After some emailing and negotiating, I was offered a contract today on another ship in the same company I'm working for now. The ship starts with a trip from Canada to LA and then spends 15 days going from LA around mexico to Ft. Lauderdale. After that, it's a couple of itineraries fairly similar to what I'm on now, including panama, Colombia, adding Acapulco and Nicaragua.
I'll be gone for 7 weeks from Sept. 18-Nov. 5. The great part about this is that I'll be home for all but 5 days of my "favorite" time of year between Oct 31 and Jan 1. Also, it'll be good because I will be able to pay rent!
Although I wouldn't want to go out for longer, 7 weeks is a somewhat frustrating length of time because it's not long enough to cancel my cable, sublet my apartment, cancel car insurance, etc. So, basically, I'll have similar bills as if I were still living there...minus the living there. Does anyone want to sublet an apartment for 7 weeks in Cincinnati? I'll give you a real good deal....
Another positive to this is that it gives me extra incentive for my next learning goal. Ever since I've been doing ships, the language I find myself most wishing I would know is Spanish. Now that I'll be spending 7 weeks in all Spanish-speaking countries, my plan to learn Spanish has increased purpose.
The trombone player on my ship has Rosetta Stone software for Spanish that he can give me. So, I have about 5 months to learn Spanish! I don't need to be able to discuss the advantages of a 2 party system or anything, just the basics. For any of you who read my original blog, I may finally know how to say "don't shoot, I voted for Barack Obama" in Spanish!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Accomplishment
I'm thrilled to report that after much hard work, I have a complete 12-page detailed outline of my entire dissertation. It contains a breakdown of each chapter, each point I'm going to make, and, even better, the musical examples I'm going to use to make each point. According to my outline, I will be making reference to somewhere between 100-150 different songs from about 80 different musicals.
Although writing the dissertation will be its own animal, this gives me a very concrete road map for writing. Now, in order to complete my proposal, I need to turn that 12 page outline into roughly a 10 page paper summarizing the entire thing.
Oh, and I went to jamaica today. It was rainy.
Although writing the dissertation will be its own animal, this gives me a very concrete road map for writing. Now, in order to complete my proposal, I need to turn that 12 page outline into roughly a 10 page paper summarizing the entire thing.
Oh, and I went to jamaica today. It was rainy.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Piano Man
So, I haven't told you about one of the production shows we do on the ship. It's called Piano Man and it features me in some ways. The curtain opens to me alone on stage at a grand piano. WHen the show starts I play a solo version of Piano Man and then the black curtain just behind me opens to reveal the rest of the band. The piano and I slide back and we play the rest of the overture. It's pretty cool.
Want some cheese with that?
I told you all I didn't want to write a blog this time around. I told you that I'd run out of things to write about. But you all begged and begged. And what happened? I ran out of things to write about. Now some of you are whiiiiining that I don't write.
Monday, April 5, 2010
A Man, A Plan, A Cruise SHip, 3 hard-boiled eggs, and some corned beef hash...Panama
Where did you have breakfast this morning? I had it while travelling through the panama Canal. It was pretty cool. For those that don't know (aka everyone exceptt maybe Bridgett_, the Canal is there in order to move ship from one depth of water to another so the ship gets lifted and sent through the canal. You can feel it lifted and put on its path.
That's all. I went about my day after that. I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures for any of my favorites that might be excited by the Panama Canal.
That's all. I went about my day after that. I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures for any of my favorites that might be excited by the Panama Canal.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Great Cartegena, aka the Magna Cartegena
So, to show you how well I know my girls, I'm guessing that bridgett giggled out loud when she read the title and Sharon rolled her eyes.
Today I got off the ship for the first time. The port was Cartegena, Colombia. it's the closest to the equator I've ever been and it felt like it. It was hot. But it was a humid heat. So it was really hot. I got off the ship with the drummer, who's italian, his girlfriend who's a dancer, and another couple of Russian dancers. Everyone in the dance dept are coupled up so I'm constantly a 5th or 7th wheel. Oh well. Where was I? To quote a song from the 70's "the heat was hot."
You walk for about 5 minutes through the port and you come to a little port shopping area like you find everywhere. Except, unlike everywhere, there was a little bird sancuary where both enclosed and non-enclosed birds were wandering around. Most were parrots but there were also touccans which are amazing birds. I've never seen one before today I don't think. I took pictures. Super cool.
We then took a cab into the old city. The cab driver agreed to a price of $20 round trip. For some reason as soon as we left the port area, he got confused and decided that we would pay him $40 for the round trip. We corrected him by telling him we would give him $10 and then $10+tip if he came back to pick us up (there are dozens of cabs in the city, so we weren't in danger of being stranded or anything.)
We walked around in the old city and I stopped to look at some sunglasses from a street vendor. I couldn't find any I really liked (though I needed sunglasses). Finally there was one that was ok so I asked how much. $80. I said "no thank you, too much for me." He said, well how much. I explained that I just needed cheap sunglasses and I only could afford to pay 10. The rest of the negotiations consisted of him saying a number, and me shaking my head and saying 10. I bought the sunglasses for $10. I'm an awesome negotiator. They say Ray Ban on them. They look fairly cool.
The cab picked us back up and all was fine. We were only out for a little over an hour, but it was plenty.
Today I got off the ship for the first time. The port was Cartegena, Colombia. it's the closest to the equator I've ever been and it felt like it. It was hot. But it was a humid heat. So it was really hot. I got off the ship with the drummer, who's italian, his girlfriend who's a dancer, and another couple of Russian dancers. Everyone in the dance dept are coupled up so I'm constantly a 5th or 7th wheel. Oh well. Where was I? To quote a song from the 70's "the heat was hot."
You walk for about 5 minutes through the port and you come to a little port shopping area like you find everywhere. Except, unlike everywhere, there was a little bird sancuary where both enclosed and non-enclosed birds were wandering around. Most were parrots but there were also touccans which are amazing birds. I've never seen one before today I don't think. I took pictures. Super cool.
We then took a cab into the old city. The cab driver agreed to a price of $20 round trip. For some reason as soon as we left the port area, he got confused and decided that we would pay him $40 for the round trip. We corrected him by telling him we would give him $10 and then $10+tip if he came back to pick us up (there are dozens of cabs in the city, so we weren't in danger of being stranded or anything.)
We walked around in the old city and I stopped to look at some sunglasses from a street vendor. I couldn't find any I really liked (though I needed sunglasses). Finally there was one that was ok so I asked how much. $80. I said "no thank you, too much for me." He said, well how much. I explained that I just needed cheap sunglasses and I only could afford to pay 10. The rest of the negotiations consisted of him saying a number, and me shaking my head and saying 10. I bought the sunglasses for $10. I'm an awesome negotiator. They say Ray Ban on them. They look fairly cool.
The cab picked us back up and all was fine. We were only out for a little over an hour, but it was plenty.
No foosball
Well, you'll all be happy to know that there's not a lot of foosball playing on board. Fortunately for me, there IS a lot of ping pong playing! I spent an hour or so playing last night. It was awesome. They set up tables at night. There's a ping pong tournament coming up. Maybe i'll play...hmmmmm. More to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)