First day on the ship!

Woke up today around 7:45 AM because I simply could NOT sleep in the first place. I was just way to excited and ready to go. I took a shower and we all got ready and headed out for breakfast around 9 AM. We found a super cute looking place, but it didn’t open until 9:30 so we decided if we didn’t find anything better we’d come back. We ran to this little CVS type store to pick up a few last minute things and headed back to the cafe.

And it.was.amazing.

It was called cafe theatre, which means I knew I would be kind of in love with it. When you walked in, there was this super cool ambient lighting that made it feel really cozy. We sat down at a booth and the walls were lined with chalk boards and old records and a large fork and spoon. Bryan, Julie, and my mom ordered mimosas but because I despise orange juice I decided to get a sangria, even though I’m not actually a huge fan of that either. My sangria came and first of all it was MASSIVE. Straight up huge. It had slices of oranges in it as well as apples, and a large decorative slice of apple too! It was actually pretty freaking delicious. Next, Julie and I split a banana and walnut toast and then we each ordered a banana and nutella sandwich, which was carmelized. We got the toast first which came with a vanilla butter and it was amaaaaaaaazing. Then the sandwich came. And I died a little. Literally. It was the most amazing sandwich I have ever consumed in my life. the waitress asked how everything was and I said “too amazing to form words for”, which I think may have freaked her out a bit.

After we ate, we went to the dollar store to buy some more things then to a pharmacy to get vitamins and what-nots, then we headed to the hotel to pack everything up and GET GOING! We packed really quickly and almost left.... until Julie realized her passport was gone. We spent a solid half hour literally tearing the room apart. We might have flipped both of the mattresses over and called the help of a sweet housekeeping lady. Bryan and I went down to the car, even though Julie swore that she didn’t leave it there. Turns out, she did! We gave it back to her and loaded up the car and we left!

We actually didn’t have any trouble finding the boat, because Bryan was driving and he’s significantly more clever than a GPS. Almost as soon as I walked in I saw Farrah who I’m rooming with, which made me indescribably excited. Then I saw Sam who I’ve been chatting with on facebook as well as skyping, so that was also insanely exciting. We said our goodbyes and went through security and checked in and got ready to go!

I had the hardest time ever finding my room. I went to the complete wrong side of the ship and there weren’t any signs pointing me in the right direction. I kept looking at maps until I found it!

It is TINY.

I walked in and I went “umm... what?” We have a bunk bed, two dresser-closets, a fridge, a TV, and shelf, and a small drawer. We also have a bathroom with a really tiny shower, which Sam says “is not a shower, it’s a fountain”. At first I was kind of frustrated because some economy people got rooms with windows and single beds and a lot of space, but I’ve definitely gotten used to it already. I unloaded some stuff and left to go find people. I found Sam and we started exploring the ship. I ran into Farrah, who was equally as confused about the location of our room and I showed her where it was. She had a similar reaction.

Sam and I walked around the ship, gaining people and losing people as we went. I’ve met a lot of people who seem pretty awesome, and I’m going to have an impossible time remembering everyones names. A group of us sat and ate some finger sandwiches and hung out, then decided to go to our rooms to unpack a bit and meet up at 16:30 (4:30! yeah military time!) for dinner. Farrah and I figuring out who’s stuff was going where, and we decided to just unplug the fridge and use that for storage because we didn’t need to refrigerate anything. It was definitely a bit of a dance, but we’ve definitely figured things out and I think there’s actually going to be a decent amount of room to do things. I’m completely unpacked and it’s starting to look like people actually live here already, which is super excited.

We left for dinner and I ate a salad because I wasn’t super hungry, but it was really good. It had mango poppy-seed dressing which was surprisingly delicious. Right after dinner we went to a meeting where they talked about work study means and we met some people, then we split up into our individual groups. I really like both of my advisors, but I can’t remember their names right now. One of them is from Jamaica and the other is from the Philippines. They basically said it was an easy job and we’re going to have a lot of fun. Then they started giving up tips, like not to get too drunk and don’t try to sneak anything on and to look out for each other, and they told us we basically can pick what hours we work. We work two hours a day, and we can split them up if we want to work one hour in the morning and one at night or whatever, which I really like. Everyone in my work study seems pretty awesome and I’m oddly excited to work retail again.

After we left, I came back downstairs and finished unpacking, while a group of us made plans for tonight. We decided to go out around 8 PM, so right now I’m just getting ready and I’m going to go meet Sam and try to figure out how email works (if you’re reading this, it means I figured it out!)

Here’s to a night out on the town!