Mexico and Christmas Party!

Well  I know I’ve been really bad about posting, and I told myself that I wouldn’t do that. But life is busy and sometimes it is hard for me to compose my thoughts. So instead of making this all formal and organized I’m just gonna list random things that have happened during my time here and finally post some pictures.

I finally got to go out in Cozumel! It was good. One of my Mexican friends took a group of us out and we went to a restaurant that was in someone’s house. It was really nice. Away from tourists, real Mexican food.

So here are some of the pictures I've taken so far! 

Gustavo (Mexico) and Brankica(Macedonia)

Oleksander (Ukraine) enjoying his margarita. 

He had green enchiladas. 

Brankica's pollo tacos.

Gustavo's enchilada's con mole. I tried it. Disgusting. 

My pollo burritos! They were delicious. 

Oleks, Nahum (Peru), Gustavo, Brankica, and me in front of the menu. They carried the board around from table to table.

Gustavo and his tequila!

She is from China!

Michael and Snezhana from Macedonia at the party. I couldn’t say her name for awhile, so I called her Snow White because that’s what her name means.

Games!

Bar in the crew lounge. 

Crew lounge

View from back deck.

Back deck (Crew Bar)

On the tender to Cococay!

Tendering!

Cococay! 

Snezhana on the beach at Cococay, RC's private island. 

 The gorgeous Maria from Bulgaria. She was my roommate in Barcelona. I try not to make it a habit to stand next to her so that I don’t feel completely inadequate. 

Michael from Sweden. He’s like me. Not a nationality you normally find in the dining room. Did I mention he was on Broadway? Dancer in the Lion King. What’s he doing here?

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Rock N' Roll

Ay! I can’t believe how long it has been. There are not enough minutes in the day, and if there were I would probably spend all of them sleeping anyway. It’s so hard to balance all of the things I have to do. I need to sleep but I need to have fun and I need to have fun but I need to do my laundry and I need to do my laundry but I’m in Jamaica/Cozumel/Belize/Ft. Lauderdale right now and need to get off the ship.

So far I’ve managed to get off the ship twice, once in Ft. Lauderdale and then this week in Cococay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. I’m working breakfast this week so I should be able to get off in the Bahamas! The travel aspect hasn’t been that great, so really the best part of this experience has been meeting so many different people, including passengers and crew members. I served the Dodgers coach one night! And all of the guests are really interested in talking to me and giving me advice. I had some guests last week teach me how to open wine.

So this cruise is a little different. The whole ship has been chartered for ZZ Top and other bands. So we have a really interesting crowd right now. Everything else is different, too. Normally we have two scheduled seatings at 6:00 and 8:30 and it is assigned seating. For this cruise we have two seatings but they are at 5:30 and 7:00 and there is no assigned seating. So we have a different section, waiter, and passengers every night. The plus side is that every passenger prepaid their tips so we are guaranteed money!  The thing is, we all automatically get paid according to our capacity of passengers we can have in our section which is based on our rating. At the end of every cruise the passengers fill out an evaluation rating you from Poor- Excellent. My ratings have all been excellent so I was getting more guests, but then I had a bad week. I got assigned to a waiter that is old and cranky. He was rude to the passengers and didn’t even try to talk to them. He was also rude to me in front of the guests and they didn’t appreciate that. I made sure to talk to the guests, because that’s how you get your money. Sure enough, end of the cruise 6 of the guests paid me and not my waiter. It felt pretty good. However,  I wasn’t aware until this week that you and your waiter get the same rating. So I got two Poors and one Fair. Just in time for the prepay cruise. Ay.

I’ve been working on my Spanish a lot! I have a guy from Peru who has been helping me.

Alright, I want to write more but I need to go to sleep and I want to get this posted tonight. Thank you all for reading! I appreciate any comments and if you have any questions or anything you would like me to write about, let me know. I know I tend to talk about things like ratings and prepay and stuff like that like everyone knows what it is! So you can leave comments here on the blog or if you are reading it through Facebook you can comment there and I will make sure to read them. Give me some ideas to talk about so I don’t just ramble on. 

Ship Life

Ahhh! It's been forever. Here's a short little post. 

Ship Terminology

Paisono: somebody who is from the same country as you Ex: I have no paisonos in the dining room

Banana: somebody who does not leave a tip Ex: “Can you believe those bananas? I gaot them 15 hot chocolates everyday and they didn’t pay me.”

Bubbaloo: a stupid person Ex: “He is the biggest bubbaloo on this ship. Why he be telling me what to do?”

Fix: stealing someone else’s equipment in the dining room. Ex: “Somebody fixed me. I had 12 water glasses last night and now I have 2.”

Ship Life: term used to describe the way of life on a ship, usually used to make an excuse. Ex: “I really need to stop going to the crew bar every night”

                        “That’s ship life. Gotta get through this contract somehow.”

“That girl is married with two kids and lives with her boyfriend on the   ship.”

                        “That’s ship life. It get’s lonely without having someone.”

Back Deck: the crew bar, located on the very back of the ship on Deck 3. Ex: “Are you going to back deck tonight?”

Mauritius Mafia: huge group of Mauritian paisonos, always found together

Typical Conversations

“Where are you from in the States?”

            “Illinois”

“Where’s that?”

            “Chicago”

“Oh Chicago! It’s cold there.”

“This guy was just so mean to me. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to take water from there.”

            “Don’t worry about it, he’s Jamaican.”

Jamaican: “Why you cjkasouhf asoujfls?”

Other Person: “Speak English.”

Welcome To The Jungle

So I've been working on a post with lots of pictures and explanation of the ship but it's taking forever since I don't have much time. So that will be coming soon. In the meantime, I'll tell you about my first night in the dining room. Yikes.

Today was kind of nutso to begin with. I got a call at 7:45 telling me that I needed to go to the back deck immediately for immigration. Since we are going back into the US all of the employees have to be processed again. It was really easy for me, but I was told that it was going to be at 9:30. So I wasn't happy. I stood in the line and thought it was really stupid because all they did was glance at my passport.

Another super fun thing that happened today is that I was switched cabins. I was told by my roommate and no one else. No one contacted me to give me a key, tell me what I had to do, who my roommate would be. I went to the crew office to figure out what was up, but of course they were all involved in the immigration stuff. Finally a guy stopped me in the hallway to tell me what I needed to do.

I guess it was a good thing that I woke up at 8:00, because I managed to move out of my cabin, move into a new one, do my laundry, and a crew drill all before 10:30. All things that needed to be done. I really wanted to call home, but my phone wasn't working :( That was really annoying because I'm finally in the US and I still can't call home. Just as my shift at The Windjammer started, but phone began to work. I managed to text my mom a few times, but after that it was go go goooo.

At 3:45 I had to assist with the guest muster drill that is done on every embarkation day. Then right after that they posted which stations we were going to be working in the dining room. I had 4 tables and it was supposed to be 12 guests, which is the lowest amount. You have to work your way up to the bigger sections. Turns out my station is more like 20. Only 16 showed up tonight but it was still crazy. I was worthless. Anything I ever knew about serving completely went out the window. I spent half of the night hunting down random things like tongs and teapots and neglecting my guests. I will most definitely do another post on a typical day working in the dining room. Right now, it seems impossible.

On the plus side, I have been meeting a lot of new people. Unfortunately, this means I have been spending a little too much time at the crew bar. There are parties every week. But the group of people I've been hanging out with are so fun. Because...they're theater people! I'm really glad they've embraced me into their group. It feels good to be with people who get my jokes. I'm really funny, you know.

Anyway, time for me to go to bed. I work at 7:30 am tomorrow, which means if I'm not too tired I will be able to get off the ship! Yay!!!

What Day Is It?

I’ve been so sleepy that I haven’t been writing. We’re on Day 4 of Sea Days. The first day was very rocky and I felt kind of sick. Until now it has been pretty calm, but today at lunch we suddenly got some pretty rough waters. So I’m lying in bed before dinner feeling the ship rocking and hoping I won’t fall while I’m working.

I’ve been very frustrated with the management the past few days. Everywhere I turn someone is telling me I need to do this and that and I’m doing this wrong. Well, I’m working on it, but at the moment my hands are full and this person just asked me for 10 lemonades. If I was one of the people standing around in the bus station all the time I would understand, but I don’t stop moving as long as there is something to be done. I’m not standing idly. It just doesn’t matter what I do. I could be standing in the bus station waiting to put all of my stuff down while other people are in my way and they will ask if I’m standing there for a meeting. Or the one time I stop to take a break, a supervisor is there.

Oh, and my shirts are too big. Well, I asked for a small when I ordered my uniforms and they gave me a medium. Didn’t have time to do anything about it at the time because I had to start my shift. By the time I got a chance to exchange it I was told that I only had 2 days to exchange it. If someone had told me that I would have worked a little harder to get there before then. So now I’m wearing shirts that are way too big and I haven’t had time to buy new ones because the store is only open from 11-2. That’s when I work…But I don’t Look The Part and that’s very important. Maybe you should give me some time to fix it then? Everywhere I go, you need a different shirt.

On top of that, we are preparing for USPH when we get to Ft. Lauderdale so we are doing a lot of deep cleaning. Working from 5-12:30 for dinner. Last night I was given the impossible task of cleaning out the closet where all of the cleaning supplies are. Where everyone dumps the dirty water. So naturally, my closet didn’t pass inspection when my supervisor came with his stupid flashlight because every time a wiped out the sink or the shelf someone else came and used it.

Other than the management issues, I’m enjoying life. After 90 days I can apply for a different position. I think I’m going to apply for bar server. I talked to Gary today and he said that I could apply but it was unlikely that I would switch during this contract. They will have me come back for another contract in that position. I think I would be better as a bar server, because I like to talk to the guests a lot and guests like to talk to me. Don’t get much of a chance for that in the dining room because it’s so fast paced. My plan was to switch to bar server after 90 days and if I decided to do another contract I would take some bartending classes during my vacation so I could apply for bartender.

Once we start the Caribbean itinerary there will be a lot more drinking so that’s where most of the money will be.

I REALLY, REALLY need to learn Spanish. Anyone wanna buy me Rosetta Stone for Christmas?

I'll have pictures up soon. 

At last! WiFI!

So my other posts shouldn't be as long now that I have figured out the wifi. Kind of. I was just told I have been on for 22003894 minutes for a total of $7921401.84. I don't think I've even been on the ship for that many minutes.

10/29/2011

Day 1 “You’re American?!?”

So today has been full of crazy ups and downs. Started out dowwwwwn. I stayed up late talking to my mama last night and my roommate went to bed and said she was going to set her alarm for 7:15. The shuttle came at 8:00 and I knew I would need more time than that so I set my alarm for 6:45. Well of course after staying up late and not being able to sleep, when my alarm went off at 6:45 I ignored it and decided to wake up at 7:15 with Maria. Well Maria felt the same way and turned of her alarm when it went off. So she shakes me awake at 7:45 telling me we only had 15 minutes to get ready. I pretty much had a heart attack. Those of you that know me know that I am a slob and an awful packer. It was going to take me a half hour just to get everything packed back up. Somehow we made it out of there on time but I had to have Maria pack some of my things in her suitcase. Haven’t seen her since I got on board. She also owes me quite a bit of money…so there’s that.

After that it was a lot of lines and paperwork. There were a ton of new hires so it was looong. And of course I hadn’t had any time for hair and make up, so I looked awful. I got in trouble for my hair later that day, but I’ll come back to that.

After all the paperwork I finally got to find my room and put my luggage down. Tiny, tiny room. My stuff is still everywhere. And my roommate happens to be a head waiter. She’s really nice but it’s really hard for me to feel comfortable around authority figures, so living with one is going to be hard. But don’t worry, I’m probably moving out in two weeks anyway. Which sucks because it seems stupid to get unpacked and comfortable but I can’t find anything with it in the suitcases and the suitcases take up half of the room. I will definitely take some pics of the room once I have time.

So we went on a tour of the ship a little bit later, which didn’t help me at all. I can’t find my way around. Fortunately, there are these little Indonesian men who have taken it upon themselves to help out the little American girl. So I follow them like a lost puppy.

I also met a girl from the US who said she would take me under their wing, so that’s comforting. That’s right, a one girl. Which leads me to the theme of the day.

“You’re American?! And you’re a waitress?!?!” All. Day. Long. I am one of a handful of people from America and the only person from the US that works in restaurants. The only one.

The American that I met earlier told me to take advantage of it because passengers are going to be surprised and want to get to know me and give me better tips. So I took their advice. It’s been pretty easy. I just speak and they realize that I don’t have an accent and it’s an instant conversation starter. So I already have a connection with at least three groups of people that I talked to while serving at the Windjammer, one of them being “Super Mario,” the king of Royal Caribbean. Apparently he’s been on more cruises on the Liberty than any of the captains/crew. Do an internet search, you might be able to find something about him.

I knew that I was going to be one of very few American’s, but I didn’t realize it was going to be this big of a deal. I mean, it’s unheard of for an American to be a waitress.

I feel like this is putting a lot of pressure on me, EVERYONE is watching me, I don’t know if their just curious or waiting for me to fail and prove that American’s can’t do the work. I’m kind of paranoid. About the failure stuff, not about everyone watching me. They really are.

So tonight I worked at the Windjammer, which is the buffet style restaurant here. I will be spending my first two weeks there. I was really nervous at first, but once I started interacting with the passengers it was fun.

It was the before and after that were really awful. It started off with my supervisor telling me that I needed to fix my hair, which was very true. But it was going to take more than just a quick look in the mirror and a barrette to fix this monster. I slept on my hair wet last night and JUST managed to have time to straighten my bangs. So, I understood why it needed fixed, but there was just nothing I could do about it, I explained it to him and then I kind of broke down and cried a little in the corner. He didn’t say anything else but I was self conscious about it the rest of the night.

The passengers came and everything was fine and then they left and it started to suck again. It’s 10:30 and I haven’t had dinner yet, the only thing they have in the crew mess that is edible is rice so my lunch wasn’t even that satisfying and since I’ve gotten to Barcelona there doesn’t seem to be enough water in the world to quench my thirst, I’ve spent that past week sleeping on airplanes and airports and hotel beds, so I’m sore and on top of that I’m doing more physical labor than I have done in a long time. My back was killing me and the work was never ending and I was hungry and thirsty and my supervisor was watching me like a hawk. Might be the paranoia thing, but I think he really is paying special attention to me. And think I would have been fine if I was actually working on something useful. No. He had me empty out this closet and wipe all of the shelves down. So I had another moment. Why am I doing this? I could be at home with my puppy and mommy and daddy and internet, but no, I am torturing myself doing work that apparently most American’s wouldn’t even consider doing.

So here I am now. I got some food in me so I feel better, but I’m still feeling overwhelmed. Everyone keeps telling me that the first few days are like that, so I’m going to stick it out. I am definitely going to stick it out. I WILL finish this contract and prove to them that I can do this job. I’m just going to have a few breakdowns along the way.

I have a phone card that the company gave me, but the phones aren’t working. So I can’t even call my mama. There will be more time to figure all of this stuff out. For now I will sleep and have a good cry.  Oh and I don’t have a blanket. My roommate was very kind and went to the laundry room to get me one but it’s still a little damp.  And the ship is rooooooccccckkkkkkkinggggg. But! Best thing that happens today is it is daylight savings time here and I get an extra hour! Yay! Good night!

10/30/2011

Day 2: I Hate Rolling Silver

So I don’t know what I would have done without that extra hour. I would be a zombie. I managed to get my room a little more organized this morning. While watching Scrubs. So that was nice. Every part of my body hurts. My hands even hurt from rolling silver. Today went pretty much the same as yesterday. Met some nice and helpful people, everyone is very interested in the American girl. Might get old after awhile.

I had training at 9:30. Polishing the Gold. The Gold Standards:

Greet and smile

Own the problem

Look the Part

Deliver the WOW

I love our Training and Development guy, Gary. He is Scottish and really enthusiastic. It’s very contagious and makes me excited to work here.

Then I went to The Windjammer for lunch until 4:00. I get an hour break and then back for dinner. Haven’t had time to eat today because I had to get my ID and the crew mess doesn’t open until 5 pm for dinner. I think I might lose some weight...

I really want to go sign up for internet and such, but I haven’t had time. All I can think about right now is resting my back. I have a lot of other things to figure out as well. Still haven’t called my mama. I really want to but I can’t get out of my bunk right now. I love you, Mama. Hopefully I will get to post this soon. I’m hoping to have enough energy tonight to get the internet situation squared away and go socialize at the crew bar, but we will see…

Day 3 Why Aren’t Puppies Allowed in My Cabin?

Pretty much going the same as yesterday. Still haven’t called home :( Still haven’t figured out the internet. I did go to the crew bar and I met a lot of people. I don’t remember half of them. Ay. Too many names and faces and the names are hard to pronounce. I can’t even remember my roommate’s name half of the time.

I talked to some guys from Turkey tonight. They were really nice, I just hung out in their cabin for awhile. They told me that all the guys from Turkey that are here are running away from the army. Apparently everyone is required to join the army for 15 months in Turkey, but if you work in America for 5 years you are exempt. At least that’s the way I understand it. I never knew about that.

Day 4 Don’t wear it out.

Finally called home and talked to my mama and sister on facebook, which was very nice. I had training this morning, but it got cancelled so I’ve had 3 hours to get things organized. Finally. I needed to get my pants shortened, my laundry taken to the laundry room, figure out my wifi (yay!) and iron some stuff (I knew I should have taken my mama on the ship). So everything is going better today. Between learning all of the job assignments plus how to get everything I need to live, I have been very stressed and homesick. Still missing home and worrying about the work, but at least everything else is mostly taken care of.

We have a whole day at sea today, and the ship is rocking. Starting to feel a little seasick. So it’s probably going to be a long one.

I’ve gone to the dining room the past two nights to get the feel of it. I’m really scared that I can’t handle the work. It’s very fast paced. People keep telling me that if I learn the basics, I should get promoted fast because I am American. It seems a little unfair, but I don’t think I could turn it down. It makes me uncomfortable that I could potentially be in charge of people who have been working on ships for 10 years. I would prefer to get promoted to a different department, but I think I will need to at least learn Spanish to do that. I plan on talking to the T&D manager to see what I have to do to get into a different department. I have to work for 60 days in my current position, and even after that it is unlikely that I will get promoted during this contract.

I didn’t realize until I got here that I really like working with people. All of my coworkers complain about the demanding people, but I like the challenge. The American passengers respond to me really well, but the European’s don’t appreciate it if I can’t speak their language, so they just don’t ask me for anything. Anyway, I think I might want to try to work in some sort of HR on the ship and when I leave the ship. So we’ll see.

It seems weird to complain about this, but, as I mentioned before, being American makes everybody interested in me. They all ask the same questions.  “Why are you here?” “America is good country.” They don’t understand that things are not always so easy in the US for jobs right now.

The phrase “That’s my name, don’t wear it out” has been taken on a whole new level here. People I don’t even remember pass me and say “Cassie.” So I don’t respond to my name anymore, except for with a smile.

I’m missing home and my puppy A LOT, but I’m trying to keep my head up and keep going. I feel like giving up sometimes, but  I have to remember that I’m just starting and it’s going to be a while before I understand everything. Mostly, I need to get my ear trained to understand these accents. I can’t understand Jamaicans AT ALL. People get frustrated with me when I have to have them repeat what they’re saying over and over. I guess I will just have to get used to it.

I hope this seasickness goes away soon. I keep singing “Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down you’re rocking the boat.” Those are the only words I know. Until next time…

Updating Updates

Yo. Just a quick update to let you know that I will be updating soon, I'm having Internet issues, but I've been keeping track of everything! So. Soon. I really hope.

Barcelona or I Couldn't Come Up With An Interesting Title

Ay. It's been a long few days. And interesting. I'm really excited but I'm having a little breakdown thinking about home and my puppy.

He may not be very photogenic, but I still love him. 

I got to Barcelona last night and stayed in a fancy schmancy hotel. Then I slept until 2:00 pm and had to change rooms because Royal Caribbean is paying for this night. They didn't have a reservation for me, but they gave me a room anyway (phew). I walked into my room and there was a girl sleeping in the bed. So I went downstairs and told the receptionist that there was already someone in my room. Well duh. I was sharing with someone else joining the ship. I felt pretty dumb.

Anyway, meeting her has probably been the best thing that's happened so far. Her name is Maria and she's from Bulgaria. Turns out she has a friend that lives in Barcelona, so we met her for some tapas and then went to a bar. So I got to explore Barcelona a little bit. She has been working for Royal Caribbean for 2 contracts so she has been able to tell me about ship life and now I am not so nervous about tomorrow.

So tomorrow is the day! The shuttle comes to pick me up at 8:00 am and I join the ship. Very, very nervous. Really, really excited.

P.S. Spanish men are very attractive.

Observations and Random Thoughts While Traveling From Chicago to Helsinki

I’m really liking the long hair on these Finnish men.

I saw an Elder getting ready to leave on his two year mission.

There are no cognates in Finnish.

People keep staring at my feet weird…apparently flip flops aren’t acceptable here.

This airport seems really new.

All of the employees seem young.

Europeans really like stripes. And so do I.

My feet are freezing…maybe they are on to something with this whole flip flop thing.

Why do they sell perfume on airplanes?

I need to watch The Terminal again.

What is there to do in Helsinki?

What’s it like to be from Finland?

Why do people visit Finland? Like what is it known for?

O’Hare has these fancy automatic seat cover things. They are magical and I think they should be mandatory in every public restroom.

I need to find a place to sleep.

Home to Chicago to Helsinki

Okay, these time zones are completely screwing me up. Is it today or yesterday or tomorrow? I left home at 9:30 am yesterday and arrived in Helsinki at 8:30 am today, but it is 1:30 am at home. Is it Thursday? Ay. I didn't sleep at all on the plane and now I have a 9 hour layover. 9 hours in an airport. In Finland. By myself. Really tired. At least there's free wifi. 

Helsinki airport is really small, but I still got lost. Most of the people speak English, but some of them just grunt at me. Don’t know if it’s the language barrier or the Finnish way? Or if it’s too early in the morning for people to string words together? I can understand that.

So since Monday I obviously managed to get everything together. On my way to Chicago my recruiter called saying there were problems with my medical, but by the time I got on the plane everything seemed to be in order. At least the last I heard…haven’t talked to anyone from home lately.

That’s been the most frustrating part. I know my family probably wants to know how I’m doing and I want to tell them about everything and make sure everything is okay but I can’t! Thank God for Facebook and iMessage. If only the time zone part weren’t making things so difficult. 

Jumping Through Hoops

So the past few days have been pretty insane. There is so much to get accomplished, but I'm kind of stuck waiting for everyone else at this point. I've got all my paperwork done, the medical finished, tickets bought, I'm just waiting for my information from my recruiter for booking my hotel and getting my lab results back from the doctor. Other than that, all that's left to do is pack. And I hate packing.

It's really stressful having my recruiter so far away and hard to contact. There seem to be miscommunications. Last Friday she told me to go ahead and buy my ticket to Barcelona, so I did. When I was talking to her today she told me to wait until she had the letter of employment to buy it. Ahhh! Freaking me out a little bit. I don't know what's going on on her end, but I really hope that she has the LOE tomorrow and everything will turn out okay. 

If all goes as planned, I will have a day to explore Barcelona before joining the ship, so I'm looking forward to that. A little uneasy, since I know nothing about the city and my Spanish ain't so good. I'm pretty good at navigating most of them time, but I usually have my trusty iPhone to assist me. But Mr. iPhone won't work in Spain :( Hopefully WiFi is easy to access in Barcelona? 

For now I'm just anxiously waiting to hear about my LOE and hoping that I didn't waste money on an expensive plane ticket. 

Prepare ye, Barcelona!

It's all happening! I'm joining the Liberty of the Seas in Barcelona on October 29th! Less than a week to get everything together. I have to have a background check, medical, get my ticket to Spain, pack, plus tons of paperwork. It's very hectic, but going okay so far. When I first heard, I was at work and I pretty much had a panic attack thinking about getting all of the stuff together. But I have the most amazing mother in the world who is helping me through it all. Seriously, Mama, I love you.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to leave my job at the doctor's office before I expected and I feel pretty awful about that. Huge thank you to everyone at Vascular and Thoracic Associates for putting up with my craziness! I'm going to miss all of you! 

I was super excited when I heard Barcelona, but I'm joining the ship on the last transatlantic itinerary until April, so I'll mostly be going to the Caribbean. And from what I've heard, the first two weeks are the worst because I will be doing safety training on top of everything else. So I don't think there is any chance that I'll be able to get off at any of the ports. 

On top of all the training, we are cruising for 7 days straight, so the passengers are on the ship 24/7. Guess it will be good to be able to jump in with both feet. 

Still have a lot of unanswered questions. My main concerns have to do with actually getting to the ship. Being in Spain all by myself! At Orion High School, we learned Mexican, not Spanish. Way to prepare me for the world, Orion. Not that I can speak Mexican very well either. 

So here's my new home for the next 6 months. I can't wait to get started and meet new people.

I still haven't given up on my fantasy that I will meet a supermegafoxyawesomehot Australian even though I'm not going to Australia. He's an heir to tons of family money, but he wanted to work on a cruise ship to get some life experience. He will take me to Australia and teach me to surf and we will live happily ever after in his huge Australian mansion. 

asdkfjskldfj;

Joining the ship October 29th!

It's Really Starting!

I'm at work right now so I don't have much time, but wanted to share the good news! I got my assignment! Joining the Liberty of the Seas in Barcelona! It seems like the ship does a lot of Caribbean with some Europe mixed in.Not sure of the date yet. Having a small panic attack. My recruiter just sent me an email with about 14 attachments. My head is spinning. More details later!

It's Spirit Day, Ya'll.

I’m kind of at a stand still on this here blog as I wait for more information. So if anyone out there that might be reading this has any questions or ideas of things I could write about, let me know!

On a completely unrelated note, I just want to remind everybody that today is Spirit Day. Wear purple today to support victims of LGBT bullying, but don’t stop there! Check out websites like thetrevorproject.org and NOH8campaign.com to find out how you can help spread awareness and prevent teen suicides. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOUR RELIGIOUS/POLITICAL VIEWS ARE, EVERYBODY DESERVES TO BE TREATED WITH RESPECT. Thank you :) 

The World

Maybe I should rethink the Royal Caribbean thing and join this ship's crew instead. Or better yet, meet a supermegafoxyawesomehot RICH Australian and be a resident. I can't believe things like this exist...

http://aboardtheworld.com/

G'day mate.

Sigh. Another day has passed with no word of when I'm leaving. I think I shall go mad. And to make myself even crazier I've decided to dwell on which ship/destination so that when I actually find out I will be disappointed. Yup. Going crazy. But I have decided. I want to go to Australia. I don't really know much about the place except they have awesome accents. And the pictures look pretty. There are kangaroos there. And koalas. I think I would like it there. So I am going to go to Australia. 

I Love Cheese Fries

With little to do but dwell on the future, I’ve had a lot of time to fantasize about my new life.  And come to the harsh reality that there are some things that I will not be able to do once I’m gone. So, in no particular order, here’s a list of stuff I will miss. 

1. Steak and Shake. There is nothing like a Double Steak and Cheese and some cheese fries at the end of a long day. And I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of long days at sea with no greasy, cheesy goodness to take off the edge. 

2. The Internet. Duh. In my endless hours of research I have learned that the internet is available on board but it's gonna cost me. No one will tell me how much though...Might make this blog thing complicated but I'll make it work.

3. Speaking of making it work, I am going to miss my reality television. Tim Gunn, the Kardashians, Dance Moms, America's Next Top Model. How will I ever escape the drama of my own life if I can't watch group challenges and cat fights? Life is rough. 

4. My bed. Do crew cabins have sleep number beds?

5. Netflix. They might be messing everything up with their price raising and crazy two website thingy that I don't understand. But they have still exposed me to movies and shows that I never needed to watch. And loved.  I mean, I can't imagine what my life would be like if I had never watched a lovely show about the struggles of growing up in Australia as a teenage mermaid. I learned a lot of life lessons from that one. (H20: Just Add Water. Check it out sometime. You'll thank me later.) 

I might miss my friends and family, too, but I'll think about that tomorrow. (Irrelevant yet relevant side note: the day that Gone With the Wind was added to Netflix Instant Play was a very important day in my life). 

Here We Go...Kind of

Hello. This is my new blog. I am writing it because I got a job as an assistant waitress for Royal Caribbean. So I'm gonna write about what that's like and all.

I'm still in the beginning stages of my employment and basically have no clue what my life is going to be like once everything gets going. I don't know exactly how this is going to work, like how often I will be able to update and stuff like that. But since I'm still on land, I figured I would document the entire process. I guess I'll just jump right in and tell you how all of this came about.

I'm currently living in the Quad Cities in Illinois working as a medical assistant. I've been working at a doctor's office for about 5 months in a temporary position that will be ending in November. The time came for me to start looking for a new job and it seemed like a good time to start a new adventure. To make a long story short, a combination of obnoxious student loans and restlessness led me to researching cruise ship employment, and I decided it might be a good option for me.

It was pretty simple to get started. Cruise lines use recruiting agencies to hire most positions in the hotel department. I put together my resume and submitted it to the recruiting agency. A few days later a recruiter emailed me and said that I qualified for a prescreening interview. The interview was via Skype. She basically asked me about my work experience and told me about the job description, living arrangements, and legal documents that I would need. She helped me clean up my resume and then said that she was going to set up an interview with Royal Caribbean.

This is when it started to suck. I waited and waited for her to contact me about the interview. I drove everyone around me crazy while I was obsessing about it. FINALLY, an eternity (two weeks) later she told me that I had an interview with Royal Caribbean that would also be via Skype. A day after the interview, my recruiter called me and told me that I was hired! Woot woot.

So that was the easy part. Now I wait. There are so many things that need to be done before I can leave, but I can't do any of them until I get my date/ship assignment and I have no idea when that will happen. In the meantime I've been annoying everyone in my life talking about it constantly including my friends, family, coworkers. And my recruiter. I email her a lot. Poor lady.

So in attempt to keep me sane I'm going to be writing here. I think it will also be a good way to keep my family informed and make sure I remember this experience. And I've noticed that while there are a lot of crew blogs out there, most of them are from people in higher positions, so I think it might be nice to have the view of a lowly assistant waitress out in the blogosphere. So here we go!