First week over!

12/1/08

Well, it's officially December... and the hottest day since I've been here! We're getting closer to the equator, so it only makes sense. Today it's pretty unbearable outside. It's a Sea Day, so everyone is stuck on the ship looking for stuff to do. I was in the library from 8am-11:30am, then Volleyball (Crew vs. Guests) at 12. Now I'm in the library again 2-4:30, annnnd will end the day by watching Danny's show at 7, and closing the library from 8:30-10. Fun fun. Sea Days are always our longest days. Today I'll only be working around 8 hours, which is unheard of on a Sea Day! Pretty exciting.

Tomorrow we'll be in Costa Rica, but I unfortunately can't get off the ship. I'm on IPM (In Port Manning.) This basically just means that I'm the designated person on our team that will be staying on the ship for safety reasons incase something were to happen (i.e. firedrill, man overboard, etc.) This is a requirement so that we have enough people onboard from every safety function. I'm "passenger notification" so in cases of fires, I have to go to the front office and figure out what is going on and communicate to passengers. We're on this function since many passengers are used to seeing us and are comfortable with asking us questions. Anyways, tomorrow I'll be the one doing all of the activities and working in the library since I'm stuck onboard anyway. It's nice that we do this so that everyone else has the chance to go ashore. Going ashore in places like these makes this job so worth it. You can have a really long and stressful day, but once you get a day to enjoy the sun it makes it all worth it!

We've been a bit pressed for help recently because the Youth Program Coordinator has been working with kids alllll day every day! There are only 4 kids onboard (2 of them are children of an Officer and are mostly watched by their Mom.) For some reason, one other kid spends all of his time in the kid's program. I'll never understand why people take their children on family vacations just to pawn them off on the babysitter. But moving right along... We've pretty much had to have 2 people onboard in ports because someone has had to stay with the little boy all day, and another person has been running the library and doing events. Once this cruise is over, it should get better. There will be over 40 kids onboard for the 15-day holiday cruise, so we're all crossing our fingers that head office sends 1 or 2 more staff to help with the kids.

Our Cruise Director will be here until January and is absolutely awesome. She's really positive and is all about team-building. We work a lot, but she makes it so we want to help. We've already had 2 team meetings since our entire team just got onboard and we're making many changes. Whenever we have a team meeting, she buys a round of drinks first so we can have a toast. It makes us feel like she's appreciative of our hard work. She's also asked everyone to stop by and chat with her about our hopes for the future, or even on this contract. She just wants to help us to get where we'd like and help us express our interests.

The Event Manager is awesome too. He's only here for another few weeks, then a different one comes. He says the other guy is one of his good friends and works in a similar manner, so that's good. He'll do anything to make our job a bit easier, whether it be helping in the library so we can run to have lunch or making copies of the daily quiz for the library so we won't have to run to do it.

I already have my favorite Filipino bar staff guy. His name is Leland and he's absolutely adorable. He's working at the coffee bar this cruise and he always brings lattes over to me whenever I'm working at the library. I'm being spoiled... it's gonna be bad on the next cruise when he's not there and my caffeine addiction is still kicking! Haha.

I'm getting right back into the swing of things, even though this is a whole different ship and crew. Many things are very similar to my last ship in terms of the layout. It didn't take long at all to learn my way around. They've put Christmas trees out around the ship, including one in the library right across from the desk! It's really exciting cause besides writing the date and seeing the trees, it doesn't seem much like Christmas. It's really strange to spend the holiday season in warm weather.Thank goodness for the Christmas cookies Mom sent with me so I'll have a little taste of home during the holidays. I've already told Danny that we'll be watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music beginning soon... I know what you're thinking... if I were at home I would have already started listening to Christmas music, which is completely true! I guess I'm a bit behind. The other guy that is on the Event Staff said he brought his external hard drive with 30 Christmas movies (including "A Christmas Story,") so I fully intend to borrow them from him!

Alright, time to head out and start closing up the library. I've been writing this during downtime all day, so its about time to head downstairs and wind down. I miss you guys lots! Don't forget to leave comments or email me to let me know how life is. I know it sounds silly, but I really do love to be kept up-to-date with things back home!
xoxoxoxox.