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!