Christmas is Here!...and i'm laying on the beach!

So, the holiday season is upon us. I am feeling a bit weird about Christmas this year because of some of the trades i've made: Snow and Rain for Sand and Sun, Coats and Beanies for Board Shorts and Sunglasses, Family and Friends for Peruvians and spoiled Teenagers. What a weird Christmas. Luckily my parents sent a care package with some things to remind me of tradition. I'm sitting at the Costa Maya National Beach Club, having a beer and an enchilada, soakin' it up! To all of you back home, have a great Christmas, and i'll see you in...17 days.

This week on the ship we have all sorts of Christmas activities...A story telling time, a Youth Program Christmas show, and as always, the family fear factor Gunk Challenge, and Fountains! Should be a fun week, and next week we got new years, which should be a blast!

Until next time, love you all!

D

Nothing like Christmas!!

So, Christmas is about a week and a half away and other then the Christmas decorations around the ship, and the santa hat i periodically wear, its far from a typical Christmas season. I do not miss the crowded parking lots, shopping, or crazy Starbucks customers, but I do sorta miss the cool weather and family traditions. I am just about half way done with my contract on the Jewel and time is flying by, its really weird.

This last week we had this lady janet onboard, who is the shoreside Youth Program Manager. She basically controls where, and if I am assigned, so i wanted to get on here good side! She obviously loved me and everything I do, so that should be good. :-) Also this week, I was confronted by a prostitute and a 10-year old drug dealer within 10 minutes...oh silly inner city Roatan! This next week I am going to try and get off the ship to do some zip-lining or cave tubing! Should be fun, i'll take pictures.

I will be sending out postcards and Christmas gifts next week so you should get it just after Christmas, or never if I didn't get you one.

I still love my new teen position, I think I have finished re-vamping my program and its running very well now! We are also starting a "Nickelodeon-type Gunk"-Family-Fun-Game this week, in which I will be hosting from time to time, that should be fun. Last night we performed "Fountains" at the crew-show, and it was the best ever!...My togo fell off in front of a couple thousand people, Butters fell down on stage, and we tried and successfully executed the ever-dangerous vomit-poo maneuver! they loved it...

Talk to you all soon!!

D

I heart my job

Hey there people! I'm currently sitting at Mamasitas in Roatan, Honduras and i thought i'd blog some stuff. I'm a couple days into my third week on board the Jewel and time is flying! Just this week I started as a teen counselor and I will be doing that for at least the remainder of my contract. Huge answer to prayer because I have much more fun and much more experience working with older kids and as cute as 3 year olds are, pee and poop get old real quick! I also submitted my full-time request which would be another huge thing. Now that I'm hanging out with teens all the time, I love my job even more!

It is really weird to think that i'm already a third through my contract, hopefully i won't have 2 months off in between next time. I am however excited to see my beautiful new niece and sister! Welcome to the family Grace Elizabeth!!!

I would love to show you some of the pictures i have so far, but I forgot to pack my camera cord, so...Mom if you read this, you could send that. That'd be awesome. Until i get that you'll just have to imagine how gorgeous it is here!

Take care until next time!

D

First Week in Paradise

I'm one week into my second contract with NCL, i'm settling into my new ship and meeting all kinds of new and fun people. The Caribbean is amazing, from the weather, to the people, to the beautiful surroundings. I'm not nearly as connected as I was while I was in Alaska as the internet and phone connections are few and far between...Oh well. I did manage to see that Timmy won the Cy Young and I watched just as much football as when I was home.

This week I applied to become a full-time teen counselor which would pay a bit more and i would have a lot less "bum-time" between contracts, which would be sweet. One thing that was a bummer was that in my attempt to find Scuba certification facilities I discovered that when ships are in port, all the instructors are leading dives with tourists and don't teach classes. damn. I'm going to need to find a way around that, online or something, or else AWad will destroy me! ;-)

Still waiting for the big news of course...Tan is coming soon and I can't wait to see him/her! Good Luck Sis!!

Well, Thats all for me, i will put more pictures on facebook soon. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving, and take care!

D

I'm off again, Finally

Hello again everyone! I am once again beginning another leg of my adventure with Norwegian Cruise line. I have been in Chico and and taking various trips around the state. I have had the privilege of visiting my sister who is pregnant and due in two weeks, go to a couple baseball games, visit friends in the bay area, and go to see U2 play in the Rose Bowl. I have had a great time while I have been home but i am definitely ready to get back to "work".

I fly to Miami this Saturday morning, and I am set to join the Norwegian Jewel on Sunday. I will be working on 7-day cruises from Miami, to Roatan, Belize City, Costa Maya, and Great Stirrup Cay. I am really excited to go somewhere warm for the winter, meet some new people on the ship, see some beautiful places, and adding 3 more countries to the places I've visited.

I hope to keep everyone updated on my travels as often as possible. I'll post pictures on this site as well as facebook. I hope you all are doing great, and take care!!

D

2 Weeks left in Alaska

I am about to start my final 2 weeks of my Alaskan Cruise contract. I have to say, i'm excited to go check out my next destination, but i will be bummed to say goodbye to the people i'm come to know.

This week I will be working with the teens...I am excited to have a break from the little kids, although they are alot of fun too. Working with teens means i'll be working like twice as much, but i'm down with that.

For the 3 people probably read this, i'll be home in a couple weeks, and will be visiting the bay and socal hopefully soon after that!

D

Ship Life, The Life

I can officially say that I love my job. It has been a blast getting to know the people on the ship, getting to see amazing places, and being able to have fun with kids all day. Sure, it has its drawbacks like any job, but boy its hard to find them. I am through the first 6 weeks of my first contract with NCL and I have 3 weeks left till i'm home for a while.

Ship life is so different then normal life its very difficult to explain. My work hours are weird, my time off is weird, the people are weird, and when the sun goes down, it gets weirder. This week we just got a new Youth Program Supervisor who is running things a lot better and has a much more suitable management style. Furthermore, I am working less hours the I was before, freeing up time to...sit around on board and catch up on movies, reading, thinking. Since I last posted about dodgeball, the rest of the YC's and I have asserted our dominance and are on a three week winning streak...booyah. This summer has been a whirlwind of independence day parties for the crew...Peruvian, Colombian, Indian, etc. The reception dept threw a party that ended up being a cake fight. good "clean" fun.

I have been rotating around the different age groups, so far my favorite is 10-12 year olds, and I think i'll be with teens next week. The vast majority of the kids are a lot of fun and pretty easy to deal with. We have a lot of fun programs to run, from Pirate Parades, to Pajama Parties, to Dirty Jobs, and Survivor Night. Amy, I will be much more useful as a Youth Leader if you have need for my services. :-)

Well, take care until next time,

God Bless

D

Dodgeball is fun

Its been a while since I signed on, but i have some things to talk about, so here it goes. Today I am in Juneau, on day 3 of my 4th week on the M/S Norwegian Star.

I have seen many beautiful things and I am trying to do more touristy things when we're in port so I can share pictures with people...to this point i have been just walking around town, eating "non-crew-mess" food and hangin out with people. I have more pictures to shaw that will be on facebook pretty soon. After working with 2-5 year olds for the first 2 weeks, I have been hanging out with the 6-9's for the last 2 weeks. Next week i'm on 10-12's. I like working with the older kids much better...they're not quite as cute, but the activities are more active and they cry less.

One of my roomates left before last week, which meant 3 things: 1-One less person in our cabin (yay), 2-I get a bottom bunk (yay), and 3-No more Carlos (Boo)...

Along the course of getting acclimated to ship life, I found myself thrusted into a dodgeball rivalry that is literary...weeks long!!! The YC's play a grudgematch with "2nd City" once per week at midnight on the top deck basketball court. 2nd City is a school of improve comedy out of Chicago and they have group on board for the purpose of doing shows and playing us in dodgeball (sidenote: one of them is a Giants fan). They are all really fun...except of course when they're firing balls at you with deadly speed and accuracy. The YC's unfortunatly have played a man down the last 2 weeks which has led to a couple crushing defeats, but we have a strong team.

This week I also put in my request for my next contract. I will be back in Chico on the 5th of September, I requested a short vaction, maybe 2 or 3 weeks, then I put my top 3 ship choices, all of which are headed to the Carribean. So, thats exciting. My Top 3 was the Pearl, Jewel, and Dawn, in case you want to investigate.

Until next time my friends and fam!!

D

And here we go...

This last week i flew to Seattle to get aboard The M/S Norwegian Star. After I got settled in to my cabin, did my initial training, and was thoroughly confused by the ship's layout, I went to work. This week I have been hangin' with the 2-5 yr. olds, playing games, singing songs, and just actin' a-fool! I quickly found out that the vast majority of the Cruise Staff is jealous of all the YC's (Youth Counselors) because our job is literally to play all day!
I know you were all very concerned with how I would keep up with my sports addiction while on board a rather disconnected ship, but its not nearly as bad as you may think. I have a TV in my cabin with CNN, a lot of network TV shows, and most importantly, ESPN...booyah!! We also have a Crew Bar that has TV's and all the fun I can handle. All the YC's play and PLAY pretty hard! Good Times.
I am a part of a 12 person youth team, everyone is awesome. I room with 3 other guys in a "pretty big" cabin, so i'm told...its tiny. My cabinmates are from Toronto, Boston, and LA. The kid from Boston played Ultimate in college, so we hit it off right away. We found a park in Skagway to throw the B around a bit, nice.

*Random fact: All the YC's have to pick a "fun name", usually it starts with the same letter as their first name. I work with: Butters, Icecream, Grasshopper, KitKat, etc. My name is Ducky. I get weird looks walking around the ship with a "Ducky" nametag...

until next time

Grad Week and Hot Chico

I've been home for almost two weeks and I have quickly realized two things: Chico is hotter then San Francisco and Chico's population doubles during grad week.
When I say Chico is hotter, its like saying it's hotter inside a George Foreman grill than it is at the peak of Mt. Everest. I do exaggerate...a little. I drove home a couple weeks ago (in my A/C-less car) wearing nothing more then a pair of basketball shorts and a water-soaked t-shirt wrapped around my head like a turban. I think I have adjusted a little too well to the mild bay area weather. I am trying to cope.
The whole first week I was back, every time i went anywhere, there was traffic, nowhere to park, and people everywhere. Graduates and their followers saturating the town's hotspots. I was relegated to the "secret" places in Chico where no outsiders can be found...like I'd tell you where they are!

T-minus 35 days till I ship out

D

bloggerific

Whats up people,
Because of my good friend Kimmy, I finally learned what the heck a blog is. I will be using it to primarily keep people up to date on my travels, and other crazy stuff. I hope to keep it as un-boring as possible, although it may take me some time to get all situated. If you want, join...or follow, or do whatever you do to get updates on this thing (again, i dont know how it works) give me a break, i mean damn!! Invite other people if you think they care.

Take care people!!

Danimal