Once again, I have failed. It’s been hard to come up with things to write about because it’s just become my normal life.
I’ve had some hard times, but I’m really loving this life. I guess it’s the free spirit in me. Although this isn’t necessarily freedom. Sometimes I refer to the ship as Azkaban or Alcatraz of the Seas.
I’m learning so much, though. I think I’ve learned more on the ship than I did during my four years of college. About life, about cultures, languages. And it feels like the sky is the limit. Working here will open so many doors for me. Before, if I had gone to Chicago or New York City (my favorite places in the world) and tried to apply for a job in a restaurant there was no chance I would get hired. Now I feel confident that any one of them would hire me. I don’t know if I want to be a waitress for the rest of my life, but it will be something I can do for extra cash or until I figure out what I want to do.
Right now, I’m trying to figure out what I want to do in the company. If I want to switch departments or try to advance in my current department. I kind of like being unique as far as being the only American assistant waiter and I’m not sure if I’m ready to give that up. I guess I like the attention. But switching departments could bring more opportunities. I would love to be cruise staff. I could see myself making a career out of that. Become Cruise Director someday! There aren’t enough female Cruise Directors. That would be cool.
So I think I will start a series on the interesting things that I have learned about different cultures and some of the stories people have told me.
I’m gonna start with China. There’s this Chinese guy that is an incredible story teller. He told me so much about Chinese culture. And it’s crazy. He told me that he is going to take me to China and have his mom make me monkey brains. They kill the monkey themselves. It’s very expensive.
He also told me about baby soup, which is illegal. They eat babies. They pay pregnant women big money for her unborn child and make soup out of it. Unbelievable.
He then told me an awful story about his favorite dumplings. Every morning he would wake up early just so he could go get his favorite dumplings from a shop. One day, he arrived at the shop and there were police there. Meat was really expensive, so they had been buying bodies from a nearby funeral home! He was upset about that.
Probably the most interesting thing we talked about was marriage. He told me that his parents were pushing him to get married and want him to go to an agency that matches up people on his vacation. He went to one during his last vacation and had a meeting with one girl. But she was ugly. So when she asked him what he could offer her he told her that he had no money, no job, and no education. So he escaped that one.
Men have to pay a large amount of money to the father to marry a woman. Especially if they pick the woman themselves, not through an agency. There is currently a couple on the ship that met each other and want to marry, but they have to save up the money to pay her father. So both of them are using the money they make to save up. She’s paying her own father so that she can marry the man she loves. Crazy.
So then he asked me how much he would have to pay to marry me. When I told him nothing, he couldn’t believe it. He was especially shocked when I told him that the bride traditionally pays for the wedding.
I’m very sad, because he is leaving for vacation in a week. He was supposed to go in April, but they pushed up his vacation because they want him to join the Voyager soon. All of our Chinese crew members are being sent to the Voyager because they are going to Asia this summer. I think the Liberty is going to be suffering because of this. The Chinese assistants are the one’s with the highest ratings and biggest cap size. We could be struggling for awhile.
A lot of transfers have been happening lately. Royal Caribbean can do whatever they want with us. A few weeks ago, they informed one of our Brazilian crew members that she would be going to a different ship when we arrived in Ft. Lauderale. Well, she is married to one of the guys on Liberty who is from Croatia. But they didn’t care. He was to stay on Liberty, but they needed Brazilians on the other ship. She decided that she was going to resign if they sent her. Fortunately, one of her paisanos stepped up. He volunteered to go instead. Anyway, if she had resigned he would have been the next one they sent.
These transfers have been hard for me to accept. I’ve been learning that you can’t get too attached to the people you meet on the ship, but at the same time you have to have close friends on the ship or you’ll go crazy.
Okay, that’s all I have for now. Until next time.
