Respect is not a great deal to ask for. Out here we all live in a compact environment, over the years I have become adjusted to the strange hours, the fact that the ship never truly sleeps, and to the fact that I have neighbours who will often have a different schedule than myself. For the most part, we have all been respectful of each other.
Except, apparently, this ship, this contract, where I am the one lone girl who doesn’t like to party in a department full of people who think there is no other way to live than on late nights and caffeine and who shut down the Officer’s Bar nearly every other night.
Night’s when there’s a party (which is almost every night) I can’t get to sleep early because people are making so much noise getting ready for said party – last night it was nearly 1am before everyone finally left the hallway for the bar. Then, if I’m lucky, I have about two hours before they all come back having shut down the bar, and either start bidding each other farewell directly outside my door, or simply continue the party in the corridor. With absolutely no care to the fact that it’s four am by the time they finally quiet down and go to bed. And I have at that point gotten perhaps two or three hours of rest…it takes at least a half hour for me to get back to sleep, and I wake up for my first class on a port day at 7:45.
As a result, I am sluggish, irritable and running on coffee.
Security has been called, it will make a difference for about ten minutes and then they start up again. Management has been informed, meetings have been held, they are laughed off until the next time. These people, this particular group, just doesn’t care that there are a few of us who have lifestyles that do not fit their own, and that we deserve just as much respect for that.
I should be able to sleep just like anyone else.
The closer to the end of a contract I get, the more sleep seems to avoid me. When I started on this ship I was up early enough to go to breakfast in the mornings, now…well, I have a routine, and it still involves breakfast, just a little later than I would perhaps like.
Orlando…what is there left to say about Orlando? In the coming days, we will hear everything all over again, the same arguments, the same outrage, the same speeches, but only we – as a world – can make this kind of thing stop. The secret is not more guns and more blood, the secret is more understanding, more acceptance, and less of turning a blind eye because it “doesn’t affect you”. Newsflash: it affects everyone.
When the Divine conceived of paradise, the outcome must have been Norway.
I hiked a mountain. In a country far enough north and cold enough that there was still snow scattered in patches along the path near the top. It wasn’t a true hike, not in the wilderness, there was a footpath, originally formed by the passage of goats up the mountain and later brought to a more proper existence by the residents of the town. It’s still, however, very steep, particularly since I don’t have the greatest of shoes. But, I was still proud of myself for doing it, because standing at the bottom I didn’t actually think I would be able to.
Sitting at the foot of the incredible Norwegian mountains in Flam today was the new jewel of the fleet, fresh from her inaugural voyage. She still has that ‘new car’ kind of smell.
In another episode of odd conversations that take place over the entertainment dinner table:
Hey look no crying
Norway continues to astound me, especially since spring is erupting in this part of the world and there’s colours everywhere.
So we are in Norway. I never really thought I would end up in Norway of all places. We sailed through the fyords yesterday and even though I’m ashamed to say I slept through most of it, what I did see was beautiful, it looks somewhat like home to be honest…or Alaska.