Blogs from Atlantic, Oceans and Seas - page 80

Blog Entry: Returning Home across the Atlantic Here we go again! On our way back towards the states for our 9 day voyage across the Atlantic. It is Tuesday morning, so we have already seen 5 of those days. The ship docks in Norfolk, VA on Saturday morning, the 22nd. While I was originally supposed to fly back by myself to Chicago, my wonderful mother just couldn't wait to see me. She has somehow worked her magic and is meeting me in Norfolk and then somehow has a seat on my flight that was supposedly booked 2 months ago.... I swear she's part of the CIA or something. Anyway, I am one of the lucky ones. A lot of my friends won't be greeted by anyone... Some will be going straight to school and won't be ... read more

I’m taking an Ethnomusicology class here on the ship. Ethnomusicology is actually a field of research where people (ethnomusicologists) study music as culture. For the past couple days we’ve just been discussing identity and culture in music, but today my professor went crazy with his questions and discussion… What is music? What is a musician? Who are musicians? Who decides what musicians are and aren’t? Are “musicians” a social construct developed by society that make “non-musicians” feel inadequate to participate in music? What makes music good or bad? What does a certain type of music say about a culture? Or the people singing it? What are the underlying meanings in different songs? Pretty loaded questions…and that’s just a little taste. Over the next 2 months we are going to go out into the cities we visit ... read more

First day at sea and it’s been kind of rough...the water that is. We have literally been on a rocking boat for probably 20 hours. It’s pretty hilarious to watch everyone walk around, especially when we’re in lines, because everyone will lose their balance and start shifting in one direction and then stumble back in the other direction all in sync. We’ve even gotten air a couple times. The front of the ship flew up and then came down with a very hard thud, shaking dust off the ceiling. Girls starting screaming, haha. Lots of people are getting sick, but not me thank goodness. Crew members are basically all over the place cleaning up vomit…we’re off to a great start here!  On another note, to know that this is only Day 1 of 7 spent ... read more

Rest of Thursday - After our naps we got dressed up for the second formal night - I wore a red jacket with my long Black skirt. We went to dinner - lovely meal with candlelight and all - keeping with a Valentine’s Day theme. We were just about done with dessert when the Cruise Director came on the intercom and announced that there was a medical emergency on the ship and they wanted active blood donors who were A Pos or O Neg to report to the conference room. I figured that the patient was an A Pos and they were only considering O Neg as a “universal donor”. Ken just donated in early April so he wasn’t’ eligible anyway. When we finished dinner, we went to the conference room and I offered to help; ... read more

Tuesday, 04/21/09 Tuesday we had a late breakfast again - see a pattern? I went to watch a cocktail making demo and Ken went to buy a cap - he didn’t want to take one along - didn’t think he would need one. We walked around the ship Promenade Deck and top deck - but it was too windy to be out long. The ocean is much rougher today but don’t really feel it. We had tea this afternoon and the group we sat with was enjoyable. But the service at tea was the first disappointment with Princess we have ever had. The servers for our table treated us in a “cattle car” manner; so unlike the usual Princess service. Definitely not Quality. We wanted to see “Slumdog Millionaire” outdoors at the Movies Under the Stars, ... read more