I spent 43% of my internet card last night getting this blog and the photo album set up. The internet on board is fairly slow and cuts in and out when at sea. Understandable, the weather wasn’t great last night and the internet’s coming over satellite to the middle of the sea… There IS a souvenir shop right off the gangway – wonder if I take my laptop up a few decks and to a place with some windows, if maybe I could pick up some internets from them. I’ll have to do some experimentation. Also, I wonder if I could transfer Word documents over to a Blackberry and then like… Copy/Paste them. Or just this amount of text. Or something. Igor told me it’s no problem to find wifi in the ports of call, but I walked around for hours yesterday before I could find one that wasn’t locked that actually was connected. Thus the Blackberry plan AT&T offered seems to be pretty slick. OH – that reminds me. I need to call T-Mobile too. I owe them some money and I need to get them to cancel my service or whatever. NOTE TO SELF!
Ok for real, my stomach sounds like it’s going to start ingesting my other organs if I don’t eat something soon.
Just got back from my first lifeboat drill. No big deal. My assembly station is a bunch of the musicians and singers and dancers… And all the new people. So basically, our job is to stand there and not be in the way. Which, if the ship is sinking, is fine with me. And then a meeting with the whole crew and the captain, which was pretty uneventful. I guess he’d been on vacation or something and had just recently come back (I think he rejoined the ship the same day I signed on) so he didn’t really have anything to say. Not that I minded that either. And then the S.T.Y.L.E. awards. STYLE (cuz I’m too lazy to type it with the periods) is an acronym NCL uses for… the crew? Or something? It’s like a philosophy of the company and… They do a great job of jamming it in your face. We have to wear STYLE pins every day as part of the uniform, things about STYLE or the “stylish crew” are all over in the back crew stairways and stuff… And they talk to the guests about it too – there are STYLE cards the guests can fill out about a crew member. STYLE stands for “Service, Teamwork, and Yes Lead to Excellence!” and every month, they have an awards ceremony where crew members, who are nominated by other crew members, are chosen for various things they’ve done onboard and win various prizes. For example, crew member of the month gets you $400. There are 12 categories, I believe, and some are for individuals and others for teams. The individual winners get to stay a night (and can bring a friend) in one of the big suites with butler service… A bunch of the other prizes are free meals in one of the nicer restaurants with a bottle of wine, etc etc. Even though the lady who was presenting the awards had horrible timing with her speech and the Powerpoint presentation, she burned through it and it was mercifully short – although the cheese factor was still pretty high. And THEN we had a Cruise Programs department meeting. Which again, wasn’t too hateful. Sat and talked about various issues that had come up, presented those STYLE cards to the people they were about, introduced the new guys (including me) and wrapped up. All told, the whole thing (including the fire drill that immediately preceded the lifeboat drill) only took about an hour and 15 minutes. Not bad at all.
Today, we’re in Helsinki, Finland. I don’t think I’m going to get off the ship today, for a few reasons. One: I need to do laundry. More like, I need to figure out where to do my laundry... And then do it. Two: my right knee is REALLY pissed at me about yesterday. I need to start stretching and stuff on a regular basis, but ESPECIALLY if I’m going to be walking around for 4 and 5 hours at a time. Three: the city isn’t really close. There’s a shuttle you have to take, and it costs 10 bucks for a round trip ticket and… Well, I don’t have 10 bucks. Not til tomorrow, anyway. Saturday is payday. It’s also our first day in St. Petersburg and I can’t pick up my money until 1:30pm. I have a ticket for the shuttle to St. Petersburg but I don’t know if I should trade it for a ticket for Sunday, since I don’t really have money and I can’t pick up my pay until 1:30… Bah we’ll see. Anyway uh… Oh right. Four: we’ll be back to Helsinki next month. And Oslo! Of course, the pay I get now is SUPPOSED to last me for the whole month (since we only get paid monthly) but I have to give it all to other people. So we’ll see. I think I can make something work so that I can go to some of these places next time around. Anyway, those are the reasons I’m staying onboard today.
Tonight is the first night I’m not scheduled in the theater. I don’t know how I feel about that… I kind of like it in there, but probably because it’s like a “safe zone” of sorts. It’s familiar and comfortable because it’s where I’ve spent most of my time thus far. Speaking of, last night I sat backstage for the Country Gold show. The music wasn’t TOO horrible, but it was still pretty irritating. Nice part was, though, the only thing I did the whole show was hand the cruise director a wireless mic, and hold the curtain open for a guy who had to hold a girl up in the air as they went out on stage. And then before the show, lay out all the performers’ mics and check the batteries… After the show, put them away. Easy enough. Actually, most of this job is pretty damn easy, once you learn where things are and the basic procedure of what they want done. Ya know, for trivia, turn on and unmute the mic. Wait for the start time, and turn off the background music. Done for an hour. Come back, turn the background music on, put the mic away (unless there’s more trivia later). Sometimes you run into some weird issues (we had one with the video feed to the TVs from the Wii a couple days ago) but… That’s the bulk of my job. That and setting up/striking stage sets. Mic checks and shows in the theater are pretty easy, although right now I’m not doing much with them. But watching Matt, he’s usually not doing much. Since the shows are the same, the channel mutes and stuff are all programmed in the board, so, for the most part, it’s pushing Next a bunch of times throughout the show. And playing background music or a backing track for the show. Setting up bands is usually only a few channels. 3 or 4 on drums, bass, keys, 3 horns, and vocals. The board in the booth is big enough that everything has a dedicated channel. Everything’s labeled so it’s the same every time. Some of the smaller live music setups are the same – everything’s labeled and the boards have dedicated tracks for, say, the karaoke mics and the band. Pretty much a cakewalk. Mmmmmm cake…
My belly just grumbled real loud. I was thinking I might head up to the mess hall to get some foods, and I’d say that confirms it. I need to figure out where all on the ship has wifi, so I can tote my laptop around and get online. Gotta be careful though, I spent 43% of my internet card last night getting this blog and the photo album set up. The internet on board is fairly slow and cuts in and out when at sea. Understandable, the weather wasn’t great last night and the internet’s coming over satellite to the middle of the sea… There IS a souvenir shop right off the gangway – wonder if I take my laptop up a few decks and to a place with some windows, if maybe I could pick up some internets from them. I’ll have to do some experimentation. Also, I wonder if I could transfer Word documents over to a Blackberry and then like… Copy/Paste them. Or just this amount of text. Or something. Igor told me it’s no problem to find wifi in the ports of call, but I walked around for hours yesterday before I could find one that wasn’t locked that actually was connected. Thus the Blackberry plan AT&T offered seems to be pretty slick. OH – that reminds me. I need to call T-Mobile too. I owe them some money and I need to get them to cancel my service or whatever. NOTE TO SELF!
Ok for real, my stomach sounds like it’s going to start ingesting my other organs if I don’t eat something soon.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Adventure #1
5:45pm CEST/ 11:45am EDT
Well, today was my first excursion off the ship. It was a lot of fun… But hopefully I’ll be a little more prepared for my next one. This one mostly consisted of me wandering around aimlessly, trying to find a place where I could get internet access so I could check my bank account, so I could get cash, so I could buy a phone card to make calls home, and an internet card so I could maybe finally post some of these blogs and pictures I took today. Whew.
Stockholm is a very cool old city. Something I didn’t realize about the city is that it’s comprised of multiple islands… That proved interesting for the walking around… Anywho, I’ll spare you the history lesson. If you want to know, look it up on wikipedia or something. I’d link you but since I’m not online right now (writing this in Word, to be posted later) you’ll have to find it your damn self.
Got up at 9 for rehearsal in the theater at 10… Except the Shore Ex (“ex” short for “excursion”) folks screwed up their scheduling information or something… So rehearsal was postponed til 4. No big – all aboard for crew was at 3:30 anyway. So I grabbed my backpack out of my cabin and headed for the gangway. Didn’t have as much trouble as I was expecting in getting off the ship, which was nice. They had this nice blue line painted on the ground too, for pedestrians walking from the cruise ship dock to the city. Apparently they do a lot of cruise ship business, based on the terminals at the harbor, and some of the tourist trap shopping places. There is certainly a lot of crap for sale in Stockholm. I imagine it’s like that everywhere, but we’ll see… Reminded me of Nashville in that respect.
Anyway… Not much to tell. Finally found a place to get wifi – though it was in the middle of a busy outdoor shopping area so I didn’t want to linger on the computer too long. I felt sort of awkward… I didn’t see anyone else with laptops or anything and didn’t want to make myself TOO obvious… Or something. Anyway, did what I set out to do and I now have a phone card and internet card. I’ll be seeing to both later – as it’s only noon at home now anyway. Speaking of which, the clocks go forward ANOTHER hour tonight, so I’ll be in a different time zone next time I write… And will be 7 hours ahead of home. Anyway… See pictures for specific stuff on Stockholm. It’s a cool city, I’m just not sure what to say about it really. Might just be cuz I’m tired and kind of sore from walking around for like 4 ½ hours.
On an unrelated note, the ship is listing a LOT right now. More so I think than it has the entire time I’ve been on. Rocking baaaaaack and forth… baaaaack and forth. So much so that I had to brace myself a little bit earlier in the theater so I didn’t fall over. A little unsettling, I’ll admit. But you get used to it. Let’s see uh… Had a few more training things I had to go to. I should’ve known I wasn’t done! One about crowd control… And then one on Noroviruses (diarrhea and vomiting... aka the 24 hour flu). Apparently this is a big damn problem on cruise ships. I mean I can see why… But they spray your hands with sanitizer every time you go into one of the buffets… And there are hand sanitizers set up ALL over the ship. I mean you can stand in any one place (in the guest areas, I mean) and look around and probably see three of the things. In the crew areas, they’re really only in the mess hall… But hand cleanliness is no joke around here. It’s interesting, but… I mean I get it. They don’t want to have to sanitize every square inch of this damn boat because of an outbreak of the runs and puking, that would otherwise spread like wildfire in these close quarters. They tactfully call it Gastroenteritis… Or just simply GI. Not what you wanted to hear about, I’m sure ☺ Anyway, then I had one other training on hazardous materials. Nothing I didn’t already know after taking that Environmental Management class in high school. Good stuff. Real cheesy videos they showed us on the last two trainings. And I managed to what the shit out of my head on the projector in the lecture room not once but TWICE yesterday. Yay.
Alright… I think I’m done for now. I’m hungry and I have to change and be back to the theater in an hour for the shows tonight. “Country Gold” – whoopty doo. The way the shows work – I find this interesting – is NCL contracts out this company to produce the shows and… ya know… train and rehearse with the singers and dancers. Do all the routines and get the shows down prior to coming on the ship… So then the casts for the shows change every couple of months but it’s the same shows… And the new cast members come on board prepared, and knowing their parts and where they fit in with the choreography and everything. It’s pretty neat and seems to work well. Makes it nice for us because we don’t have to spend forever and ever going through the show over and over. We usually set up for whatever show the night before… and then run one rehearsal the day of, and then two shows that night. Easy enough. Tonight they’ve got me working backstage for the first time. Don’t really know what it involves. Rehearsal consisted mostly of me trying to stay the HELL out of the way of frantic running dancers… and laughing about the tilt of the ship and the guys on the comm.
I’ve been getting really bad hiccups lately at random. Very annoying. I had a big single hiccup the other day and someone told me it meant someone was thinking about me. I mean I don’t doubt someone was but… I’d never heard that about single hiccups before. And if that’s the case with these outbreaks of hiccups… Well… I can’t very well ask you to stop but… Ow!
Alright for real… Time to change and eat and work and sleep. My ankles and shins are stiff already haha… Til next time…
Well, today was my first excursion off the ship. It was a lot of fun… But hopefully I’ll be a little more prepared for my next one. This one mostly consisted of me wandering around aimlessly, trying to find a place where I could get internet access so I could check my bank account, so I could get cash, so I could buy a phone card to make calls home, and an internet card so I could maybe finally post some of these blogs and pictures I took today. Whew.
Stockholm is a very cool old city. Something I didn’t realize about the city is that it’s comprised of multiple islands… That proved interesting for the walking around… Anywho, I’ll spare you the history lesson. If you want to know, look it up on wikipedia or something. I’d link you but since I’m not online right now (writing this in Word, to be posted later) you’ll have to find it your damn self.
Got up at 9 for rehearsal in the theater at 10… Except the Shore Ex (“ex” short for “excursion”) folks screwed up their scheduling information or something… So rehearsal was postponed til 4. No big – all aboard for crew was at 3:30 anyway. So I grabbed my backpack out of my cabin and headed for the gangway. Didn’t have as much trouble as I was expecting in getting off the ship, which was nice. They had this nice blue line painted on the ground too, for pedestrians walking from the cruise ship dock to the city. Apparently they do a lot of cruise ship business, based on the terminals at the harbor, and some of the tourist trap shopping places. There is certainly a lot of crap for sale in Stockholm. I imagine it’s like that everywhere, but we’ll see… Reminded me of Nashville in that respect.
Anyway… Not much to tell. Finally found a place to get wifi – though it was in the middle of a busy outdoor shopping area so I didn’t want to linger on the computer too long. I felt sort of awkward… I didn’t see anyone else with laptops or anything and didn’t want to make myself TOO obvious… Or something. Anyway, did what I set out to do and I now have a phone card and internet card. I’ll be seeing to both later – as it’s only noon at home now anyway. Speaking of which, the clocks go forward ANOTHER hour tonight, so I’ll be in a different time zone next time I write… And will be 7 hours ahead of home. Anyway… See pictures for specific stuff on Stockholm. It’s a cool city, I’m just not sure what to say about it really. Might just be cuz I’m tired and kind of sore from walking around for like 4 ½ hours.
On an unrelated note, the ship is listing a LOT right now. More so I think than it has the entire time I’ve been on. Rocking baaaaaack and forth… baaaaack and forth. So much so that I had to brace myself a little bit earlier in the theater so I didn’t fall over. A little unsettling, I’ll admit. But you get used to it. Let’s see uh… Had a few more training things I had to go to. I should’ve known I wasn’t done! One about crowd control… And then one on Noroviruses (diarrhea and vomiting... aka the 24 hour flu). Apparently this is a big damn problem on cruise ships. I mean I can see why… But they spray your hands with sanitizer every time you go into one of the buffets… And there are hand sanitizers set up ALL over the ship. I mean you can stand in any one place (in the guest areas, I mean) and look around and probably see three of the things. In the crew areas, they’re really only in the mess hall… But hand cleanliness is no joke around here. It’s interesting, but… I mean I get it. They don’t want to have to sanitize every square inch of this damn boat because of an outbreak of the runs and puking, that would otherwise spread like wildfire in these close quarters. They tactfully call it Gastroenteritis… Or just simply GI. Not what you wanted to hear about, I’m sure ☺ Anyway, then I had one other training on hazardous materials. Nothing I didn’t already know after taking that Environmental Management class in high school. Good stuff. Real cheesy videos they showed us on the last two trainings. And I managed to what the shit out of my head on the projector in the lecture room not once but TWICE yesterday. Yay.
Alright… I think I’m done for now. I’m hungry and I have to change and be back to the theater in an hour for the shows tonight. “Country Gold” – whoopty doo. The way the shows work – I find this interesting – is NCL contracts out this company to produce the shows and… ya know… train and rehearse with the singers and dancers. Do all the routines and get the shows down prior to coming on the ship… So then the casts for the shows change every couple of months but it’s the same shows… And the new cast members come on board prepared, and knowing their parts and where they fit in with the choreography and everything. It’s pretty neat and seems to work well. Makes it nice for us because we don’t have to spend forever and ever going through the show over and over. We usually set up for whatever show the night before… and then run one rehearsal the day of, and then two shows that night. Easy enough. Tonight they’ve got me working backstage for the first time. Don’t really know what it involves. Rehearsal consisted mostly of me trying to stay the HELL out of the way of frantic running dancers… and laughing about the tilt of the ship and the guys on the comm.
I’ve been getting really bad hiccups lately at random. Very annoying. I had a big single hiccup the other day and someone told me it meant someone was thinking about me. I mean I don’t doubt someone was but… I’d never heard that about single hiccups before. And if that’s the case with these outbreaks of hiccups… Well… I can’t very well ask you to stop but… Ow!
Alright for real… Time to change and eat and work and sleep. My ankles and shins are stiff already haha… Til next time…
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