About Emma & the Squishy tongues of iguana.

Well I have a new room mate. Emma arrived as Barbara left on Sunday.

It turns out the whole thing about a photographer boyfriend and previous contracts was a random rumor pulled from thin air, although i believe it started Deck 4 FWD in Kirk's cabin.

Emma is just lovely. She's an Aussie and it's her first time at sea. Unlike me, she hasn't had the luxury of a week's training so when she walked up the gangway to come to work on Sunday it was literally her first time ever on a ship.

Emma is 22 and is from Kangaroo Island, SA. She's been working as a scuba instructor and also... an abolone diver! how cool! She's a real "country girl" so it's nice to have a room mate who is no sook. SHe's diving in head first and doing a great job - although unlike me, she hasn't had any entertainment experience. But you know she's going to be good because she's already super friendly with the passengers and is picking up everything really fast. It's nice to get to show her the ropes.

We all miss Barbara.. but she's at home with her free internet and cakes so she probably doesn't miss us that much :p

Today i'm in st thomas. I just got off the ship to pop on over to use the free internet at the cruise ship terminal. I got a jerk chicken salad which is LITERALLY SWIMMING (backstroke even!) in dressing.. I can't eat it all. ALso I fed an iguana peanunts, then I gained command of all the iguanas in a 20m radius. I made them SIT and STAY for more nuts. THeir tongues are squishy. I am the lizard queen.

I'm sad because tomorrow i'm IPM in Grand TUrk, my favouritest of places (after Cozumel). No Jack's Shack and Jerk CHicken for me for the next two w eeks :( :(

new people

well it's turnaround day again....

But today, suddenly, everything has changed. New Room-mate, New Boss... oh my gosh!

I'm ashore at starbucks, so i havn't met either of them yet, but i know Emma, my new roomie, is in the cabin right now!!

I really really hope she's nice, and likes to go to the crew bar..

I spent several hours last night cleaning up the room- Barbara may have been neat but she has A LOT of stuff and couldn't take it all home with her which i have been sorting through.

When I left it this morning, the cabin was SPOTLESS! But I know when I get back it will be chaos as Emma unpacks and gets everything organised.

I am nervous to meet both EMma and Marachschel (or something like that), who is the new cruise director.. I wonder what they are like?

Cozumel. Oh Cozumel.

It's official - Cozumel Mexico is my favourite port!!

Mark and I are having the best day today! first I got up and had a hair cut and did some ceramics at sea in my cabin. At the moment, my roommate (who is leaving in 2 days :( :( ) has umm "somewhere else" to stay at night, so i've been enjoying the room like it's my own - i wake up in the morning, put on some tunes to get me pumped for the day, turn on the news and all the lights and make as much damn noise as I want.

Finally, the time came to go ashore came, and we took a taxi to a restaurant calld la chorsa (or something like that). Tim recommended it- he's been going there 19 years. and OH MY GOD it was amazing. We had chicken fajitas... omg... and the salsa and guacamole - too uch awesomeness to describe.

we then walked into town where I went a bit crazy buying souveniers - but as i've mentioned before, cozumel is like, the only place I a interested in buying ANYTHING on this whole run. I got a little hinging ceramic parakeet thing, a ceramic cat (so cool), a mexican style cowboy hat ( not as lame as you'd think), a mexican blanket (full size and very awesome) and a little gourd that has been carved to contain the nativity scene.. it's like a chrismas tree bauble, mexican style.

The sky is bluest blue, the ocean is clear, we're sitting at no-name bar with a whole lot of crew, beachy trance music is playing in the background and i'm sitting under a palm tree.

cozumel = the best.

I am quite nervous however, because in 2 days time I get a new room mate. I am sad to loose Barbara - she has been a great room mate and we've gotten along really well. I don't know much about the new girl, except it's not her first contract because she has a photographer boyfriend joining the same day. Kirk will be sharing with the boyfriend and he seemed to think they were both going to LIVE in my cabin. NO WAY. this will NOT occur. I refuse to have some random guy LIVING there, on the bunk above me ( i'm moving to thebottom bunk when barbara goes).

ANyway, we shall see how it goes. We have tried to facebook stalk her, and I think I have found her, althoug her profile is super private but all i've seen is the photo- but if it is her, she LOOKS friendly... she's an Aussie so she should be anyway.

I am excited for next week though because I am going to host demo nation... scary! also tonight will be cool becaue I'm going to be in Liars club (which is like balderdash, but a big gameshow in club fusion). Hersh, Boogie and I are the liars and collette is oging to host. I hope my lies can be as funny as the boys. I'm going to work on my lies this afternoon when i get back to the ship.

waiting for fajitas

Hmm yes so it’s been another of those weeks when, apart from the excitement of last Sunday, not a lot happened. TO make up for the power black out, last week’s guests were given $300 on board credit. We worked our butts off to ensure they had a good cruise – but we’ll see how well we did when the comment forms come back in. Fingers crossed they had a good enough time on the following 6 days of their vacation that they’ll be mostly positive.

At the moment I’m sitting in my cabin, waiting for 6:30 to tick around so I can go down to the officer’s mess for dinner. Monday night is EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE night in the officer’s mess.. because it’s skirt steak fajitas night!

In the officer’s mess, we order off the passenger menu and the food comes down to us. Fajitas are the single best food of the week! I’ve been skipping the bread for the past few weeks.. but the quacamole, beef fajita and salsa are to die for.

The waiters (well assistant buffet stewards – they’re in training) who work in the mess know exactly what we like to eat. I always order the shrimp cocktail with American sauce for starter, then always the “sweet and nutritious fruits” for dessert. If there is nothing nice on the menu (which happens some nights) I order the salad with low fat balsamic vinaigrette and the grilled chicken.

Some of my favourite meals are – fajitas (Monday), Flambe scampi things (Thursday night) and southern style chilli (Sunday night).

Often, although there is a full menu, it feels like there is nothing to eat. The food on the ship is very.. Rich I guess. I miss modern Australian cuisine! I never realised how excellent our own style of food is until I went away. Also, americans do not “get” bread- it doesn’t toast properly and is full of modified corn syrup stuff so it’s sweet. Yuk.

In other news, I am becoming more tidy in my daily life- it’s becoming more habit than something I do by force. I find myself automatically hanging up clothes when I take them off rather than throwing them on the floor. Big deal, you say, but for me this is revolutionary. Just ask my mum. Hope I can keep up the habit when i get home - automatic cleanliness certainly makes life soooo much easier!

I’m still not “neat”, I don’t think I ever will be- but I am certainly becoming tidy.