December 30, 2007
Today was a pretty boring day! I had In Port Manning, so I couldn’t leave the ship – so I slept in kinda late, went to the gym, took a shower and didn’t start work until 4 p.m.! But what does suck is that I found out we have to babysit until midnight tomorrow night – so there’s no celebrating with friends AGAIN! Damn…Then, I heard that the one day we’re in Russia, no crew is allowed to get off!! What kinda crap is that??????
Yesterday was great though – I was up really early for an excursion that was a tour of Christchurch and Canterbury. We started the morning by heading out to a lookout point just to look over the city of Christchurch, which is beautiful (as is all of New Zealand…maybe I should marry a Kiwi??). Then we headed out to Riccarton House and Bush (which means forest). Riccarton House is a Victorian home which is one of the oldest buildings in the Canterbury plains owns by the Deans family who is highly influential here. The house was beautiful with tons of imported woods and luxurious things around the home. The gardens around the home were spectacular – as is every garden here. Christchurch is known as “The Garden City.”
Next, we headed off to Homebush Stables in Homebush. We started with a sheep herding demonstration and there were sheep that were only about weeks old. You’ll have to see them when I eventually post the pictures! I also have a video of the sheep herding as well as the sheep shearing demonstration. The sheep he sheared (?) had 18 months worth of wool on it, so I think it lost about 30 pounds of wool!! We walked around the property which was amazingly beautiful and the family still lives in the home there! There was a woman who turned the wool into thread and we watched her use a New Zealand made spinner to thread it all around a spool. After all of that, we headed inside for a great dinner that was made for us – food was fantastic!!!
The next stop was the Antarctic Center. Basically, the US Antarctic Research Center is located there also. But, you can go on a Hagglund ride and see blue New Zealand penguins. There is also the Antarctic experience where they give you booties and a jacket and send you into a room covered in ice and snow (really slippery!!) with a snow slide and an igloo. The lights dim down really low, the wind picks up and the temperatures drop to -17 degrees Celsius! It was a bit cold for my taste. We didn’t get to explore too much because the rest of the tour was quite rushed, so we only have 45 minutes to see the entire attraction unfortunately! L
Our last stop was the Art Center of the City. We literally had about 20 minutes there which really stunk because there were lots of local artists there who had tons of beautiful jewelry and I had no time to look! I also found some New Zealand wool boots – I think I might be investing in some before we leave here J They had a great fudge store – I wish it wasn’t so expensive to ship because I’d love to send some to Aunt Louise! It’s fantastic – they had bailey’s fudge and double chocolate and probably 15 other flavors!
I guess that’s about all for now – I still haven’t posted any pictures like I said because the internet is so freakin slow! I will try and find a place tomorrow in Wellington that I can get some!
Happy New Year! I’ll be celebrating it long before you all will, but I guess there’s not much celebration with 3-7 year olds!
Here’s to a great 2008!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
So Sleepy!
December 28, 2007
I am so tired right now, so we’ll just type and see how this ends up! After three very long sea days, we finally found Dunedin, New Zealand today! I went on an excursion called “Dunedin Highlights” which was literally driving around in a bus with a few stops along the way. We saw several Cathedrals, went to the most photographed Railroad station and walked around, the Olveston Experience that was owned by a wealthy family – basically a small castle – absolutely beautiful! We also drove by Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street in the World, Otago University and Unity Park where we could catch a glimpse of the entire city from on top of a small mountain. It was a nice way to see what the city has to offer. We passed the Cadbury factory which really made me want some chocolate!
I’m going to attempt to post some pictures, but we’ll see how fast the internet is running tonight before I do that! There are lots of pictures from our Christmas dinner where you will see us eating something – they’re called Tim Tam ?? cookies – you bite off opposite corners and suck either coffee or hot tea through it and it melts in your hand and tastes like a Kit Kat. They are amazing! So that’s what all those crazy pictures are. No fantastic pictures just yet, but I will try and get some soon J
Hope all is well with everyone and I’m going on an excursion tomorrow in Christchurch that’s called “Christchurch and Canterbury” so it should be great – it’s 8.5 hours long! So it will cover several things I’m sure!
Peace out!
I am so tired right now, so we’ll just type and see how this ends up! After three very long sea days, we finally found Dunedin, New Zealand today! I went on an excursion called “Dunedin Highlights” which was literally driving around in a bus with a few stops along the way. We saw several Cathedrals, went to the most photographed Railroad station and walked around, the Olveston Experience that was owned by a wealthy family – basically a small castle – absolutely beautiful! We also drove by Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street in the World, Otago University and Unity Park where we could catch a glimpse of the entire city from on top of a small mountain. It was a nice way to see what the city has to offer. We passed the Cadbury factory which really made me want some chocolate!
I’m going to attempt to post some pictures, but we’ll see how fast the internet is running tonight before I do that! There are lots of pictures from our Christmas dinner where you will see us eating something – they’re called Tim Tam ?? cookies – you bite off opposite corners and suck either coffee or hot tea through it and it melts in your hand and tastes like a Kit Kat. They are amazing! So that’s what all those crazy pictures are. No fantastic pictures just yet, but I will try and get some soon J
Hope all is well with everyone and I’m going on an excursion tomorrow in Christchurch that’s called “Christchurch and Canterbury” so it should be great – it’s 8.5 hours long! So it will cover several things I’m sure!
Peace out!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
All I want for Christmas is YOU!
December 25, 2007
I’m sitting here and it’s just about midnight on the 25th – so Christmas is over already and I’m looking at my clock and it says it is 7:34 a.m. back home where Christmas is just getting started – pretty amazing how the world works, eh?
The ship is decorated beautifully for the Holidays. The atrium fountain is full of fake snow and gifts. There are several large Christmas trees around the ship and just the overall feel of the holidays is here!
So last night we had a Christmas party for the kids with Christmas crafts and Gingerbread men etc. After that, I participated in an International Christmas Choir. It was last night about 10:45 p.m. for all the passengers. There was a Filipino Choir that sang, an Indonesian Choir then the “International” Choir with everyone else. It was pretty neat and made it feel a little bit more like Christmas for me – getting to sing in it and all. We did four carols and while one of the cast members was singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” we were all standing behind her and “snow” began to fall on the stage – it gave me goosebumps – it was nice to have that special holiday feel. We concluded the performance with all the participating crew (about 100-125 of us) lining the stairs and the lounge with candles singing “Silent Night.” It was beautiful!
This morning was a great Christmas morning- while it was hard not being home with all those things that I’m used to on Christmas morning. We set up the lounge with lots of Christmas décor and the captain made an announcement that “a large flying object with lots of animals and a red nose leading the way” was making its way towards our ship. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, the Captain came on again and made the announcement that the unidentified object was Santa and he had landed on the bow of our ship. Patrick (a guy from my old ship) and myself were told we were hosting the event. He’s the DJ/Emcee on the ship, so I assumed he’s be on the mic the whole time and I would just kinda gather the kids and keep it flowing. Well, apparently, he called the kids up by age group and I had to provide the entertainment and be on the mic the ENTIRE time. I was talking to the kids about what they wanted/what they got etc. I was actually quite comfortable and ended up getting several compliments from my bosses, the event manager and the cruise director, so I was very excited about that! The snow was falling and we gave out gifts (backpacks) to all the kids and did photographs with kids of all ages. Everyone really enjoyed it and it put us in the Christmas spirit!
Tonight, they had a cocktail party for the crew at 5:15, where all cocktails were free. Then, we were served a dinner on the Lido deck by the volunteer cabin stewards. It was great to be served and we had tons of fun having a nice dinner all dressed up. The Filipinos and Indonesians were also served by volunteer Entertainment/Deck and other departments – so everyone got their well deserved relaxing time to be served and waited on!
All in all, a nice Christmas – my first official Christmas away from home. I guess I really am growing up?!?!
Right now we’re sitting in the middle of nowhere – we have 3 straight sea days (rough sea days at that) sailing from Tasmania to New Zealand. All the Christmas trees have fallen over several times! The kids are loving the wave pool and the walking crooked – I, however, hate looking like I’m drunk all the time!
I hope everyone back home has a blessed and wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I know I am extremely grateful for all that God has given me and changed in my life over the course of the last year. Every single thing was for the better and every decision I made appeared to lead me in the right direction, despite my hesitation on some of them. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been and overall, I feel the best I’ve ever felt and I hope and pray that my life continues to go the positive direction.
Like I said, I’ll continue to update you all as much as possible. Not too much has happened yet – I’ve been working so much trying to get Club Hal in order I haven’t had much time for anything else with all of the holiday activity!
Love you guys and miss you all!
I’m sitting here and it’s just about midnight on the 25th – so Christmas is over already and I’m looking at my clock and it says it is 7:34 a.m. back home where Christmas is just getting started – pretty amazing how the world works, eh?
The ship is decorated beautifully for the Holidays. The atrium fountain is full of fake snow and gifts. There are several large Christmas trees around the ship and just the overall feel of the holidays is here!
So last night we had a Christmas party for the kids with Christmas crafts and Gingerbread men etc. After that, I participated in an International Christmas Choir. It was last night about 10:45 p.m. for all the passengers. There was a Filipino Choir that sang, an Indonesian Choir then the “International” Choir with everyone else. It was pretty neat and made it feel a little bit more like Christmas for me – getting to sing in it and all. We did four carols and while one of the cast members was singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” we were all standing behind her and “snow” began to fall on the stage – it gave me goosebumps – it was nice to have that special holiday feel. We concluded the performance with all the participating crew (about 100-125 of us) lining the stairs and the lounge with candles singing “Silent Night.” It was beautiful!
This morning was a great Christmas morning- while it was hard not being home with all those things that I’m used to on Christmas morning. We set up the lounge with lots of Christmas décor and the captain made an announcement that “a large flying object with lots of animals and a red nose leading the way” was making its way towards our ship. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, the Captain came on again and made the announcement that the unidentified object was Santa and he had landed on the bow of our ship. Patrick (a guy from my old ship) and myself were told we were hosting the event. He’s the DJ/Emcee on the ship, so I assumed he’s be on the mic the whole time and I would just kinda gather the kids and keep it flowing. Well, apparently, he called the kids up by age group and I had to provide the entertainment and be on the mic the ENTIRE time. I was talking to the kids about what they wanted/what they got etc. I was actually quite comfortable and ended up getting several compliments from my bosses, the event manager and the cruise director, so I was very excited about that! The snow was falling and we gave out gifts (backpacks) to all the kids and did photographs with kids of all ages. Everyone really enjoyed it and it put us in the Christmas spirit!
Tonight, they had a cocktail party for the crew at 5:15, where all cocktails were free. Then, we were served a dinner on the Lido deck by the volunteer cabin stewards. It was great to be served and we had tons of fun having a nice dinner all dressed up. The Filipinos and Indonesians were also served by volunteer Entertainment/Deck and other departments – so everyone got their well deserved relaxing time to be served and waited on!
All in all, a nice Christmas – my first official Christmas away from home. I guess I really am growing up?!?!
Right now we’re sitting in the middle of nowhere – we have 3 straight sea days (rough sea days at that) sailing from Tasmania to New Zealand. All the Christmas trees have fallen over several times! The kids are loving the wave pool and the walking crooked – I, however, hate looking like I’m drunk all the time!
I hope everyone back home has a blessed and wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I know I am extremely grateful for all that God has given me and changed in my life over the course of the last year. Every single thing was for the better and every decision I made appeared to lead me in the right direction, despite my hesitation on some of them. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been and overall, I feel the best I’ve ever felt and I hope and pray that my life continues to go the positive direction.
Like I said, I’ll continue to update you all as much as possible. Not too much has happened yet – I’ve been working so much trying to get Club Hal in order I haven’t had much time for anything else with all of the holiday activity!
Love you guys and miss you all!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Downunder and Kiwiland Addresses
December 22, 2007
Here are all the addresses for the places we will be until approximately the end of February! You can find out where we are on specific days by going to the Holland America website and “finding cruises” on the ms Statendam…
Melbourne, Australia
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Barilwil Agencies Australia Pty. Ltd – Melbourne
136-140 Hall Street
Spotswood Victoria 3015
Australia
Milford Sound, New Zealand
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Mckay Shipping Limited (Te Anau)
Vaughan Campbell
40 Lakefront Drive
Te Anau
New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Mckay Shipping Limited (Wellington)
Old Wool House, Level 1
139 Featherston Street
Wellington
New Zealand
Sydney, Australia
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Barwil Agencies Australia Pty. Ltd – Sydney
L4 370 Pitt St.
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Mckay Shipping Limited (Auckland)
2 Akaroa Street, Parnell
Auckland, 1015
New Zealand
Brisbane, Australia
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Barwil Agencies Australia Pty. Ltd – Brisband
301 Wickham Street
Fortitude Valley QLD 4006
Australia
Here are all the addresses for the places we will be until approximately the end of February! You can find out where we are on specific days by going to the Holland America website and “finding cruises” on the ms Statendam…
Melbourne, Australia
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Barilwil Agencies Australia Pty. Ltd – Melbourne
136-140 Hall Street
Spotswood Victoria 3015
Australia
Milford Sound, New Zealand
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Mckay Shipping Limited (Te Anau)
Vaughan Campbell
40 Lakefront Drive
Te Anau
New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Mckay Shipping Limited (Wellington)
Old Wool House, Level 1
139 Featherston Street
Wellington
New Zealand
Sydney, Australia
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Barwil Agencies Australia Pty. Ltd – Sydney
L4 370 Pitt St.
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Mckay Shipping Limited (Auckland)
2 Akaroa Street, Parnell
Auckland, 1015
New Zealand
Brisbane, Australia
Ms Statendam – Sydney Ellis, Youth Staff
Barwil Agencies Australia Pty. Ltd – Brisband
301 Wickham Street
Fortitude Valley QLD 4006
Australia
Friday, December 21, 2007
G'Day Mate!
December 22, 2007
I can’t believe I’ve already been on the Statendam for 5 days! Right now, we are at sea heading towards Melbourne tomorrow. The first few days here have been great – they just came out of dry dock and the ship looks pretty good for the most part. This ship is beautiful though – exact same lay out as the Ryndam, but much more beautiful with the colors and décor. Club HAL is an absolute disaster – nothing is organized and it’s going to take quite a bit of work to get it into the shape it should be in to make things operate efficiently. None of the sound or electronic systems are working so I’ve had everyone up there the last few days trying to figure it out with no luck! There are three Club HAL staff, but the other two did not arrive until Sydney – so I had two days with the kids alone because they had Visa and snow issues getting here!
The flights over were not as bad as I remembered – total flight time was a little over 18 hours plus 5+ hours of sitting in airports. Went by pretty quickly and the middle seat was empty so that was nice too – having a little extra leg room! The girl who sat in the window seat couldn’t stop talking about how fascinating it was that I was born the year of the Rat – she was a monkey and said that rats and monkeys make the best of friends. She was a little drunk and asked me the same questions 16 times over the course of the flight. Uh well, makes for good stories, right?
We’ve been doing a lot of planning and searching for craft supplies since I’ve been here - organizing things for the holiday party for the kids. The Atrium here is decorated beautifully for the holidays – the fountain is filled with snow and gifts and there’s a few Christmas trees out there too! The kids have a Christmas party on Christmas eve (which is two days from now, it’s 2 p.m. here and it’s the 22nd of December) and on Christmas morning we have Santa Claus coming to the lounge to surprise them. It’ll be a pretty laid back day.
We were in Sydney for 2 days and we literally pulled directly into the Sydney Harbour with the Opera house out our port side windows and the Harbor Bridge out or Starboard side windows! It was beautiful and I can’t wait to start doing excursions in all of the ports. I actually think I did many of them when I was here in 2002, but I want to do them again, because WHY NOT?
Today I’m actually quarantined in my room. My roommate ate sugar-free candy and got “the runs”. They tell us to report and “runs” or throwing up to the infirmary because of the GI stuff and NL Virus. I told her she shouldn’t report it because that’s what it was and she would be quarantined for 72 hours no matter what. So, of course, she told them and she’s in the infirmary confined for 72 hours and because I’m the roommate, I’m confined for 24 hours in my room. We can’t leave nor have anyone in our rooms and I have to order room service to get food. So really, there’s lots of sleeping and hanging out – I’m still in my pajamas and its 2 p.m. I’m supposed to be released at 11:30 p.m. tonight as long as I have no symptoms of NLV. The worst part is there’s one girl that’s dealing with all the programs. Uh well, I guess I did it for the first 2 days, right?
All in all, a great first few days. Still getting to know lots of people, really haven’t met too many people yet. This ship has lots of cliques, but there will be a big turnover in the next few weeks, so that will help break those up a bit. I’m excited about what the next few months has to offer! I will try and post as much as possible – but my computer is barely working and the internet café for crew has been down since I got here – so we’ll see how long my computer lasts. Maybe I’ll buy myself a new computer eventually?!
I hope and pray everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008!
I can’t believe I’ve already been on the Statendam for 5 days! Right now, we are at sea heading towards Melbourne tomorrow. The first few days here have been great – they just came out of dry dock and the ship looks pretty good for the most part. This ship is beautiful though – exact same lay out as the Ryndam, but much more beautiful with the colors and décor. Club HAL is an absolute disaster – nothing is organized and it’s going to take quite a bit of work to get it into the shape it should be in to make things operate efficiently. None of the sound or electronic systems are working so I’ve had everyone up there the last few days trying to figure it out with no luck! There are three Club HAL staff, but the other two did not arrive until Sydney – so I had two days with the kids alone because they had Visa and snow issues getting here!
The flights over were not as bad as I remembered – total flight time was a little over 18 hours plus 5+ hours of sitting in airports. Went by pretty quickly and the middle seat was empty so that was nice too – having a little extra leg room! The girl who sat in the window seat couldn’t stop talking about how fascinating it was that I was born the year of the Rat – she was a monkey and said that rats and monkeys make the best of friends. She was a little drunk and asked me the same questions 16 times over the course of the flight. Uh well, makes for good stories, right?
We’ve been doing a lot of planning and searching for craft supplies since I’ve been here - organizing things for the holiday party for the kids. The Atrium here is decorated beautifully for the holidays – the fountain is filled with snow and gifts and there’s a few Christmas trees out there too! The kids have a Christmas party on Christmas eve (which is two days from now, it’s 2 p.m. here and it’s the 22nd of December) and on Christmas morning we have Santa Claus coming to the lounge to surprise them. It’ll be a pretty laid back day.
We were in Sydney for 2 days and we literally pulled directly into the Sydney Harbour with the Opera house out our port side windows and the Harbor Bridge out or Starboard side windows! It was beautiful and I can’t wait to start doing excursions in all of the ports. I actually think I did many of them when I was here in 2002, but I want to do them again, because WHY NOT?
Today I’m actually quarantined in my room. My roommate ate sugar-free candy and got “the runs”. They tell us to report and “runs” or throwing up to the infirmary because of the GI stuff and NL Virus. I told her she shouldn’t report it because that’s what it was and she would be quarantined for 72 hours no matter what. So, of course, she told them and she’s in the infirmary confined for 72 hours and because I’m the roommate, I’m confined for 24 hours in my room. We can’t leave nor have anyone in our rooms and I have to order room service to get food. So really, there’s lots of sleeping and hanging out – I’m still in my pajamas and its 2 p.m. I’m supposed to be released at 11:30 p.m. tonight as long as I have no symptoms of NLV. The worst part is there’s one girl that’s dealing with all the programs. Uh well, I guess I did it for the first 2 days, right?
All in all, a great first few days. Still getting to know lots of people, really haven’t met too many people yet. This ship has lots of cliques, but there will be a big turnover in the next few weeks, so that will help break those up a bit. I’m excited about what the next few months has to offer! I will try and post as much as possible – but my computer is barely working and the internet café for crew has been down since I got here – so we’ll see how long my computer lasts. Maybe I’ll buy myself a new computer eventually?!
I hope and pray everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
It's Official!
I will be heading out to the ms Statendam on December 16th at 7 p.m.! I'm super excited - Mom bought me new luggage - so I'm ready to go :) (Well, sorta)
Monday, December 3, 2007
Home for now...
Wow! It's been a while since I posted and caught up with everything! Mom pointed out to me that i hadn't posted any pictures since Alaska - so I took care of that! I posted 333 new pictures the other night from Dry Dock, Mexico etc. So, there's lots to look at if you have the free time!
I came home on the 31st and was home for about 8 days when I got the offer to go back and work as cruise staff on the Ryndam! Of course, I said yes! It was great to see all my friends one more time and to work a different job on the ship. Makes me sad to go back and work with Club Hal, but the schedule is much better :) Maybe my contract after that I will see if I can do event staff! Instead of flying back to Florida, I flew into Louisville, KY and met up with the family where we had a big family Thanksgiving! It was lots of fun!
I'm currently trying to upload some videos of ziplining and whale watching for you guys - it's taken me a while to get these done, but I think I've finally figured it out...So keep an eye out.
I'm guesstimating that I will be leaving here on the 15th or so of December to head out to Australia for my contract on the Statendam. I'm very excited about the itinerary and all the people that will be there from my last ship! I think the most exciting part is that my birthday will be an overnight port in Shanghai, China.
Well, I think that's it for now! I will post any new information I find out on here! Hope everyone is doing well.
I came home on the 31st and was home for about 8 days when I got the offer to go back and work as cruise staff on the Ryndam! Of course, I said yes! It was great to see all my friends one more time and to work a different job on the ship. Makes me sad to go back and work with Club Hal, but the schedule is much better :) Maybe my contract after that I will see if I can do event staff! Instead of flying back to Florida, I flew into Louisville, KY and met up with the family where we had a big family Thanksgiving! It was lots of fun!
I'm currently trying to upload some videos of ziplining and whale watching for you guys - it's taken me a while to get these done, but I think I've finally figured it out...So keep an eye out.
I'm guesstimating that I will be leaving here on the 15th or so of December to head out to Australia for my contract on the Statendam. I'm very excited about the itinerary and all the people that will be there from my last ship! I think the most exciting part is that my birthday will be an overnight port in Shanghai, China.
Well, I think that's it for now! I will post any new information I find out on here! Hope everyone is doing well.
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