Cruise Blog #6 (5/21/10)

I'm sitting on the balcony of my room, still in my wet bathing suit from my day spent at Megan's Bay on St. Thomas.

It looks like Neverland to me. Like I should expect the sand to be pixie dust. The water was so clear, I could follow the fish as they crowded around my feet.

It's hard to believe this is the last day-I have to pack up before dinner. Everything was such a whirl-wind. To describe not only what I've seen in the last 7 days, but more importantly, how I've felt, is daunting. Not necessarily because of all I did, ( I could list those well enough) but because of how my thoughts have somehow fallen together. I'm still going to come back to the same needing of a job, the same basement apartment, the same chores (I haven't made a bed or cooked a meal in a week) but, I can deal with that now knowing that the beauty of the Caribbean-a place that I've only witnessed in movies-actually does exist. So much so that the people that inhabit these islands seem magical. From the way I feel now, I can't help but think some of that has been given to me. The smells, the air, the feel of my skin, the courageousness that just, all the sudden, is there. That's life. And I want that as much as I can get it.

Cruise Blog #5 (5/19/10)

This entire day has been a dream. I was exploring the rain forest in Roseau, Dominica. It was EASILY the best day of the cruise so far. My day started off with me opening the curtains and just saying "Wow". I mean really, this was my view:

We weren't even planning on doing an excursion but ended up getting a private tour (not through the ship) for 15 BUCKS. I don't understand how people can live off of that-its way too cheap! Just getting in a van and driving through this place is amazing. First off, this entire island doesn't have a traffic light. People just kinda ease toward each other until one gives up and the other is free to pass. Seriously, the traffic on Dominica is INTENSE. It takes about 2 minutes to go 20 feet because you have about 20 cars trying to communicate and agree on who can merge in or turn.

On the way up to go hiking in the rain forest, we stopped at a stand manned by just one guy who seemed to really enjoy his job, letting us eat all of his fruit! He had mangoes and pineapples, bananas, guava and coconut. ( I realize coconut isn't a fruit...or is it?) It was soooo good and fresh-something a lot of people don't realize they're missing when living in America. It's no wonder why Philbur, our tour guide, told us that the island has had about 10 centenarians, 2 of which have been ranked as the oldest living people. The oldest person in the world lived here until 128 years old! So technically, I have about 105 years left.

When we continued the tour, we stopped at a sulfur spring that was BOILING. It was something like 160 degrees Celsius which is 320 degrees Fahrenheit. And then, like in all rain forests, the sky opened up and POURED. It was at this convenient time that we had to climb our way to Trafalgar Falls- beautiful twin waterfalls, engulfed by the wild.

NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT WEAR FLIPFLOPS WHEN CLIMBING IN THE RAIN FOREST. I also brought my bag (which had my camera, sunblock, whatever) as if I was just going to be casually walking through the mall. DURRRRR. I managed to make it up and down steep terrain until we actually got to the falls. I handed off my bag, took my flip flops off and proceeded to explore on all fours. Seriously, for my clumsy ass, that is really the only way this could have been done. Not to mention that it had just down poured, so all the rocks were slick as hell.

In all seriousness, this was one of the most adventurous days of my life. There was just a feeling that existed on this island and by those falls that totally over took me. I was courageous-I was eating leaves off the trees for Christ's sake! (For the record, I was told I could, and they tasted like sour apple-it was a Willy Wonka moment.) It was so so so so sooooo unique and new to me, that I came full circle and I was just...comfortable.

After we trekked through and stopped to buy some souvenirs being sold by a few locals, we made our way back down the mountain and visited the botanical gardens. To be honest, especially because we couldn't get out of the car for this one, there wasn't much to see...except this:

You might be asking yourself, 'Ummmm, what the hell might I be looking at right now?' The answer is: a school bus. Oh. with a tree on top of it. This was caused by a hurricane a few years back (no one was in the school bus) and they can't lift it off, so the tree still grows. But now it just grows sideways...on a school bus.

This day was absolutely awesome, in the truest sense of the word. I loved meeting the locals and being barefoot in the rain forest. I felt free. I really did.

Cruise Blog #3 and #4 (5/17/10-5/18/10)

So, I decided to combine these 2 blogs because my 3rd cruise blog reads like this:

"I'm writing drunk.

And today was cool.

Tomorrow I'll tell you what's up!"

Except, the next day, I can't remember what we did.

Cruise Blog #4

The last few days have been CRAZY. I planned on writing every night, but it's just been impractical. Mostly because I may have had a few to drink. :)

I just came back from The Love and Marriage Game Show. The audience had a hand in picking 3 couples: honeymooners, 25+ years, and 50+. I'll give you a taste of this madness by saying that the 25+ couple was chosen because he humped his wife while doing a Tarzan impression. And neither of them had any qualms describing how they had their wildest sex inside a water bed FRAME laid out on top of plastic on their bathroom floor...covered in oil. May I also add that this man looked like a clean shaven Santa Claus and definitely allows for a disturbing visual. They, of course, ended up winning.

We also went to a murder mystery dinner tonight-my first one-and it was really entertaining! For $50 it came with a 4 course meal-including the best- I mean THE BEST Filet Mignon I've ever had in my life and unlimited alcohol (which, on a cruise is awesome, and it also means that I will be hungover tomorrow). I'm burned beyond belief right now and will definitely have to stay inside the Solarium tomorrow. I would normally hate that because I LOVE the sun, but, since my ass and face look like the color inspiration for Elmo, I'll pass.

We went to Aruba today and Curacao yesterday. Both are beautiful. The surrounding area of Aruba is definitely more "Americanized" which I realize can be a good and bad thing. It's good because I felt more at home and comfortable...and it's bad for the same reason. I would love to be more adventurous and say that I would have no problems traveling by myself-but then I had a conversation with the Taxi driver in Aruba about Natalie Holloway. That changed my mind. I'm no Samantha Brown-and even she has a crew with her. I give props to any solo traveler. It seems more lonely than exciting. Plus, I know that I would be less courageous on my own. Surround me with good people though, and I'll pretty much try anything.

I've managed to finally find my sea legs. It's something to get used to-especially with the 7 foot waves that we have tonight. But I'm happy that I can say I've done this now. At this point in my life, my perspective is always shifting. And although I may not have all the answers I'm looking for yet, at least I'm out here trying to find them...

Cruise Blog #2 (5/16/10)

Today, we boarded the ship! Last night, there was a moment where I wasn't even sure if I would have the chance to do that. At 1 am, I woke up suddenly. I was on the 10th floor of my hotel and I felt like I was swaying. I didn't react completely to that at first-I just thought it was the buildings reaction to the heavy wind outside. Then my bed started shaking. I didn't really know what to think at that point. Honestly, my first thought was maybe it's something paranormal. (I'm really into ghosts...) Then it REALLY started shaking-to the point where I was shaking with the vibration of the bed and I could hear the elevator outside creek, almost bouncing on its cables.

I kinda forgot that I flew to a place with earthquakes.

I spent the next hour afterwards praying in the dark, hoping the building wouldn't collapse. I tend to be over dramatic, but really, I felt so helpless. There's literally nothing I could do. The building was either going to collapse or it wasn't, and all I could do was lay there. It was even more terrifying because I wasn't with my family. I felt so far away from them in that moment. So many things ran through my head, but the same things kept repeating: life, family, life, home, love, I wanna live. It was a horrible 60 minutes but a very clarifying one. I want that to be my first and last earthquake, thank you very much! We found out this morning that it was a 5.7 on the Richter Scale. According to the front desk, other guests packed their things and came downstairs, planning to leave. Um. Excuse me, but where the hell are you gonna go? A good percentage of fatalities during earthquakes are from DEBRIS. Not a good idea to walk outside between multiple tall buildings on a skinny ass-Puerto Rican road. Regardless, just the fact that I have experienced something like that is a check off my list. No more.

Other than that, THE SHIP IS GREAT! I've never been on a cruise, so even though every one else isn't so impressed, the 11 bars, 13 floors, theatre, casino, gym-it's all amazing to me. PLUS, I have a balcony. Ridiculous. We set sail at 8pm tonight and will sail all day tomorrow until we arrive at our first port of call. Curacao! Right now, as I lay down writing this, I'm concentrating on not throwing up. I'm hoping that puking in my stateroom is not some rite of passage for rookie cruisers like me. I guess I'll find out...

Cruise Blog #1 (5/15/10)

OK, so, the best travel tip I learned today was: DO NOT ORDER FRIED CHICKEN IN PUERTO RICO. At least not at the restaurant I went to. I ordered it under the assumption that fried chicken was meat. Clearly, chicken spine fits that category in PR. Or some kind of eyeball puss attached to bone, which also made it to my plate. Lesson learned. I tried to be nice and give the plate to a homeless guy I saw earlier that night-but he just pointed. This either meant, "go away" or "put it here". I'm guessing it meant go away from his body language because the chicken was REVOLTING ENOUGH to not make the cut for this homeless dude's dinner menu. I just ate the side, which was fried sweet plantains, and in edibility, ranked as the polar opposite of the poor creature they ripped apart and drowned in hot grease. It was pretty good.

Aside from that, the flight went decently. I closed my eyes during take-off and opened them again when the seat-belt light dinged off. Effective. The rest of the time, I tried to sleep. As it was later described to me, I rested ever so delicately with my head twisted to one side, smashed on the pull down table, arms hanging to the floor, mouth open. I didn't sleep well...maybe a half hour after being up all night-but I'm gonna try again now! We board the ship (Serenade of Seas) tomorrow!!!

Peace Out!

Hi everyone! I'm just letting you all know, at 4:30 in the morning as I'm about to leave for the airport, that I will be blogging this entire trip. I don't have the slightest hope of money so I won't be using it to use the interwebz on the ship. Instead, I'm going to write the blogs and then post them a day at a time when I get back! Here's hoping that I will actually enjoy the plane ride today-I haven't slept yet so I should sleep right through :) See you all when I get home! (SAFELY)

A Rant about Jobs

So, I'm sitting here, looking for a job. Not a customer service job or something equally mundane and stressful for 10 dollars an hour in a city where a movie ticket is $11 and some god damn orange juice is $5. No, thank you. I want a job where the thought of me working there doesn't make me bored before I even start. OH. And can I please find a job that doesn't require years of experience??? Is there a job that actually doesn't require that besides being a garbage man? I don't understand, where am I supposed to go for experience? An unpaid internship when I have rent, loans, and FOOD to pay for? That's a nice idea, but kind of NOT FREAKIN' POSSIBLE. I mean, I wasn't lazy in college either. I was a TA, I helped with a faculty job search for my department and received academic awards. (I'm not trying to be a snob, I'm just saying that even with that, plus continuous work experience since I was 16- including supervisory positions-my resume is too "light"for an entry level position.) How disheartening is that? What the hell am I supposed to do? Sure, I may not have 3 years experience at some random company, but I can certainly learn. Do companies refuse to train people now? What happened to being personable? The worst thing that ever happened to the job market is being too analytical. Does anyone really need to answer 100 multiple choice questions (usually 5 questions asked 20 different ways) before you even call me for an interview...to be a cashier? Do you absolutely need a phone interview after I apply online, before I talk to you in person and then have to wait for a second interview? All the sudden, everything has become so complicated. I want to apply for a position that requires me to travel and write. I would LOVE to be a travel writer. And if they asked me tons of questions that follow some sort of corporate protocol, they miss the whole point of the interview-getting to know me. The simple answer is, I want to work for you because it will make me happy. I do honest work because I respect myself and the people around me and I'm the best for the job because I'm working towards my own personal goal that's been forming within me since I could think. I won't let you down because I don't want to let myself down. Stop asking me to fill in bubbles on a computer screen. Things have been tough since I moved a couple of months ago (and, boy, do I miss college) but I still am holding out for a job that makes me happy. I would love for someone to give me that chance.