Learning New Tricks!

Well this week has been a week of firsts for me- with mark gone and no one to replace him, I have had the chance to step up and take a lot more responsibility in the team.
I am now the line dancing instructor on board. This is not so unusual for a JACD, although I was suddenly thrust into this position without ever having attended a line dancing class. I had to find my own music, learn the steps and structure the class on my own. We did-

Electric Slide
Nutbush City Limits (for an Australian flavour – Americans don’t do nutbush)
Achey Breaky
Honky Tonk Stomp
Cowboy twist (dip’n’slide dip’n’slide)

It went really well! I love teaching line dancing! I have been chomping at the bit to take it on and, although I technically had no idea what I was doing, I got good feedback. It’s just like teaching body attack except it’s more like body attack on an overdose of valium.

I’m now sitting on my bed with a cup of tea puzzling over which line dances to teach in the second class on Saturday… I don’t know any others so I’m trying to work out what

“Cross left foot over right, rock back and cha cha cha to the left
Cross right foot over left, rock back and cha cha cha to the right
Cross left over right, side step with right foot, cross behind with left foot, side step with right foot, left foot forward, rock back on the right foot and cha cha cha to the left
Cross right over left, side step with left foot, cross behind with right foot, side step with left foot, right foot forward, rock back on the left foot and cha cha cha to the right
Step left foot forward, make a ½ turn to your right and cha cha cha on the spot
Step right foot forward, make a ¼ turn to your left and cha cha cha on the spot”

all means…. Eek

My favourite perk of being the line dancing instructor on board is getting away with wearing my cowboy hat and boots around all sea day before the class to “promote” it. Super fun!

As the line dancing instructor, I am also responsible for the running order for the Country and Western Hoe-Down running order and running the theme night. CNW hoe down is our Western theme night. It includes line dances, slow dances and the “bang bang” game – which most drama kids would be familiar with as BANG- only with hilairious commentary from Hersh. Old people love this game. I think this game is Hersh’s ultimate skill – I can’t imagine anyone being as hiliarious as him hosting it. Quote of the week this week was “YOU KILLED SANTA” and also “So she banged you, you banged the other one and your wife is standing right there” (you had to be there…).

Normally CNW running order is the same every week, except this week we have a new band (evolution have gone home) and I had to spend a lot of time working out songs with them before hand, designating who was teaching what now mark is gone and keeping the night flowing smoothly. Everything went really well until right at the end.. but it wasn’t my fault the band didn’t get faster in the tush push challenge!!

Also, as of today I am second in charge in my muster station (until we get a new photo manager). Normally we have to stay on the radio and phones and mark off the muster personel when they arrive then report to the bridge that all are present. Today however, it was a little more exciting as we evacuated most of the crew from the Emerald Princess. For some reason, Collette and I were in charge of organising the crew into lines on the dockside ( I don’t kno what the other 1st and 2nd in charges were doing). Getting 800 crew out and into lines was fine, but getting them back on board in an orderly fashion was not. It required constant yelling as everyone tried to break rank and get back on the ship first. By the end Collette just yelled “fuck you all”.

Being second in charge is good practice for me as when I get promoted, I will be first in charge of a muster station…

I got my flight details… I’m flying Delta from Miami to Atlanta departing at 3:50pm on October 19th. I arrive in Atlanta at 5:51pm and then fly out at 6:55 (omg nervous about that short layover!!) and arrive in Sydney on the 21st at 7:35 Am.
I leave Sydney airport on “DJ” whatever airline that is at 10AM and arrive in Brisbane at 10:30 AM (daylight saving I guess). I Can’t believe I only have 5.5 weeks to go! At the end of this cruise, I have only FOUR CRUISES left!!