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.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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!
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