Head First

6:28pm CEST/ 12:28pm EDT

Well… Wow. Ok then. It’s been sort of a whirlwind couple of days, hence the lack of writing. So let’s see… Where was I… Woke up damn early Saturday morning, got cleaned up, and ate some breakfast at the hotel. Who knew beans and stewed tomatoes were breakfast items?! Haha apparently the English. Other than the beans on this fried bread stuff, the rest of breakfast was pretty slimy and unappealing but hey… it was free. The grapefruit juice was tasty though. Got my stuff loaded up and got in the van. This ride was much shorter than the one to Dover. Got to the dock, went through all the security shit (which was none too fun… much like an airport)… Loaded my crap on board and had to wait forever to find someone to show me into the bowels of the ship, to the Personnel office. Stood around there for a while getting myself checked in or whatever. Handed my passport over, got my cabin assignment, and found someone to show me to it. Walked in, turned the light on… and my cabin-mate was asleep. So of course I was a big jerk and woke him up… No worries though, he was cool. Got all my junk moved in and went back up to return the cart… Remember the story about the airport and getting the box? Yeah I had to get a cart to be able to get all of my shit moved in. I felt like a jerk for that too, because I was the only one that wasn’t able to move in his stuff himself.

Went to some mandatory meetings with the Safety Officer on board and a few other folks… During which the ship departed port, which was a very weird sensation. We’re doing it again now but I’ll get to that…

So then things start to settle down, I suppose. I’ve had lots of safety training stuff to do… Learning what the different signs mean, the way to go in case of an emergency, where the watertight doors are, etc etc. All good things to know, but it sucks getting up at 7:30am and then not making it to bed until after 1, because of setting up for shows and stuff in the theater. So… Get up, sometimes make it to breakfast, sometimes not… Go to safety training, lunch, more safety training or take care of stuff at the personnel office or whatever… Dinner or the theater… Then the theater or dinner. Then the theater til late. That’s been my schedule. And a lot of wandering around, going up and down the wrong stairway or through the wrong door. Some of that is good, to learn my way around. It does get mighty frustrating though. Also – random thought – I’m amazed at how much you can feel the boat moving. You’d think on a ship this size that you wouldn’t feel it rock or feel off balance sometimes when you’re walking but… You most certainly do. It’s very weird.

My cabinmate’s name is Igor. He’s Ukranian and plays the drums in the show band. Very nice guy. The cabin is, as one might expect, very small. The shower is quite possibly the smallest shower I’ve ever used… Which is saying a lot considering some camp showers and stuff I’ve managed to squeeze into. All told though, it’s comfortable enough. Surprisingly so. When I first got in, the guy was in here before me had left a bunch of his shit. I think I’ve gotten it all cleaned out but… They hadn’t changed the sheets or anything after he moved out/before I moved in. Stuff in the bathroom, a bunch of stuff that we’re not supposed to have, stuff in the closet and desk drawer… Bah. Whatever, it’s pretty much all gone now. I need to get someone to come take away this big box of trash (the box that once held my 30 extra pounds of clothing and stuff on the flight out!). Let’s see… My cabin is on deck 3, my job usually finds me on deck 7… Crew mess and a few other areas of note are on deck 5. The main hallway to get from one end of the ship to the other is on deck 4. The main promenade around the ship that I’ve seen so far is also deck 7. Going up and down the stairs gets old haha… Each staircase is numbered, so I’m starting to learn that stuff too…

Most of the crew on board the ship is Filipino, which is different for me. Being white, and specifically an American, I’m in a severe minority here. There are more Canadians, Europeans and Australians than Americans, that I’ve seen anyway. Pretty much everyone has been really friendly and outgoing enough though. It’s nice. My team is me and two other white guys – a Canadian guy Matt, and my supervisor Shawn, who’s also American (that’s caused some confusion, of course) – and then a handful of Filipino guys… Including one hilariously flamboyant gay one, who dances all around the stage haha… It’s a good time.
My job so far has mostly been observing. Watching how things are done, where things are located, etc. I mostly sit in the booth in the theater and watch Matt run the sound. After shows, I’ll go down to the stage and help strike and set up for whatever is going on the next day. We just finished a show called Band on the Run. It’s good – we’ll be doing it again in a week and a half or whatever. Whenever we do this itinerary again. We struck that set last night and today it’s a juggler. Doesn’t sound very impressive but I watched him rehearse earlier and it should be pretty cool. I’ve gotta be back up there in 25 minutes for the actual show.

Today we were in Copenhagen. I was so exhausted from getting up early and staying up late, plus the time changes (we had to go +1 hour after the first day) and jet lag, that I pretty much slept the entire day. I had to get up early for my safety test, but did so without showering and opted for breakfast instead. Took my test, and came back to my cabin… and crashed. I slept until I had just enough time to shower, head up to the staff office, eat dinner, and head to the theater for the aforementioned rehearsal. So I missed Copenhagen, but we’ll be back next tour and I’ll definitely see it then. Tomorrow is Warnemuende, Germany (about 3 hours outside of Berlin). And then Wednesday we’re at sea, Thursday in Stockholm, Friday in Helsinki, and Friday and Saturday are St. Petersburg. I WILL be going there.

So hopefully my writing isn’t too erratic and… ya know… makes sense. For now, I gotta run. It’s about time for me to run back up to deck 7, to the Stardust (the theater). I don’t think I’ll be doing much of anything. Maybe setting up after the juggler’s done. I’m not sure what’s going on tomorrow. So… til next time…