Home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This song warms my whole soul. It`s exactly how I feel and when I miss home, I listen to this song.

xoxoxo

-A-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE

 

 

Sally the camel has two humps...

I’ve said this a couple billion of times this past week but “is this real life?” I feel like I’m in a dream. Never in a million years did I ever think I’d be working on a cruise ship and cruising Europe/Middle East. Pinch me. Wake me up because I still believe I’m dreaming. The other day, I was able to see one of the wonders of the world – the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.

The whole experience was amazing and the culture there is so different from anything I’ve ever experienced.  They set up little huts to sell their products and you could be driving on the highway and people are set up in little huts on the side of the road. When you do intereact with them, they are in your face trying to sell you something and if you tell them no thanks, there will be another group two seconds later trying to sell you their statue or postcard. My manager and I got separated from the other shoppees on the bus so it was literally us two the entire time. My favourite memory so far on this trip has been in Egypt. It was when we got off the bus I told my manager to give me his camera so I can take a picture of him in front of the camel and pyramid. As he is posing, we had a guy that randomly came up to him and started wrapping a scarf around his head and insisting him to get on the camel so I can take a picture. My manager told him no thanks but they do not take no for an answer and they literally lifted him onto the camel and kicked it and the camel shot up like a transformer and now he’s in the air on a camel trying to get down. Meanwhile, I’m standing in shock and laughing at the same time and while I’m laughing,  I had the guy grab my manager’s camera away from me and told me to get on the camel as well and I was arguing for a good 3 minutes trying to grab the camera back. They finally said “I just take picture” and so I said fine. I didn’t get on the camel but they wrapped this scarf around my head and took a picture. I said thank you and walked away. He started chasing me down and saying I owed him “5 dolla” for taking the picture. Finally after arguing with them for 10 minutes, my manager gave him a dollar and they left us alone. Writing this story does no justice...I tell it better in person but even then that doesn’t compare. I need to get the picture from my manager. By the way, they do this because this is how they steal people’s camera; I’ve heard 2 people that had their camera stolen from the same experience.

 

I didn’t do too much in Israel but shop. We joined the cruise too late to book any tours and we were still in training so we didn’t have much free time. Now that training is over (I think), we can have more of a schedule and have more time to do tours. We finished the holy tour and now we are touring around Italy, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia, Malta and Montenegro. We left Naples today and are in Rome tomorrow to pick drop off the passengers and pick up the new ones. By the way, I had a Canadian Couple that I met on the ship while working come into my shop today and ask for a picture with me. I’m kind of a big deal. People know me. ;) (Anchorman- for everyone who didn’t understand my movie reference).

Well this is my entry and sorry for the short update but that’s all I have for now. Because work is the same old; long hours and my feet kill me but I know this too shall pass.

Until next time...

 

~A~

This is the good life.

I haven’t updated this blog in a couple of days. It gets really hard when internet isn’t free and I’m busy with work. So far it’s going really well. I’m enjoying my time here and I think that the next six months will be an adventure. It’s only been four days but I feel like it has been longer and I’m starting to get more comfortable with everything and everyone. It’s my new home away from home. My internet on my laptop hasn’t been working and I’m trying to figure out how to get it to work without it charging me what the customers have to pay on the ship. It’s the most frustrating thing right now because I would like to post some pictures and I can’t. Speaking of pictures, I haven’t taken much yet. I need to start remembering to bring my camera around when I can.

On Sunday, one of my managers invited me and Amanda out for drinks at the crew bar. We went and discovered that drinks are $1.98 us ...seriously?!? This is bad news for us but it is so awesome at the same time. We went again on Monday and it’s insane how packed it is and while we were in there, we had a pinch me moment. Is this really happening? I still can’t believe a week ago I had no idea where my placement was going to be and in matters of moments I found out and only had two days to leave my current life. It’s crazy because I’ve met people that left their children to be here so they can provide for them. I think that is brave. I had trouble leaving my family and friends but when your own flesh and blood is involved, I don’t think I could ever leave.

On Monday we were in Greece but I decided to stay back and catch up on my sleep because I haven’t slept much in the past week and started feeling it take a toll on my body. I finally feel fresh and alive so I think it was worth missing out this time around. I will be back in Greece in a couple of weeks so it will be okay. So right now I’m doing the Holy Island Tour so we go to Naples, Rome, Greece, Israel and Egypt and then we end back in Italy. Then next cruise I do an Italy type tour where I go to Naples, Rome, Catania, Valletta, Greece, Bari, Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia. After that I do the holy tour again and then we head to France for a day and Spain then head out to sea in December for a turnover for 7-8 days where we head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From there we go to Mexico, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Haiti, Bahamas, St. Marrten, St.Thomas, Puerto Rico and I think that’s it. Insane right!? I’m travelling to so many places in six months then I ever could if I worked a regular job back at home.

It’s not all glam because there are days where I work 17 hours but for the most part we have an amazing schedule and get to see the most out of all of the jobs on the ship(next to the theatre people). Today we are in Haifa, Israel and tomorrow we go to Jerusalem for two days so it will be an overnight which means I have tomorrow off of work but I still have training so won’t be able to get off the ship until 3pm and still have to wake up for 9am...which sucks but whatever. Anyway, sleep is so limited so when I’m able to nap that is what I usually do so until next time....~A~

p.s. got my laptop working. woot.