People come and go so quickly here!

October 24, 2011

Fondest greetings to you all! As I write this we are somewhere between Darwin, Australia and Benoa, Bali, Indonesia and let me just tell you IT IS HOT HERE! The air temperature is around 85 degrees and then it’s about 95% humidity—ugh, ugh, ugh! You get sweaty just walking four feet outside, let me tell you!

Let’s think what has happened that might be of interest to you since my last post….

We were in Darwin, Australia yesterday and there wasn’t a whole lot to see since it was a Sunday, but I got a cool Darwin magnet and a beach towel (finally!) and a deck of playing cards with the Australian flag on the back…otherwise we just wandered around and saw some sights. It was nice to be off the ship, as usual!

We are going to be in Bali on the 25^th and I think it’s going to be awesome! Stuff there is supposedly really cheap, but you have to be SUPER careful about what you buy and who you talk to.  Allegedly a lot of people will be trying to sell us drugs when we get away from the pier—can’t wait! We just have to watch our backs and make sure that we don’t do anything stupid. Some people might try to ride elephants so I am considering doing that, too, we’ll see if it actually happens. We also don’t have anything to do in the theatre that night so the Black Shirts are all planning on going out to dinner which will be super fun.

I found out that Australians are #2 after Americans when it comes to obesity. I was talking to my friend Raf and I was commenting on how Americans get such a bad rep for being obese but that Australians don’t seem to be a whole lot better and then he was like oh, yeah, they’re #2. That makes much sense! I also note, however, that Aussies are very friendly people, which bodes well for my contract.

I think I forgot to tell most of you about how I was in charge of the Crew Talent Show a few weeks ago! I was the Production Manager because Jason didn’t feel like doing it and since the Crew Talent Show isn’t a big deal he was like “Hey, Brit, you’re in charge!” So I had some fun (and some stress!) doing that—I helped the woman from the Cruise Staff organize it and I controlled the curtains and such—and there were two performances, one for the crew and one for the guests, it was pretty cool. Then Jason hurt his back and had to be on bed rest for a night so I was the Production Manager for the Farewell Show of the last cruise! I guess Jason told one of the guys on the Cruise Staff that he thinks if I can really learn the ropes of the company that if I wanted to I could definitely become a SPM. Very nice to hear! Because of it, I got a “VIC” card which is “Very Important Crew Member” and I can choose from a big list of things I can get with this card like—Room Service Privileges for a week, free coffee once a day from the Starbucks stand on board for a week, free dinners in the Guest buffet for a week, $10 towards something from the Souvenir shop, just to name a few! I haven’t yet decided what I want to use it for but I might use it for the dinner I have with the Black Shirts after Bali because we can get a $25 certificate to a number of the restaurants on board including the one the boys want to go to.

Also, totally un-RCCL-related news—my brother is engaged!!! I found out through Facebook and an email, which was so weird, but, that’s life on ships! I am so excited for him, for my future sister in law, and for my family!

I have been spending a lot of my time at the crew bar meeting folks which has been pretty awesome—I love making friends! It’s so hard though because, as they say in The Wizard of Oz, “people come and go so quickly here”! I know I’ve talked about this before but it really is annoying how you can become really acquainted with someone one day and then the next POOF, they’re gone! I have a little crush on this British guy named Thomas (ironically enough) , but unfortunately his contract is up on November 18 and then he goes home and his next ship is the Independence which is out of England and sails around Europe. Sigh!

Anyways, I think that’s all for now, I hope you’re all doing well. Email me sometimes, I love getting emails!

Love x a million

B