Welcome 2005

Christmas and New Year is over and considering the circumstances, I had a better time than last year for the same season.  Christmas onboard Carnival Pride passed quiet silent, wasn’t lousy like back home, and thinking about that, I came up with the fact that christmas is a christian celebration where we remember and think about Jesus Christ’s first coming to this earth born as a human baby; however, ¾ of the crew population is either muslims, budhists, or something else.  So it is sort of a not recognized or even important event for them.  Of course we get to have Christmas trees, tv movies regarding the season, and those typical songs played around for the guests who are mostly U.S. citizens.  And what’s most amazing is the fact that, even though most of them don’t celebrate Christmas back home because it means nothing to them, here it has become common to wishes merry Christmas on the 25^th because it is part of the tradition, though many of them don’t know the real meaning of it.  Now, New Year, was a different story….unlike last year, I did wait awaken to the new year countdown.  And believe it or not, we had it twice.  As we come back from mexico every Friday night, we have to move one hour back in time at midnight.  So, when we hit 12:00 am there was huge celebration and ovation and then one hour later it was 12:00 again, so there was huge celebration again.  I stayed for the first round only, then I went down to one of the lounges where most of the crew were celebrating, but stayed short and then finally back to my room where I finally thanked God for allowing me to be here at this time away from home.  So this was it, no more no less.  I learned that my family went to my uncle country house where we used to spend a lot of time together and that was kind of cool and sad at the same time.  But I guess we grow and things changes and then the past becomes only something to remember and enjoy.  Anyway, talking about time, coming Wednesday I’ll have 7 months onboard, and that is then only three months left to finish.  I am really looking into it.

Dry Dock is Over

Ahhh!!! It was such a good time, such a good and enriching experience. Only to remind and re-live about through pictures is all we can do. I think I am in love with San Francisco city. Though I am sleepless for I spent most of my sleeping time out the last three days, I will not complain. I can say I am satisfied with the whole event. As we were slowly on our way out of the dock, and we were passing in front of memorable places like alcatraz island, under S.F. bay bridge, and S.F. golden bridge all with the city in the background and a clear and bright sky and one or two seals speaking between them, memories just filled my mind and happiness just overflowed. The whole 450 members of the crew of Pride were outside on open decks, everyone with either photo camara or video camara taking those last shots of this beautiful city. As we passed under the bridges, many of them waved to the people who intentionally stoped their cars in the middle of the bridges to wave us back. Still, some people like my boss wanted all my personel to be back indoors doing what they were doing, I had to nicely ask him to relax and let them enjoy the magnificent vista and moment with the rest of the tripulation. Now, we are going full speed to Los Angeles and these two coming weeks are going to be way to busy. Christmas and New Year, the ship is booked to the maximun. So a lot of work is coming from sunday on. And a second christmas and new year season away from home.

Historic Alcatraz Jail

The good thing of being on dry dock is that we get a lot of free time and even when we are on duty there is practically nothing to do. The other day me and my friends decided to take the Alcatraz tour offered by one of the countless tourism agencies around Fishermen Wharf on Pier 39. So we went early in the morning like at 9:00; I consider that early because by then it was still dark and full of fog all around. So we took the ferry and we arrived at the island which is no more than 3 miles far from mainland. I dont know why there are so many people who dont appreciate stuff like this, I love history, and to visit places that holds so much history and important events that marked time and made history, its just cool. (now I understand why my mom daydream frequently about visiting Israel) Anyway, as we were approaching the island it became notable that it was a very old building made of rudimental materials compared to nowadays' . Fog was everywhere, it was dark and somehow cold. There was a turist guy who briefly introduced the island history through its beggining till its ending. Afterwards we were allowed inside the instalations and that was it. So much history laying on those walls, on those iron bars and overall. Of course, it doesnt smell bad, and it's even clean (its a museum). We were given sort of a mp3 player with earphones and all the major events that occured there, we could listen about while we were walking and taking pictures. We spent there couple of hours and then left. Afterwards we went walking along the bay where there are countless of non-expensive stores and some others museums and atracttions. We went to this wax museum and it was just awesome who real those wax figures looked like. Representations of all modern important people from movie artists to presidents and even Saddam. Also from the past. There was even one where Leonardo D Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa. It seemed so real. And to finish that day, we went to walk in the heart of the biggest china town of america. Huge. We even had lunch in one of the restaurants...the service was horrible though. The menu in chineese. And just before coming back to the ship we went to the shopping area, my goodness, so many stores and bargains and so little money to spend. My mom would go nuts in there.

Napa Valley Trip

As this moment, I am sitting in an italian cafe in the middle of one of the biggest chinatown of US. Ironic huh. I came with a whole bunch of people from the ship, who to my dismay where heading to nights club. So I left them and started walking alone. Funny, cuz its kind of late in the night and I dont know the city at all. Anyway, its not all that bad, (not including how expensive leaving or visiting in here can be). Today early in the morning I went with some friends to Napa Valley. At first, I was sort of not interested, cuz I dont even drink. But only the bus ride to there worth it the 55 bucks I had to pay. The landcapes were gorgeous. We got to ride through the famous golden bridge of San Francisco and also the amazing long bay bridge. What was supposed to be a sunny day was extremely foggy and wild cold. Even so I enjoyed to the most the trip. We got to visit 4 differents families companies that produces famous wines. They showed us all about the whole process of making quality wines and all that stuff that I didnt know. (Its not that I know now, but at least I've an idea) Then we went to a town called sonoma, where we had lunch in a small restaurant. They had there the most delicious carrot cake. Then me and my friends went to walk around, trying not to get to wet with the rain. But it was beautiful. Well, I am drained. I am definitely tired and sleepy. However, although nothing would be more pleasent than having a sweet sleep, I just discovered that we dont have a/c onboard. (dry dock maintenance to the a/c system for the whole two weeks) How would I be able to sleep at all, when inside my cabin is extremely hot? Then, this is my dilema, if I decide to sleep inside my cabin I would fry myself to death, but if I decide to go to open deck and sleep in a sleeping bag, I probably would froze my butt off. Hummm....! Lets see what happens.

First day

Puff.... we are gonna reach San Francisco tonight at 10:00 pm, and we were supposed to reach it tomorrow early in the morning. I guess thats the reason why everyone is seasicked....ship is at full speed and there are huge waves out there. Its wild cold out there, but the sun is out and the sky is clear. Yesterday night, there was crew disco and dinner in the main big restaurant of the ship where guest use to eat. Everyone is walking around the whole ship, cuz there are no guests. Although as I was walking on open deck yesterday night, it freaked me out the fact that there were no even one soul around. Creepy. Looked like a ghost ship, with the cold air and the wind whistling. Anyway, today its been sort of relaxing, no pressure, no one is really on a hurry. Lets see how it goes from tomorrow on.