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