Would the pounding in my head please subside?

(PS – this is two days old…it wouldn’t let me post it for the last two days!)

I have a terrible headache and have had it all day! Not sure why…I think it’s the lack of water, but I’ll survive. Didn’t post yesterday – so I’ll do it for both days now!

Yesterday, we had a long day in Cadiz, Spain. What a beautiful port! Been there before and it is just a fantastic city for walking, internet, people watching, food and fresh air. Steve (my friend, the DJ) and I wanted some internet, so we went ashore and walked around until we found the massive Cathedral in the middle of the city. All of the crew know this Cathedral because it has free wifi! There was a café there with tables outside and I love to be outside, especially when the weather is fantastic like it was yesterday. We sat on our computers and ordered a “Baguette”. There were several options of “Baguettes” – I picked the Ham and cheese but they apparently didn’t have the ingredients for that so they gave me 3 options and the only one that sounded decent turned out to be a large frankfurter on a French baguette with cheese and bacon. Surprisingly, it was delicious but quite funny to see a sandwich like that. After 2 or so hours, I had to head back to work so we grabbed some ice cream and began the walk back. You know you’ve been on ships a long time when you appreciate free wifi and fresh air. A great day!
When we returned, I had a couple more activities to complete for the day and then had the night off. A group of six of us went to the Pinnacle Grill (one of our specialty restaurant) and had an ok dinner there (definitely not the best one I’ve eaten) and then I sat in the office for a couple of hours to get some work done and get ahead. I think I’m pretty much there, which is exciting to me.

We ported in Malaga, Spain today – was here as well a few months ago on the Prinsendam but didn’t get off this time. I traded IPM’s with the Lifestylist, Katie and she took mine yesterday. IPM is In port manning where one of us is required to stay on board in case of an emergency. Did my morning activity, we had a full crew General Emergency Drill (with those OH-SO-SEXY bright yellow lifejackets) and then there was a plaque ceremony on board. A plaque ceremony is when it is a ships first time in a port (like today – the Eurodam had never docked here before) and a few representatives from the city come on and they give us a plaque, we give them a plaque and that’s it. Only 2 reps showed up today and I took them on a tour of the ship after the small “ceremony” that we held. When that was over – worked for a few hours and then took a quick nap because of this headache. Woke up in time to jump in the shower and get ready for formal night.
Obviously, a couple boring days but I’m really adamant on making the effort to write in here at least every other day.

Highs (yesterday & today): Talking to Ben on the phone, compliments from guests, fresh air
Lows: This dam headache!
Peace, Love, Ships :)

Happy Easter!

Another fantastic Easter today! Today we are anchored off of Portimao, Portugal. Woke up and did my usual thing (working) this morning around 9 and then had the day off until 3PM. Since it is a tender port, I decided that I wasn't going to go ashore and use this day to get ahead in my work and get "on the ball" finally. I always say it takes about 2 weeks to settle into a ship and get your groove going and I feel like I'm finally getting to that point. It was one of those days where you anticipate nothing and get everything. I ended up sitting in the office all day with Megs, the event manager, and Margarita, the event manager in training. The Entertainment Department office pretty much has a revolving door, so all of my team members were in and out. I haven't laughed that much in a VERY long time. Anything and everything was hilariously funny. It's hard to explain, but every ship is different – it has its own culture and its own morale. When you join a new ship, it is similar to moving to a new city – you never know what to expect or who will be there. Well – on this ship I have been pleasantly surprised because my team is incredible. We get along and we just click. It's funny actually...Yesterday, Margarita was confirmed for reservations for 4 for our Italian restaurant onboard. Well – when it came time to pick her four, we (Dom, the cruise director and I) began to tease her (because we weren't in her four!!) She got frustrated and said "How do you guys do this without offending anyone?" Megs threw back the answer of "We normally don't like everyone, so we don't care!" It's SO true.

Anyways, it was Easter today – but nothing much out of the ordinary happening around the ship other than hard boiled dyed eggs that seem to have found their way into every corner of the ship and chocolate Easter bunny adorning the Lido buffet line. Myself, Amye (the Youth Program Coordinator) and Tyler (her husband) decided that we wanted to make it an Easter Extravaganza for the kids. SO – we took over the Culinary Arts Center and did an Easter Egg Hunt, Dying Easter Eggs and Decorating Easter Cookies. We had a blast – I think we enjoyed it more than the kids. Really gives us a reminder of the holidays because I can honestly say – sometimes the holidays fly by because we don't get days off and we forget to celebrate them as well as what they are about and this really gave us a chance to have a good time and celebrate!

I almost forgot- a big group of us decided to go to church today. Oh my goodness, what a crazy service it was. The Pastor was very very old and the service was extremely traditional with responsive readings and hymns with no books nor music. We ended up leaving after the "sermon" because the pastor was so difficult to understand and follow because he was all over the place!

All in all a fantastic day – nothing big or eventful happened, but it was just happy and fun!

High: Laughter…really sincere laughter.

Low: Not having Ben to celebrate Easter with L

Lots of love to everyone out there today!

Quote I found last night on somebody's facebook profile: "There are SO many possibilities! The whole world is open to me. I can do whatever I want to do, be whoever I want to be. AND I CHOOSE to be who I am and to be where I am – right here, right now. I revel in the present moment and I am thankful for all the gifts it brings." ~Dorothy Mendoza Row

Lisbon is SO Fado!

So, it's been a long time since I've written and I've been promising updates forever. I've decided that I'm going to start writing as of today and then I will begin to back track and fill in the blanks as we go and probably do one large update post very soon because in the last year (or so) my life has changed completely – mostly for the better. I'm learning who I am, what I'm about and exactly how to be what I want to be without influence or judgment from anyone else!

Anyways…I joined the Eurodam on April 10^th in Freeport, Bahamas where the ship was in dry dock for 8 days prior to my embarkation. I got onboard around 6PM and pretty much hit the ground running because there was so much to accomplish before the guests embarked on the 12^th. That night I worked like crazy as well as the following day – luckily we could be in our own clothes and get sweaty and dirty while trying to organize cabinets, closets and drawers. The girl that was here prior to me had things in 17 different places around the ship. I like things simple and ORGANIZED!

My birthday was on the 12^th, which as I previously mentioned was embarkation day for guests as well. We had water underneath us on the 11^th and sailed out of the dry dock to perform all the necessary tests before the guests came on board and pulled into Ft. Lauderdale for embarkation day. Well, my 27^th birthday was busy to say the least – but my "Explorations Team" (my Entertainment team onboard) did whatever they could to make it as special as possible. I had known two of them from previous contracts but the remainder were all brand new and they still helped me celebrate with dinner in one of our restaurants onboard, the Tamarind. I really couldn't have asked for more! 27 years of experience down and 27 years of blessings to say the least!

We had two sea days and then a stop in Bermuda. I have actually never been there before (Holland had stopped going there for many years and just recently resumed.) We weren't docked on the main island, but a few friends and I decided to go get some lunch and fresh air ashore. After walking around for awhile, we found this place called "Snorkel Park" where you could rent water toys like jet skies or snorkel. We chose just to have lunch at the restaurant overlooking the water. It was INCREDIBLE. Especially after two days at sea and before FOUR more days at sea. We ate then walked around a bit more and taking a few fun pictures before heading back to the ship for the evening work J

Four days at sea (four VERY rough days, if I do say so myself). I didn't get sea sick but I was so sleepy and tired from the constant rocking. PLUS, my room is on deck 7 all the way forward where we tend to feel motion a bit more, so I wasn't even sleeping well because I couldn't lay still long enough!

We finally saw land in Sao Paolo, Portugal, which we refer to as the Azores, and several of us went for a long walk to see what it was about. Not too much to "write home about" but we did find the "Jose Do Canto Botanical Gardens". We still couldn't figure out exactly what Jose accomplished to earn himself some gardens, but the park was beautiful. I'll post pictures soon – I think we only ended up taking a few, though. Maybe only one, come to think of it. We were hungry after walking around the gardens and the city for awhile, so we headed back to the terminal to grab a bite to eat at one of the cafes there and…Get this…we ate at a gourmet restaurant called "BURGER KING". It was quick and easy….not too exciting though!

One more ROUGH day at sea and we finally hit Lisbon where we had an overnight last night through today. I worked yesterday morning (for all of 20 minutes, I know…tough job) and I talked to a friend of mine, Steve, who is the DJ onboard. Him and I have become good friends because we're both in relationships where are significant others are on other ships – so basically, we commiserate together J He's great t- good friend and I feel like he's become a brother to me! Anyways, we decided to go have a look around the city. It was drizzling rain, but the city is absolutely fantastic! The buildings are fantastic and the historical architecture is breathtaking! All the streets are paved with beautiful stones and patterns. Most of the stores were closed because of Good Friday – but just walking around and talking to Steve was a blast. We looked (well, drooled) at every bakery window there was and walked to the "town square" that I like to call it where the theater was.

We headed back about 2 hours later to meet up with a group of friends to head out to dinner. Everyone met up on the gangway (about 8 of us) on a mission to find some food. My friend, Megs only likes chicken. She's a very picky eater! The rest of us wanted to try some local food and we went to probably about 6 restaurants and there was always one of two problems: One, they had no chicken or two, they were completely booked because of this "Fodo" music. We finally asked what "Fodo" was and were told that it was a type/style of music and it was a HUGE deal. (A bunch of them ended up going out that night to find out what it was – I didn't…tired of the rain!) But anyways…We ended up splitting into two different groups and a group of 6 of us found a restaurant that served CHICKEN! (Can I get an AMEN?) They also had a bunch of local dishes as well. We went in and ordered and the food was fabulous…after all the searching for chicken, Megs ended up with EGGS! I ordered this dish that they called "Seafood Casserole" and it was pretty much like paella with a reddish sauce over it. It was fabulous (slightly salty) but an all around wonderful dish. Jess ordered some Port wine and we just had a lot of laughter and fun! These are the nights when I remember how much this job makes me happy and defines who I am.

After eating a fabulous dinner, we ventured back out into the oh-so-rainy and wet Lisbon and just walked the streets for another hour or so…wandering into very interesting and comedic "Adult Only" stores an just enjoying the fresh air and time off the ship. We finally made it back to our home-sweet-Eurodam around 9:30, which was just in time to pick up some more friends just getting off work. I was so tired at this point from the rain and the cold and an overall exciting day that I decided to go take a hot shower, clean my room and crawl into bed while I watched a movie. I did call Ben, which just made the night even more perfect. He IS my other half and I cannot wait for everyone to meet him. Never thought I'd end up dating someone so much shorter than me – but I couldn't ask for anyone more incredible. His patience and truly unconditional love are admirable. God really put this man in my life to show me what it means to love and what a relationship should be.

Regardless of what this last year has brought me, or taken away for that matter, I am undeniably blessed. I had traveled, experienced and come in contact with so many beautiful people and places that the rest simply seems insignificant. I do understand and realize that I miss some of the things I've lost (or gotten rid of) – but know that if and when they make their way back into my life – it will be when God is ready for me to sort those things out and deal with those issues at hand. Things are happening for a reason – Grandma Ruscup said so and she was ALWAYS right. Thanks, Grandma J

My new goal, as of today, is to say one positive thing to a person each and every day. It has to be about them as a person. I feel that this could really lift someone up, so let's see how successful I am.

I'm going to try to keep up with this blog daily – but even if I don't, I want to put a "High" and a "Low" for each day in here to help me focus in on significant things.

Highs: Hearing from an old friend and realizing that I'm better than what I was before

Lows: Missing family

Quote of the Day: "I'm not the girl that I intend to be." ~ Sara Bareilles

 

Happy Easter All!