Shanghai, Part 1

Day 1- June 9th
So after a very long flight for Mom, Dad, and I, we all made it to the Shanghai Airport! Sean and Charlene picked us up, exchanged our money for us, then we headed out for dinner! I tried a delicious yellow curry! We were all pretty drained so we headed straight to bed after our scrumptious meal!!

Day 2- June 10th
The next morning we enjoyed Charlene’s crepes with yummy jams (like a nice mango jam I had brought back from Puerto Rico for Seaners) with fruit and whipped cream! We then explored the  "wet market”, a seafood and vegetable market near to Sean’s apartment. There were lots of strange and interesting sights there for sure, and even some new fruit to try in the supermarkets like the Durian, a prickly fruit that smells terrible but tastes pretty good. Let me tell you, China has a tonnnnn of shopping. I’ve never seen so many stores packed into such a small area, along the streets or in giant malls! Other first impressions of China; crazy driving and questionable sanitation in the local markets-should you really be smoking next to your produce!?! We popped inside the mall for a quick tour of Asian style and tried a “black" (dark) chocolate and strawberry ‘cronut’. Probably not as good as the real ones in New York, I’ll let you know when I try one there! ;) On the other side of the mall was a nice park and we took a stroll around the lake, admiring the skyscrapers. 


Chinese buildings often have two dragons guarding the front door, the female lion has a cub under her paw, and the male has a ball under his, a symbol for power. Hmm….. a bit chauvinistic and sexist in my opinion but perhaps I take things too literally when it comes to gender roles. I’m blessed to enjoy a life free from this oppression (except for pay equality, but that’s a WHOLE other blog subject!) and I am reminded constantly of this right when I experience cultures who are still stuck in the past. We may not be perfect, but I love America and how much we’ve grown as a country! :D 
For lunch we had a variety of delicious pizzas; walnuts, honey, & pear pizza, and red onion & pepper cheese. NOM NOM I love touring in search of the World’s Best Pizza!!! The hunt is not over….
What I am over already is the bathrooms here. Stinky, nasty, dirty. No toilet paper. No soap. I constantly get headaches from the bad ones and the “good ones” are barely tolerable. Like Momma said, “I’m going to kiss my toilet when I get home” HAHA

Speaking of toilets….has anyone heard of this crazy coffee tradition from Indonesia? Ok, have an open mind for this next bit ;) So apparently there’s a small fox/raccoon/skunk looking animal called a civet eats the coffee cherry, then people collect the feces and harvest it for coffee. The civets digest the flesh of the cherry but the beans are passed thru and their stomach enzymes provide an aroma and flavor that people are willing to pay $100 a cup for!!! Luckily ours was not that much, we tried this strange and exotic type of coffee for $23, still the most expensive coffee I’ve ever purchased!!! 

Sean has been inspiring me (and shaming me) with his amazing Mandarin! And to think, I took years of Spanish and I can’t remember a thing! I really need to dive fully into a language, the rest of the world is at least bilingual, and I feel it holds me back from communicating with so many. I will be taking Spanish classes when I’m in New York, and really committing to it. There’s no more excuses, I have a Honduran boyfriend that I can practice with, it’s far past time!

We toured the Jing-an temple in the middle of city. It was pretty cool to see such an ancient architectural beauty amongst the vast modern structures. 

We also made a stop at Chairman Mao’s house, father of the Chinese communist party. They’ve since turned the building into a museum with several “art” pieces created using his face repetitively. 

Later, we headed out to see the skyline lights grow brilliantly in the night. 
We met with Sean’s friend for a traditional Shanghai dinner where I had eggplant, tofu, broccoli and rice, vegetables, crab meat on sesame bread, and the famous thousand year egg. Legend has it that this egg rests in the ashes of a fire for a thousand years before it is eaten. I think they just make it black in the ash and serve it when it is ready though. Our drink was very strong rice wine that reminded me of saki. 


Day 3- June 11th
Today was the tour of the Zotter Austrian chocolate factory on the banks of Shanghai. They have hundreds of varieties from goji berry, and caipirinha to fish or recycled bread! WOW! Sean’s friend is the daughter of Mr. Zotter, who now has one of the top chocolate companies in Europe. She gave us a private tour, showing us how they make the chocolate from the cocoa plant. 

Zotter has several cocoa farms around the world, and I made inquires about if they had any in Honduras but she said that unfortunately, Honduras and El Salvador have severe drug lord issues and that any attempt to establish farms have been met with death threats. They were able to begin a very successful campaign to promote growing cocoa not cocaine in Columbia. The government there sprays poison from a plane on illegal fields, killing all crops. This devastates the farmers, since their produce is their entire life line, so it definitely helps them to have an equally beneficial, legal product to tend to. We sampled all stages from bean, a mix with cocoa butter but without sugar or milk, to chocolate with all percentages of sugar added, even 100% pure chocolate, which is super bitter. I never thought I would need a break from chocolate but after a day of sampling, phew, I needed a few days chocolate free! 

That night, Sean treated us to an amazing acrobat show with motorcycles, tumblers and beautiful contortionists. I am aware of the difference in theatre etiquette for various cultures, having experienced it myself on the cruise ship. But I couldn’t believe the noise that was filling the theater when these talented people were performing. I almost snapped at the person behind me, who kept their phone light shining even though she had found her seat. I gave her a look and angrily said that was incredibly dangerous for the people on the stage. There is just nothing better than performing for an audience that appreciates and understands. After the show, we headed to a little brewery for some salsa dancing. 

Day 4- June 12th
My breakfast to start off another day in Shanghai was eggs, potatoes, and a watermelon-banana smoothie.We stopped at the tallest tower in Shanghai and rode the elevator to the 87th floor for a stunning view of the city below. There was a nice walkway below where could walk perpendicular to the skyline and admire the architectural achievements. 
For lunch, we ate delicious Chinese cuisine with dumpling samplers, a "carrot cake” which was more like a white radish croissant, and a lovely pot of tea. It is Chinese custom to not eat everything, to leave a bit of food on your plate. When somebody hosts a table for you, they will continue to feed you if you have an empty plate, because they don’t want you to go hungry. 

We headed thru the walking streets full of hundreds of shops to have tea and snacks "with" Sean's student Winnie and her mom. Winnie was so wound up, she did not stay for long and her mother sat on the other side of the wall from our table, but popped over to take pictures with her “new friends”. So freaking weird. According to Sean, she likes to host these tea parties with her friends to brag about how much money she has and how much she spends on everything. We were awkwardly stuck there for awhile because it is Chinese custom to stay until your host gets up to leave or says you can go. 

The Doherty clan (and Patinos) walked in a nice garden with a small walk thru cave and along the lily pad lake. We made our way to Tianzifang, a “Pirate” city, for the market and food exploration. This city was absolutely beautiful, especially as the sun went down and the lights illuminated the pond and the floating structures. 

I was able to find my tea set and Sean's great bargaining skills got me a wonderful deal. I’ve noticed a few places have a token Western toilet, you just have to look at the signs on the door. However, the Chinese that use our style of toilet still resort to their squatting ways, despite the signs saying do not stand on the toilet bowl! I remember finding that an odd request when I first arrived, but now that I’ve witnessed the squatting toilets in all their “glory”, I completely understand! 

We headed to a Pirate themed restaurant for dinner, complete with Pirate maps as menus and ship decor. It was quite a random, worldly meal of sweet potato fries, Thai curry, papaya salad, spicy Spanish seafood paella, Persian/Turkish kababs, and Italian margarita pizza. Another wonderful day of touring Shanghai with my family; tomorrow is Sean’s big presentation to his group of fellow avid entrepenuaers about his business plan!


 Avast Ye, Scallywag! Clean up your Chinese kitchen, OR ELSE!!! ARGGGGGGG MATEY!!!!

Happy Easter!!!!

Phew, I’ve gotten so behind guys, I apologize!!! I suppose I can back track to February 14th, Valentine’s day, and also the day my parents and grandparents came to cruise!!!! I was so excited to show my grandparents my life aboard a cruise ship because it was their first time cruising with me! It had also been a long time since they had seen me dance so I was really happy they got to come! 

The Independence is a beautiful ship and I had a lot of fun showing my family all the different venues and amenities.  The first two sea days were spent exploring the ship, catching up, and my first show, Invitation to Dance. Grandma and Grandpa really liked this show and recognized the different styles of ballroom. The first port was St. Maarten and mom and dad took a tour to swim with the dolphins. After flying rehearsal, I met up with Grandma and Grandpa for our island tour. Our tour guide was named Freddie and he was hilarious. Freddie told us that St. Maarten is the “friendly island” or the “sunshine city”. According to him, when it rains, it’s liquid gold! 

We crossed over the smallest international bridge, which is actually in the Guinness book of world records, to get from the Dutch side to the French. There is no jail on the French side, so people have to be transported to the other side to be incarcerated. We drove past beautiful rolling hills, where movies like King Kong and Jurassic Park 2 were filmed. There are no snakes, mongoose were imported to the island to get rid of them. We spotted several giant iguanas that were also brought to the island about four years ago. Freddie informed us that there are no exports, he jokingly stated the only thing they make there is children. They learn French, English, and Spanish on the French side, Dutch, English, French and Spanish on the Dutch side. 

We passed a statue of a lady holding a lantern. The French side abolished slavery fifteen years before the Dutch and hundreds of people tried to escape to the other side. She represents those that were killed trying to run for freedom. There were several statues in the roundabouts that represented the historical people from the island. I like that they commemorated even some one as common as “the traffic man”, a kind man who volunteered his time to guide traffic safely. It’s nice to recognize people who aren’t the rich and famous, but the islanders that make a difference in the community. 

The tour stopped in Marigot, the French capitol. I took Grandma and Grandpa to my favorite bakery to get some delicious French pastries. We enjoyed delicious meals and finished off with slices of raspberry and apple tarts. DIVINE! 

In San Juan, the Doherty clan, Edwen, Joce and Lucky and I all booked the tour to the Yunque forest, the only rainforest in the US! We had a great time walking thru the trees, listening to the birds and frogs, looking for the butterflies and other creatures. I also got to hug my Freddie (my bestie from my last ship) because he’s on a Holland America ship and they were ported with us that day. Sadly, our ship leaves early from San Juan so I didn’t get much time with him but finally getting to hug him again was perfect. I hadn’t seen him since he left NY for rehearsals a few weeks before I left so I was glad for any face time we could get! 

I think the main highlight from the Doherty cruise was getting to watch two generations on the dance floor. Our ballroom couple, Allie and Dima, taught three classes throughout the week and we attended all of them of course! Grandma and Grandpa were obviously pros, and Mom and Dad were twirling dervishes!!! I can see where I get my passion for dance from!

Labadee day was rainy but I was grateful for the time to chat with my mom. I am so lucky to have supportive parents and such an amazing family. They are my everything. They are there for me in good times and bad, no matter what. I lean on them and though I love traveling, being away from them is hard. That’s why I was so excited to have the rents and G-rents come, so we could travel together and make memories that will last us a lifetime! Having them come makes me even more ecstatic for our Doherty trip to China!!! 

After I said goodbye to the fam bam…..and yes there were tears…the cast found out that we were extended for two extra weeks. I miss home a lot but I’m trying to stay focused on the positives; more time to accomplish things on my Caribbean bucket-list, to have a late sail away from San Juan so I can actually go to dinner in a port this contract, and a chance to go to Cozumel again! Since that news, I have had a few more highlights of my trip:

-I finally made it to Stingray City, a sandbar in the ocean where boats stop and attract stingrays. You can swim, hold, feed and even kiss them! Feeding them was quite the experience, their mouths are on the bottom and they suction in the food, it felt like a powerful vacuum!! Leconte, Chris, Joce, Lucky, and I had an absolute BLAST trying to sneak up on the stingrays to take a selfie! We got some great video and pictures with our underwater cameras. Our boat also took us to a good spot for snorkeling and I was impressed with how well I’ve improved with my snorkeling skills. I was able to calmly float along, observing the fish, while everyone else was kicking up silt and scaring the animals away. 

-For Edwen’s birthday we had amazing sangria in an adorable bar in San Juan. Definitely a spot to remember for the late sail away!

-Megan, Luke, Lucie, Joce, Lucky, Leconte, Edwen and I all went to the Ice Bar in Grand Cayman, where we froze our bums off, laughing and having a photo shoot with our faux fur coats. 

-Leconte, Joce, Lucky, Tom and I found reef sharks and stingrays swimming along the ocean floor while we were snorkeling in Coco Cay. It was a bit eerie seeing their dark shadows in the turquoise water but they were just swimming along, not bothering the people wading in the water. 

-Luke’ mom, Luke, Edwen and I went to Airport Beach in St. Maarten where you can stand beneath large planes as they fly into the airport. Their powerful force nearly knocks you over! 

-Edwen and I found beautiful unique art made from butterflies in glass cases. It was bitter sweet, walking thru the displays in the San Juan shop called Butterfly People. The colors were stunning but you can’t help but feel sad because they are dead butterflies. The artist creates gorgeous shapes and color pallets with the delicate creatures. 

-I took Edwen for his first Fro-yo experience! It was hilarious to watch his reaction when he discovered all the different flavor and topping options. Needless to say, he’s a fan and I can’t wait to take him to the yummy places we have in Colorado!

6 cruises left and I’m counting down the days til I get to see my lil nugget Rylee again!!!! I need to hold her in my arms, kiss her and tell her how much I love her!!!!! Until then, I’ll keep you updated on my adventures here in the sunny Caribbean!!!

Making Friends :)

My final open water tests went “swimmingly” on the 13th. I successfully exchanged my regulator and snorkel (a breathing technique for preserving tank air at the surface), removed and replaced my BCD (buoyancy control device) and my weights, and practiced my compass navigation. 

The most memorable moment of my dives on the 13th was definitely when I made friends with a turtle. I looked up to see him swimming right above me. He took a breath than started to dive. He let me swim right along side him as he continued further and further down towards the bottom. As I turned away from him to swim back towards the group, I saw three barracuda staring at me! Luke later told me that they had been following me while I swam with the turtle! I love seeing all the creatures of the undersea world!

The dives I went on yesterday were, by far, my best dives yet!!!! We docked in St. Maarten and met up with our boat team at 1p. After preparing our equipment, we drove out to the first dive site. Edwen had kept it a surprise that the first dive was a SHIPWRECK!!!!!!! According to our dive guide for the day, it sunk twenty years ago. As soon as we were in the water and began our descent, we noticed a nurse shark floating along the bottom. I spotted a stingray buried in the sand, just his little eyes poking out. We started exploring the shipwreck, seeing hundreds of fish feeding on the algae. We saw a flounder, which I have now learned does not look like the character Flounder in The Little Mermaid.

We also saw a lobster hiding behind the toilet inside the ship. I was posing beside the ship, waiting for Edwen, to take a picture of me when he started pointing to look behind me. Before I could turn, a male reef shark swam right near my head!!!! He quickly turned left and swam off, I couldn’t believe how close he had come to me. I watched in awe as he swam, impressed by his strength and speed. According to Scuba Edwen, they can be aggressive so I’m considering myself lucky that he wasn’t hungry. Through out the dive, I saw two reef sharks, a nurse shark, lobster, flounder, two stingrays, two turtles, and a pufferfish. The pufferfish has giant eyes, like Puss in Boots from Shrek. So cute!

After ascending and snacking on crackers and lollipops, we drove to the next dive site. I sat on the front of the boat and enjoyed the amazing ocean breeze. When we made it to the site, we dove, feeling excited to get back to the depths. The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom, 60 feet below us!!! I could see several sharks swimming in the depths, and let me tell you how fast my heart was beating!!!! It was the most exhilarating experience, floating down to the sandy bottom, watching the sharks circle your landing arena. We swam along the reef, observing them in their natural habitat. I learned that the brown, flat sharks are the nurse sharks, and the gray larger sharks are the reef. Scuba Edwen also taught me that the males are smaller than the females, and he said the largest shark we saw was a pregnant female! They only eat once or twice every few weeks, instead of everyday like I thought. Joce says they give birth and immediately leave their youth to fend for themselves, not the best parenting skills. It’s interesting that sharks don’t stay with their young to teach them how to survive, the way dolphins and whales do. This desire to remain independent must be why they spend most of their lives solo, not staying with a pod or family.

As we continued swimming around, I found two lionfish amongst the coral. I made sure to keep my eye on the sharks while they followed us, watching how they would swim towards us, then away in another direction, to loop back around us. They move so swiftly thru the water, each flick of its tail precise to push him where he wants to be. Once we made it to the point our guide wanted us to reach, we began our ascent to the surface. We made our safety stop at about 15 ft til the surface break, and floated there. Just as we were about to make our final ascent, a large eagle ray swam beside our group. What an amazing find! I loved seeing its spotted back, watching its pectoral fins as it was gliding thru the water. These dives were so thrilling and I’m excited I got to check some amazing creatures off my bucketlist!!!!!

I still want some extra practice assembling my equipment and feeling sure I am doing everything correctly but that’s the advantage of having a dive instructor on the ship! I’ve been bombarding Scuba Edwen with daily questions, from animal information to personal skills I can work on during each dive to improve my dive abilities. I’ve also signed up for the Advanced Open Water Diving Course, which will challenge me in five different types of dives. Underwater Navigation and Deep Adventure Dives are the two sections required from everyone, and my instructor and I get to choose the others. We agreed on AWARE Fish Identification, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Underwater Photography, Underwater Naturalist, and Wreck Diving (which I just accomplished). I can’t wait to continue learning!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy 2015 everybody! I feel like this new year has lots of amazing adventures in store for me! I’m just one dive away from earning my open water, scuba diving license! Luke and I have successfully passed all the written tests and on December 30th we went diving with Scuba Edwen (our instructor from Honduras) for our first open water diving test. We basically repeated all the skills we had learned in the pool tests, but this time at a much further depth. 

It was such a weird sensation to breath with a tank in a pool. For some reason, I was a bit freaked out when we took out our breathing apparatuses or when we we flooded our masks, even though I knew I was perfectly fine and able to swim up a foot to the surface for air. I think it was because I had never had the issue of getting water up my nose while I was swimming, thanks to Grandma’s swimming lessons every summer. But I was now having to teach my body to breath in thru my mouth, out thru the nose, underwater. Surprisingly, I was a lot more comfortable and calm completing all the tasks in the ocean than when we did them in the pool. I always feel a bit at home when I’m under the water. They say that a diver either feels thrilled or at peace when they are diving. I have definitely had lots of excitement when I happened upon new discoveries underwater, like the shipwreck dive I did as my very first scuba excursion back in 2010 in Brazil, or the sea turtle I got to examine up close at the ocean’s floor in Cozumel. But I also feel an amazing sense of tranquility while I’m floating along beneath the rest of the world. It’s pure bliss. 

I absolutely love being in the water. We are scheduled to have our final open water dive on the 13th, and I’m hoping we will get to do a ship wreck dive! I still have a bucket list of animals I want to see while I’m diving, which includes a large jellyfish (I’ve only seen the minuscule ones), a seahorse, dolphins, sharks, and whales. I plan to continue diving in any location I find myself in so I can see the aquatic life the area has to offer me! Hudson river, here I come ;) 

I have had an interesting past couple of weeks because Melissa has been injured so I had to step in as her understudy in the flying track of Center Stage. That means I’ve been doing bungee!!!! It’s hard work and a bit painful on my wrist and shoulders but it’s a lot of fun! We have conditioning and understudy rehearsals every cruise so I felt well prepared to go in. This doesn’t mean I didn’t feel the butterflies when I did it in the show for the first time! :) I now have some great footage to add to my demo reel, and to show my family and friends when I get home! 

For some more exciting news, I plan on visiting Sean after this contract! I’ve been wanting to volunteer at a panda center in China for awhile, and my wonderful brother just happens to live there so I figured, why not see him too!?! I’ve also been invited to visit my friend Joce in the Philippines, so I will be flying to stay with her for a bit after my time in China. 

One of the hardest things about having a contract this long is all the opportunities you feel like you are missing out on. I’m constantly battling with myself to not worry about the auditions I can’t attend because I’m on this cruise ship. The only thing that seems to help is to plan for the future while still enjoying the present. I have short term goals, like the dives I want to participate in or the projects I want to complete. I also have long term goals, starting with my plans after the contract ends in May. I use the short term goals to keep myself on track day to day; I’m always trying to better my dancing and other skills that will help me achieve my long term goals. 

The world seems to continue to open up for me, as I’m finding myself drawn towards pursuing my love for dance and my passion for animals. I’ve been researching more and more the opportunities in the fields of animal research and rescue. There are several volunteer trips I would love to do that combine scuba diving with marine research, which just seems like the perfect thing for me! I’m not quite sure which path I want to take but I can’t wait to see which direction I head in the years to come!

Water Adventures

I had an amazing day of snorkeling in Grand Cayman! On Tuesday we docked in George Town, Grand Cayman. After rehearsals for our upcoming Christmas show, Joce, Lucky, Ian, Luke and I had breakfast at a small crepe restaurant. I had a delicious crepe with scrambled eggs and an unbelievable tomato pesto sauce that I MUST get the recipe for! (So my dad can make it, of course! :D) I also savored a sweet iced chai latte; I haven’t had one of those since I worked at Caribou and I’d forgotten how much I loved it!

Once we finished our satisfying meal, I say this because usually our meals in the staff mess are never satisfying, we journeyed across the street to the beach. I got on my snorkel gear, hopped in the water, and SCREAMED!!!!! There were giant fish, probably half my length, surrounding me! I had seen pictures of these enormous fish from Joce’s last time snorkeling at this spot, I just didn’t know they would be right in my face the moment I sank into the water!!!!! Luke was laughing at me because although we were all surprised by the immediate interaction, I was screaming and curling into a tight ball. He thought it was just A RIOT to chase me around the water and pinch me, like a fish biting my leg. Luckily, I have grown up with the torment of two brothers so I knew how to properly dunk him :)

We swam along the shore and saw amazingly bright fish in shades of blue, red, yellow, and all sizes. We saw crabs and even squid, which are such interestingly shaped creatures. There appeared to be some sunken parts of a ship as well, an anchor and a cannon. I hope to some day be able to dive and explore another shipwreck, or even a sunken ancient city! 

Luke and I have signed up to take the scuba diving course and get certified on the ship. We have been studying all this week and just passed our first written test last night! WOOHOO! Our first practical exam will be tomorrow morning in the pool, mostly getting used to the equipment and testing our physical abilities. I hope that since I have two dives already under my belt, that I’ll be successful. I have really enjoyed studying the material and keeping busy learning a new skill! 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

It was so nice to be in San Juan, Puerto Rico with cell phone service so I could Facetime with my family back home to celebrate today :D It’s always hard to be away from my loved ones around the holiday seasons; but thanks to technology, I was able to see the warm smiles and hear the loving voices of those I miss most! So today, I am thankful for the internet and cell phone service that allowed me to speak to my family and friends! :D 

These past two weeks I’ve been spending most of my days on the beach with the exception of Roatan, Honduras. Joce, Lucky, Ian (our friend from the broadcast department), and I hopped in a taxi to tour the downtown and get some food. It reminded me a lot of my time I spent in Brazil. The atmosphere was relaxed, everyone was on island time! 

Labadee, Haiti is one of Royal Caribbean’s private islands, a beautiful secluded paradise. They have a roller coaster, zip-line, and jet skiing that I have added to my “to do list” for this port. We will be there every week so I will be able to do a lot of activities, including lazily reading on the beach :)

On November 20th we were docked in Cozumel, my first time in Mexico!!!!! Joce, Lucky, Ian, LeConte and I went scuba diving and it was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! We were 50 feet beneath the surface, swimming among the fish and skimming the sand at the bottom of the ocean floor. I saw the biggest lobster I’ve ever seen in my life! I also saw beautiful coral, a stingray, giant crabs, hundreds of fish varying in color and size, even a barracuda! The best part was getting close enough to touch a large sea turtle as he was munching on his meal. He was curious about us but I couldn’t believe how he allowed us to approach him and take pictures! It’s a completely different world down there, and I can’t wait to explore more!!!!! I feel like Ariel, the Little Mermaid!!!! :D 

November 25th we were ported in St. Maarten again. We dock on the Dutch side, so Joe (piano bar player), Sarah and I took a taxi to the French side. We spent some time downtown, devouring divine French cuisine. I had a savory crepe with vegetables and eggs, and a chocolate croissant :) After brunch, we took the local bus towards the beach. This, was an adventure! There were some hilarious teenagers who spoke very little English, and thought we were equally amusing. They would repeat any word we said that they hadn’t heard before, laughing hysterically. The “bus” itself was a run down car, torn seats and no seat belts. I had a seat that folded up and I had to keep standing to let people off as we came to their “stop”. I put this in quotations because there’s no assigned stops, you just yell to the driver to stop. Joe had been to the Orient Beach before so he knew when to yell! Once we were dropped off, we said “au revoir” to our French friends, one named Loompa (I’m not sure if they were playing a joke on us but I said I liked his name and would name my dog Loompa in honor of him. HAHA). We walked for about 15 mins down a windy hill surrounded by gorgeous beach homes and resorts. I was reminded of my time in LA when my roommates and I would drive thru Beverly Hills or somewhere we knew the wealthy lived and marvel at the mansions. It was a peaceful walk and the beach was lovely. I enjoyed reading beneath the trees and laying in the warm sand. Next St. Maarten we plan on returning to the French side, perhaps by renting jeeps so we can find a private beach! 

So far my time in the Caribbean has been fun and memorable. I have my snorkel to discover sea treasures and I can’t wait to start working towards my scuba certification! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

The installing of our four shows is officially completed and I couldn’t be happier :D This has been a long and tiring process; from two months in the studios of Florida to intense flying training aboard the ship, and finally a month of working with sets, costumes, and flying apparatuses to put up four full production shows! I feel very accomplished and motivated to continue seeking other opportunities to challenge myself as a performer and ways to grow as a person :D

The most challenging show to open has been Under The Big Top, our circus show. Independence is the only ship in the fleet that has this show and there’s so much that goes into it because it has the most circus elements. Right in the beginning I’m flying on what’s called the Spanish web, a rope used to climb and hang off of. Luke stands beneath me and twirls the rope so that I can do different positions in the air, while spinning really fast :D Now, I know you all are wondering how I’ve been handling this with  my severe motion sickness :/ During training I took my motion tablets to learn the apparatus as I had to do it over and over. But eventually I had to attempt it without the help of the pill and I did get very dizzy and have to sink to the ground and lay there for awhile to calm my tummy LOL. But now that I’ve been practicing it more and more I’m getting used to it! :D I don’t think I will ever get over the weird sensation of being in the air and losing feeling in my arms and feet because I’m whipping so fast! But don’t worry mom, I’m safe :D  

Though we’ve been working long hours in the theater, we’ve had some time off here and there to run out and explore the ports. I made the trip to Brugge, Belgium twice to marvel at the gorgeous city and munch on Dutch French fries and the incomparable Belgian hot chocolate and giant Belgian waffles!! The weather was so perfect, a nice crisp chill in the air to gently remind you that it is autumn. The leaves were changing colors and the air smelt of the fall harvest. I wish I could stay in Brugge for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas to see how beautiful the seasons change because it’s one of my favorite places in the world!!!!

We also docked twice in Le Havre, France, which is the gateway city to Paris. We didn’t have enough time off to make it to Paris but I was grateful to get off for dinner and enjoy a port at night. When we were there Monday, the 27^th, we had a bit of a hard time finding a restaurant open because it was a holiday and the French usually don’t open til late anyways. We finally happened upon a pub and sipped on wine while we waited for the kitchen to open. I ordered a veggie pizza, which surprisingly came with potato slices on it. A “French fry” pizza?!? It was DELCIOUS!!!! I naturally had a nutella crepe for dessert ;)

Wednesday night we found a fancy restaurant serving more traditional French food. I had a boiled egg in a bowl of cheese (I can’t remember the fancy French cheese name but it was good!) and had nibbles of my friend’s garlic and cheese mushrooms :D We later found a cute bar designed to look like a farm house where I drank a very tasty cherry beer. I hate the taste of beer but I guess this was more of a cider and to me, it tasted like cherry juice so I was happy!

Tomorrow we start the crossing back to the states and though I’m sad to leave Europe, I’m very excited to have my phone back to contact the ones I love more easily and to start my vocal and scuba lessons! I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday! We will be celebrating tonight with a scary movie (eek!!) and the crew Halloween party will be next cruise. I will be appearing as Zorro but unfortunately I can’t bring a fake sword on the ship so I hope the mask and outfit do the job!!!