:)

August 26, 2007

I must admit, I can not believe I’m getting ready to start my 6th week on board! It has flown by and I’ve never had so much fun! This past week has been great – very busy, but fun.

My roommate/coworker, Kaitlin, got off the ship and we had 2 new staff get on. The new roommate is ok – nothing to “write home” about. Nikki and I have been getting along great and having TONS of fun together – but she leaves next week and I’m quite depressed about it! She’s awesome though and said she would be interested in a trip to Africa too! So we might start organizing something (so anyone interested, start saving!).

We had 45 crew disembark last week, which meant that 45-50 new crew got on. Of course, I want to get to know everyone so I have been staying up late and going out every night to meet new people and there are some awesome ones on board! You’ll see lots of pictures of me, Nikki, Egon (the super tall guy...like 7 feet!), and some cadets and other officers that joined us. We’ve been hanging out every night in the OB – them drinking and me with my water. (Ok...I had wine last night...but other than that, water!)

It was Indonesia Independence Day and we have been having tons of activities for it – crew tug-of-war, karaoke contests and a huge crew party on the mooring deck with Indonesian food, a live band, drinks and lots of fun! There are pictures from that on my website too.

This week, I got one excursion via the ship and that was to the Underground Gold mine where we visited the A.J. Mine – Gastinau Gold Mines in Juneau, Alaska. It was interesting and I learned a lot about the gold process and how it all worked. The coolest fact I learned was that the Railroad attendant started the first boy scout group here in Juneau! We got to pan for gold a bit and I got a small vial with the four flecks I found.

In Ketchikan I went out with Nikki to the Totem Heritage Center where there are totem poles dating back over 300 years. Very neat place to see these totems – but unfortunately too dark where I couldn’t take any pictures to show you all. There’s one or two – so you’ll get the general idea!

In Skagway I went and watched the show I wanted to see last year – The Days of ’98 show with Soapy Smith. Very cute show telling the story of the gold rush villains.

That’s pretty much it for now – still just taking everything day by day and enjoying my time with everyone!