One of my favorite parts about being on this ship is that the crew represents about 40-50 different countries. You could literally go around the ship and ask where people are from and get a different answer almost every time. That being said, however, there are almost no Americans! There are so few of us that whenever someone asks where I'm from and I answer, "United States", their eyes light up like they just found the cutest puppy in the entire world. When they ask where in the US I say New Jersey most of them have no idea what that is, apart from the few that watch the Jersey Shore on MTV anyway and in that case I walk away shaking my head and wanting to find Snooki and drop kick her in the face. So when they don't know what New Jersey is I say New York and they go wild- everyone here loves New York. Now I'm known as Ryan from New York, which is kind of a lie but whatever I'm sure it won't cause them to lose any sleep.
The only people I've met here from the States have been entertainers; dancers, singers, musicians and that sort of thing. And the weird thing? ALL from New Jersey. Every. Single. One. I'm almost 6000 miles away from home and people from 20 miles from Sparta are on the boat with me. You literally cannot escape New Jersey!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Commence Sleepiness
Before I left everyone and their mother (literally) was giving me advice on how to combat sea-sickness. I am happy to report, however, that I do not experience sea-sickness. At all. Not even on the rough seas that we're on right now- I saw three waiters fall, I giggled. Although, on the flip-side, I do have to say I experience some side effect, one I coined "the sea sleepies". The sea-sleepies is definitely medical-standard terminology. Basically the sea sleepies come from a constant back and forth motion caused by the waves the ship is going over that lulls me to sleep every time I sit down or blink for too long of a period of time. Thank baby Jesus for Red Bull.
Side note: today the captain came around and hand delivered letters to everyone informing them of the possible pirate attacks that may or may not occur on our particular travel route. Nice.
Side note: today the captain came around and hand delivered letters to everyone informing them of the possible pirate attacks that may or may not occur on our particular travel route. Nice.
Things Are Happening!
I finally figured out how to make the internet work here. And at 14 cents per minute, I also figured out how to make it work quickly. So here's my blog post!
You know that picture I put on my Facebook of the ship? Yeah, you know how it look pretty big? Well. Its massive. I mean 17 total floors kind of massive. It houses 3k guests and almost 200 employees. Insanity, I can't even express it in words, I'll have to take pictures.
So, the first day of the cruise is called embarkation! And its... really boring. Talk about a snoozefest. It reminds me a lot of the first few days of grade school where everyone sits around anxiously waiting to meet the teacher and being slightly terrified of the cafeteria food. This is the same except replace school kids with thirty-something year old Russians and Serbians, the teacher with Heather the alway happy Head of Whateverthehellshedoeshere and the cafeteria food slightly more off putting glop. Mmmmm... glop.
However, the most exciting portion of the otherwise mundane and neglible info-session was being handed our ship itinerary, mapping out day by day where the ship will be. I had never imagined in a million years I'd be going the places that I am while on board the Solstice. After three days at sea, on the 30th of October, I arrive in Alexandria......... Egypt. Yeah, EGYPT! Let that sink in..... Has it sunk in yet? Yeah, me neither. I cannot even begin to tell you all how excited I am to: A) get on land again, I literally havent been outside in four days and B) go meandering around Alexandria, the jewel of the middle east!
Other ports include Safaga, Egypt, Oman, Jordan, this little place called Dubai, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and then FINALLY onn the 30th of November I touch base in the promised land: Australia! Making stops in Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide,Sydney, Perth, Albany and Melbourne.
Have you crapped your pants yet? Yeah... me neither.
You know that picture I put on my Facebook of the ship? Yeah, you know how it look pretty big? Well. Its massive. I mean 17 total floors kind of massive. It houses 3k guests and almost 200 employees. Insanity, I can't even express it in words, I'll have to take pictures.
So, the first day of the cruise is called embarkation! And its... really boring. Talk about a snoozefest. It reminds me a lot of the first few days of grade school where everyone sits around anxiously waiting to meet the teacher and being slightly terrified of the cafeteria food. This is the same except replace school kids with thirty-something year old Russians and Serbians, the teacher with Heather the alway happy Head of Whateverthehellshedoeshere and the cafeteria food slightly more off putting glop. Mmmmm... glop.
However, the most exciting portion of the otherwise mundane and neglible info-session was being handed our ship itinerary, mapping out day by day where the ship will be. I had never imagined in a million years I'd be going the places that I am while on board the Solstice. After three days at sea, on the 30th of October, I arrive in Alexandria......... Egypt. Yeah, EGYPT! Let that sink in..... Has it sunk in yet? Yeah, me neither. I cannot even begin to tell you all how excited I am to: A) get on land again, I literally havent been outside in four days and B) go meandering around Alexandria, the jewel of the middle east!
Other ports include Safaga, Egypt, Oman, Jordan, this little place called Dubai, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and then FINALLY onn the 30th of November I touch base in the promised land: Australia! Making stops in Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide,Sydney, Perth, Albany and Melbourne.
Have you crapped your pants yet? Yeah... me neither.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Care Free
Story Time:
So, upon arriving to the (insert heavy sarcasm here) luxurious hotel about 3 miles from the Barcelona Airport, I was given a room-key and sent on my merry way to do as I pleased with my first and only 24 hour stay in Barcelona. The world was my oyster. I literally could do anything I wanted. The possibilities were endless; see La Sagrada Familia, go meet locals at the bars, go dance, shop! So what did I decide to do? Walk around butt ass naked. A lot.
Here's the thing about living alone... it's freaking awesome. Literally there is nothing bad about living alone except for the fact that you can't blame smells and messes on anyone else- but that's the reason you get a dog or a gerbil or some other form of smell/mess scapegoat.
Perhaps the single best thing about living alone is the ability to do whatever, whenever. If you want to crochet a picture of the Virgin Mary for your weird neighbor's nephew's birthday while listening to Adele and simultaneously sobbing about a break-up that made you set fire to the rain, you DO it. Why? Because you can! If you want to walk around butt-ass freakin' naked, you do it. Why? Because you can... and you always feel like you look a whole lot better naked when there's no mirrors or anyone else around to judge you. However, looking back at what I said earlier, the whole having a pet thing here would actually be annoying- who wants those beady little eyes staring at you while you walk around in the buff, right? Plus cats look like they're judging you so hardcore all the time.
So there I am walking around in my nudist glory. Letting it all hang out and not having a care in the world. It felt great!... until Anton walked in on me doing la macarena around the room. Talk about awkward.
Interesting side-note to this story that the hotel forgot to tell me; the room I stayed in wasn't a single after all.
Perfect.
So, upon arriving to the (insert heavy sarcasm here) luxurious hotel about 3 miles from the Barcelona Airport, I was given a room-key and sent on my merry way to do as I pleased with my first and only 24 hour stay in Barcelona. The world was my oyster. I literally could do anything I wanted. The possibilities were endless; see La Sagrada Familia, go meet locals at the bars, go dance, shop! So what did I decide to do? Walk around butt ass naked. A lot.
Here's the thing about living alone... it's freaking awesome. Literally there is nothing bad about living alone except for the fact that you can't blame smells and messes on anyone else- but that's the reason you get a dog or a gerbil or some other form of smell/mess scapegoat.
Perhaps the single best thing about living alone is the ability to do whatever, whenever. If you want to crochet a picture of the Virgin Mary for your weird neighbor's nephew's birthday while listening to Adele and simultaneously sobbing about a break-up that made you set fire to the rain, you DO it. Why? Because you can! If you want to walk around butt-ass freakin' naked, you do it. Why? Because you can... and you always feel like you look a whole lot better naked when there's no mirrors or anyone else around to judge you. However, looking back at what I said earlier, the whole having a pet thing here would actually be annoying- who wants those beady little eyes staring at you while you walk around in the buff, right? Plus cats look like they're judging you so hardcore all the time.
So there I am walking around in my nudist glory. Letting it all hang out and not having a care in the world. It felt great!... until Anton walked in on me doing la macarena around the room. Talk about awkward.
Interesting side-note to this story that the hotel forgot to tell me; the room I stayed in wasn't a single after all.
Perfect.
Day 1
So, what I really wanted to call this blog was, "imkeepingthisblogbecauseifididntmymotherwouldcometonewzealandandkillmeinmysleep". Strangely enough, though, that URL was already taken! Who knew?
Perhaps the most interesting part about this whole, "going abroad and seeing the world while getting paid to do it thing" is that Ihad have absolutely NO concept of what I'm doing. What do I mean, you may ask? Well, what I great question! I may answer. Here's how a typical conversation would go about a couple months ago with some of my friends.
Friend: "Hey! How are you? Do you know where you're going for externship yet?"
Me(in between tears): "No shut up."
And then about two weeks ago...
Friend: "I see that you have an externship with Celebrity Cruise lines, that's so great! Do you know where you're going?"
Me" "No."
Friend: " Oh... do you know how long you'll be there?"
Me: "No."
Friend: "Uh.. are you getting paid?"
Me: " That's a mighty fine question to which I have no response."
Friend: "Do you get to get off the boat?"
Me: "No clue."
Friend: "... do you know anything about your externship?"
Me: "That I have one. Why do you ask so many questions anyway?"
Yes, as you can see, I am one extremely well prepared individual. However, I know the answers to all those questions and (not much) more! I flew from JFK to Barcelona Airport and will board my ship, the Celebrity Solstice from here; we will be doing a tour around Australia and New Zealand, going around in one giant circle for a little bit. It's going to be so great. Don't worry, dearest of friends, I AM getting paid. I refuse to disclose the dollar amount mostly because I'm being paid in children's tears, and thats hard to convert to the USD. I do get the opportunity to get off the boat and explore when I have time off and we're in port, which is exciting! As you may all well know, I love Australians and (I'm assuming) New Zealand folk. Hey, interesting little bit of information for you all. People from NZ are called Kiwis. Which is great, because I love Kiwis as an edible fruit. I also know that there are more sheep than people and that there is an uncanny build up of sulfur there so it can smell like rotten eggs on occasion. Also, I'm not sure what Australians do as a country, but I think they're paid to be happy all the time.
Anyway, I will keep this updated as often as possible. I can't promise it will be interesting, though. I love and miss you all already (except for you, Rebecca Senatore!) and can't wait to hear all about your lives as well. Keep in touch!
Perhaps the most interesting part about this whole, "going abroad and seeing the world while getting paid to do it thing" is that I
Friend: "Hey! How are you? Do you know where you're going for externship yet?"
Me(in between tears): "No shut up."
And then about two weeks ago...
Friend: "I see that you have an externship with Celebrity Cruise lines, that's so great! Do you know where you're going?"
Me" "No."
Friend: " Oh... do you know how long you'll be there?"
Me: "No."
Friend: "Uh.. are you getting paid?"
Me: " That's a mighty fine question to which I have no response."
Friend: "Do you get to get off the boat?"
Me: "No clue."
Friend: "... do you know anything about your externship?"
Me: "That I have one. Why do you ask so many questions anyway?"
Yes, as you can see, I am one extremely well prepared individual. However, I know the answers to all those questions and (not much) more! I flew from JFK to Barcelona Airport and will board my ship, the Celebrity Solstice from here; we will be doing a tour around Australia and New Zealand, going around in one giant circle for a little bit. It's going to be so great. Don't worry, dearest of friends, I AM getting paid. I refuse to disclose the dollar amount mostly because I'm being paid in children's tears, and thats hard to convert to the USD. I do get the opportunity to get off the boat and explore when I have time off and we're in port, which is exciting! As you may all well know, I love Australians and (I'm assuming) New Zealand folk. Hey, interesting little bit of information for you all. People from NZ are called Kiwis. Which is great, because I love Kiwis as an edible fruit. I also know that there are more sheep than people and that there is an uncanny build up of sulfur there so it can smell like rotten eggs on occasion. Also, I'm not sure what Australians do as a country, but I think they're paid to be happy all the time.
Anyway, I will keep this updated as often as possible. I can't promise it will be interesting, though. I love and miss you all already (except for you, Rebecca Senatore!) and can't wait to hear all about your lives as well. Keep in touch!
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