News From Mistral August 29th-30th Helsinki, At Sea

Helsinki

Thursday August 29th Helsinki, Finland

I woke up around 11 this morning. I ate some lunch and had some coffee. Then Roman and I went to get Internet in the port terminal, it started off really great, but then everyone else came to get Internet and sucked up all the good connection.

At 230 we had a crew meeting. The captain spoke about how the ship is going to be taken over by Costa in November. So that means a lot of people will be transferred to another ship or stay on with Costa, or be sent home, but paid for the months that remained on their contracts.

So we are all still waiting to find out what is going to happen to us, it’s okay for most of the dancers because they disembark before November anyway. but Roman and I don’t know what is going to happen.

Afterwards, I went to speak with Safety, they wanted a picture with me, so I kindly obliged. Then Giovanni bought me a coffee upstairs by the pool on deck 11. He’s Italian, but speaks very good English.

I went to rehearsal, we ran our new numbers. I had dinner, it was BBQ Ribs, it was actually pretty delicious. We had both of our shows and I think they went very well! I did a very good job, lots of quick changes and I made them all, one even with some time to spare.

It gets very hot, constantly dancing and running around to change costumes. We have towels that are provided by the stewards, so that’s nice.

I drank a whole bottle of water today.

We had a crew party; the Captain was there, along with many other officials. It was nice to see them outside of work and uniforms. They had pizza, but I didn’t eat. Also free cola’s again! People were taking 2 and 3 and putting them in their cabin. Only because it is free. We played BINGO; I haven’t played that game in years! I had forgotten the ‘rules’, which there really aren’t any, but it was funny to hear the Spanish lady try to pronounce B 72.

I love to sit at dinner with the dancers and singers and just listen to them try to speak in English! I absolutely adore their effort and the way they somehow make sense to me. And then when I intervene and say something really fast in my accent, they all just give me blank stares and start laughing!

Friday August 30th At Sea

Today I woke up at 3pm. It was so nice to sleep uninterrupted. My bed isn’t very comfortable and the pillows, forget about comfort. But I must have been so tired to even notice. I probably could have slept on the metal floor and been fine.

I went to have coffee time. When I walked into the staff mess, Alvero and Javier were singing. Alvero was playing guitar. It was beautiful. I sat with them and ate some pan au chocolat. I had to take my own Nescafe instant coffee because in the staff mess they only have decaf right now. I listened to music and ate. It was a very nice way to wake up.

I kinda hung around for a bit. Manu’s boyfriend, ‘Curry’, brought her a hamburger from upstairs. She cut it in half and we both ate in our cabin. We dug into our stash of mayonnaise and ketchup, she dug for the last mustard for me. Both of us also had an ice tea, canned, it wasn’t very good, but it was something other than water.

I had been given a peach the other day and saved it, I broke it out today, it was delicious. Then I did some laundry in the sink.  Since I didn’t bring very much clothing, I always wear things over and over, so I only had tights and socks and little things to wash. So the sink was perfect. Then Manu and I both tidied up the cabin. I did the dusting and made my bed, then I wiped down the bathroom, since housekeeping seems to only come once a week now, but somehow, after just an afternoon of my computer sitting on the desk, there is dust on it.

I have some cheeto puffs. They are ‘nacho cheese’ flavor, which means, basically no cheesy flavor at all…I am trying to finish them quickly because a) they aren’t very good and b) I don’t have any room to keep them anywhere so they are sitting with my shorts at the top of my cupboard.

I went to do my drug and alcohol training with the campus trainer and Norbi, but when I got there he had already written me off as having done it, so I didn’t have to. Norbi had also done it on his other ship so he didn’t need to do it either. So we got to start rehearsal earlier than we had expected.

We learnt a new number, the whole number. It’s an Evanescence song and was pretty easy. We were all a little nutso, laughing and being very silly.

I finally painted my toenails, while I watched Era dye (they say paint) Manu’s hair in our cabin. I made some hot chocolate and watched music videos on the TV in our cabin and kept them company.

I went to eat dinner, I had grilled pork chops and almost broke my knife and fork. But it didn’t taste too bad. I went back to the cabin and Manu had just washed the dye out of her hair, it was very black. But I think it looks great. She’s got dye stains on her forehead and was trying to decide on a style that would cover her forehead for tonight’s presentation, it was so funny!

There is also dye all over the floor in blotches. Its not like the carpet was sparkling clean to begin with; they never vacuum, soon the carpet will be just hair.

The ship seems to be moving very fast,

“Hurry, hurry let’s get to Copenhagen!!”

We both got ready for the presentation and I got to listen to Javier sing. We didn’t use our flags today because we didn’t have flags for some of the passengers that were in the audience. It was much more fun and interactive. After the 2nd presentation when we did the Burrito, we wore masks, just plain white facemasks, it was very funny to see everyone with the same face. Then we went out to greet the passengers and everyone had such energy!

Manu and I went to Formentera bar to listen to the music. Leechy came too. We were able to order drinks that didn’t have alcohol, so I had a Jurassic Park. It was very sharp tasting, lime, coconut and something else. I ate the pineapple and cherry that were the garnish in my drink, they did not taste good at all, my mouth tasted like I had just had a filling at the dentist.

We went to crew bar after that and everyone seemed to be there tonight! Now I am in bed watching BBC world news, keeps me connected to the outside! Night night!

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