Feb 26

9:28am

Today is the last day of my first cruise (also the first day of my next cruise). It feels like I have been here for so long already! There are a lot of changes happening to the photo team. Jan & Ivan have signed off today. We had a big farewell party the other night in the crew bar, it was a good time, I'm going to miss them (even though I only knew them for 2 weeks, it felt longer). Today we will get 2 new people, both are from South Africa (a guy & a girl) and both new hires. That makes 4 new hires to the team in the last 3 cruises (Alex joined the cruise before me, then I joined, and now these 2). The other big change is that the Manager (Mark) is signing off today as well (they gave him really short notice)! He is being transfered to another ship that needs more help, so we will get a new manager in a few days (joining us in St.Martin). My 'roommate' Alena was staying with him if you recall, so now that means I will have a roommate after all. The other night she was talking about quitting, but it's a 4 week process so it's not like it will happen right away, but there's a chance Mark will come back after 6 weeks, and she will most likely stay then.

I've been having such vivid and strange (but very relevant) dreams ever since joining the ship. Like the other day, I downloaded the new Radiohead album, The King of Limbs, and listened to it while falling asleep. In my dream I was at a concert/festival where the crowd was in a giant pool in front of the stage. The band playing was TV on the Radio, and they were playing songs from a new album and I was so happy that I had listened to the album first so I knew all the songs (weird because they don't have a new album as far as I know). Weirdness 1) Earlier that day I was talking to Alena about how I really wanted to go in a pool (there's no crew pool & we're not allowed in the guest pool) 2) I was also mentioning how I am going to miss going to concerts since I won't be able to for 6 months & 3) Radiohead, TV on the Radio? I don't know why I didn't dream I was at a Radiohead concert, but you can see the connection, also the new album, having just heard the songs.

Last night I had a dream I was being transfered to another ship, and then transfered again. The first time I was transfered I had a huge room (but still had to share with another person). The weird thing is that it was connected to the gallery, and there was a big window looking in, so there was no privacy. When I was transfered again I was given more responsibilities than the people who were already there, and I had to show them around, but I didn't know where anything was. It's strange because now that we have 2 new people on the ship, I will have more responsibilities and I'll have to show them around. Also in the dream I was wondering about whether we can eat stir-fry at the guest buffet (up until recently we were allowed to, but too many crew took advantage of that so they said we can't anymore!)

Another weird thing about last night is that I kept waking up (almost every hour) but then I would return to my dream. In real life, I was afraid of sleeping in and missing the US immigration process that all the crew members had to go through this morning at 7am. I don't know why but I felt like my alarm was not going to work so I guess I instinctually woke myself up. The funny thing is that they made an announcement over the PA system, which woke me up, and then less than a minute later my alarm went off.

Feb 27

1:17pm

Yesterday we got our 2 new team members, and surprise! they are both girls. One is Monique and the other is Petro (that's where the confusion came from, assuming it was a guys name). But apparently it's a popular girls name in South Africa. They are both really nice and very South Afrikaan, but their English is good. Now the photo team has 5 girl photographers and only 1 guy.

Tonight is formal night and I hope it goes smoothly with the new girls. They will be shooting Ressi and portraits right away. There is some kind of Oscar party tonight on the top deck, and I'm going to shoot that with some kind of Hollywood back drop. The only problem is that we normally shop shooting at 11pm on formal nights, but this party will probably go until 1am! But they assistant managers said that I will have the next gangway off (St.Martin) so I'm fine with that.